Reading and Literature Studies Unit

Expectations

We are going to explore how to read for meaning. We will look at different text forms and style elements. We will also work on building vocabulary. Finally, we are going to reflect on the skills and strategies you have, and have developed in this unit.

Reading

Reading is fundamental.

“Wherever illiteracy is a problem, it's as fundamental a problem as getting enough to eat or a place to sleep.” -Northrop Frye.

In your day, think about how many times you come across:

1. instructional and informational texts

   • instructions

   • news

2. literary texts

   • stories

   • descriptions

   • essays

   • biographies

   • dialogues

   • novels

   • scripts

   • poems

3. graphical texts

   • websites

   • textbooks

   • magazines

   • diagrams

   • photographs

   • drawings

   • sketches

   • graphs

   • schedules

   • maps

   • charts

   • tables

   • timelines

Do you ever actively consider the stylistic elements of these forms?

Do you read for pleasure?

How do you deal with new words, or words you are unsure about?

Text Forms

Literary

Literary texts come in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, with many forms and genres. Each uses language and literary elements in particular ways to communicate something significant.

Fiction

Some of the elements of fiction are characters, plot, setting, theme (big idea), perspective (point- of-view taken by the narrator), style, language, and structure.

Dramas (scripts and dialogues) use many of the same elements as novels and short stories, but may include special features such as stage directions, acts and scenes, and notations.

Poems use elements such as structure, rhythm, rhyme, imagery and figurative language to communicate an idea, feeling or image.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction literary texts include biographies and essays.

Biographies often tell the story of their subject through narrative elements. Elements of biography include setting (how it influences the events in the person's life), characterization of the subject (representation of the subject's character and motives), theme, accuracy, structure (time sequence), illustrations, graphic features, structural patterns, and organizational features (table of contents, index, references).

Essays might be persuasive, personal, or descriptive but often use the same elements to communicate a significant idea or viewpoint. These elements include thesis, introduction, body, conclusion, arguments, and evidence.

Informational and Graphical

Graphical Texts communicate ideas visually. Informational texts will often include a graphical text.

Print features

• typeface and size of type

• bullets

• titles

• headings & subheading

• italics

• labels

• captions

Organizational features

• tables of contents

• legends

• keys

• pronunciation guides

• labels

• captions

Design features

• colour

• shape

• line

• placement

• balance

• focal point

• images

Organizational patterns

• sequential

• categorical

• explanatory

Examples of Text Forms and Features

Examples of Text Forms and Features has graphical examples of the terms outlined in this section.

SeeReading Strategies

Reading strategies are tools that you can use before, during and after you have read a text.

Before you read

• Brainstorm

  • What do you already know about this topic or form?

• Recall an experience or feeling related to the subject or theme

• List questions you might have. Ask them.

• Increase your background knowledge:

  • The author

  • The form

  • Don't read a summary

As you read

Predicting

• Determine what you think will happen in the text.

• Use the title, text and illustrations to help you.

Questioning

• Stop and ask yourself questions to see if the text makes sense.

Activating prior knowledge

• Think about what has already happened in the text, a similar text, or a personal connection.

Inferencing

• Use clues in the text and your own knowledge to fill in the gaps and draw conclusions

  • What details are included?

  • Why did the author tell you that?

  • What details have been left out?

  • Why didn't the author tell you this?

Monitoring

• When you do not understand a part of a text:

  • Stop and think about what you have already read

  • Define words

  • Ask for clarification

  • Visualize

  • Adjusting

  • Rereading

Adjusting

• Adjust your reading rate. You can slow down or speed up, read silently or aloud.

Rereading

• Reread the text if you need more information.

Decoding

• Look at the picture

• Try saying the word out loud

• Say the word slowly out loud

• Chunk the word

• Skip the word in the sentence, then reread the sentence

• Change the vowel sound from short to long:

  • apple - acorn

  • elephant - eel

  • iguana - ice cream

  • octopus - oatmeal

  • umbrella - unicorn

• Ask for help

Graphic Organizers

• Use a Graphic Organizer for to keep track of main ideas, important details and questions.

Visualize

• Visualize concepts you have read.

• Can you relate to your 5 senses? (Touch, Smell, Taste, Hear, See)

After you read

Retell or paraphrase with partner

• What differences did you have?

• What similarities?

Summarize by focusing on the elements of fiction:

• Character

• Setting

• Events

• Theme

Graphic Organizers

• Use a Graphic Organizer for to keep track of main ideas, important details and questions.

• Use a specific tool like a Word Web graphic organizer to help you with unfamiliar words.

Reading Instructional and Informational Texts

Instructions give detailed step-by-step information about a process or a procedure. They are sometimes called procedures or how-tos.

Examples of Text Forms and Features has graphical examples of the terms outlined in this section.

Examples of instructions include:

• directions

• recipes

• experiments

• manuals

• tests

Most instructions use:

• organizational patterns

• language

• features include:

  • diagrams and illustrations

  • bold or italic type

  • headings

  • numbers

  • lists

These help the reader identify the task and the best way to complete it.

If these features are not all present, or the instructions are complicated, you need a framework to help you read and understand.

A Framework for Reading Instructions

• Preview

• Highlight and annotate

• Think aloud and visualize

• Reread

• Go step-by-step

• Read the diagrams

• Ask questions

Reading Informational Texts

Examples of Text Forms and Features has graphical examples of the terms outlined in this section.

Before Reading

• Set a purpose for reading. Ask yourself why you are reading this particular text.

• Look over the text to see which elements appear (such as headings, subheadings, illustrations

• and captions, etc.).

• Examine the titles, headings, and subheadings, and scan for words that stand out.

• Look for words and phrases that might give you clues about how the information is organized.

• Read any overviews, summaries or questions. In a shorter piece, read the opening and concluding sentences or paragraphs.

• Examine each illustration and read the titles or captions.

• Recall what you already know about the topic.

• Record some questions you might have about the topic.

During Reading

• Divide the reading task into smaller chunks (chunking the text into paragraphs, chunking sections by sub-headings, etc.). Read a chunk, pause and think about what you read, and write a brief one-sentence summary or brief point-form notes to help you remember important and interesting information.

• Read quickly, then slowly. Skim the sections you think will support your purpose for reading. When you find specific information you want, slow down and read it word by word. You may need to reread the passage several times.

• Read the selection and jot down thoughts, responses to your questions and new questions that occur to you.

After Reading

• Read the selection again to confirm the main idea and supporting details.

• Make connections to what you already know about the topic. How does the information you have read add to or alter what you knew about the topic?

• Record your thinking about and responses to the text. For example, write a summary, complete a graphic organizer, create a sketch, or orally retell to yourself or a friend.

Reading Graphical Texts

Examples of Text Forms and Features has graphical examples of the terms outlined in this section.

Before Reading

• Set a purpose for reading. Ask yourself why you are reading this particular text.

• Look over the text to determine what type it is and which elements are used.

• Examine the titles, headings, captions and images. Start with the title. The title tells you what the graphic is about. The captions may also use words and phrases from the text to show how the graphic is related to the information in the written text (e.g., “Figure 1.6”).

• Recall what you already know about the topic or subject.

• Record some questions you might have about the information presented.

During Reading

• Read all the labels and examine how they are related to the graphic. Each label has a purpose. The most important labels may be in capital letters, bold type, or a larger font.

• Follow the arrows and lines. They may be used to show movement or direction, or connect to the things they name.

• Look for the use of colour or symbols to emphasize important words and information. Some graphical texts have a legend or a key to explain the meaning of specific symbols and colours.

• Study the image carefully. See if you recognize the details in the image. Read the text near the picture to find an explanation of the information in the graphic. Use the figure number or title and key words to find and read the related information in the written text.

• Identify the relationships among the visuals and information presented.

After Reading

• Interpret the information conveyed in any of the graphics (e.g., diagrams, charts, graphs, maps). Ask yourself why this information might be important.

• Rephrase information orally or in writing. Imagine that you are explaining the graphic to someone who has not read it.

• Create your own graphical text (e.g., graph, map, diagram, table, flow chart) to represent the important information.

Reading Literary Texts

Before Reading

• Read the title and think about what might happen in the story or what the essay might be about. Does the title suggest any connections to your own life or raise any questions?

• Recall other selections you may have read by this author.

• Look at any illustrations. What do they tell you about the story or subject?

• Look the text over and sample the text to note its length, organization, level of language, and structure. Pay attention to punctuation.

During Reading

• As you read, ask questions about what is happening. Make predictions about what might happen next.

• Form opinions about what is going on. Think about your responses and reactions to what you are reading. Making notes can help you focus your thinking as you read.

• Picture the setting, events or images in your mind. Sketch them. As you read, imagine how the words will be spoken and see the action.

• While reading a narrative selection, try the following:

  • Read the first page and pause. What do you know so far about the people (characters), setting, conflict, and point of view? Where do you think the storyline is going? Make connections to what you already know.

  • Who are the people and how are they related to each other? Put yourself in their place. What would you say or do?

• Use a Graphic Organizer for to keep track of main ideas, important details and questions.

After Reading

• Write down favourite quotations from the text. Share and compare them with a partner.

• Create a visual interpretation of the text, such as a web, story map, or timeline, to show the relationships among the major characters and their feelings and attitudes.

• Create a sensory web of the setting. Use a graphic organizer to illustrate the story’s plot or sequence of events (situation, complications, climax, resolution).

• Retell/summarize the content in your own words, orally or in writing.

Theme

The theme is an understanding about life that the writer wishes to share with the reader. The theme is usually closely tied to the change a character undergoes in the story, or is something the character learns as a result of the situations that occur in the story. It is the meaning or purpose of the story.

Theme

The theme is a general statement about life or human experience that an author makes through the specific events in his work.

It is the central insight in a work of fiction.

The story writer is an observer of life and an interpreter of it.

General questions to ask

What insights into life does the story reveal?

What view of life does the story give?

The theme is discovered by asking

How did the main character change and what has he/she learned?

What is the conflict of the story and what is its outcome?

Is the title a clue to understanding the meaning of the story?

Principles for discovering theme

Theme must be expressed in the form of a statement, with subject and predicate.

Theme must be stated as a generalisation about life, not about a specific character in a story. It makes statements about all humans.

Theme should not be reduced to some familiar saying or cliche. For example: You can't teach and old dog new tricks. Or, truth vs falsehood.

Theme is the central and unifying concept of the story. All incidents must refer back to the statement of theme and not contradict it.

Examples of Text Forms and Features

Short Stories

The short stories are divided into two groups. Some will be read, discussed and written about in class, others will be used for the Short Story Assignment.

In Class

Boarders by Thomas King

A Coyote Columbus Story by Thomas King

Thank You, Ma' am by Langston Hughes

Rules of the Game by Amy Tan

Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe

Assignment

One Mile of Ice by Hugh Garner

Butterflies by Patricia Grace

The Visitor by Christine Pinsent-Johnson

The Fog Horn by Ray Bradbury

The Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway