Unit 11.3 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society, that does not warn in time against threatening moral and social dangers such literature does not deserve the name of literature. Alexander Solzhenitsyn 1
English 11.3 Unit 11.3: Textual Analysis Enduring Understandings Literate individuals are discerning writers, speakers, readers, viewers, and listeners. Literate citizens incorporate new knowledge to adjust their world view. Literate individuals employ a variety of effective strategies to communicate with others. The success of a democracy depends on the literacy of its people. Essential Questions How do readers and viewers engage meaningfully with text? How does a literate individual become part of the conversation? How is a writer both empowered and limited by writing from personal voice and experience? How does a writer know when to change strategies to communicate more effectively? Common Tasks Students should engage in a variety of tasks to give them opportunities to demonstrate and deepen their learning. Teachers should provide specific instruction on strategies during each stage of the writing process for at least one of the common tasks, while some common tasks may focus instruction on one stage or may be completed as homework or as timed writings in class. Common tasks focus on texts in which protagonists face crises of conscience that put them at odds with society. After exploring their own interpretations of the text, students examine literary criticism on a text and consider how others ideas about the text inform their own thinking. Write an essay comparing two or more texts from different genres (such as a novel, poem, story, or painting) that convey a similar theme related to the conscience of a society. Write an essay explaining how an author conveys a theme about the individual conscience or the collective conscience of a society. Use details from the novel (primary source) and observations from literary criticism (secondary sources) to support your point. Choosing from among a list of short stories, participate in literature circles to discuss the story. Use the text to support and extend insights. Write an original poem which uses poetic devices to achieve a particular purpose. Review the portfolio by checking progress on goals and revising goals as appropriate. 2
Unit 11.3: Textual Analysis Recommended Tasks Read an unusual children s story to review the elements of narrative in preparation for the short story common task. Some possible titles include The Paper Bag Princess, Thomas Snowsuit, and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A.Wolf. Write an analysis of a poet s use of a poetic device to achieve a particular purpose. Participate in a Shared Inquiry discussion of the ethical dilemmas characters face, using the text to support and extend insights. Create book notes on a chapter in the text, including a list of characters, a brief plot summary, a chapter commentary, and an explanation of important quotations. After the literature circles, rewrite or extend a short scene from a text using another character s point of view and imitating the style of the author. Compare a poem to a popular song with a similar theme. Submit poems and short stories to the school s literary magazine. Give a reader s theater presentation of the short scene written from another character s point of view. Students should focus on strong paragraph development in their textual analysis essays. Their writing should continue to show evidence of growth, and paragraphs should include sophisticated sentence structure and language appropriate to the purpose of the piece. Paragraph Development Students use the appropriate method of development to analyze a variety of texts ranging from poems to short stories and novels. In their paragraphs, students support their thesis statements with topic sentences, textual evidence, and their own analysis of the examples. Writing should demonstrate depth of thought that reflects careful consideration of the text and a choice of development that best reveals that thought. Paragraphs should include sophisticated sentence structure, transitions, and language appropriate to the purpose of the piece. Grammar, Usage, and Sentence Composing Students continue to work on individual skills listed in their portfolios. In addition, certain skills will be explicitly taught and integrated into writing instruction during Unit 3. The ultimate goal is to have students connect grammar and usage to their reading and incorporate it meaningfully to achieve an appropriate style in writing. Students will increase clarity in their writing by using correct verb tense. using correct subject-verb agreement. using correct pronoun-antecedent agreement. using correct pronoun case. correcting errors in comparison. imitating the sentence patterns and styles of authors. 3
Unit 11.3 Focus Indicators Standard 1: The student will comprehend and interpret a variety of print, non-print and electronic texts, and other media. 3.2.1 Prepare for writing by generating and developing ideas. 3.2.2 Select and organize ideas for specific audiences and purposes. 1.1.2 Monitor understanding while reading, viewing, and/or listening to a text. 3.2.3 Revise and edit texts for clarity, 1.1.3 Confirm understanding after reading, completeness, and effectiveness. viewing, and/or listening to a text. 3.2.4 Use general and specialized resources to correct or confirm revisions and/or editorial choices. unfamiliar words. 3.3.3 Evaluate the appropriateness of 1.1.4 Apply knowledge of a word meaning, context, structure, and origin to define 1.2.1 Determine the contributions of literary elements in classical and contemporary texts. 1.2.2 Determine the critical or central idea(s) of a text. 1.2.3 Determine the relationship among format, structure, and meaning of informational texts. 1.2.4 Interpret a literary work by using a critical approach. Standard 2: The student will analyze and evaluate a variety of print, non-print and electronic texts, and other media. 2.1.1 Analyze organization, structure, and syntax that reveal an author s purpose. 2.1.2 Analyze stylistic elements in a text or across texts that communicate an author s purpose. 2.1.3 Analyze connections between and among themes, ideas, and/or styles of two or more texts. 2.1.4 Analyze and evaluate the purpose and effect of non-print texts, including visual, aural, and electronic media. 2.1.5 Analyze and evaluate evidence and determine the credibility of information in a text. Standard 3: The student will compose in a variety of modes by developing content, employing specific forms, and selecting language appropriate for a particular audience and purpose. 3.1.1 Compose effective informative or expository texts; descriptions; summaries; work-related texts. information to accomplish a purpose. 3.3.4 Use a systematic process for recording and documenting information. Standard 4: The student will control language by applying Standard English in writing and speaking and making effective language choices. 4.1. 2 Apply Standard English grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling in speaking and/or writing. 4.1.3 Apply knowledge of the history and development of the English language in order to analyze and explain its dynamic structure. Standard 5: The student will communicate orally in a variety of situations, for different audiences and purposes, and in different formats. 5.1. 2 Participate in and contribute to large- and small-group collaboration for a variety of assigned and self-selected purposes. 5.1.3 Determine the effectiveness of large- and small-group collaboration and its associated product(s). Standard 6: The student will listen effectively in a variety of situations and for a variety of purposes. 6.1.1 Apply skills and strategies to gather and interpret verbal messages. 6.1.2 Demonstrate understanding of information and ideas communicated orally. ICON KEY Reading Viewing Listening Writing Speaking 4
Unit 11.3 Course Terms Allusion o Historical o Mythical Annotation Argument Assertion Audience Citation Close reading Connotation Conscience Cornell notes Credible source Critical article Deduction Denotation Fiction Figurative language o Apostrophe o Hyperbole o Irony o Metaphor o Oxymoron o Paradox o Simile o Symbolism o Understatement Graphic organizer Induction Narrative devices o Plot o Characterization o Point of view o Setting o Conflict o Mood o Tone o Epiphany (moment of insight) o Denouement o Theme Nonfiction Patterns of development o Cause and effect o Comparison and contrast o Definition o Division and classification o Exemplification o Problem and solution Personal voice Persuasion Portfolio Rhetoric Research Shared Inquiry Six Traits of Writing o Ideas o Organization o Voice o Syntax or Sentence Fluency o Diction or Word Choice o Conventions Source o Primary source o Secondary source Speaker Style Synthesis of sources Visual rhetoric Visual text Writing process o Inquiry o Pre-writing o Drafting o Revision or deep revision o Editing or surface revision o Presentation or publishing 5
Unit 11.3: Texts Students should be given the opportunity to read a combination of nonfiction and fiction texts in the next two units. Teachers should combine classic literature with contemporary works and choose a diverse group of writers who represent the richness of America s cultures and traditions. Students should read a selection of poems and short stories related thematically to the anchor text. Texts chosen should represent diversity of culture, gender, and opinion. Fiction All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy The Awakening Kate Chopin China Men Maxine Hong Kingston East of Eden John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway Revolutionary Road Richard Yates The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne The Shipping News Annie Proulx Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston The Turn of the Screw Henry James We Were the Mulvaneys Joyce Carol Oates Anthologies (Selection of stories and poems related to themes in novel) American Short Stories: 1920 Present Ed. Christian and Ofner Complete Stories of Flannery O Connor O Connor, Flannery Designs in Poetry Ed. R. Stanley Peterson Fifty Great American Short Stories Ed. Milton Crane Introduction to Fiction Ed. X. J. Kennedy Introduction to Poetry Ed. X. J. Kennedy Introduction to the Short Story Ed. Robert W. Boynton The Language of Literature Ed. Arthur N. Applebee American Literature The Little Brown Reader Ed. Marcia Stubbs Poems American Themes Ed. Wilbert J. Levy Points of View Ed. James Moffett Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry Ed. Thomas R. Arp The Vietnam Reader Ed. Walter Capps The Writer s Presence Eds. McQuade and Atwan 6
Unit 11.3 Textual Analysis Teacher Resources Deeper Reading (Gallagher) Teaching Adolescent Writers (Gallagher) Image Grammar (Noden) Sentence Composing series (Kilgallon) Library of Congress Poetry 180 web site Vocabulary and Language Skills Vocabulary continues to be taught through separated, simulated, and integrated instruction so that students will grow as both readers and writers. Students will: continue studying roots, prefixes and suffixes in an attempt to identify words in challenging texts. identify and analyze mythical and historical allusions in texts in order to understand the writers purpose. Students continue to examine novels, short stories and poems in order to elevate their understanding of the importance of the writer s word choice in their works, and apply this knowledge to their own writing. Students learn to connect textual analysis to vocabulary by analyzing diction and syntax in challenging text and using sophisticated word choice in their own writing. 7