Katharine M. Liphardt
Reading is an active process, not a passive one. There is no proper reading of a text which reveals the text's true meaning. My students need to understand that the meanings they get from a text may not be the same as mine or those of their peers. We always read within a specific context and this affects what we notice and what seems to matter. We always have a purpose in reading and this shapes how we approach the text. My students need to understand that texts are very different and recognizing this provides them with the beginnings of a critical approach to reading.
It is my goal that through this I unit will strengthen students' skills in interpretation of text to derive a deeper meaning, as well as developing the skills of synthesis by building connections within one text, across several texts, or between a text and a reader's life. The students will be able to apply these skills while in peer supported learning groups and their independent reading. Another objective of this unit is to improve students' ability to write analytically. All of my students have difficulty expressing themselves through writing. Often, their responses to a text are very weak and are just a mere recounting of basic plot details. Their responses often lack evidence of deeper understanding. They are unable to write critically. Throughout this unit, students will develop an understanding of critical analysis of the author's craft and characterization.
I have many goals and objectives for this unit. I have organized them into three broad and bold categories; analysis, interpretation, and synthesis. Each category consists of a number of specific goals that the students should achieve.
Analysis refers to the ability to separate a whole into parts and determining their essential features and their relations. Students are often able to tell what happens in a text rather than analyzing the text. That is, they may give an accurate summary of the character and what happens in the text, instead of providing some insight into the events of the text:
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What are the ideas that lie at the center of the text?
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How are these ideas presented in the text (through metaphor, symbolism, dialogue, etc..)?
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The goals associated with this category require the students to "pick apart" the book. They will identify multiple genres within the text. For many of my students the term "genre" will be new and this book offers many examples to help solidify the meaning of genre. Learning the term genre and then being able to identify and understand the definition, should allow the students to internalize the concept more easily. The students will also examine the characters through multiple points of view. The book is organized in this manner and the students are forced to consider other perspectives when forming their own opinions. Often times my students read books that are written with a single narrator and they conform to the ideas and views of that perspective. This structure will allow them to consider other viewpoints, as well as learn a new form of writing. Examining the structure of the text will enable the students to consider the author's purpose. Once they are aware of specific text structures, they can begin to question why an author would choose to do things one way or another. The hope is for the students to then approach their own writing with a sense of purpose. Offering them a variety of texts where they can see multiple structures and features will broaden their knowledge base and offer them more to apply to their own writing techniques.
Interpretation requires the students to be able to explain or translate certain features and/or structures of the text. When interpreting a text, it is important for the students to try to understand the conditions of the world as it is set up and depicted within the text. Sometimes, students can get distracted into making judgments about characters' actions, basing their argument on the values and conditions of the time and place of the world in which they live. In interpreting a text, it is important to keep in mind that the world of the text may be different from the world of the reader. A major goal of this unit is to get the students to think more deeply. The students need to learn to "dig deeper" , beyond what is directly stated in the text. Once they are able to develop reasons and understandings for actions and events in a text, and provide support for their thinking, they will then be able to interpret a text. Specifically, the students will be able to identify and understand tone, theme, and make connections to the characters and events in the story.
Synthesis requires the students to take all of the "pieces" they have learned and apply them to the "whole", the "whole" being their understanding of the text. For the purposes of this unit, the students will be able to gather a variety of evidence from the text to form more global ideas about the characters, the world, and themselves. They will also be expected to take notice of all of the events a character experiences and be able to identify how, when, and why the character changes. An important goal for my students to achieve is being able to infer. Making inferences is often difficult, yet it is required on a variety of city and state assessments. The ability to apply text information to make inferences will help to make the students overall, more successful readers.
In this six week unit, students will begin to read literature more critically and to make inferences that come from both the stated and implied features of the texts they read. Through various activities and texts students will explore the use of multiple strategies that will enable them to interact with the text more deeply. Bringing their attention to the text elements such as theme, tone, point of view and characterization, I will be able to help the students see the author's craft more clearly. As I help students to "notice" elements and aspects of the text and to verbalize our connections and inferences together, my hope is that their comprehension should deepen and their discourse and writing about the text should become more sophisticated.