Literary text
tells a story or entertains, such as a fictional novel.
Main characteristics of a literary text:4
fiction that exhibits a sense of reality
conflict or tension
the main idea is expressed
Use of figurative language such as similes, metaphors, irony, symbolism, analogy, etc.
Minor characteristics of a literary text:
Usually consists of first or third-person pronouns
Style: conversational/informal/crude
When choosing multicultural text, you will want to consider the following:
How does the book portray the culture depicted?
Does it use accurate language and experiences?
Do the illustrations support this portrayal?
Or does the book perpetuate stereotypes and ignore cultural differences?
Are the author and illustrator of the same cultural background as the characters?
Are there children in your class who will identify with the characters portrayed in the book?
Will students who are not of the culture portrayed in the book receive an accurate window, or picture, of this culture?
Culturally responsive texts
Culturally responsive teaching incorporates elements from a student’s culture into their learning environment. Multicultural texts can be beneficial for English language learners, as well as other students. They can read about someone who is the same age, who talks like them, looks like them, and has similar experiences, but the character may have different views, religion, socioeconomic status, or cultural experiences. Multicultural texts can open a child’s mind to build empathy, understanding, and respect for how someone else might live.
Linear plot element
A chronological story’s elements include rising action, climax, and resolution. When learning about plot development, students should understand that each event in rising action brings more suspense and is an event that keeps the main characters from solving the conflict.
The conflict is the story’s driving force and is established early on in the story.
Nonlinear plot element
These are used to build suspense or provide the reader with information in a slightly different way than a linear plot line.
Foreshadowing and flashbacks
Setting-4 things
When and where does the story take place, and how does the cultural or historical relevance affect parts of the story? Where and when the story takes place directly impacts:
the actions and motivations of the characters
mood of the story (a dark, eery setting creates a spooky mood)
the conflict (if the setting takes place in a forest, the conflict will be different than if the setting were in a big city)
Comprehension Mini Lessons
Short, focused lessons that can be taught in approximately 10-15 minutes. It focuses on one specific skill and strategy to accomplish that skill and is clear and concise. Mini-lessons have an emphasis on teaching and modeling skills through think-aloud. Mini-lessons follow a predicted structure.
5 text structures
- Description
- Order and Sequence
- Cause and effect
- Compare and contrast
- Problem and solution
Anticipation guides
Anticipation guides highlight important information and facts from the topic that will be addressed. It builds curiosity and previews vocabulary and important ideas. It lists the facts and information and students have to decide if the information is true or false and why.
Types of graphic organizers- 3
Story Map- Story maps lend themselves to fiction texts. However, they could be slightly modified and used for biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs.
Sequencing- Students can write the events of a historical situation or of a person’s life in a biography, autobiography, or memoir.
Main Idea and Supporting Details- Students can write the main idea of a section or whole text and write the supporting details to organize their thinking.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is an educational practice where teachers offer specific kinds of support that help students retain and apply new knowledge. By scaffolding learning experiences, the teacher provides knowledge and skills in several forms to support students in moving them to more independent practices while minimizing the student’s frustration level. Scaffolding engages the learner in the active process of learning which helps motivate the student and urges him to learn more.
Scaffolding strategies
Breaking directions, reading, information, or assignments into small chunks
Modeling the expected task for students
Use or teach background knowledge
Pre-teach vocabulary
Use graphic organizers or visual aids
Use strategic questioning
Think-alouds (model thinking aloud while solving problems)
Engage students in authentic and academic discussions
Guided notes
Model annotation
Give feedback to students
Disciplinary literacy
Disciplinary Literacy is specialized ways of reading, writing, thinking, questioning, and reasoning within academic fields.
Benefits of disciplinary literacy
Students understand and communicate using specialized vocabulary and concepts.
Students gain confidence and learning becomes more self-directed.
Students connect and critique more complex learning - builds critical and abstract thinking
Students learn to apply content knowledge to real-world scenarios
Teaching disciplinary literacy equips students with specialized academic vocabulary to understand and communicate in a specific academic area as a ruler in math is a measuring device while a ruler in history is a leader. It also helps students develop critical thinking skills and proficiency in each subject.
Assessing comprehension-3 things
questioning, retelling, dialogic conversations, summarizing, and application tasks. The assessment process should collectively involve the three categories of comprehension in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): locating and recalling, integrating and interpreting, and critiquing and evaluating.
Reading inventory
The Informal Reading Inventory is used to measure a student’s accuracy and comprehension.
Students read from a grade-specific word list used to find their appropriate grade-level text. Then, students read the grade-level text and answer literal and inferential comprehension questions.
