English 11 - Comprehend and Respond (Engagement and Personal Response)

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

• make connections between the ideas and information presented in literary and mass media works and their own experiences
• demonstrate a willingness to take a tentative stance, tolerate ambiguity, explore multiple perspectives, and consider more than one interpretation
• support their opinions or respond to questions and tasks about the works they have read or viewed
• make connections among the themes and ideas expressed in various materials
• display respect for the diverse languages and cultures of the communities represented in classroom, local, provincial, national, and international literary and mass media works

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Comprehend and Respond (Engagement and Personal Response) in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Present students with a piece of literature or a case study narrative about a controversial issue of social importance (e.g., ethics, justice, Aboriginal land claims, women's or men's issues, environmental concerns, racial or multicultural issues). Ask students to record their initial viewpoints on the issue and cite several details from the material in support of their positions. Ask students to choose positions other than their initial ones and reread the piece, looking for information supportive of these new viewpoints. Have students discuss this experience in small groups.
• Engage students in a class discussion on censorship. Give students a list of banned materials and ask them to speculate on why they were banned. Ask students to assume the role of parents or guardians and prepare lists of books, videos, and movies that they would not allow their children to read or see.
• Hold a debate on the statement, "Community standards should dictate what is available to patrons of a public library."
• Invite a panel of writers and artists to speak to the class on the concept of artistic freedom.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• When students are planning mock police reports, mock trials, role plays, or debates to demonstrate their analyses of a literary text, work with them to develop criteria that focus on their use of textual evidence. For example, to what extent are they able to:
  • develop logical positions that are consistent with the text
  • identify specific evidence in text to support a position
  • be accurate and precise in using evidence from text
  • connect evidence from various parts of a text to build compelling arguments
• Work with the students to develop criteria and rating systems they can use to assess their own written, oral, and representational responses. They can represent their progress with symbols to indicate when they have provided evidence of a particular criterion. Examples include:
  • making connections to their own lives (chain link)
  • offering close analysis and exploration (magnifying glass)
  • considering alternative interpretations (arrows pointing in different directions)
  • being open-minded about an author's or character's viewpoint (head with a hinged top)
  • citing evidence from a text to support an interpretation (finger pointing to a page)
• Develop a class rating scale that can be used for self-, peer, and teacher assessment of response or dialogue journals. See the Response Journal rating scale in Appendix D, Sample 1 for a model. Have students hand in their journals several times for formative assessment prior to evaluation at the end of term.

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

• The 21st Century Synonyms and Antonyms Finder
• 75 Readings
• Coast To Coast
• Discoveries in Non-Fiction
• Discovering Literature
• Discovering Poetry
• Essays: Patterns and Perspectives
• Ethics
• Family Issues
• Far and Wide
• Global Matters
• Horizons
• Inside Stories for Senior Students
• Myth
• Nineteenth Century Short Stories
• Notes on a Prison Wall
• The Prentice Hall Reader
• Searchlights
• The Stolen Party
• Tracing One Warm Line
• Travel and Tourism
• Voices of the First Nations
• World Literature
• Worlds in Small

• View from the Typewriter

• In Perspective

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