English 12 - Comprehend and Respond (Comprehension)

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will demonstrate their understanding of written, oral, and visual communications.

It is expected that students will:

paraphrase the main ideas, events, or themes in a variety of sophisticated literary, technical, and informational communications
develop coherent and plausible interpretations of sophisticated or abstract materials
interpret and synthesize information from more than one source to develop and explain positions
interpret ambiguities in written, oral, or visual works and support their interpretation with evidence from that work
interpret details of, and draw conclusions from, information presented in a variety of specialized and complex print, graphic, and electronic formats

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

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

To develop well-supported positions, students need direct instruction as well as opportunities to independently analyse, synthesize, and use information.

Ask students what they consider to be the characteristics of an able reader. Using the descriptions of confident and interpretive readers from the reference set Evaluating Reading Across Curriculum, ask students to paraphrase what each description means to them. Then have them compare their lists of characteristics with the information in the reference set descriptions. Challenge students to each set one goal to improve their reading.
Have students select and promote favourite pieces of fiction or non-fiction by developing communications they think will have impact. Their promotions must catch other students' attention, tell a bit about their selections, and generally "sell" them. After each presentation, ask other students if they would now like to read the material, explaining why or why not. Ask: What part of the sales pitch won you over? What was missing?
Provide students with a poem or short prose selection (or excerpt) related to works they have studied (e.g., same author or genre, similar theme) and ask them to paraphrase and analyse the excerpt. Prompt students to:
- provide clear, logical summaries, consistent with the text
- include specific references to support their interpretations
- make connections among various features or parts of the work
- offer reasoned inferences and interpretations about ambiguities in the text
Have students research the work of innovative communicators (e.g., Marshall McLuhan, Isadora Duncan, Alfred Steiglitz, Nellie McClung). Ask them to role-play their chosen characters, introducing themselves to the class, describing three pieces of their work, and arguing why they should be remembered.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Assessment should include some independent tasks, in which students demonstrate their comprehension of new or unfamiliar materials, along with activities in which they display their understanding of selections and information with which they have previously worked.

When students work with specialized print, graphic, and electronic formats, collaborate with them to develop criteria such as the following to guide their work and provide the basis for assessment:
- logical conclusions or interpretations
- accurate interpretation of detail
- thoroughness
- specific references to the material
- information relevant to the task
To check on students' abilities to listen or read closely and accurately for information, ask each student to find an informative article of interest from a magazine or zine (on the World Wide Web). Students hand in their articles, along with:
- one-sentence statements telling what the articles are about
- outlines or graphic representations that include all the main topics, along with subtopics or points about each
- lists of the articles' effective features and lists of features that could be improved
- two questions about the topics that were not answered by the articles
Provide opportunities for students to test their knowledge of works they have read, viewed, or listened to by answering questions posed by their classmates. For example, each student could contribute one question to an impromptu classroom quiz on a particular selection or group of selections. Questions can be oral, answers oral or written. Suggest that each student prepare two questions in case another student poses the same question.