English 12 - Comprehend and Respond (Engagement and Personal Response)

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 identify connections between their own ideas, experiences, and knowledge and a variety of literary and mass media works created by classroom, local, British Columbian, Canadian, and international authors and developers from various cultural communities.

It is expected that students will:

demonstrate a willingness to reread selections and materials for various purposes
make connections between their own values, beliefs, and cultures and those reflected in literature and mass media
demonstrate a willingness to explore diverse perspectives to develop or modify viewpoints
support a position, interpretation, or response by citing specific details, features, and information from what they have read, viewed, or heard
analyse ways in which literature and mass media have dealt with issues involving personal identity and community and respond to these in terms of their own ideas, experiences, and communities
demonstrate an appreciation of the power and beauty of language, past and present

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

Students become actively involved in literature and the media by expressing their immediate thoughts and feelings about them and then analysing what they view, hear, or read to make sense of their subjective reactions.

Have groups of students each redesign an aspect of a selection by doing one or more of the following:
- add or delete a significant character in the story (e.g., delete a character from Othello)
- change the setting (place, time, or both; e.g., place Henry IV, Part I in New York City in the 1990s)
- alter the personality of a main character (e.g., make a character more or less assertive)
- change a significant element of plot (e.g., let Desdemona live)
- change the intended audience (e.g., rewrite Measure for Measure as a children's story)
- write a prologue or epilogue to the selection
Have students present their work in different forms such as dramatizations or multimedia presentations. Ask them to write paragraphs explaining why they made their changes and how these changes affected the original stories.
Have students keep response journals over a period of time to discuss specific devices such as symbolism or irony while they review particular genres (e.g., comic strips, tabloids, magazines, TV music channels, the news, sitcoms, talk shows). Ask students to cite specific examples and record their reactions. Prompt students with sentence starters such as: I noticed ; I don't understand ; I became aware of . Have students work in small groups to compare their journal entries and summarize the main ideas about what they observed.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

In order to demonstrate these learning outcomes, students must be confident that their ideas, experiences, and works are valued. Students should be encouraged to represent their learning in a variety of ways. Assessment should focus on the quality of their responses, rather than on their writing abilities.

When students redesign or extend an aspect of a selection they have studied, look for evidence that the presentations:
- show insights into the themes, characters, and events of the originals
- draw on a close analysis of the original text for detail, style, and use of language
Have students keep response or dialogue journals in which they record their initial responses to what they read, then have them revisit the texts - alone or with partners or groups - and record more considered responses. Encourage them to rethink and add to their original responses at any time - even after they have read several intervening selections. Emphasize that the process of response and interpretation is ongoing, not finite. See the Response Journal rating scale in Appendix D, Sample 1.
Students can show their responses to articles about issues that concern them by developing collages that feature excerpts from the articles, other materials, and samples of their writing and sketching. Criteria can include:
- clear focus on a central theme or issue
- connections to personal experiences, values, and beliefs
- logical presentation of student's position
- response supported by specific and accurate references to the articles
- includes excerpts that represent more than one perspective
Similar criteria can be used to assess promotions of novels or others works.