Grade 10 - 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:

identify and explain connections between what they read, hear, and view and their personal ideas and beliefs
consistently consider more than one interpretation of the communications that they read, view, and listen to
compare the features and relative merits of different communications, including those created by the same author, designer, or director
demonstrate openness to divergent language, ideas, and opinions from a variety of cultural communities as expressed by mass media and in literature
develop imaginative or creative responses to share their ideas

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 need opportunities to focus on communications from a variety of genres and cultures, to discuss the range of perspectives they encounter, and to connect what they discover to their own experiences and beliefs.

Have students examine their own beliefs in double-entry journals. Ask such questions as:
- What does racism mean to you?
- Why do you suppose people tell racist and sexist jokes?
- What are these jokes designed to do?
Use this activity to introduce a novel that discusses or includes the issue of racism. As they read the novel, have students reflect on and re-evaluate their responses to the questions based on their new awareness.
Encourage students to keep logs of the magazines, novels, poetry, TV programs, and movies they read or view. Generate criteria with students for evaluating these materials, based on questions such as:
- What elements does a good __________ have?
- What makes a good comedy? A good drama?
Ask students to consider these characteristics as they read and view. On a regular basis, go through a structured review with students, using questions such as:
- Who is in the story?
- What are three events that took place?
- What is the relationship between __________ and __________?
- How do you know what the author's purpose was?
Show students two different film versions of Romeo and Juliet (e.g., the BBC version and Zeffirelli's version). Make a chart showing how each of the films uses music, close-ups, length of time on images, camera angles, and editing. Have students write critical comparisons of the two versions, making the argument that one is better than the other.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Response or dialogue journals, discussion groups, student-designed projects, and alternative representations (e.g., posters or collages) can offer evidence that students are achieving the outcomes. Students must be sure that their ideas are valued and will be dealt with respectfully by both the teacher and other students.

When students work with double-entry journals as they study a novel, emphasize a few key elements. For example:
- willingness to reflect on and offer relevant opinions, ideas, and experiences
- openness to others' views
- use of relevant, specific examples from the novel
- logical and objective comparison of their own views with those expressed in the novel
Questions such as the following can prompt evidence of students' responses.
- Who might enjoy this selection? Why?
- If you were asked to make a chart comparing this selection to another, which would you choose? Why?
- Would you ever choose to read (view, listen to) all or part of this selection or another by the same author (director)? Why (why not)?
Students can respond to selections by extending or redesigning them. For example, they might change the settings, endings, or genres (e.g., by rewriting the selection as song lyrics or as a cartoon, by retelling the events from the perspective of a minor or new character, by designing costumes and sets for a stage version). The same criteria can be applied to a wide variety of representations. For example, to what extent does the student show engagement by:
- modelling the language or genre of the original
- drawing on specific details
- showing sensitivity to the original theme (e.g., in a parody)
- offering an unusual twist or perspective