Grade 8 - 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 explore a variety of genres and media
explain their preferences for various genres or specific authors
identify and explain connections between new ideas and information and their previous beliefs, values, and experiences
make connections among different texts and media by comparing features, including themes, issues, styles, and appeal
describe and give examples to explain their personal criteria for assessing and responding to what they view, read, or hear

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

Positive attitudes are often fostered when students have opportunities to participate in making decisions about topics to pursue, materials to explore, and methods of response.

Have students work in pairs to choose a favourite song and develop a response to the lyrics. Ask them to include a personal interpretation of the poetic devices and words used and the message intended by the author. Each pair should then write the lyrics of their poems on the chalkboard and discuss their interpretations with the class.
During a poetry unit, provide students with several examples of thematic anthologies; then have them work in groups to find poems on themes they feel strongly about (e.g., racism, persecution, tolerance, prejudice, religious difference, ethnicity, culture, age). Ask each group to design an anthology with illustrations that reflect the theme of the poems included. Ask students to record their reasons for including the poems and explain their interpretations of the authors' intentions. Finally, have students create titles reflecting their themes for the covers of their anthologies. As an extension to this activity, invite students to convert a novella or short story to a ballad form to include in their anthology.
Suggest that groups of students each choose a theme. Each group member should then examine the way the theme is presented in a different genre (e.g., poetry, fiction, non-fiction), focussing on style and audience appeal. Invite the groups to present their findings to the class accompanied by visual representations.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The assessment of personal response requires open-ended questions and assignments that engage students in making choices. Students must be confident that their ideas, experiences, and works are valued.

When students create personal collections of poetry, focus assessment on the reasons and interpretations they record, as well as their collections. Provide written or oral feedback about the extent to which:
- collections are unified around students' themes
- illustrations focus on the key themes and images of the poems
- reasons for including each poem are based on personal criteria that include theme, use of language, and personal preferences or connections
- interpretations are logical, supported by specific references to the poems, and make connections to the poems' central themes or issues
Discuss the criteria for assessing students' presentations of favourite song lyrics before they begin their assignment. Focus their attention on the purpose of the assignment and the outcomes being assessed. Perhaps negotiate a list of four or five key criteria. For example, the group:
- offers a logical interpretation consistent with the text
- describes three or four specific reasons for the choice and connects these to personal criteria (e.g., We like lyrics that __________, The lyrics of this song are __________)
- makes connections to personal experiences, beliefs, values, or ideas
- makes connections to other works, themes, or contexts
- comments on both language and meaning
- includes a conclusion about the overall impact of the work
Have students keep response or dialogue journals in which they record both their initial responses - ideas, questions, sketches - and later reflections about the works they read, view, or hear. See the Response Journal rating scale in Appendix D, Sample 1.