Grade 9 - 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
identify and explain connections between what they read, hear, and view and their personal ideas and beliefs
relate ideas and information in works of communication to universal themes
compare the themes, purposes, and appeal of different communications
use information that they have read, heard, or viewed to develop research questions or creative works or to complete response activities

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

To help students relate to the characters, events, and ideas they encounter in various communications, prompt them to consider how they are influenced by experiences in their own lives.

Ask students to record their thoughts, feelings, and ideas about literature, mass media, and the arts in response journals. Encourage them to focus on their personal reactions as they record their impressions.
Ask students to consider how the time in which we live and the events we experience influence how we think about an issue. Then have them examine a contemporary topic of interest and present ideas from the viewpoints of characters in fiction set in other times. Prompt them with questions such as:
- How would the character see today's problem?
- What advice or comments might the character give?
Have a class discussion about people using humour to cope with issues, problems, institutions, and life's foibles. To demonstrate this use of humour, provide students with examples of political cartoons, satirical writing, videos, and plays, and ask them to identify the underlying issue in each. Ask students to write about or illustrate a personal issue using the elements of one of these genres.
Provide students with several fairy tales and parodies of the same stories. When students have finished reading, ask them what they enjoyed about the stories and parodies. Through a discussion of how the stories and parodies differ, have students reflect on the different reasons for enjoyment. Later, challenge them to select fairy tales and write their own parodies.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students reveal their engagement and personal response when they have opportunities to make choices about the selections they respond to and about the form and content of their responses. Many students are better able to respond through visual, oral, and dramatic activities than through traditional written responses. Standard criteria can be used to assess a wide variety of activities.

Discuss the features that characterize an effective response and work with students to develop criteria. For example, students can use the response category of the reference set Evaluating Reading Across Curriculum or a rating scale such as the Response Journal rating scale in Appendix D, Sample 1. Students can also invent symbol systems to use in the margins of their journals to show that they have provided evidence of a particular criterion. For example:
- connects to own experiences (symbol: links forming a chain)
- connects to a universal theme (symbol: a globe)
- considers alternative or divergent interpretations (symbol: arrows pointing in different directions)
- gives an example from the work to support an idea or interpretation (symbol: a finger pointing at a page)
Suggest that students develop posters, collages, advertisements, or other visual representations to respond to particular selections, themes, or issues. Collaborate with them to develop criteria such as:
- a strong, overall visual impression that reflects a particular perspective or viewpoint
- a focus on a central theme or issue (all the material clearly related to a central theme or issue)
- connections to personal experiences, values, and beliefs
- specific and accurate references to the selections or other material