Reading Flashcards
Constructivism
Readers construct meaning through integrating what they’re reading with their reactions, knowledge, beliefs, and ideas.
Cultural and social backgrounds play into this
Constructivist Teaching
Teachers should design lessons that require students to respond to text and each other through discussions.
Literary criticism
Formal study, analysis, and evaluation of literary texts.
Colonial Period
1620-1750
Exploration, relations with Native Americans, and life in the new world.
Age of Revolution
1750-1815
Colonies quest for independence.
Romantic/Transcendental
1800-1865
Power of imagination, celebration of individualism, and love of nature.
Wanted to break away from British literary tradition.
Realistic Period
1855-1910
Portrayed American life as if really was. Emphasized likeness to life/Verisimilitude.
Includes civil war writers, regionalists, and naturalists
Modern Period
1900-1950
World Wars, alienation, the Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, and the changing world.
Included Harlem Renaissance writers.
Post Modernism
1950-Present
Challenges traditional values and structures. Heightened concern for social issues.
American Literature Themes
Individualism, the American Dream/reality, cultural diversity, tolerance, and the search for identity.
British Literature
Reflects changes in culture and thinking over time from writers from the British isles.
Anglo-Saxon
449-1066
Epic poems, courageous heroes, concern for morality.
The Medieval Period
1066-1485
Focused on religion, romance, diversity, and chivalry.
Morality plays and folk ballads were popular
Renaissance Period
1485-1660
Love and human nature
Included Elizabethan/Golden age
Restoration Period
1660-1798
Focused on logic, reason, and rules.
Aka: The Enlightenment
Victorian Period
1832-1900
Focused on social, religious, and economic change and turmoil.
British Romantic Period
1785-1830
Truth was found in nature and imagination
British Modern Era
1900-1945
Social issues, epiphanies, stream of consciousness, psychology, human nature
World Lit
Works from around the globe. Looks at historical, cultural, and philosophical context.
Context
Historical and cultural time a text was written.
What was going on that shaped the authors ideas and experiences.
Historical Context
Different from setting
What was going on in the world when the story was written? What could the author be responding to or criticizing?
Context Best Practices
Frame the story with context
Ask an essential or life question to help students connect
Ask students to activate prior knowledge
Objectives for Genre Study
Equip students to: Understand Interpret Discuss Create
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Remembering Understanding Applying Analyzing Evaluating Creating
Non-Fiction Direct Instruction
Identifying rhetorical strategies used
Summarizing by stating format, purpose, intended audience, and central idea
Evaluating assumptions, claims, appeals, and evidence
Folklore
Set of beliefs and stories of a particular group passed down through generations
Fables
Short stories intended to teach moral lessons
Fairy Tales
Stories that involve magical creatures and elements
Myths
Stories that attempt to explain certain practices or phenomena
Legends
Unverifiable stories that have a degree of realism about them.
Science Fiction
Stories grounded in science and tech. Explore future of humanity and relationship with universe and/or technology
Dystopian Fiction
Explores cultural, social, and political structures of a futuristic world
Satire
Uses critical humor to reveal vice and foolishness in people or organizations in hopes of bringing about changes.
Studying Plot
Focus on cause and effect to understand why things happen the way they do
Studying Setting
Time, place, and cultural norms of the society being represented
Studying Charatcters
How actions and motivations are influenced by traits and values
Monologue
Long speech in a play that explains a character’s thoughts on philosophical ideas or social issues
Soliloquy
Monologue delivered as if no one is listening
Poetry Line
A unit of poetry separated by punctuation
Stanza
Group of poetry lines followed by a spade.
Ballad
Short narrative song about an event that is considered important.
Focused on a crucial situation that led to disaster
Ballad topics
Love, courage, political disputes, or military battles.
Sonnet
14 line lyrical poem usually written in iambic pentameter
Italian/Petratchan Sonnet
8 lines in abba followed by 6 lines of cde or cd
First part Poses a question, describes a problem, or tells a story
Second part answers it.
Shakespearean Sonnet
Three groups of four lines and ends with a couplet.
Abandon cdcd efef gg
Variations on a single theme. The couplet is the final remark
Haiku
Short poem
3 lines and seventeen syllables
Villanelle
19 lines
Five stanzas with three lines each and a final stanza of 4 lines
2 lines are repeated throughout it
Common themes
Love Loss Power Betrayal Growing old Coming of age
Point of View
The perspective the story is told from. First person, second, person, third person.
Controls what the reader knows.
Plot structure
How the events of the story are organized.
Central Conflict
Struggle between two opposing forces.
Internal Conflict
Conflict within the character/their thoughts.
External Conflict
Conflict caused by external forces: Nature, another character, supernatural forces, destiny, society.
Exposition
Background information about setting, characters, state of their world.
Inciting incident
Introduces antagonist and establishes conflict
Climax
When the conflict reaches it’s peak/most exciting part
Resolution
When the conflict gets sorted out.
Falling Action
Events that move the character away from the conflict and into the next stage of their life.
Setting
Geographical and chronological place the story happens. Can include time period society expectations. Different from plot. Ask “how would this be different if it were set in a different time.
Character Development
Process to create complex and believable characters. Includes revealing information about them all at once or in pieces based on other characters. Helps reader see how character changes over the story.
Tone
The author’s attitude toward the subject and reader.
Mood
The emotional feeling of the text that shapes the reader’s experience with it.
Creating through plot, setting, characters, point of view, tone, and figurative language.
Figures of Speech
Extend meaning of word, engage reader’s imagination, add emphasis to different aspects of the subject.
Metaphor
Comparing something unfamiliar with something that is familiar. Use direct comparison. “Juliet is the sun.”
Simile
Comparison between two things using “like” or “as” to help with understanding.
Imagery
Description that appeals to the five senses.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration meant to create humor or add emphasis.
Personification
Giving objects, animals, or natural forces humanlike qualities.
Symbolism
Using a concrete object, action, or character to represent an abstract idea.
Allusion
Reference to a historical, mythological, fictional, or religious person, place, or thing. Helps with understanding because students can make comparisons.
Cliche
Common sayings that lack originality, but are familiar and relatable.
Dialect/Slang
How a character speaks, reveals info about setting and character status.
Foreshadowing
Hints at the events that are going to happen later. Breadcrumbs to the conflict or resolution.
Verbal Irony
When the character/narrator says something opposite of what they mean
Situational Irony
Something happens that contradicts what the audience expected to happen.
Dramatic Irony
When the audience knows something the character doesn’t.
Rhyme Scheme
The arrangement of rhyming words in a stanza or poem.
Slant Rhyme
Poet substitutes assonance or constance for real rhyme.
Internal Rhyme
When two or more words in a line rhyme
Rhythm
Heartbeat of the poem. How the sounds are accentuated or not.
Meter
Established rhythm in a poem. Accentuated syllables are repetitive and predictable.
Named by the type and number of feet in a line.
Foot
Each unit of the meter
Iamb
When an unaccented syllable is followed by an accented one. Con-TAIN.
Accented syllable
Part of the word that is emphasized. You say the whole part. It’s the hard-sounding part of the word.
Iambic Pentameter
10 syllables. Soft/hard rotation. Shakespeare wrote this way.
Blank Verse Poetry
Unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Free Verse
No set pattern of rhyme or regular meter. Rhythm is unpredictable.
Assonance
Words with the same vowel sound in one or two lines of poetry. Used to create Slant Rhyme.
Makes it musical
Consonance
Repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of a hard syllable, but follows different vowel sounds.
Closed Form Poetry
Poems that follow a given form or shape.
Set number of lines, syllables, rhyme scheme, etc.
Open Form Poetry
Poetry without restrictions. Can take any form.
Active Readers
Make connections, seek meaning to solve a problem, gain new knowledge, or answer a question.
Pre-Reading Strategies
Include Previewing and setting a purpose.
Previewing (Reading Strategy)
Identify the author, genre, and general subject of the text.
Read headings and chapter titles
Examine related graphics
Research the author and context of the work
Anticipate the author’s purpose
Set a Purpose (Reading Strategy)
Determine why they are reading the text. Helps push students to make connections and understand the theme.
Metacognition
Monitor and clarify strategy. Think about what they’re reading so they can quickly recognize if something doesn’t make sense.
Annotating
Making notes about reading. Includes vocabulary, inferences, summaries, and analyses.
Summarization
Condense the text to include the key ideas, people, and info.
Synthesizing
Take background knowledge and understanding of the text to create an original understanding of a text. Similar to summarizing.
Targeted Review of Previous Learning
Start lessons by reviewing what was covered during previous classes to help students focus and remember.
Spiraled Instruction
Students learn more about a topic each time it is reviewed.
Modelling
Demonstrating a skill or practice for students before asking them to do it.
Questioning Strategies
Ask questions to check for understanding. Allows you to see what still needs work.
Literary Theory
Using a set principles or a system of ideas to interpret literature from a unique angle.
Reader-Response Theory
Idea that reader’s feelings and thoughts while reading influence their interpretation. These constructed interpretations blend with the author’s intended meaning so the reader is now part of the creative process.
There is no correct response to the text because it is unique to the reader.
Feminist Literary Theory
Examines how women are portrayed in lit and if they are shown as inferior, dependent, or not as interesting as men.
Challenges idea that women are opposite of men.
Queer Theory
Looks at how sexuality and gender is portrayed in lit and challenges cultural assumptions that someone is defined by their sexuality.
Deconstructionist Literary Criticism
Focuses on directing and uncovering the writer’s assumptions about what is true and false, good and bad.
Looks at language and how it portrays ideas. Things don’t exist just because the other is absent.
Semiotic Analysis
Study of signs, symbols, visual messages, and gestures.
Sign system: Set of behaviors or things that are analyzed as if they are symbols that represent ideas.
Marxist Theory
Focuses on the economic systems that structure society and the ways human behavior is motivated by desire for economic power.
How are characters influenced by socioeconomic class?
Formalism/New Criticism
Focuses on closely reading texts and analyzing how the lit elements create meaning.
Patterns
Recurring elements that form a design.
Text Organization
How the details of the text are arrange.
Chronological, problem-solution, cause-effect, general-specific, compare-contrast.
Problem-Solution (Text Organization)
Looks at the details of something and then offers a possible solution to it.
Cause-Effect (Text Organization)
Shows chain of events. Something happens which sets off another thing.
Sequential Order (Text Organization)
Arranges events in the order that they happen. Either consecutive or logical.
Steps of a procedure. Something has to happen in order to do the next thing.
Chronological Order (Text Organization)
Presents events in the order that they happened over time.
Critical Thinking
Ask questions about the quality of the reasoning, validity of the belief, or the assumption and then com to their own conclusions.
Argument Abilities Students Should Have
Evaluate evidence
Identify reasoning errors
Recognize strategies used.
Evidence Relevancy
How closely is the evidence related to the argument and how recent is it. Is it from a credible source?
Logical Fallacy
Error or breakdown in logical reasoning.
Slippery Slope (Reasoning Error)
Main argument is based on the assumption that if one thing happens, a set of other specific things will follow (chain of events).
Hasty Generalization (Reasoning Error)
Conclusion is made without enough evidence, is based on prior experiences, or assumptions.
The Circular Argument (Reasoning Error)
The argument is restated repeatedly without including new evidence.
Red Herring (Reasoning Error)
Distracting information is included to move the focus away from the most important point(s) of the argument.
Dichotomous Thinking
Thinking in pairs of opposite terms so you only see the extremes of the situation.
Simplifies a complex problem down to just two options.
Rhetorical Support
Support of generalizations, claims, and arguments using details, examples, and other evidence.
Logos (Arguments)
Appeals to people’s logical side.
Pathos (Arguments)
Appeals to people’s emotions.
Ethos (Arguments)
Appeals to people’s ethical side.
Perspective
A person’s POV, frame of reference, position, or attitude toward an idea or occurrence.
Testimonial
Statement about the quality or value of a person, idea, or thing.
Inductive Reasoning
Type of logical thinking that involves forming generalizations based on specific incidents you’ve experienced, observations you’ve made, or facts you know to be true or false.
Denotation
Dictionary meaning of a word.
Connotation
Suggested or implied meaning of a word.
Explicit Language
Clear, detailed, and exact word choice. Prevents confusion or ambiguity.
Implicit Language
Word meanings are implied so the reader is left to make their own conclusions.
Media Influence
Impact the media has on an audience’s thinking and behavior.
Visual Persuasion
Using images to influence the thinking and choices of viewers.
Gallery Walk
Teachers put pictures, videos, or quotations related to the text in stations that students move around and then record their impressions.
Dactyl
A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
TY-pic-cal
FAB-u-lous
Trochaic
Stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
GAR-den
Comprehension Strategies
Helps students understand and remember content.
Monitor Use Text Structure Summarize Elaborate Explain
Anapest
Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one.
Un-der-STAND
Con-tra-DICT
Metaphysical Poem
Poems with an inventive use of conceits and a greater emphasis on the spoken quality of the verse.
Coined by Samuel Johnson
What do Reasoning Strategies do?
Help students decide what they believe through evidence, arguments, and counterarguments.
Limerick
Humorous, frequently dirty verse.
Three long and two short lines.
Follows aabba rhyme scheme.
Epigram
A short remark stating an idea in a clever or amusing way.
“If you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.”
Ode
A lyrical poem that addresses a particular subject in an elevated way. Usually very elegant and flowery language.
Bildungsroman
A novel about one’s formative years or spiritual education.
Anticlimax
A sudden transition from something exciting to something disappointing, trivial, or ludicrous (usually in narratives).
Allegory
A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning (moral or political usually).
Examples: Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies.
Synecdoche
Figure of speech where one part represents the whole.
“Check out my new wheels.”
Syllogism
Logical argument using deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or more things assumed to be true.
Defined by Aristotle.
Semantics
Study of meaning in a language.
Ipse Dixit
An opinion
Hubris
Excessive Pride or self-confidence.
Anastrophe
A rhetorical term for the inversion of conventional word order.
“Arms that wrap around a shawl.”
Neoclassicism
Western culture movement in art, literature, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the ancient past.
Quatrain
Poem stanza with 4 lines and alternating rhymes.
Sprung Rhythm
Poetry designed to match the rhythm of natural speech..
Conceit
Comparison between two unlike things. Usually shocking comparison.
“Marriage is like a root canal.”
Metonymy
Replacing the name of something with a word associated with it.
The Crown.
Incremental Repetition
When a line is repeated in a poem but is slightly changed each time.
Frame Story
A story within a story. The main story sets up an emphasis on the second story.
“Titanic” old Rose vs. Young Rose
Elegy
A poem of serious reflection, usually for the dead.
Prescriptive Issue
Describes how the world should be including moral and ethical concerns.
Intertextuality
Shaping a text’s meaning by using another text to compare/contrast.
Analogy
Comparing two things to explain or clarify something. Uses metaphors and similes.
Life is like a box of chocolates.
Holistic Evaluation
Grading based on overall quality, not specific errors.
Bandwagon (Argumentative Style)
Encourages reader to do something because everyone else is. Peer pressure method.
Glittering Generality
Vague words are used to make reader feel something rather than give information.
Same as loaded word/phrase.
Anachronism
When something appears that doesn’t belong in the specified time period.
Card Stacking (Argumentative Style)
Manipulating information so one product/idea looks better than another.
Antithesis
A person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.
