Using student-centered comprehension strategies with Elie Wiesel's "Night"

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 9

• Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
  • Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (individually and in groups) to a variety of expressive texts (e.g., memoirs, vignettes, narratives, diaries, monologues, personal responses) in a way that offers an audience:
    • an understanding of the student's personal reaction to the text.
    • a sense of how the reaction results from a careful consideration of the text.
    • an awareness of how personal and cultural influences affect the response.
  • Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
    • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
    • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
    • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
    • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
    • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
    • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
    • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
    • making connections between works, self and related topics.
    • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
    • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
    • identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
• Goal 4: The learner will create and use standards to critique communication.
  • Objective 4.01: Evaluate the effectiveness of communication by:
    • examining the use of strategies in a presentation/product.
    • applying a set of predetermined standards.
    • creating an additional set of standards and applying them to the presentation/product.
    • comparing effective strategies used in different presentations/products.
  • Objective 4.02: Read and critique various genres by:
    • using preparation, engagement, and reflection strategies appropriate for the text.
    • identifying and using standards to evaluate aspects of the work or the work as a whole.
    • judging the impact of different stylistic and literary devices on the work.
  • Objective 4.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print critical texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
    • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
    • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
    • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
    • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
    • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
    • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
    • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
    • making connections between works, self and related topics.
    • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
    • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
    • identifying and analyzing elements of critical environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
• Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
  • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
    • using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
    • recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
    • interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
    • understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
    • explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
    • explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
    • determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
    • explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
    • making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
    • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
    • producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.
  • Objective 5.02: Demonstrating increasing comprehension and ability to respond personally to texts by selecting and exploring a wide range of genres.

Grade 10

• Goal 1: The learner will react to and reflect upon print and non-print text and personal experiences by examining situations from both subjective and objective perspectives.
  • Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (through small group discussion, class discussion, journal entry, essay, letter, dialogue) to written and visual texts by:
    • relating personal knowledge to textual information or class discussion.
    • showing an awareness of one's own culture as well as the cultures of others.
    • exhibiting an awareness of culture in which text is set or in which text was written.
    • explaining how culture affects personal responses.
    • demonstrating an understanding of media's impact on personal responses and cultural analyses.
  • Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
    • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
    • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
    • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
    • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
    • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
    • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
    • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
    • making connections between works, self and related topics.
    • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
    • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
    • identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
• Goal 2: The learner will evaluate problems, examine cause/effect relationships, and answer research questions to inform an audience.
  • Objective 2.03: Pose questions prompted by texts (such as the impact of imperialism on Things Fall Apart) and research answers by:
    • accessing cultural information or explanations from print and non-print media sources.
    • prioritizing and organizing information to construct a complete and reasonable explanation.
• Goal 3: The learner will defend argumentative positions on literary or nonliterary issues.
  • Objective 3.01: Examine controversial issues by:
    • sharing and evaluating initial personal response.
    • researching and summarizing printed data.
    • developing a framework in which to discuss the issue (creating a context).
    • compiling personal responses and researched data to organize the argument.
    • presenting data in such forms as a graphic, an essay, a speech, or a video.
  • Objective 3.03: Respond to issues in literature in such a way that:
    • requires gathering of information to prove a particular point.
    • effectively uses reason and evidence to prove a given point.
    • emphasizes culturally significant events.
• Goal 4: The learner will critically interpret and evaluate experiences, literature, language, and ideas.
  • Objective 4.01: Interpret a real-world event in a way that:
    • makes generalizations about the event supported by specific references.
    • reflects on observation and shows how the event affected the current viewpoint.
    • distinguishes fact from fiction and recognizes personal bias.
  • Objective 4.03: Analyze the ideas of others by identifying the ways in which writers:
    • introduce and develop a main idea.
    • choose and incorporate significant, supporting, relevant details.
    • relate the structure/organization to the ideas.
    • use effective word choice as a basis for coherence.
    • achieve a sense of completeness and closure.
  • Objective 4.04: Evaluate the information, explanations, or ideas of others by:
    • identifying clear, reasonable criteria for evaluation.
    • applying those criteria using reasoning and substantiation.
• Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of selected world literature through interpretation and analysis.
  • Objective 5.01: Read and analyze selected works of world literature by:
    • using effective strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
    • building on prior knowledge of the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction, non-fiction, drama, and poetry, and exploring how those characteristics apply to literature of world cultures.
    • analyzing literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, situational irony, and imagery and explaining their effect on the work of world literature.
    • analyzing the importance of tone and mood.
    • analyzing archetypal characters, themes, and settings in world literature.
    • making comparisons and connections between historical and contemporary issues.
    • understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
  • Objective 5.02: Demonstrate increasing comprehension and ability to respond personally to texts by:
    • selecting and exploring a wide range of works which relate to an issue, author, or theme of world literature.
    • documenting the reading of student-chosen works.