Genres: The three broad categories of literature are stories, informational books, or nonfiction, and poetry, and there are subgenres within each category. For example, science fiction, folktales, and historical fiction are subgenres of stories.
Text Structures: Authors use text structures to organize texts and emphasize the most important ideas. Sequences, comparison, and cause and effect, for example are three internal patterns used to organize nonfiction texts.
Text Features: Authors use text features to achieve a particular effect in their writing. Literary devices and conventions include symbolism and tone in stories, headings and indexes in nonfiction books, and page layout for poems.
Elements of Story Structure:
Plot: plot is the sequence of events involving characters in conflict situations; it’s based on the goals of one or more characters and the processes they go through to attain them. Plot is developed through conflict that’s introduced at the beginning, expanded in the middle, and finally resolved at the end.
Characters: characters are the people or personified animals in the story. They’re the most important structural element when stories are centered on a character or group of characters. Main characters have many character traits, both good and bad; that is to say, they have all the characteristics of real people.
Setting: The setting is generally thought as of the location where the story takes place, but that’s only one aspect. Setting has four dimensions: location, weather, time period, and time.
Point of View: Stories are written from a particular viewpoint, and this perspective determines to a great extent reader’s understanding of the characters and events of the story. Here are some points of view: First person viewpoint, omniscient viewpoint, limited omniscient viewpoint, and objective viewpoint.
Theme: Theme is the underlying meaning of a story; it embodies general truths about nature. Themes usually deal with the characters’ emotions and values, and can either be explicit or implicit
Text Factors of Nonfiction books: Stories have been the principal genre for reading and writing instruction in the primary grades because its been assumed that constructing stories in the mind is a fundamental way of learning; however, many students prefer to read nonfiction books, and they’re able to understand them as well as they do stories.
Expository Text Structures: Nonfiction books are organized in particular ways called expository text structures.
Text Factors of Poetry/Formats: It’s easy to recognize a poem because the text looks different than a page from a story or a nonfiction book. Layout, or the arrangement of words on a page, is an important text factor. Poems are written in a variety of forms, ranging from free verse to haiku, and poets use poetic devices to make their writing more effective.
Poetic Forms……
Concrete poems: The words and lines in concrete poems are arranged on the page to help convey the meaning. When the words and lines form a picture or outline the objects they describe, they’re called shape poems.
Haiku: Haiku is a Japanese poetic form that contains just 17 syllables, arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. It’s a concise form, much like a telegram, and the poems normally deal with nature, presenting a single clear image.
Odes: Odes celebrate every objects, especially those things that aren’t usually appreciated. The unrhymed poem, written directly to that object, tells what’s good about the thing and why its valued.
Narrative Poem: is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of narrator and characters as well.
Rhymed Verse: is the most common type of poems. This poem tells a story.
Free Verse: this is a contemporary kind of poem. Writers aren’t required to use traditional poetic techniques, including structure, rhyme and rhythm. Writers choose words to express ideas precisely and create powerful images, and they divide the lines so they flow like speech.
Comprehension strategies: The goal is for students to actually use what they’ve learned about text factors when they’re reading and writing. The comprehension strategy they use when they’re applying what they’ve learned is called noticing text factors;it involves considering genre, recognizing text structure, and attending to literacy devices. Students need to think about “what to expect from a text, how to approach it, and what to take away from it.” Teachers teach students about text factors through mini lessons and other activities, but the last step is to help students internalize the information and apply it when they’re reading and writing. Teachers use think-alouds to demonstrate this strategy as they do modeled and shared writing.
Classroom Application: Chapter 9 will greatly benefit my future classroom and I. I learned a great deal about the elements of within a story, different kinds of poems, and how to assess knowledge of text factors. I’ve learned that effective teachers teach students to use their knowledge of genres, structural elements, and literacy devices to increase their comprehension of complex texts using the information within this chapter. As a teacher, it is imperative that I teach my students that stories have unique text factors such as: genres, story elements, and narrative devices. As a teacher, it is also important that I spend time teaching my students about poems and their unique factors.
Brianne Brueggen Developing Literacy Blog 