Page 99 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: English, 2007 (Revised)

Grade 11, University Preparation
3. Reading With Fluency
4. Reflecting on Skills and Strategies
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | English
Text Features
2.2 identify a variety of text features and demon- strate insight into the way they communicate meaning (e.g., compare several editions of a Shakespeare play, noting design and font choices as well as features such as footnotes or endnotes and glossaries, to assess how these features improve the readability of the text; compare the paper type, use of colour, fonts and font sizes, and layouts in various informational texts, and explain how these features affect readability and influence the reader’s response to the message)
Teacher prompt: “Which edition of this play would you prefer to read? What features of this edition make it preferable to the other choices?”
Elements of Style
2.3 identify a variety of elements of style in texts and explain how they help communicate meaning and enhance the effectiveness of the texts (e.g., analyse how diction is used to create pathos in a play; analyse the syntax in a passage from a novel and describe the effect it creates; explain how dramatic irony is used to create sympathy for the protagonist in a short story; analyse the layers of meaning that the use of
an archetype lends to a poem, or that the use of allusions to myth and legend add to a contempo- rary Aboriginal writer’s prose; show how juxtaposition is used to support the argument
in an essay)
Teacher prompts: “What effect do the historical and literary allusions in this essay have on the reader? Do they contribute to the persua- siveness of the arguments?” “What do the stage directions and the characters’ diction
in this part of the scene suggest about the relationship between the characters?”
By the end of this course, students will:
Reading Familiar Words
3.1 automatically understand most words in a variety of reading contexts (e.g., identify clichés and jargon in texts and suggest clearer, more specific wordings; identify words that signal
organizational patterns in literary essays; analyse how familiar words are used to influ- ence a mass audience in print and television advertisements)
Teacher prompts: “What effect has the poet achieved by using common words in unfa- miliar ways?” “Name some of the literary terms that have become familiar to you since Grade 10.”
Reading Unfamiliar Words
3.2 use decoding strategies effectively to read
and understand unfamiliar words, including words of increasing difficulty (e.g., create a glossary or personal dictionary of specialized and technical language encountered in academic texts; keep a list of prefixes and root words used in academic and technical publications to help decode new terms; speculate on the meaning
of new words in a difficult text in discussion with peers, then consult a dictionary to confirm the meaning)
Teacher prompt: “How have your deliberations on the possible meanings of an unfamiliar word affected your understanding of the text?”
Developing Vocabulary
3.3 regularly use a variety of strategies to explore and expand vocabulary, discerning shades
of meaning and assessing the precision with which words are used in the texts they are reading (e.g., list words from an eighteenth- century novel that are now archaic, and provide contemporary synonyms for each, noting differ- ences in connotation; compare two essays on the same idea by different authors, focusing on dif- ferences in word choice and resulting differences in meaning and effect)
Teacher prompts: “Which of the words that you learned from your reading this term have you used most often in your own speech or writing?” “Is there one word in this poem that provides a key to understanding the poet’s intent?”
By the end of this course, students will:
Metacognition
4.1 demonstrate insight into their strengths and weaknesses as readers, and practise the strate- gies they found most helpful when reading particularly challenging texts to enhance their reading skills (e.g., select a university-level text from the library, apply preferred strategies as they read a selected chapter, and paraphrase the passage they found most difficult)
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