Page 75 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: English, 2007 (Revised)

Grade 10, Academic
2. UnderstandingFormandStyle
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | English
Extending Understanding of Texts
1.5 extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex texts, by making appro- priate connections between the ideas in them and personal knowledge, experience, and insights; other texts; and the world around them (e.g., recall similar structures of texts pre- viously read to help in analysing a new text; with a partner, role-play a mock interview about a public personality’s reaction to a recent profile in a print or online source; explain how some- thing in your own experience or background has influenced your understanding of a character’s behaviour)
Teacher prompts: “How would you respond if someone described you in these terms?” “Based on your own experience, do you find this opinion piece convincing?”
Analysing Texts
1.6 analyse texts in terms of the information, ideas, issues, or themes they explore, examin- ing how various aspects of the texts contribute to the presentation or development of these elements (e.g., explain how figures of speech in a text highlight the theme and help create a mood; determine how the setting in two short stories helps clarify each story’s main theme)
Teacher prompts: “How does setting the story in a prison contribute to the development of the theme?” “Each of the characters in the play grapples with a different kind of problem. What does each of their stories contribute to the central theme?”
Evaluating Texts
1.7 evaluate the effectiveness of texts, including increasingly complex texts, using evidence from the text to support their opinions (e.g., explain why the plot of a novel is believable or not; explain why one online information source is more useful than another; explain some of the ways in which a particular novel engages the reader; explain why the wording of the text in an advertisement succeeds in capturing the attention of its teen audience)
Teacher prompts: “Is the author relying too much on coincidence to resolve the plot?” “Is the behaviour of the characters believable in
the circumstances?” “How does the first chapter of the novel engage your attention and make you want to read further?”
Critical Literacy
1.8 identify and analyse the perspectives and/or biases evident in texts, including increasingly complex texts, and comment on any questions they may raise about beliefs, values, identity, and power (e.g., determine the fairness of depic- tions of comic characters in a Shakespeare play,
of the antagonist or villain in a novel, of poverty and poor people in a newspaper article)
Teacher prompts: “In what ways is the comic character or ‘villain’ in this text ‘different’ from the hero? When you consider such dif- ferences in another context, do they still strike you as laughable or evil? Do other texts you have read depict differences as comic or negative?” “What effect would a change in the character’s gender or ethnocul- tural background have on the way the events are described in the text?”
By the end of this course, students will:
Text Forms
2.1 identify a variety of characteristics of literary, informational, and graphic text forms and explain how they help communicate meaning (e.g., explain the function of setting in a short story; explain the function of rhyme in a sonnet; explain the role of a refrain or repeated phrase in a ballad or story; explain the function of tran- sition words in an opinion piece or argument; explain the role of a comparison and contrast structure in a persuasive essay or a book review; explain why some characters in a Shakespeare play speak mainly in verse and others mainly or only in prose)
Teacher prompts: “How do the rhyme changes between one quatrain and the next and be- tween the quatrains and the final couplet help you follow the ‘argument’ or develop- ing idea in the poem?” “How do the visual components of a graphic novel complement the written text?” “How does the layout of a concrete poem contribute to its meaning?”
Text Features
2.2 identify a variety of text features and explain how they help communicate meaning (e.g., “explanatory” titles or epigraphs for individual chapters in a novel; logo size, illustrations, font sizes, and colour in an advertisement)
Teacher prompts: “How do the pull-out quotes in a magazine article influence the reader?” “Why is the logo featured so promi- nently in this advertisement?”
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