English Language Arts and Reading.5.10.G

Previous Next
The student is expected to

explain the purpose of hyperbole, stereotyping, and anecdote.

author's purpose strand teks talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.

Have students work in small groups to read text that includes an anecdote. Task students with identifying the anecdote in the selected text, how it contributes to the text, and why the author may have chosen to include the anecdote.


Further Explanation

With this SE, students are expected to recognize which elements of an anecdote are relevant to the author’s larger point and why the author may have chosen to include the anecdote as part of their story, explanation, or argument.

Anecdotes are short narratives or stories that relate a relevant incident to make or support a larger point. Students are expected to explain that when authors use anecdotes, they usually want to reveal a truth beyond the limits of a writing piece. Authors may choose to use anecdotes about their own lives or a character’s life to create a feeling of connection in the reader. For example, in a story that deals with a problem that one of the characters has, another character may share an anecdote about a time when they were in a similar situation.
Students are expected to know that hyperboles are specific words and phrases intended to exaggerate and overemphasize something in order to produce a specific effect. Students are expected to explain that sentences that include hyperboles usually convey an action or sentiment that is not realistically possible but helps emphasize an emotion or situation (e.g., “I have a thousand things to do” or “It took forever for the bus to arrive.”)
an intentional and extreme exaggeration for emphasis or humorous effect (e.g., “This book weighs a ton” and “I waited for an eternity in the dentist’s office.”)
Stereotypes represent oversimplified images or ideas of a particular type of person or thing. Students should be able to explain that, in literature, stereotypes can help craft a story or guide an audience to a certain perspective. By using stereotyped characters, an author can create common understanding with the readers. For example, if an author identifies a character as computer geek, the author is trying to build an image for readers they can associate that character with.

Research

1. Battersby, M., & Bailin, S. (2013). Critical thinking and cognitive biases. OSSA Conference Archive. (10)16. Retrieved from https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/ossaarchive/OSSA10/papersandcommentaries/16/

Summary: The authors examine how reasoning and fallacies are easily embedded in writing. The article is an overview of a pedagogy that helps students to identify reasoning errors. 

2. Composition Writing Studio. Argumentative Essay/Commentary. University of Purdue’s Online Writing Lab. Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html

Summary: This online resource offers a complete overview of the writing processes and the components involved in each. The overview includes definition of terms, examples, graphs and charts as appropriate, and additional resources.

3. VanDerHeide, J., & Juzwik, M.M. (2018). Argument as conversation: Students responding through writing to significant conversations across time and place. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(1), 67–77. doi:10.1002/jaal.754

Summary: In this article, the author presents an instructional model that reconnects to the why of writing. The model of information reasoning requires students to learn how to make claims, provide supporting evidence of that claim, and create additional examples of the claim through the use of analogies and stories. In this study, students were asked to write a letter in response to an ongoing conversation that was of particular importance to them. Personal experience helps to develop the students' ability to advocate for a position through writing. The approach requires scaffolding on argumentative writing instruction. This study includes multiple templates to guide the writing of the responses. This approach fosters the opportunity for students to participate in conversations that have a historical background. In doing so, students engage in topics of debate that have continued over time and in various spaces. Students are invited to participate in these discussions through their writing positions as arguing for or against a position.