English Language Arts and Reading.5.8.D

The student is expected to

analyze the influence of the setting, including historical and cultural settings, on the plot.

multiple genres TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--literary elements. The student recognizes and analyzes literary elements within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse literary texts.

Present a short story to students in which the historical setting directly impacts the story's plot. Examples include a story about the Boston Tea Party or the story of the writing of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” After students read the story, engage them in a conversation in which they examine and explain how the setting affects the plot. Ask students to rewrite the story as if it had been set in another time or place.
 

Further Explanation

This assessment example requires students to understand how the time and place in which a story is set impacts the events in the story. Students must also analyze how a story's events might change when the setting changes.

Students need to draw upon their background knowledge and context clues in the text to determine how the historical and cultural backdrop of a setting can restrict, impact, or even be the focus of a plot. The time and place in which a story is set has a direct impact on the internal logic and what will be considered plausible for the storyline. For instance, if a story is set in America in 1910, a character who is a politician would likely not be a woman, but if she was, this might play an important part in how the plot's conflicts are developed because of the cultural norms she would be defying in that time period.
the contextual details of the social environment, beliefs, customs, values, and activities of a particular group of people as presented in the particular time and place of the setting
the contextual details of the historical time and place of the setting, including details about the historical events surrounding a time period (even those that occur outside of the story) and information about a place’s past
the basic sequence of events in a story that includes the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution
the time, place, and circumstances in which something occurs or develops

Research

1. Nampaktai, P., Kaewsombut, S.A., Wongwayrote, U., & Sameepet, B. (2013) Using story grammar to enhance reading comprehension. International Forum of Teaching and Studies, 9(1), 31–38. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/

Summary:  The study included 20 middle school students who were instructed in the use of the story grammar technique over a set period of time. The study revealed that the story grammar technique did significantly improve the students' comprehension and analytical thinking skills.

2. Gorman, R. & Eastman, G.S. (2010). I see what you mean: Using visuals to teach metaphoric thinking in reading and writing. The English Journal, 100(1), 92–99. Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20787700

Summary: This article provides instructional strategies that analyze images as a way to improve students' reading and writing skills.