English Language Arts and Reading.6.7.D

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The student is expected to

analyze how the setting, including historical and cultural settings, influences character and plot development.

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.

Read a text with a very specific cultural setting. Task students with analyzing how the plot is influenced by the setting. Then, have students explain how the plot might differ if the setting was in a vastly different cultural setting. Provide specific ideas for a different cultural setting to consider.
 

Further Explanation

This assessment requires students to explain how the setting of a story impacts the events in the story. Students must also be able to analyze how a story's events might change when the setting changes.

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
Students must use background knowledge and context clues to determine how the historical and cultural backdrop of a story restricts, impacts, or even becomes 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 could be considered plausible for the storyline. For instance, a story set in the United States in 1910 would not be likely to feature a female character who is a politician, but if it did, this might play an important part in how the plot's conflicts are developed because of the cultural norms the character would be defying in that time period.
the basic sequence of events in a story that includes the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution

Research

1. Palencia, E. F. (2011). Draw the connection between character & setting: to make the most of your story's sense of place, answer 11 key questions. The Writer, 124(9), 33. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A267811060/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=94f34611

Summary: The author provides tips for writers about the connection between setting and character. The author's examples and writing prompts can be transferred to a classroom setting to help students better understand how writers think about setting and character, and to encourage students to think about the impact of setting in their own writing.

2. Mabry, M., & Bhavnagri, N. P. (2012). Perspective taking of immigrant children: utilizing children's literature and related activities. Multicultural Education, 19(3), 48–54. Retrieved from ric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1001536.pdf

Summary: This study of promising practices looks at perspective taking and highlights the need for interpersonal understanding, especially in the U. S. with its diverse population. The article focuses on promoting perspective-taking among African-American fourth graders by using children's literature on immigrant families and includes follow up activities. The classroom reads and analyzes several different stories, including Levitin's A Piece of Home and Perez's My Diary from Here to There, seeking to understand the characters and the cultural changes they are experiencing. The historical and cultural setting has an impact on each of the protagonists in these stories.

3. 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.

Summary:  In this study, the story grammar technique, which promotes reading ability and thinking skills, is examined to determine whether the reading achievement and analytical skills of middle school students improves when using it. The study included 20 middle school students who were instructed in the use of  the story grammar technique over a set period of time. At the end of the study, it revealed that the story grammar technique did significantly improve the students comprehension and analytical thinking skills.

4. Dallacqua, A. L. (2012). Exploring literary devices in graphic novels. Language Arts, 89(6), 365–378. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/LA/0896-jul2012/LA0896Exploring.pdf

Summary: In this article, the researcher suggests that students can use literary devices as a means to make meaning of text. The article demonstrates how graphic novels can be used to implement multimodal and visual instructional strategies that increase the reading comprehension of students.