English Language Arts and Reading.6.8.A

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The student is expected to

demonstrate knowledge of literary genres such as realistic fiction, adventure stories, historical fiction, mysteries, humor, and myths;

multiple genres TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

After students read two well-known myths, instruct them to make a list of the shared characteristics in both stories that indicate to the reader that the story is a myth. Use the students' lists of the characteristics of the myth genre as a check for understanding.
 

Further Explanation

This assessment requires students to be familiar with characteristics that are specific to the myths, such as the double purpose of explaining a natural phenomenon and providing moral teachings, exaggeration, humor, larger-than-life characters, and unbelievable situations. Students analyze how this type of literature explains actions and consequences and promotes practical moral teaching that transcends time. Students should be able to identify the text as a myth after identifying the story’s key characteristics. It is important for students to develop knowledge of characteristics with all genres. This activity can be completed with multiple genres.

a subdivision of fiction that includes stories told as an event or a series of events that are interesting or out of the ordinary course of the protagonist’s life
All writing is classified as a particular genre, or type of work. For example, a story with fictional characters but that is based on past events is classified as historical fiction. Likewise, a suspenseful story with unexplained events is classified as a mystery. Students must be familiar enough with genre characteristics (e.g., dialogue, claim, and setting) to determine which genre they are reading. Understanding the genre of a piece of writing can be helpful in deepening students’ comprehension of that text.
a subgenre of fiction which imaginatively reconstructs historical events and time periods in a narrative
a subgenre of fiction which imaginatively reconstructs historical events and time periods in a narrative
a literary genre that has a comic quality intended to induce amusement or laughter
a subgenre of fiction that includes stories focused on unexplained or strange events and that have a puzzle (e.g., a crime) that needs to be solved
a subgenre of fiction that includes stories focused on unexplained or strange events and that have a puzzle (e.g., a crime) that needs to be solved
a traditional story that provides an explanation for a cultural belief or a mystery of nature
a subgenre of fiction consisting of stories that resemble real life settings and situations that could actually occur wherein fictional characters react similarly to real people

Research

1. McDonough, S. (2013). Playing with poetry: figurative language in action. Practically Primary, 18(2), 27+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A334276548/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=75cf65b2

Summary: As part of a lesson on myths and lessons, students are asked to produce poems about characters in the myths. In brainstorming exercises, students were given specific prompts to generate figurative language about their characters. The explicit focus is on figurative language as a narrative device.

2. Dallacqua, A. L. (2012). Exploring literary devices in graphic novels. Language Arts, 89(6), 365–378. Retrieved from https://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.