English Language Arts and Reading.7.9.C

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The student is expected to

analyze the author's use of print and graphic features to achieve specific purposes;

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.

Provide small groups of students with several texts that include print and graphic features. Task students with analyzing the print and graphic features in the texts. Have students discuss the purpose of each print or graphic feature and how it supports comprehension of the overall text.

Notes:

  • Consider providing a list of print and graphic features for students to look for. The list might include print features, such as captions, subheadings, and bold print, and graphic features such as photographs, illustrations, timelines, and graphs.
  • A teacher may wish to provide a few texts for each group so they can see a variety of different graphic features.
     

Further Explanation

For this SE, students are expected to analyze how an author purposely uses print and graphic features to enhance the reader’s understanding of the text.

Students are expected to examine how an author purposely uses print features, such as a foreword and preface, as well graphic features, such as maps and graphs, to enhance the reader’s understanding of the text. For example, a detailed map assists the author to illustrate a complicated idea or supplement the information in the main body of the text.
a picture, visual aid, or other image within a text used to support the author’s purpose and message
the use of words to explain something in the text (e.g., titles, bold print, captions)

Research

Maine, F. (2013). How children talk together to make meaning from texts: A dialogic perspective on reading comprehension strategies. Literacy, 47(3), 150–156. doi:10.1111/lit.12010

Summary: The analysis of how text structure contributes to the author's purpose is examined from the reader's perspective instead of from the writer's. The findings of the study reveal that student talk allows students to question the reading and draw multiple interpretations of the author's intention. In the study, students used creative and  hypothetical scenarios. The article includes a discussion on the benefits of creative dialogue and innovation.