English Language Arts and Reading.8.7.D

The student is expected to

explain how the setting influences the values and beliefs of characters.

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.

After reading a text with a distinct setting that has a strong influence on characters, ask students to explain how the setting shaped a character's values and beliefs. Require students to provide text evidence to support their responses. Consider texts from prominent time periods and settings such as Korea while under Japanese rule during World War II, the deep south during the Civil War, the southern plains during the Dust Bowl, New York during the Great Depression, Germany during the Holocaust, or San Antonio during the siege at the Alamo.
 

Further Explanation

This assessment requires students to explain the influence setting has on the values and beliefs of characters. Students should understand how the elements of setting, including time period, place, and social climate, shape a character's values and beliefs.

Students will discover that in some texts, the setting does more than create a backdrop for events. Setting can influence how characters live and what they value and believe. For example, the experiences of a character who grows up on a foreign planet on under a dome to protect them from dangerous elements would likely have a different belief about the importance of community unity than a character who grows up on Earth in a large and impersonal urban setting.
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://reseachgate.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 analyzes images as a way to  improve students' reading and writing skills.