Writer: Deborah Keefe
Courses : ENG 3U0 and ENG3C0
Unit Planning : Draft
Grade 11 University Level
Grade 11 College Level
Text Form: Poetry
Text Form : Poetry and Songs
Purpose/ Objectives:
Students will see Development of theme / message comes from the interplay of elements writer
uses and how she/ he uses them;
 Writers use elements deliberately, but readers determine meaning by combining
what the writer provided and using personal schema
By the end students willBe able to develop and support a theme statement for a poem (university and college
level) or song( College level)
Framework for interacting with text
:TPCASTT
Framework for interacting with text :
Dialogue with a Text – Robert E.
Probst
T-title: The meaning of the title without
reference to the poem.
P-paraphrase: Put the poem, line by line, in
your own words. DO NOT READ INTO THE
POEM. Only read on surface
level.
C-connotation: looking for deeper meaning.
 Diction and symbolism
 Imagery
 Metaphors and similes
 Rhyme scheme
 End rhymes and internal rhymes
 End stop
 Enjambment
 Alliteration
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Mood
Link:
http://www.csun.edu/~krowlands/Conte
nt/Academic_Resources/Literature/Inst
ructional%20Strategies/Probstdialogue%20with%20a%20text.pdf
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Allusions
Punctuation
Personification
A-attitude: Looking for the author’s tone. How
is the writer speaking?
S-shifts: Looking for shifts in tone, action, and
rhythm. Don’t just write the number. Discuss
how the shift(s) affects the poem.
T-title: reevaluate the title as it pertains to the
poem
T-theme: What does the poem mean? What is
it saying? How does it relate to life?
How:
 Teacher modeling
 Cooperative Learning Partners –
Deconstruction of poem to determine
theme
 Co-construction of criteria for analytical
writing/ presenting
 Personal reflection on analytical
writing/ presenting (e.g. Exit slips)
 Independent Presentation or Written
Essay analyzing theme of student
selected poem
How:
 Cooperative Learning Partners
with teacher selected poems/
songs
 Co-construction of criteria for
reflective response journals/
discussion board posts
 Self reflection on reading text
form for meaning
 Independent selection and
reflection on poems or songs
through on line discussion
boards
Text Form: essays, articles, speeches
Text Form : essays, articles,
speeches, blogs
Purpose/ Objectives:
Students will see Development of thesis comes from the interplay of elements writer uses and
how she/ he uses them;
 That an author’s ability to persuade comes from tone and the message is
created by intensifying some things downplaying others
By the end students will Be able to identify directly stated and implied thesis in a work
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Develop persuasive messages using Hugh Rank’s model of intensify and
downplay
Framework for Interacting with Text:
Hugh Rank’s Intensify/ Downplay Schema
And Hugh Rank’s Amplification Principle
http://changingminds.org/techniques/general/overall/rank_schema.htm
Rank, H. (1976). Teaching about Public Persuasion, In Daniel Dietrich (ed.), Teaching
about Doublespeak, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English
http://changingminds.org/principles/amplification.htm
Hugh Rank has described a very simple model of persuasion where he describes the
two basic (and opposite) patterns of intensification and downplay that are common to
many persuasive situations.
Intensify
In Intensification, the persuader seeks to increase the significance of certain elements
that they want the other person to take more seriously or see as particularly important.
Intensifying may be done by repetition, association and composition.
Repetition
Repetition of a word or visual pattern not only causes it to become remembered
(which is persuasive in itself), it also leads people to accept what is being repeated as
being true. Thus an advertiser of soap powder may focus on how wonderfully white
clothes become by repeating the word 'whiteness'.
Association
Association links the item with an idea or something which already has emotional
connotation, for example something desired or feared. The soap powder advertiser
may thus use attractive people in wonderfully clean (but not too up-market) houses. It
also is using the unspoken idea that cleanliness is desirable (and, by extension,
extreme cleanliness is extremely desirable).
Composition
Intensification may also be enhanced through the overall composition of what is being
presented, for example contrasting the message with an opposite. Thus the soap
powder advertiser may start with a person wearing muddy clothes.
Downplay
Downplaying is the opposite of intensification and can be done using the same (but
reversed) techniques. In addition, the following three methods can be used.
Diversion
When we divert or distract a person from something we do not want them to attend to,
then we may succeed in reducing their attention to it. The soap powder advert may
divert from concerns about damaging the environment by highlighting the small
quantity of powder needed for each wash.
Omission
Another way of downplaying is simply to say nothing about the things that will
counteract our arguments. Thus the soap powder manufacturer will not talk about the
damaging effects of constant washing of clothes.
Confusion
Confusion may be used when the other person knows about an opposing argument. it
may also be used to obfuscate weaknesses in one's own position. A typical way of
doing this is by showering the other person with data, or perhaps asking them
complex questions about their own position. Soap powder manufacturers may, for
example, give a scientific argument about how their product works.
How:
 Teacher modeling of intensify/
downplay schema analysis
 Cooperative Learning Partners –
Deconstruction of essays/ speeches to
determine thesis, what is intensified
and what is downplayed (particularly
through omission)
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Co-construction of criteria for
persuasive writing / speaking
Personal reflection on persuasive
writing / speaking (e.g. Exit slips)
Independent Presentation, Written text,
or visual/written text which creates a
persuasive message
How:
 Cooperative Learning Partners
with teacher selected blogs/
speeches
 Co-construction of criteria for
reflective response journals/
discussion board posts
 Self reflection on reading text
form for meaning
 Co-creation of wiki or podcast
about a topic related to poverty
or affluence in community,
country, or world
Text Form: Novel or Short Story
Text Form : Play (?) or Short stories
Purpose/ Objectives:
Students will see Development of theme comes from the interplay of elements writer uses and
how she/ he uses them;
 The reader/ viewers’ interpretation of a text varies based on personal
experiences
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Good writers/ playwrights/ directors use text elements carefully and deliberately
By the end students will Be able to identify theme of a work and explain how elements of text work
together to support theme
 Reflect on the text and peers’ interpretations of the text
 Extend the text by writing / responding to the text using a variety of points of view
shown in the text
Framework: Elements of Cognitive Design
ELEMENTS OF COGNITIVE DESIGN
Cognitive design is defined as the crafted impact a piece of writing has on its audience.
Central to this design are the subject and theme of the work. The subject is what the
work is about. The theme is the attitude the author has taken toward the subject or the
perspective on that subject. This attitude or perspective controls the way the writer
develops his or her work.
Design elements are ways of underlining or emphasizing the subject and theme. They
include structure, character, location, tropology, rhetoric, and perspective. Design
elements are not entities in themselves. They work together, often overlapping, to help
develop the theme. When writers write, they do think of the impact they want to have
on readers and thus use these tools to help create that impact. Yes, sometimes there
are happy accidents, things of which the writer may not be conscious; however, for the
most part, a writer works extremely hard to use the tools of writing to make a central
impression on the reader.
I.
STRUCTURE:
Jack Hodgins compares writers to real estate agents taking perspective buyers through
a house. Agents decide the order in which their clients see the house, emphasizing
some aspects and not others. Writers can take audiences into their writing through
the front door, the back door, the basement entrance, or even through the garage,
depending on the initial impact they want their “house” to have. How they lead their
readers from “room” to “room” is a conscious decision. They want their readers to
see, hear, and experience their works in a specific way. That’s structure – how the
writer leads his or her reader through a work – visually, aurally, and
developmentally.
A) Visual structure: the way the book looks on the page
 Indentation of specific lines
 Specific types of poetry (concrete; sonnets – Petrarchan and
Shakespearean; limericks)
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Stanza breaks and length
Use of specific typefaces: italics, bold, CAPITALS, any change in
typeface
Line length
Length of paragraphs (short paragraphs tend to make the work choppy;
long paragraphs tend to make the work feel “dignified” or “academic”)
Sections within chapters (denoted by white space, ******, or other visual
dividers ☼)
Chapter breaks
“books” within books
Acts and scenes
Questions to ask:
 Why did the writer choose to lay out/ divide his work as he or she
did?
 What impact does the visual structure have on the reader?
 How does the visual structure complement the impact of the work
(subject/ theme)
B) Aural structure: the way in which the work strikes the ear (especially in
poetry)
Rhythm
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Rhyme
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The repeated pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
The ‘foot’ is the basic meter of poetry; types of feet include: iambic,
trochaic, dactylic, anapestic, spondaic
Generally, the more feet per line, the more grave or somber the line
becomes
Acts a mnemonic, a way for readers to remember the poem (e.g. nursery
rhymes are simple examples of this)
A break in rhyme can signify some importance
Creates direction for the poem
Sets up an expectation
Creates an impression that the poem is an artistic construct
Questions to ask:
 How do the choice and placement of words act as a way of
emphasizing key concerns (theme) in the work?
 How does the regularity or irregularity of rhyme and rhythm control
the reader’s perception of the theme?
C) Developmental structure: the way in which the writer takes the reader
through the work
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Order (chronological; argumentative; fragmented; starting somewhere
other than the beginning and using techniques such as flashbacks to tell
the narrative)
Use of sub-plots
Questions to ask:
 How has the writer used the developmental structure to stress the
theme at the core of the work?
 How does the structure interact with the other design elements to
enhance the theme?
 What makes the structure hang together – what connects the
different parts of the plot?
II.
CHARACTER:
The ways in which a writer has combined people and actions to represent
subject and theme
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How the character acts in a specific situation
Reasons behind a character’s actions
The ‘morality’ connected to a character’s actions
How the character is developed (speed; depth; through stereotypes,
caricatures, or a particular physical attribute; round or flat)
What the character tells us about him/ herself in actions words and
thoughts
How the characters interact with others
How the characters react in situations
How the characters react to the setting
Purpose of a character (a means of moving along the plot; a foil for the
main character)
Number of characters
Questions to ask:
 How does the interaction of characters with others, with their setting
and with the central issue aid the presentation of theme?
 How are the characters embodiments or personifications of the
theme?
 What is the relationship of the characters to other design elements
and ultimately to the cognitive design of the whole piece?
 Who has the power in the story?
 Whose story is left out?
III.
LOCATION
The arrangement and presentation of physical and time elements in a work
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Features of the physical setting
Relationship of that setting to the actual world
Time of year, day, life
Era, century, decade
Duration of the narrative
Relationship between time and place
Movement from place to place
Details of the passage of time
Sequencing of time
Use of time in the narrative (e.g. flashbacks, flash forwards)
Creations of new societies (e.g. futuristic, fantastical)
The physical height of the action and the relationship of other objects
around
The angle from which the action is viewed
Urban vs. rural settings
Presence of the elements (weather)
Questions to ask:
 Why has the author chosen this particular time and place for the
work?
 How does the choice influence the theme of the work?
 How does location (time and place) work with the other design
elements to create an overall impression?
IV.
TROPOLOGY
The use of image, simile, metaphor, symbol and archetype in a work to twist
what is said or substitute one meaning for another (use of figurative language –
or images which connote more than their literal meaning)
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Denotation and connotation of figurative language
Image- triggers to the recall of visual, olfactory, tactile, auditory and
gustatory memories the reader has of the physical object being described
Simile- explicit comparison between two things using the words like, as, or
than
Metaphor- implicit analogy between two things; it depends more on the
readers imagination; it is more abstract
A symbol like an image, should bring to the reader’s mind a picture of the
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object; however, a symbol goes much farther in that it should also
summon up abstract associations with that object (e.g. in Christian
symbolism, a cross: two intersecting pieces of wood [the object] symbolize
the death of Christ, atonement, sacrifice, mercy, love, [the abstractions]
A symbol can be private to the author only, but with repetition through a
work or a series of works, this symbol comes to varry the abstraction as
well as the specific reference to an object and becomes obvious to the
reader
Symbols are often culturally based
Archetype- symbol or groups of symbols that exist beneath the human
consciousness; they are said to be experiences common to the human
race (e.g. the journey, the hero). We often speak of “universals”- universal
themes, universal characters; however, in our understanding of the postcolonial world, many would argue that archetypes do not exist except
within cultural contexts.
Questions to ask after identifying images, similes, metaphors, etc.:
 What patterns are created by the repetition of tropes?
 What is the function of the pattern in the overall design of the
piece?
 How does my understanding of tropes contribute to an
understanding of the author’s theme?
 How do the tropes work with each other?
 How do the tropes work with other design elements?
V.
RHETORIC:
The manipulation of how words are used
A) Word order
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Manipulation of common word order to create an effect
Word choice
Figurative language (oxymoron, onomatopoeia, assonance, alliteration,
hyperbole, understatement, irony, allusion, litotes, pun)
Jargon, slang, dialect, colloquial, concrete
Word complexity and abstraction
Sentence structure
 Sentence type (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex)
 Sentence design (loose, periodic, balanced, allowable fragments)
 Use of semi-colon, appositives, colons, dashes
 Order (natural, inverted, split)
 Type (assertive, interrogatory, imperative, exclamatory)
Questions to ask:
 How does the author draw attention to his/ her theme using the
various rhetorical devices?
 How does the use of rhetorical devices complement the other
design elements used by the author?
VI.
PERSPECTIVE (NARRATIVE VOICE):
How the reader’s attention is directed and controlled by the voice that’s telling it
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First person – participant, observer, reporter
Second person – placing the reader in the main character’s position
Third – omniscient, limited omniscient (i.e. fly on the wall), reporter
Questions to ask:
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How reliable is this narrator?
How long ago did the events occur in relation to the telling of them?
Has the narrator/ perspective changed over the course of the story?
How distanced does the reader feel from the narrator and the
action?
Does the voice change over the course of the story?
How does the narrative voice affect the other design elements?
What impact does the narrative voice have on the authors central
idea?
What tone - speaker’s attitude toward what is being described - is
created by the narrator?
How :
Class discussions, group seminars, on-line
discussion boards, creative writing (From a
variety of perspectives)
How:
Class reading and discussion of play;
Writing from a variety of perspectives
RAFT assignment