English Language Arts - Year 11 and 12
Reading Standards for Literature and Informational Texts
The following presentation and collection of
resources will focus on students developing the
skills to achieve the following:
1
2
3
4
Provide an objective
summary of a text
Determine two or
more themes or
central ideas of a text
Analyze the
development of
themes or ideas over
the course of the text
Cite strong and
thorough textual
evidence to support
their analysis
When we read and analyse texts in English class, often you'll be asked to identify
their themes or central ideas.
Although we might start with one word topics, in upper school, the expectation is
that students should be able to identify, specifically, what the text is saying about the
topic. That is, they should be able to state themes as explicit ideas. In literature, this
can be a moral or message or it might just be a comment on, or an exploration of, a
particular human experience. In an informational text, central ideas might the the
authors argument or comment on a topic or it might be a more general exploration
of an event, person or issue.
Through themes, writers can communicate their thoughts about things they find
interesting or concerning about people, society or the world. Texts can have multiple
themes or ideas, some more dominant than others, so it's important to be able to
identify these as well as consider how they develop throughout the course of the text.
Before we delve into themes and ideas, it's important to understand the difference between
summarising a text and analysing a text.
Summary
The "what" of the text.
A summary is usually a short description that
restates the topic or content of the text. It is used to
give the reader an overview of what the story or
article is about. It provides a brief account of what is
covered in the text (main points only) and is written
in a short, clear and concise way, without delving
into specific examples.
Analysis
The "how" of the text.
An analysis is a more detailed and in depth
exploration of the text. It aims to deconstruct a text
by examining its parts and commenting on how they
work together to achieve a purpose. The writer
evaluates, examines and interprets the content,
drawing their own conclusions and providing
specific examples to illustrate their points.
As previously mentioned, the easiest way to start identifying themes and ideas is
to ask: What is the text about? What topics or issues does it explore? We might
begin by writing down singular words or short phrases e.g. war, growing up,
homelessness, bravery or environmentalism.
Then, we need to turn these into statements - that is, we write them as a series of
specific ideas rather than as a single word.
Start with a keyword to help you build a phrase. Your statement should not
identify any examples from the text (i.e. specific characters/people,
settings/places, or plot features/events) but rather focus on the broader idea
about people, society or the world that the text conveys.
To be successful, you should be able to use the phrase "The text conveys the idea
that..." before your theme statement to form a complete sentence.
Here are some examples of themes that have been turned into specific ideas.
Coming of Age
The journey from innocence to experience often involves changing ideas
about oneself and one’s place in the world.
Family
An irrational commitment to biological and familial ties can be
destructive on an individual.
Identify
Our identify is not fixed but fluid; it can shift and change depending on
different circumstances.
Prejudice
Racism and prejudice are limitations to progress, both to the individual
and society as a whole.
It is rare for a text to centre around one theme or idea; often there are multiple.
Some might be more dominant or obvious than others. These themes and ideas
might interact and/or rely on one another in order to form a complex story or
investigation.
For example, a coming of age narrative novel for an adolescent audience might
explore themes of bravery, family relationships, friendship, coping with change
and maturity. An informational feature article for an audience of parents on
the topic of standardised testing might explore ideas about education, student
stress, academic success and differences in individual abilities and learning
needs.
It's also important to note that different readers can read the same text and
identify different themes or ideas due to their personal context. These ideas
may not always be deliberately intended by an author, but a reader might
interpret them based on their personal reading of the text.
Considering the fact that themes and ideas can be quite complex,
it's important to consider how they develop throughout a text.
Beginning
Middle
End
How does the author introduce
the theme or idea? What
comments are made about the
theme early on in the text?
Consider the opening paragraphs
of an article or the opening
chapters of a novel.
How are the themes or ideas
developed further through the
body of the text? Do they stay the
same or evolve?
Consider the use of narrative
elements in literature or evidence
provided in informational texts.
How do the themes or ideas
conclude at the end of the text?
Is there a final stance taken or is
it left open ended?
Consider if there's a moral or
message to a literary text or if an
informational text has a balanced
or one sided argument.
Another important thing to consider is that although some texts can state themes
or ideas explicitly (such as an author of an informational text stating their
argument or a character in a literary text directly stating an idea directly through
dialogue), many texts infer these themes more subtly and it is up to you to draw
inferences based on what is available.
To clarify, an inference is a conclusion reached based off evidence and reasoning.
This requires you to 'read between the lines' to extract a theme or idea based on the
textual elements or information available to you. This might take the form of
conclusions, predictions, critical judgements or interpretations.
As humans, we do this naturally every day but the study of texts in English is an
active and reflective process whereby you not only need to identify the ideas but
consider how you came to reach them. You might compare this to mathematics
where you are not only required to calculate a correct answer but you also must
'show your working out' in order to achieve full marks. English is no different.
The final step after identifying your themes or ideas is to cite strong and
thorough textual evidence to support your analysis. This requires you to
identify specific examples or elements of the text that have influenced
your interpretation of these ideas.
Remember, in upper school we avoid paraphrasing examples as this can
be too general.
Instead, we look for explicit evidence such as direct quotations from the
text to illustrate our analysis.
We should also go a step further and comment on the textual
conventions, language features, structural features or stylistic choices
that are shown through each specific quotation.
These will differ depending on whether the text you are discussing is literary or informational.
Literary Texts
The textual evidence you provide might include:
• examples of narrative conventions such as
characterisation, setting, point of view, plot
events or symbolism
• language features such as descriptive language,
figurative language, lexicon and connotation
• structural features such as flash back,
foreshadowing, prologue or epilogue
Informational Texts
The textual evidence you provide might include:
• evidence supplied by the author including facts,
statistics, expert opinion, personal anecdotes or
case studies
• language features such as rhetorical question,
inclusive language, repetition or hyperbole
• structural features such as cause and effect,
problem-solution, compare and contrast
In this course, we will be reading, summarising and analysing a range of literary and
informational texts. Identifying multiple themes or ideas and analysing their development over the
course of a text is a central skill that we will need to achieve success in the course. You will also
need to be able to cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support the text's explicit ideas as
well as your own inferences drawn from the text.
Now, let's put these skills into practice by completing some analysis activities. Good luck!