Analyzing Texts
This microcredential represents educators' effective and consistent application in instruction of knowledge and theoretical perspectives about a variety of informational and literary texts that represent a range of world literatures, historical traditions, genres, cultures, and lived experiences and the ways in which they interrelate. This is the second microcredential in the Critically Selecting and Teaching Texts stack. This stack of microcredentials fulfills one of the requirements of a pathway for endorsement. Click the More Info button to learn more.
To earn this microcredential you will need to collect and submit two sets of evidence demonstrating your effective and consistent analysis of texts. You will also complete a written or video reflective analysis.
This microcredential fulfills the competencies from requirement area 2 for the ELA endorsement: Candidate demonstrates and applies knowledge and theoretical perspectives about a variety of informational and literary texts—young adult, classic, contemporary, and multimedia—that represent a range of world literatures, historical traditions, genres, cultures, and lived experiences and the ways in which they interrelate.
To illustrate this competency, candidates will select and analyze texts that they might teach to students in a secondary ELA class (grades 6-12). They will describe how the text may be challenging to students and what text elements might be highlighted in class discussion. Teachers teach both reading strategies and literary analysis, so teachers need to consider how to support both during their instruction.
a close examination of text, text features, modes of producing texts, and the cultural contexts of textual production and reading
Reading strategies:actions readers take to make meaning from text (i.e. questioning, clarifying, predicting, summarizing,)
Text elements :techniques writers employ to convey message and create an effect on the reader (i.e. figurative language, mood, tone, irony) ○ Ideas and details: theme, plot, setting, character development ○ Genre and structure: narration, point of view, parallel plots, flashblack, foreshadowing, stream of consciousness, soliloquy ○ Figurative language: metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, puns, allegory, symbolism, hyperbole, paradox, oxymoron, irony
Critical literary lenses:a critical literary lens influences how you look at a literary work. The lens you choose is essentially a new way to focus on the work and is a great tool for analyzing works from different viewpoints. Examples of literary lenses: reader-response, socio-economic, feminist/gender, historical, sociocultural, etc.
Ms. Cho is an 11th grade English teacher who needs to select a text for her students to study. She analyzes possible texts through the lens of why and how she would teach them to these particular students. She examines possible texts by considering the takeaways of the text, the textual elements in the text, and the reading strategies her students can use while reading the text. She considers some of the following questions:
• What takeaways do you think the author is promoting?
• What critical lens(es) would you apply for additional insights/takeaways?
• What might make this text a challenge for students?
• What aspects of craft does the author heavily use? What key devices do you notice in terms of ideas and details, genre and structure, and figurative language?
• What conventions of grammar and style does the author use?
• What specific supplementary texts of varying genres would help students make better sense of A) the historical and/or cultural context of the text and/or the author’s particular perspective? B) The takeaways of the text (see question 1)? C) The strategies, craft, and conventions (see questions 2-4) relevant to the main text?
Category: Preparation and Planning
Submit the evidence below to demonstrate your effective and consistent preparation and planning in selecting complex texts.
Analyze one text from each of the following categories that you may use with your students. • Young Adult Literature • World Literature (not British or American) • American Literature (may include non-dominant traditions) • Contemporary (post-Vietnam War) • Digital or visual (film, photograph, website, etc.) These texts can be nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or drama – shorter length or book-length. The quality of text analysis is what matters.
You will complete the provided table (see Resources section) with the following information: ● Title, author, genre, grade level ● 3-5 takeaways from the text ● Author’s Craft: key ideas and details; genre and structure; figurative language ● Critical lens analysis ● Conventions ● Supplementary texts ● Rationale
Use the following questions to guide your analysis:
• What takeaways do you think the author is promoting?
• What critical lens(es) would you apply for additional insights/takeaways?
• What might make this text a challenge for students?
• What aspects of craft does the author heavily use? What key devices do you notice in terms of ideas and details, genre and structure, and figurative language?
• What conventions of grammar and style does the author use?
• What specific supplementary texts of varying genres would help students make better sense of A) the historical and/or cultural context of the text and/or the author’s particular perspective? B) The takeaways of the text (see question 1)? C) The strategies, craft, and conventions (see questions 2-4) relevant to the main text?
Category: Implementation
Submit the evidence below to demonstrate your effective and consistent use of appropriately complex texts as a part of your ELA instruction.
Submit a video of your instruction with students including a think-aloud for a portion of one of the texts you analyzed in the chart (5-8 minutes). The think-aloud should guide students through 1) a challenging portion of the text, 2) a textual element you identified, and 3) demonstrate how you would think-aloud this challenging portion or textual element to students. *Note that the challenging portion may be one of the textual elements you identified. This overlap is okay.
Be sure to follow your district/charter guidelines for student privacy.
Review Criteria
Criterion 1: Evidence includes a well-developed analysis of the five texts using the provided template. The five texts represent the literature categories required. Analysis of texts goes beyond summary and personal response.
Criterion 2: Evidence appropriately identifies challenging areas of the five texts for students.
Criterion 3: Think aloud successfully models use of reading strategies and discussion of textual elements to support analysis of the text. This think-aloud is appropriate for the age of students and the text.
What challenges do you face when analyzing texts with your students in mind?
How do you select textual elements to focus on during an instructional unit (particularly when there are more textual elements than there is instructional time)?
How do you as an English language arts teacher read through different lenses - that of a critical reader, and that of a teacher?
Review Criteria
Criterion 1: Reflection explains in depth the challenges the candidate faces in this analysis process.
Criterion 2: Reflection describes in depth how they select text elements and prioritize them for instruction.
Criterion 3: Reflection addresses in depth text analysis, the use of the lens of a reader, and the lens of a teacher to select and teach texts.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iU8qkq889ajFfSkNAMJrV0xdLZcA_iUvyKLulrNXVMY/edit?usp=sharing
Download and complete this document as a part of the requirements for Evidence of Preparation and Planning. An example of a completed table is included.
Michelson, J. (2015). How to analyze complex texts for your teaching—Step by step. Instructional Leadership in Action. Center for Instructional Leadership, University of Washington.
https://blog.k-12leadership.org/instructional-leadership-in-action/how-to-analyze-complex-texts-to-help-students-step-by-step
This blog post on the University of Washington Center for Educational Leadership website offers a concise and clear overview of how to read and analyze a text in preparation for unit plan design.
Ringo, H. & Kashyap, A. (2020). How to analyze fiction—Elements of literature. In Writing and Critical Thinking Through Literature. ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative.
https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Literature_and_Literacy/Writing_and_Critical_Thinking_Through_Literature_(Ringo_and_Kashyap)/04%3A_About_Fiction-_Short_Stories_and_the_Novel/4.05%3A_How_to_Analyze_Fiction-_Elements_of_Literature
An excerpt from the online open access source Writing and Critical Thinking Through Literature, this chapter explores how to conduct a literary analysis of fictional texts. The sub-chapters discuss setting, characterization, plot, as well as point of view, theme, and stylistic elements.
Alston, C. L. & Barker, L. M. (2014). Reading for teaching: What we notice when we look at literature. The English Journal, 103(4), 62-67.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484222
This article explains how teachers can read texts through the lens of preparing to teach the text and provides a model for reading as a teacher.
Ringo, H. & Kashyap, A. (2020). How to read creative nonfiction. In Writing and Critical Thinking Through Literature. ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative.
https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Literature_and_Literacy/Writing_and_Critical_Thinking_Through_Literature_(Ringo_and_Kashyap)/02%3A_About_Creative_Nonfiction/2.03%3A_How_to_Read_Creative_Nonfiction
An excerpt from the online open access source Writing and Critical Thinking Through Literature, this chapter explores how to conduct a literary analysis of creative nonfiction.
Finley, T. (2013). Teaching Students to Analyze Complex Nonverbal Texts. Edutopia.
CCSS-analyzing-complex-nonverbal-texts-todd-finley
Although this blog title emphasizes teaching students to analyze nontraditional texts, teachers too will appreciate the strategies the author suggests for learning to conduct textual analysis.
Appleman, D. (2015). Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents. 3rd Edition. New York: Teachers College Press.
critical-encounters-in-secondary-english-9780807756232
In this text Appleman provides a clear discussion of different literary theories as well as ways to integrate them into the secondary language arts curriculum. Readers will find this text particularly helpful as they determine how to approach textual analysis through different theoretical lenses.
Courtney Bergman
Troy Mecham
250 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111-3204
Phone: 801.538.7807