This chapter really helped me to understand how to help students understand a difficult text. What surprised me was that to do this, one thing you can do is to help them understand the basic structure of stories in general. Thinking about it, I realized that it made complete sense. If a student can see that all stories are constructed in the same ways, then the student can at least understand the basic set up of the novel that they struggle with. If they understand this, it is one less thing they have to worry about, and they can go on to think about the deeper meaning of the story. Understanding the basic building blocks of a story such as story elements and action really helps reader to understand the story as a whole.
I also like that Jago said that understanding literary devices “gives readers power over text” (67). It gives them a way to talk about text and explain what they observe. I like that she says not to turn it into a game of trivial pursuit and start having students go on a treasure hunt through the text to find them for the sake of finding them. My tenth grade English teacher did this to us while we read All Quiet on the Western Front and I HATED literary devices for quite some time afterwards. Jago wants her students to be able to use literary devices naturally to make them more articulate when discussing literature.
I couldn't agree more. I think that if you understand the basis of what makes up a story, you will be able to place the components of a difficult text into the main idea and make more sense of it.
ReplyDeleteSo true. If students are really comfortable with the structure of a story, that is one last thing they have to worry about. If someone can't quite identify the climax, he or she can plot it out by using they pyramid. Or they can at least gain a better sense of what they conflict may be.
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