Close Reading

1. Close Reading Preparation for October Exam

2. Aims • To learn about the close reading paper, • To learn and be able to identify different types of question in a reading paper, • To practice different question types, • To work towards completing a credit reading paper. NB – This unit will involve homework activities which can be accessed through the internet.

3. The Close Reading Paper The Close Reading exam lasts for 50 minutes. It tests your ability to read, understand and analyse a text. The text could be fiction or non-fiction.

4. Task 1 Task Aims: • To look at and become familiar with the layout of an exam paper • To learn about the different types of questions within an exam paper.

5. Things to note: • Exam is in 2 booklets – the text and the question/answer book, • The text (passage) has numbered paragraphs, • The question booklet tells you which paragraphs to look at, • Each question is worth a maximum of 2 marks, • The space to write your answer varies in size.

6. Types of Question In Close Reading, you will be asked three different types of question: • Understanding • Analysis • Evaluation

7. Understanding Questions These are the most straightforward of questions. They basically test how well you have understood what you have read. The answers to the questions will be found in the text. These can include questions like: • Quote the word(s)… • In your own words…

8. Analysis Questions These questions relate to the style of the writing. You will need to know about and consider things such as: • Word choice, • Sentence structure, • Punctuation, • Figures of speech, • Linking

9. Evaluation Questions These are the least common of the questions, but can be the most challenging. Here, you are asked to say how good the writing is or how successful the writer has been. To do this you will need to show both an understanding of what the writer is saying AND an ability to analyse the techniques they have used.

10. In summary… • Understanding questions ask what the writer has said; • Analysis questions ask how the writer has said it; • Evaluation questions ask how well the writer has said it.

11. Task With a partner, look through the question paper and try to identify which questions are understanding, which are analysis and which (if any) are evaluation.

13. Understanding Questions Learning Intentions: • To learn the steps you need to do to answer an “In your own words” question.

14. It sounds pretty self-explanatory, but when a question asks you to answer in your own words, this is exactly what you should be doing. Any answers that quote from the passage will get no marks.

15. How to answer… There are some tricks you can do to help you: • Rearrange the order of the sentence. If there’s a list, change the order of that. • Simplify the language – use more regular, everyday words. • Replace words with others that mean the same thing (synonyms)

16. For example… The morning crowds bustled and jostled their way through the city streets, some carrying steaming cups of take-away coffee, others already prattling away on their mobile phones, but all of them hastening to get to where they need to go. In your own words describe the crowds on the city streets. (2/1/0)

17. Follow the steps… An acceptable answer would be something like: The crowds are rushing about trying to get to their destinations. (1) Some are drinking coffee, others are on the phone. (1) Because the questions was worth 2/1/0, the answer needs two parts for full marks.

18. For practice • The little boy pounced upon the apple on the market stall, expertly whipped it into his pocket before bolting up an alley between two houses. In your own words describe what the boy did. (2/1/0)

19. Once sealed inside our diving suits, we clambered into the tiny tank, containing only a few crabs, where I hauled on my aqualung and weight belt. Re-write the following in your own words.

20. It was the start of another long day, and the teacher was babbling on and on about some war that happened somewhere and sometime. How thrilling… In your own words explain how the narrator is feeling. (2/0)

21. Try the paper Working in pairs, try the in your own words questions from the 2004 paper. Make sure you put “Credit SQA 2004 Reading Paper” as your title. The questions to attempt are 3, 8a, and 20.

22. Analysis Questions Remember, these questions focus on how the writer has written the passage. It covers things like: • Word choice, • Literary techniques (figures of speech), • Sentence structure and punctuation, • Tone. We will look at each type in turn.

23. Word Choice As is perhaps obvious from the name of these types of question, the focus is the words the writer has chosen. To deal with a word choice question, you need to understand the connotations of the words the writer has used.

24. Connotation Connotations are the associated meanings a word suggests. This is different from its literal meaning:

25. How to answer Like all questions, there is a step-by-step way to answer word choice questions. • Quote the specific word(s) from the passage, • Explain the connotations of the word or phrase (not just the literal meaning) Start answers – The word(s) “…” suggests…

26. For example The boy scoffed his dinner, before racing out to play with his friends. How does the word choice suggest the boy was eager to go and play with his friends? (2/1/0) • There are two possible words here – scoffed and racing. Pick one to discuss.

27. Example answer • The word ‘scoffed’ (1) suggests the boy was rushing his dinner, swallowing it really quickly (1). • The phrase ‘racing out’ (1) suggests he was running as fast as he could to get out to his friends(1).

28. For Practice • All around him, buildings towered to dizzying heights making him feel very small indeed. How does the word choice emphasise the height of the buildings? (2/1/0)

29. For Practice • The small urchin scrabbled around in the rubbish before finding a morsel of bread. He squatted down and nibbled at it, savouring every crumb. How does the word choice create the impression that the urchin is hungry? (2/1/0)

30. For Practice • The small girl wandered through the park, her feet shuffling through the long grass in a meandering path. She had no idea where to go. How does the writer’s word choice add to the idea that the girl had “no idea where to go”? (2/1/0)

31. Literary Techniques Learning Intentions: • To revise literary techniques, • To learn some new literary techniques, • To learn how to answer questions on literary techniques.

32. Revision Copy and complete the table on the next slide into your jotter.

34. The literary techniques you are probably most familiar with are the comparisons: • Simile • Metaphor • Personification. These all compare something to something else to make descriptions more vivid.

35. Sound Techniques Alliteration and onomatopoeia are both related to the sounds of the words.

36. How to answer a comparison question When talking about a comparison, you must think about BOTH parts of the comparison i.e.: • The thing being described, • What it’s been compared to e.g. Her lips were like rose petals Explain the effectiveness of this simile.

37. Let’s break it down… Her lips were like rose petals. Rose petals are soft, red, beautiful and delicate.

38. So we get an answer like: This is an effective simile because rose petals are very soft, and delicate so her lips must be very beautiful and soft.

39. How to answer a comparison question • Look at the comparison being made – what qualities can you identify? • Transfer these qualities onto the thing being described.

40. For Practice Answer the following questions involving some of the literary techniques we looked at last time.

41. The sea of devastation that lay before him made his eyes well up with angry tears. How do the literary techniques used here add to the effect that the boy was upset. (2/1/0)

42. Mandy and Julie were not enjoying themselves. As for the rest of them, they were like basted turkeys lying in the sun. Identify the figure of speech used here. (2/0)

43. Thanks to the mother singing softly, the baby soon fell asleep. How does the writer create a soothing atmosphere? (2/1/0)

44. Sentence Structure Learning Intentions: • To learn the various things you should look for when asked about sentence structure; • To look at examples of the types of questions you may be asked.

45. Sentence Structure How to answer: • Identify the feature of sentence structure • Explain the effect it has

46. When you are asked a sentence structure question something different has been done to the sentence that the examiner wants you to pick up on. Here are the things you should look for:

47. Length - is it very long? Is it very short/only be made up of one word for emphasis? e.g. “Amazing! Fantastic!” • List - used to suggest a great deal of things/events: “Firstly I went to the bank, then I went to the park, then to the doctors.”

48. Punctuation – everything that is used in a sentence is there for a reason – you should be able to work out what punctuation is used and why (e.g. ! Suggests surprise, : introduces a list or an explanation, brackets () or dashes - - add in extra information). • Repetition – to emphasise the importance of something is may be repeated in a sentence (e.g. I will not go back there, I will not put myself through that)

49. Parenthesis – extra information that is added into a sentence using either brackets, commas or dashes (e.g. The man – who was very tall – had a pizza for his dinner.)

50. For Practice • The transaction seemed to fluster her, as if she might not have enough money to pay for the few things she’d bought. A tin of lentil soup. An individual chicken pie. One solitary tomato. Maybe she did need the avocados- or something else. How does the writer emphasise that the woman had bought a ‘few things’ by sentence structure? (2/1/0)