Unit 6 Reading Skills Focus Essays

1. Unit 6Reading Skills Focus Essays Chapter 14: Visualizing Chapter 15: Drawing Conclusions Chapter 16: Analyzing a Writer’s Message Chapter 17: Understanding a Writer’s Background Chapter 18: Summarizing a Text

2. Visualizing • Visualizing helps us connect with the characters, emotions, and setting of a story. • If a detail seems vivid, funny, or frightening, it might remind us of something that entertained or scared us in the past. • Good readers try to visualize as they read, forming mental images of the writer’s words. • Diction, or word choice, is one important element in visualizing.

3. Visualizing When you visualize, or form mental images of what is happening and where it is happening, . . . you bring a story to life. The river, normally clear and slow-moving, was swollen and muddy after the previous week’s rain. Its brown surface rippled and swirled as the water rushed over the rocks beneath.

4. Visualizing Some Strategies for Visualizing • Look for details that describe how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, or sounds. • Jot down notes or draw a sketch of what is happening and where it is happening. • Picture the actions and emotions of the characters in your mind’s eye.

5. Visualizing Diction and Visualizing In “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” Randall Jarrell uses the word hunched to describe a soldier. • What image does hunched create? • How might the image be different if Jarrell had used the words curled up instead? These are the kinds of questions you should ask as you read and visualize a text.

6. Visualizing Your Turn Writers use figurative language to help readers visualize what they are expressing in words. Read this line and allow the imagery to create a picture in your mind. My skin turned pink brown in the bright desert light. Write a paragraph that describes the scene you visualize after reading this line. What picture is created in your mind? Think about the literary works featured in this chapter. One selection’s text is accompanied by graphics. Why might this writer find it important for readers to see the face of war? How might visuals enhance our understanding of a text? [End of Section]

7. Drawing Conclusions • While authors plainly reveal some messages, they often hint at other ideas the reader must figure out. This requires making inferences. • Inferences are educated guesses based on facts and on your own knowledge and experience. • When an inference leads you to a definite, final understanding, you are drawing conclusions. • In The Crucible, Arthur Miller fills his play with striking dialogue and character interactions that allow the reader to draw conclusions.

8. Drawing Conclusions Reading Between the Lines The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts, during the cold, dreary winter of 1691 and 1692, when two girls ignited a frenzy by claiming to be victims of witchcraft. Arthur Miller’s dialogue and dramatic interactions allow the reader to draw conclusions about the motivations of the characters.

9. Drawing Conclusions You can use a chart to help you record the major characters’ actions and dialogue and to draw conclusions based on them. Character’s Actions Character Conclusion She changes her story to become the accuser instead of the accused. Abigail Williams Act One: First she denies accusations of witchcraft; later, she “admits” to being forced to dance with the Devil.

10. Drawing Conclusions What conclusions might you draw based on these notes about the character Giles Corey? Character Character’s Actions Conclusions Giles Corey Refuses to plead either innocent or guilty to charges of witchcraft Says “More weight” as he is being crushed to death under a pile of stones

11. Drawing Conclusions Your Turn As the story of The Crucible unfolds, think about the truths we learn about the people of Salem village. How do you think the death of Giles Corey relates to events that took place during Arthur Miller’s own lifetime? What conclusions can you draw about the author’s motivations for including this character? [End of Section]

12. Analyzing a Writer’s Message • The first time we read something, all we usually notice is the surface story: what happens to whom. • To uncover an author’s message often requires a deeper examination of a story. • Re-read the text and notice details. Ask yourself: Why did the author include these details? • In Amy Tan’s “Rules of the Game,” the game of chess conveys messages about a young chess champion and her Chinese American family.

13. Analyzing a Writer’s Message Dig Deeper to Find Meaning In “Rules of the Game,” the plot revolves around young Waverly Jong’s development as a chess player and her relationship with her family. To analyze Tan’s message, ask yourself questions such as • What makes the characters behave as they do? • Why do the events unfold in this way? • What is Tan’s reason for telling the story in this particular way?

14. Analyzing a Writer’s Message Dig Deeper to Find Meaning For example, you might ask why Tan would begin the selection with an anecdote about Waverly’s mother teaching her to “bite back her tongue”? It is later revealed that Waverly applies this lesson when she learns the value of keeping secrets about chess strategies.

15. Analyzing a Writer’s Message Dig Deeper to Find Meaning You might also wonder why Tan includes a scene in which Waverly’s mother reads from a chess instruction booklet. This scene has been included for a reason: When Waverly’s mother complains about “American rules,” she is sending her children a meaningful message about being an immigrant.

16. Analyzing a Writer’s Message Dig Deeper to Find Meaning The way that events unfold also conveys messages about Waverly’s relationship with her family. For example, why does Waverly begin to excel at chess only when she is taught by a complete stranger rather than by her brothers, who are both very good players? The fact that chess is something at which Waverly can excel without the interference of her family is a significant detail that helps reveal the writer’s message.

17. Analyzing a Writer’s Message Your Turn Analyzing a writer’s message requires active reading and questioning. As you read “Rules of the Game,” practice strategies for analyzing a writer’s message. Stop periodically as you read and ask yourself why the author may have included a particular scene or statement from the narrator or other characters. Then ask yourself what this particular scene or statement means to you and to the story as a whole. Be prepared to discuss what you think Tan’s message or theme is in “Rules of the Game.” [End of Section]

18. Understanding a Writer’s Background • Writers often draw on personal experience, so understanding a writer’s cultural background can be key to appreciating his or her work. • Knowing the background of a poet or author can help give you deeper insight into his or her writing. • In her autobiographical essay “Straw into Gold: The Metamorphosis of the Everyday,” Sandra Cisneros tells about the raw material of everyday life, which she has transformed into literature.

19. Understanding a Writer’s Background A writer’s cultural background includes the place and time in which the writer grew up, as well as the racial, ethnic, religious, and political traditions and values of the writer’s family and community. • Although writers usually move beyond their beginnings and make value choices of their own, they are rarely untouched by their culture of origin.

20. Understanding a Writer’s Background Patting out lumpy tortillas . . . Traveling to Mexico City to see grandparents . . . Life on an island . . . Rich cultural experiences inform Sandra Cisneros’s poetry and storytelling, capturing universal truths in simple, local stories.

21. Understanding a Writer’s Background In “Straw into Gold: The Metamorphosis of the Everyday,” Cisneros describes how family experiences, Latino values and traditions, and other influences shaped her as a writer. Her entire life, she suggests, is an illustration of how everyday experiences can be imaginatively transformed into art.

22. Understanding a Writer’s Background Your Turn Read the passage from Cisneros’s essay in your textbook. Then, discuss with a partner how the writer’s background influences your interpretation. How would your interpretation change if Cisneros had a different cultural background? [End of Section]

23. Summarizing a Text • Skilled readers are able to summarize a text; summarizing helps you remember what you’ve read. • Summarizing is like using a mental filing system—you group main ideas into categories like “folders.” • Summarizing poems can be a challenge, but there are strategies that will help you.

24. Summarizing a Text What Is Summarizing? To summarize a story means condensing it and putting it into your own words. First, read the story as the author tells it. Then, re-tell the story in your own way.

25. Summarizing a Text Why Summarize? Summarizing helps you store information accurately. By keeping mental “tabs” on what you’re reading, you can keep information straight in your head and retrieve it quickly later. By failing to summarize, you run the risk of losing track of an argument, getting confused, or forgetting important details.

26. Summarizing a Text Strategies for Summarizing Poems If a stanza of a poem has no traditional topic sentence, look for key words that point to the central idea. • Identify key words that are repeated. • Take note of sound effects. • Notice any figurative language. • Other forms of emphasis can provide clues. • Visualize or mentally “sketch” the speaker’s literal journey.

27. Summarizing a Text Strategies for Summarizing Poems Here are a few other strategies for summarizing: • Highlighting: Use a highlighter to mark main ideas or important details in books that you own. • Annotation: Annotate the text as you read; write down comments or notes as you read.

28. Summarizing a Text Strategies for Summarizing Poems Here are a few other strategies for summarizing: • Sequencing: Identify a series of related ideas by giving them a numerical or alphabetical order. You can also order them according to time, importance, or some other principle. • Visualizing: Form a mental image that shows items and their relationships.

29. Summarizing a Text Your Turn Select one of the strategies—highlighting, annotation, sequencing, or visualizing—and use it to summarize the Reading Skills Focus essay, a favorite poem, or another text of your choice. If this strategy works for you, continue to use it as you read the selections in this unit. If not, choose another strategy and try again. [End of Section]

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