Standard 2: Reading and Writing Process

Students will use a variety of recursive reading and writing processes.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will evaluate details in text.

• Teachers provide texts from different genres for students to read.
• Teachers remind students of the differences between genres.
• Teachers model how to evaluate details that support genre choices.

• Students will evaluate whether or not genre supports the author’s purpose.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to analyze the effectiveness of genre for the author’s message.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to receive feedback about their analysis.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

ELAOK Framework Genre Guidance   (pdf: Genre guidance pg 4 & pg 89)

Genres of Literature (website)

• Unlike the simple analysis in grade 10, students in 11th grade will evaluate and judge whether or not the genre chosen best fits the topic, rather than simply identifying how the details fit the piece into a specific genre.

• To meet this standard, students must be able to explain the extent to which details support the author’s purpose.

• Literary Example: In a dystopian novel the depiction of a character’s overreliance on technology points to the dystopian author’s purpose to critique our society’s dependence on technology.

• Informational Example: In an informational text authors use text features (charts, graphs, headings, etc.) to support their purpose.  

• When students understand patterns in each genre, the author’s purpose will be more accessible to them.

• Example: When reading dystopian literature, a reader would expect the author’s purpose to involve a criticism of modern society.

• While the Genre Guidance gives an overview of what genres should be taught PK-12, those genres should be used to help illuminate meaning in text by providing a form for ideas, topics, and themes.

• Students can use their knowledge of various genres to make inferences about texts they are reading.

• Two basic genres are obviously fiction and nonfiction and encompass many different aspects and elements and frequently overlap.

• See this list for a comprehensive list of genres and definitions.

• Many texts are a mixture of genres, especially today’s nonfiction. There may be overlap between genres.

• See Scholastic’s definition of some basic types of nonfiction/ informational texts.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.