Informational Text Elements Informational Text Elements - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Informational Text Elements

Date: January 20, 2017 Topic: Frederick Douglass Skills EQ: How can understanding text elements and figurative language help me better comprehend what I read?

Video Notes Informational Text Elements: Details, events, people, and ideas Informational Texts Might try to explain, persuade, or tell a true story Individuals, ideas, or events will interact and develop over the course of a text Watch Define Video – 1:56

Define Informational Text: presents readers with information or ideas about real people, places, things, and events Provides facts and details related to historical, scientific, and cultural topics Might try to persuade you to accept a specific point of view about a subject Types of Informational Text Biography, diary, interview, article, report, advertisement, letter, editorial, essay, proposal, and speech The main elements of the text will vary depending on which type of informational text a writer chooses A news article may only present facts and details A travel essay would provide opinions of a traveling experience

Identification and Application Look for key details in the text that describe or explain important ideas, events, or individuals Analyze how the text makes connections as well as distinctions among individuals, ideas, or events in a text Classify and categorize facts and details to determine similarities and differences between types of information in a text Identify an author’s use of short amusing or serious stories that make readers laugh or ponder over a topic

Model Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Autobiography: a written account of the life of a person written by that person Facts, details, and that author’s ideas about life are crucial to the text Douglass uses an anecdote of how he learned to read and how that connected to how saw slavery

Figurative Language - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

Video Notes Figurative Language: takes words beyond their literal meaning Includes figures of speech such as: similes, metaphors, and idioms Additional figures of speech include: allusion, personification, onomatopoeia, and puns Adds color and interest to a story by painting a picture Can help readers understand a strong emotion in a more understandable language Watch Define Vide – 1:59

Define Figurative Language Writers use this language to produces images in readers’ minds and to express ideas in vivid ways Uses comparison or exaggeration to make a point and to help readers image something in an expected way Commonly used in poetry, but can be used in both fiction and nonfiction

Identification and Application Personification: gives human qualities to something that isn’t human Similes: compare unlike things using “like” or “as” Metaphors: compare unlike things without using “like” or “as” Idioms: phrases that imply something different from their literal meaning Analogies: an author creates a likeness between two things that are otherwise unlike, such as gills on a fish and lungs on a mammal Allusion: a brief reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance To understand figurative language, examine the context in which the word or phrase appears and make an educated guess about its implied meaning Watch the Model Video – 3:59