A Vertical Look at a Single Standard

[1,301 words]

More literary analysis occurs in language arts classrooms than almost any other activity and the most common activity is locating and analyzing themes. One could argue that the only difference is the complexity of the material. Thus, the 6^th grade standard is perfectly serviceable and would work for all subsequent grades, as long as the teacher employs grade-level appropriate material. For example, locating and analyzing themes in the 6th grade novel The Cay by Theodore Taylor would be demonstrably different from the same activity for 12^th graders using Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And, in fact, this is what tends to happen. Year after year, students are asked to define theme and then go hunting for thematic material in all manner of grade-level appropriate text. However, the standards call for increasingly deeper and broader looks at thematic material. What most secondary language arts teachers do not realize is that the skill is mastered in the upper elementary grades, and new skills are incrementally introduced at the same time as the material becomes increasingly more complex, in line with grade level expectations. So, not only is the text more difficult, as you advance through the grades, but the exposure to, and acquisition of, skills rise commensurately.

One way to track the increase in skill expectations is to focus on the verbs of the standards. Theme is introduced in the 3^rd grade and students are asked to determine thematic material in stories they read, or listen to. The theme is defined in the standard with the use of the synonymous term ‘author’s message.’ The theme is also presented as underlying, which is an important concept for 3^rd graders to absorb. And thematic material can be located in both fiction and nonfiction text. The task is presented as an identification task, implying one theme and one work at a time.

3^rd Grade

3.4 Determine the underlying theme or author’s message in fiction and nonfiction text.

The following is how literary analysis is described in the framework for grades 1-3:

In kindergarten through grade three, students develop their ability to analyze literature and distinguish between the structural features of narrative text (e.g., characters, theme, plot, setting) and the various forms of narrative (e.g., myths, legends, fables). They learn the commonalities in narrative text and develop a schema or map for stories. Again, the standards progress from kindergarten, where analysis focuses on the characters, settings, and important events, to more sophisticated story elements (e.g., plot in the first grade, comparison of elements in the second grade, and theme in the third grade). Although kindergartners and early first graders also develop the strategies orally in response to text that has been read aloud, older students increasingly develop comprehension strategies through text they read and in conjunction with direct teaching and modeling of strategies. (p. 25)

There is no standard at 4^th grade dealing directly with theme. In fact, the main thrust of the framework detailing what is to be taught in grades 4-8 is on the transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’ and how that impacts all content areas for an upper grader. Only one small part of the framework overview for grades 4-8 mentions literary analysis:

Literary forms and devices that help to define and clarify an author’s ideas, purpose, tone, point of view, and intentions. (p. 98)

The 5^th grade standard already assumes students can locate or identify themes. It calls for the student to understand thematic material and provides two additional synomyns for theme, meaning or moral. On Bloom’s scale, understand or comprehend is a level above identify or find.

5^th Grade

3.4 Understand that theme refers to the meaning or moral of a selection and recognize themes (whether implied or stated directly) in sample works.

Until grade 6 most of a student’s effort has been in understanding the term ‘theme’ and locating thematic material. Now the student is asked to analyze such material. Notice also that “identify and analyze” are the actions students are to take through-out middle school. The 7^th grade standard calls on them to locate themes which recur across works, a cognitively more challenging task, and in the 8^th grade they are asked to locate and analyze these recurring themes across traditional and contemporary works. Here they must compare and contrast thematic material and how it may be handled differently in contemporary works from works selected from the canon. Thus, at the same time the difficulty of the reading material is increasing, the student’s view of that material becomes correspondingly broader and deeper.

6^th Grade

3.6 Identify and analyze features of themes conveyed through characters, actions, and images.

7^th Grade

3.4 Identify and analyze recurring themes across works (e.g., the value of bravery, loyalty, and friendship; the effects of loneliness).

8^th Grade

3.5 Identify and analyze recurring themes (e.g., good versus evil) across traditional and contemporary works.

The overview in the framework for grades 9-12 states the following:

A major difference between the standards for grades nine through twelve and those for earlier grade levels is that all reading in the ninth through twelfth grades takes place in conjunction with grade appropriate materials, which become increasingly long and complex as students advance. (p. 182)

The language arts standards are combined for grades 9 and 10 and also for grades 11 and 12. 9^th and 10^th graders are now asked to use the skills they have acquired before high school at a still higher level, both in terms of the complexity of the material and in the depth to which they plumb it. They must locate universal themes in multiple works and provide evidence to support what they see in each work. The evidence gathering, which was implicit at previous grade levels, is now explicit and part of standard mastery.

9^th-10^th Grade

3.5 Compare works that express a universal theme and provide evidence to support the ideas expressed in each work.

Standard 3.2 for 11^th and 12 graders concludes the continuum begun in 3^rd grade by connecting theme to meaning, only implied before, and moving from the universal to the local or individual view of the writer. It also explicitly asks for textual support for any claims. Standard 3.5 moves, for the first time, beyond skill acquisition to a specific knowledge base, American literature. Besides analyzing, tracing, contrasting and evaluating periods and styles, as well as placing works in philosophical, political, religious, ethical and social context, the reader/writer must contrast works thematically.

11^th-12^th Grade

3.2 Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, using textual evidence to support the claim.

3.5. Analyze recognized works of American literature representing a variety of genres and traditions:

a. Trace the development of American literature from the colonial period forward.

b. Contrast the major periods, themes, styles, and trends and describe how works by members of different cultures relate to one another in each period.

c. Evaluate the philosophical, political, religious, ethical, and social influences of the historical period that shaped the characters, plots, and settings.

Curricula like the English/Language Arts Framework and Content Standards are often referred to as spiral curricula because the same, or similar, topics recur at later grade levels and call for increasingly more sophisticated skill levels. What curriculum calibration often reveals is miss-targeted instruction, albeit with grade level appropriate text, as in 5^th grade lessons taught in 10^th grade classrooms with 10^th grade appropriate text. But if 10^th grade students are still identifying and summarizing themes in this steadily more challenging text, their skill level has flattened out and their tests scores may also stall. The antidote is a vertical look at the standards and a revisit of Bloom’s taxonomy to insure that students are looking more deeply at increasingly more complex text.