ALEX Classroom Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (9) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author's cultural perspective influences style, language, and themes.

Amy Tan reflects on a personal story from her childhood to illustrate how her parents' expectations affected her in this video from the American Masters film Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir. Tan’s first novel, The Joy Luck Club captures many themes and relationships from her childhood by mirroring them through fictional characters and stories. This novel was made into a film and an excerpt is used in this video clip to demonstrate the difficulties Tan faced trying to meet parental expectations.

This resource provides students with the opportunity to analyze the effect of the author's culture on the themes in their writing.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (9) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author's cultural perspective influences style, language, and themes.

[ELA2021] (10) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author's cultural perspective influences style, language, and themes.

[ELA2021] (11) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author explicitly exhibits his/her cultural perspective in developing style and meaning.

[ELA2021] (12) 3 :

3. Evaluate how an author explicitly exhibits his/her cultural perspective in developing style and meaning.

In this media gallery, students will interact with clips from Ken Burns' Mark Twain. After watching these clips and engaging with the associated discussion questions, students will analyze how Mark Twain's (Samuel Clemens') perspective and point of view evolved over time.

This resource provides an opportunity for students to build background knowledge about the author and use that knowledge to analyze his cultural perspective. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [ELA2021] (9) -6 :

R2. Read and comprehend a variety of literary texts to develop a literal and figurative understanding as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation.

Examples: short and long prose texts, poetry, dramas

[ELA2021] (9) -5 :

R3. Utilize active listening skills in formal and informal conversations, following predetermined norms.

[ELA2021] (9) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author's cultural perspective influences style, language, and themes.

[ELA2021] (9) 4 :

4. Analyze how authors use characterization, connotation, denotation, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view to create and convey meaning in a variety of texts.

[ELA2021] (9) 11 :

11. Participate in collaborative discussions involving multiple perspectives, responding and contributing with relevant evidence and commentary.

[ELA2021] (9) 23 :

23. Use audio sources to obtain useful and credible information to answer a question, solve a problem, or defend a position.

[ELA2021] (10) -6 :

R2. Read and comprehend a variety of literary texts to develop a literal and figurative understanding as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation.

Examples: short and long prose texts, poetry, dramas

[ELA2021] (10) -5 :

R3. Utilize active listening skills in formal and informal conversations, following predetermined norms.

[ELA2021] (10) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author's cultural perspective influences style, language, and themes.

[ELA2021] (10) 4 :

4. Interpret an author's use of characterization, connotation, denotation, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view to create and convey meaning in a variety of texts.

[ELA2021] (10) 11 :

11. Participate in collaborative discussions involving multiple perspectives, responding and contributing with relevant evidence and commentary.

[ELA2021] (10) 23 :

23. Use audio sources to obtain useful and credible information to answer a question, solve a problem, or defend a position.

[ELA2021] (11) -6 :

R2. Read and comprehend a variety of literary texts to develop a literal and figurative understanding as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation.

Examples: short and long prose texts, poetry, dramas

[ELA2021] (11) -5 :

R3. Utilize active listening skills in formal and informal conversations, following predetermined norms.

[ELA2021] (11) 1 :

1. Read, analyze, and evaluate complex literary and informational texts written from various points of view and cultural perspectives, with an emphasis on works of American literature.

[ELA2021] (11) 3 :

3. Analyze how an author explicitly exhibits his/her cultural perspective in developing style and meaning.

[ELA2021] (11) 4 :

4. Analyze how an author uses characterization, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view to create and convey meaning.

[ELA2021] (11) 14 :

14. Participate in collaborative discussions involving multiple cultural and literary perspectives, responding to, contributing to, building upon, and questioning the ideas of others with relevant, appropriate evidence and commentary.

[ELA2021] (11) 26 :

26. Locate and acquire audible information to answer a question, solve a problem, or defend a position, utilizing active listening to assess its usefulness, relevance, and credibility.

[ELA2021] (12) -2 :

R2. Read and comprehend a variety of literary texts to develop a literal and figurative understanding as appropriate to the type of text, purpose, and situation.

Examples: short and long prose texts, poetry, dramas

[ELA2021] (12) -3 :

R3. Utilize active listening skills in formal and informal conversations, following predetermined norms.

[ELA2021] (12) 3 :

3. Evaluate how an author explicitly exhibits his/her cultural perspective in developing style and meaning.

[ELA2021] (12) 4 :

4. Evaluate an author's use of characterization, figurative language, literary elements, and point of view to create and convey meaning.

[ELA2021] (12) 14 :

14. Actively engage in collaborative discussions about topics and texts, expressing their own ideas by respectfully contributing to, building upon, and questioning the ideas of others in pairs, diverse groups, and whole class settings.

[ELA2021] (12) 26 :

26. Locate and acquire audible information to answer a question, solve a problem, or defend a position, utilizing active listening to assess its usefulness, relevance, and credibility.

After a brief introduction to the transcendentalist movement of the 1800s, students develop a working definition of transcendentalism by answering and discussing a series of questions about their own individualism and relationship to nature. Over the next few sessions, students read and discuss excerpts from Emerson's “Nature” and “Self-Reliance” and Thoreau's Walden. They use a graphic organizer to summarize the characteristics of transcendental thought as they read. Students then examine modern comic strips and songs to find evidence of transcendental thought. They gather additional examples on their own to share with the class. Finally, students complete the chart showing specific examples of transcendental thought from a variety of multimodal genres.