STANDARD 1: READING FOR CONTENT Literal & Inferential MacKenzie Minton & Tyler Richardson

LITERAL TEXT  What the text says: the things that actually happened in the story. You can point to the text to show the literal meaning.  Example: If the text says, "Sally walked around the new Corvette, got behind the steering wheel, and smiled at herself in the review mirror of her most recent purchase," the literal meaning is that Sally just bought a new car.

LITERAL LEVEL OF MEANING  Readers identify and/or recall relevant information plainly stated in the reading selections by A. identifying the order of events or a specific event from a sequence of events. B. identifying a statement or sentence that best indicates the main idea of the selection. C. identifying directly-stated facts (e.g., actions or events; names of characters, places or things in the selection; special circumstances relevant to the story). D. identifying details such as key words, phrases or sentences that explicitly state important characteristics, circumstances, or similarities and differences in characters, times or places. E. identifying directly-stated opinions.

INFERENTIAL TEXT  Inferential Level: What the text means: the meanings drawn from prior knowledge and text evidence.  If the text says, "Sally walked around the new Corvette, got behind the steering wheel, and smiled at herself in the review mirror of her most recent purchase,” You can infer that Sally is wealthy

INFERENTIAL LEVEL OF MEANING  Readers use information explicitly stated in the passage to determine what is not stated. Readers derive meaning by A. identifying implicit relationships (relationships not directly stated) such as cause and effect, sequence-time relationships, comparisons, classifications and generalizations. B. predicting probable future outcomes or actions. C. inferring an author’s unstated meaning by drawing conclusions based on specific facts, events, images, patterns or symbols found in selected readings. D. inferring the main idea of a selection when it is not clearly stated. E. identifying unstated reasons for actions or beliefs based on clearly stated information

DIALECTICAL JOURNAL- WITNESS  Character Analysis Journal  Procedure:  In the left hand column  Record evidence about the character (words, actions, reactions)  Select evidence that directly describes a character, evidence that shows what he or she says or does, how he or she acts or reacts, and what other characters say about him or her.  Below the quotations from the text, note the context of the quote.  Use quotations marks around quotes and cite page numbers.   In the right hand column  Based on the evidence, make an inference about the character (underlined).  Write commentary that explains how and/or why the evidence leads to or supports the inference.

EXAMPLE: JOHNNY REEVES Evidence (quotation or detail and context)Inference—Commentary Quotation: “An act of God, neighbor, to express the lord’s anger that one of his special children had fallen.” (p. 68) Context: Detail: “heads uplifted, we offered ourselves to the almighty, call all protestants to band together for the sake of home and country and we sang, America.” (p. 70) Context: _________________________________– -

EXAMPLES: PERCELLE JOHNSON Evidence (quotation or detail and context)Inference—Commentary Quotation “If you ask me, a girl goes and bobs her hair and her head starts filling with nothing but monkey business.” (66) Context: Quotation: “put my uniform back on and wrote up a ticket, handing it to Harvey Pettibone next time, I said, keep your cat to home.” (82) Context: _________________________________ - ______________________________________ -

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