Fiction is particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories, and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life (Oatley, 2014). What About Literary/Textual Analysis? Higher reading standards maintain that the deep work of reading should include textual analysis, a method of criticism that analyzes the details of texts in order to reveal their structure and meaning. In fiction, we examine literary elements such as plot, setting, character, theme, and figurative language to dig deeper into our interpretation of the text. In nonfiction, we investigate domain-specific vocabulary and text features, such as photographs and illustrations, graphs, maps, sidebars, inset boxes, timelines, and captions. Although textual/literary analysis may enhance our students’ appreciation and enjoyment of reading, it also promotes the high-level, critical comprehension that is essential across all aspects of life and career—it’s an essential workout for learning how to think. Literature expert Dr. Glenna Sloan (2003) explains the central role of fictional literature—and literary analysis—in our lives: The aim of the study of literature is not to develop professional reviewers, scholars, or researchers. The aim is more fully developed human beings. Genuine criticism is a systematic study that treats literature as an art. It involves talking about literature in a way that will build up a systematic structure of knowledge of literature, taking the student beyond the subjectivity of his experience out into a wider, more comprehensive world. Knowing how to enter and navigate this wider, more comprehensive world requires close reading and rereading, taking notes, and asking questions. It also means understanding the structure of fiction and nonfiction and how the two text types work, and learning to understand and use the language of textual analysis. Such explicit analysis can be demanding; however, it’s also exhilarating as children learn to dig deep into a text and consider why and how an author has chosen specific words, stretched sentences and syntax just so, presented information in a particular graphic format, and released characters into unique settings and circumstances to create a world on a page that elicits a particular response in each reader (Beers and Probst, 2013). Students learn how to analyze increasingly complex texts across the spectrum of literary and textual elements with thoughtful teacher support and precise instruction delivered at the point of need. As Carol Jago reminds us, if we want our students to have the stamina to read complex texts and achieve high-level comprehension, we need to help our students “increase their capacity to concentrate and contemplate” (2011). To that end, having access
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CHAPTER 4: TEXT
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