The Writing Process:

Preparing to Write

Inspiration

Story starters

Choosing the format

Deconstruct

Writing

Put ideas, feelings. opinions, ... to the page

Leave space to adjust.

Refer to your plan

Discuss your work

Revise meaning and development

Clarify

Reflect on choices

Organize

Use Strategies

Consult

Edit language using resources, verify:

spelling

capitalization

punctuation

sentence structure

language usage 

Consult

Publish

Choose a medium

Make a polished copy

Share

 

Let's Write: Preparing: Deconstruct similar texts

      

Your goal is to better understand and gain the ability to re-construct a similar text in your image.

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take time to deconstruct and examine similar texts, and compare their similarities and differences.

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recognize patterns in the texts by focusing on specific aspects:
internal features (topic/information, language, text components), and
external features (purpose, audience, culture).

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make a list of criteria that summarizes the characteristics of an effective text.

 

Suggestions

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Checklist:
bullet find 2 or more examples of the type of text you want to create.
bullet list what is similar and what is different in order to understand the elements you would need to include.
bullet categorize the elements according to  topic/information, language,
text components and purpose,
audience,
culture
bullet List the criteria that will guide you
bullet Research and confirm your conclusions.

 

 

 Here are examples for a variety of text types to get you started.

This is one diagram among different possibilities to help organize and visualize the elements of a text type you are trying to discover in order to write your own:

consider: example 1 example 2 example 3
similarities  

 

 

    
differences  

 

 

    
topic/info

 

 

      
language

 

      
components

 

      
purpose

 

      
audience

 

      
culture

 

      
other

 

      
 

 

      

 

Another possible format to deconstruct a  (explanatory) text :

Purpose:

To ...
A table showing core elements and aspects of explanatory texts to support teaching and learning might include:
Generic structure Language features Knowledge for the writer
 

 

    

View the examples to help guide you.

Summarize and analyze the media:

 

Summary

Who are the people and their role?

 

 

 

Where does it take place?

 

When?

 

Story Summary

Type / Genre:

 

How does it begin?

 

What happens?

 

How does it end?

 

Why? The reason/problem/conflict?

 

How does it play out –how is it fixed?

 

What is the message?

 

 

Special Techniques??

 

 

 

Was it effective and how?

 

Summarizing and analyzing the media:

 

 

 
Links:

  1. Media Triangle Checklist also see MELS The Media Triangle

  2. Questions To Ask About Media Messages also Conceptual Framework or MELS version

  3. Example Essay $$

 

Media Terminology Glossary :

  1. Media Glossary: Terminology PBS-kids
  2. Video media conventions glossary
  3. Media Literacy Glossary

     

     

     

 

Word Clouds as tools to deconstruct and better understand the frequency of words in a text

 

Wordsift - (http://www.wordsift.com/)   Here is a video lesson on using Wordsift with students. It even covers assessment of students using Wordsift. No login or email required. Any printing or saving would need to rely on a screen print.

 

Wordle – (http://www.wordle.net) The original word cloud generator

Tagxedo - (http://www.tagxedo.com/) The website proclaims, “Tag Clouds with Style

ABC Ya - (http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm)  This application may be the most Wordle liked and does not require email or log in.

Tagul - (http://tagul.com/) – Tagul has some features that Wordle doesn’t, like custom shapes selection and multiple fonts usage in one cloud

Word It Out (http://worditout.com/) – Much like Wordle, it creates word clouds out of any text that you paste into the text box

Tag Crowd (http://tagcrowd.com/) – While it does not give the color, unique style, or layout variation of  Wordle, it does allow one to see frequency of words.

Make Word Mosiac – (http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/)

VocabGrabber – (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber/) – Another creative tool that allows students to analyze a group of words

TagCloudGenerator – (http://www.tag-cloud.de/) – This is a service that does not allow pasting in of text, but instead goes to a website that is entered by the user.

TagCloud - (http://www.tagcloud.com) – A word cloud generator

 
 

  Luann Luann

  Frank & Ernest

 

 

  

  1. MELS Language Arts charts on the elements of basic text types

  2. http://www.myread.org/organisation.htm#cards

  3. http://www.myread.org/monitoring_guideposts.htm

  4. Deconstructing Media Messages
   

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