Page 123 - SpringBoard_ELA_CA_Smapler_Flipbook

aCTIVITy 4.3
continued
Classifying Comedy
my Notes
Analyzing Humorous Texts
5. Brainstorm what you already know about comic strips and political cartoons. Think about format, audience, topics, descriptions of humor, intended effects, etc.
Comic Strips:
Political Cartoons:
6. Read and mark the text of the following definitions for information that is new to you:
Comic strips are meant primarily to entertain. They have a beginning and middle that lead to a humorous ending. They tend to be a low-level comedy that is easily understood by a wide audience.
Political cartoons deal with larger issues and are often meant to communicate a particular political or social message. They often have a single panel with a powerful statement to reinforce humor displayed through a picture (characters or symbols). They tend to be high-level comedy, appealing to a smaller population that is well-informed about a specific topic.
7. Use the graphic organizer and the RAFT strategy on the next page to analyze the humor in comics and political cartoons based on the previous definitions.
Introducing the Strategy: RAFT
RAFT is an acronym that stands for role, audience, format, and topic. RAFT is a strategy that can be used for responding to and analyzing a text by identifying and examining its role, audience, format, and topic.
INdepeNdeNT
readING lINk
Read and Respond
Analyze one of the humorous texts you are reading. Does the text reflect high comedy or low comedy? Cite specific examples from the text to support your answer, and record your responses in your Reader/ Writer Notebook.
Teacher
Em Ex
acTIVITY 4.3 continued
5 After activating prior knowledge about two types of humorous texts— comic strips and political cartoons— preview the RAFT strategy, and use it twice: first to model the analysis of a humorous comic strip and then the analysis of a political cartoon.
6 Encourage students to complete their Independent Reading Link exercise, reminding them to write their responses in their Reader/ Writer Notebook.
TO Teacher
Use a comic strip that contains more than one panel and has a beginning, middle, and end. Project the comic onto the wall. Make sure to choose a comic strip or cartoon that deals with issues of interest to students. You may ask students to bring their own examples of comic strips or political cartoons to analyze.
Leveled Differentiated Instruction
To support learning, have students work together to sort the comic strips and cartoons into high comedy and low comedy.
Have students work in small
groups or pairs to complete the RAFT graphic organizer using short words and phrases.
Have students work in small
groups or pairs to complete the RAFT graphic organizer using more detailed sentences. After completing the organizer, have students discuss the question, What details in the comic strips and cartoons helped you understand the difference between high and low comedy?
262 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
9781457304644_TCB_LA_SE_L8_U4.indd 262 15/04/15 1:47 AM
262 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.