Rachel Denning

Strategy 5 – Reading for Style Across Translations

April 2, 2009 at 4:45 pm (Uncategorized)

Strategy 5 – Reading for Style Across Translations

Your Name: Rachel Denning 

Name of Strategy: Reading for Style Across Translations

Source (Where did this come from?): Room with a View

Link to the Strategy: http://www.englishcompanion.com/vignettes/notetakingstrats.html

Give a thorough description of the strategy and how it will be implemented. This should be a summary of the strategy according to the original source:

This strategy has students read parallel translations of certain scenes from their primary text.  The example given was with Homer’s Odyssey.  Students read five different translations of a scene in the Odyssey while paying attention to style and semantics used in each.  Once students have done this on their own, the class compares what they all have and together try to decide what meaning they can make form the differences.

Explain what part of the standard course of study is addressed by this activity.

 11^th Grade English

Competency Goal 4.02

Develop thematic connections among works by:

• connecting themes that occur across genres or works from different time periods.
• using specific references to validate connections.
• examining how representative elements such as mood, tone, and style impact the development of a theme.

Explain why you think this strategy will work. How does the strategy help your students learn?

I like this strategy because it exposes students to other versions of a text.  This helps them to remain open minded and to recognize the existence of alternate viewpoints.  This activity also teaches students about style which is not an easy thing to pick up on.  By having multiple translations of a text, students can start to see a pattern or an agenda of an author’s writing.  Being able to do this makes them more insightful readers.