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ELA 5: How to Summarize and Analyze Literature 233 Views
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Description:
Today we're going to summarize and analyze summaries and analyses of literature. Hopefully that's a good summary of the lesson. We'll leave it to you to analyze it.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:14
Analyzing and summarizing might sound pretty similar.
- 00:17
After all, they both end with a "zing"!
- 00:19
How different can they be? [Coop pointing to analyzing and summarizing]
- 00:20
Well, don't let those dual zings fool you.
Full Transcript
- 00:23
Summarizing is a walk in the park… [Man walking in the park]
- 00:25
…while analyzing is a walk in a park full of…lava and….spikes? and…maybe sharks [Man walking in park and lava spikes and sharks appear]
- 00:30
or something?
- 00:31
…Okay, so we're not great at comparisons.
- 00:34
Basically, summarizing equals simple, analyzing equals not so simple.
- 00:39
When we summarize, we're just retelling something in our own words. [Man summarizing war and peace at the front of class]
- 00:42
That's it.
- 00:44
Analyzing, however involves a lot more work.
- 00:46
When we analyze, we have to ask questions to better understand the text, and come to
- 00:51
a more detailed understanding of it.
- 00:53
…So…not quite as exciting as lava sharks. [Man falls on the floor in library]
- 00:56
Oh, well.
- 00:57
If we want to see these two strategies at work, all we have to do is get them both internships! [Man interviewing men with zing's for faces]
- 01:02
…just kidding.
- 01:03
All we actually have to do is check out a poem.
- 01:05
Say we read a poem about two kids who are playing marbles… [Boys playing with marbles]
- 01:09
…and one makes a shot that sends a marble into a sewer.
- 01:13
Might not sound like a great game of marbles, but hey, that doesn't mean it wouldn't make [Marble hits pigeon on the head]
- 01:16
a great poem.
- 01:17
If we wanted to summarize this poem, then do we have some good news for you!
- 01:21
We kinda already did.
- 01:22
The poem's about two kids who are playing marbles, and one makes a shot that sends a
- 01:26
marble into a sewer.
- 01:27
Done and done.
- 01:28
To analyze this poem, though, we'll need to go through a lot of different steps. [Girl walks up stairs]
- 01:32
First, we need to read it through once.
- 01:34
That might sound kinda obvious; it'd be tough to analyze something you've never read.
- 01:39
But on the first read, we should focus on getting the overall feel of the poem.
- 01:43
Maybe even … enjoy it?? [Woman looks surprised]
- 01:46
Step number two is to read the poem again, but this time at a nice, slow pace.
- 01:50
This second read will hopefully allow us to pick up on words, phrases, and other details
- 01:55
we may have missed the first time through. [Hand picks up words and phrases from the floor]
- 01:57
And don't worry if any turtles finish reading sooner than you.
- 02:00
This is literary analysis, not a race!
- 02:03
After our slow read, we can start thinking about the literary devices the poem used.
- 02:08
Poets have all sorts of literary tools at their disposal, like meter form, imagery,
- 02:12
rhyme pattern, and language.
- 02:14
By checking out how the poet used each device, we'll get a better sense of how the poem works. [Emily Dickinson chainsawing a poem]
- 02:19
And bonus?
- 02:20
The poet won't have wasted their time using all of those fancy literary devices for nothing! [T.S Eliot throws poem into trash can]
- 02:26
In the fourth step, we do a little bit of research about the poet who wrote the poem
- 02:30
we're reading.
- 02:31
If we know about the poet's life, we might be able to tell if their background is somehow
- 02:34
related to the text.
- 02:35
Who knows?
- 02:36
Maybe the guy who wrote the marble poem lost a shooter as a kid and never got over it. [Poe crying beside a crow while reading a book]
- 02:40
And finally, we consider the theme of the poem.
- 02:43
Like lots of kinds of literature, poems are rarely just about what's happening in the text.
- 02:48
Sure, this poem might be about kids losing a marble…
- 02:50
…but that might be a metaphor for confronting loss.
- 02:53
Or helplessness. [Poe falling into a whirlpool]
- 02:55
Or maybe it really is about losing marbles.
- 02:57
That kinda pain can really stick with you.
- 02:59
And that's it!
- 03:00
That's how we summarize and analyze.
- 03:02
And not a terrifying lava shark to be seeeee…..
- 03:05
Oh, you've gotta be kidding… [Shark appears]
- 03:07
….okay.
- 03:08
Okay, just back…away…slowly….
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