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Analysis and Teaching of Reading Text

EDSE4046 Language, Literacy, Diversity

Paige Zavaglia

430098657

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Introduction to Text

Text: ‘The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe’, art/adaptation by Yien Yip.

Topic: Introduction to Gothic Literature

Target: Stage 5 – Year 9

Yip, Y. (2012). “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. In R. Kick (Ed.), The Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From

“Kubla Khan” to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Seven Stories Press.

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Analysis of Text

As a cornerstone of the American Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem The Raven (1845)

has been continually read, anthologised, performed, filmed, illustrated, and of course, parodied

(Charles, 2014). Undoubtedly, this obsession with the work stems from its brilliance; as a rich text that

is filled with subtleties and allusions, The Raven offers scholars a window through which to engage

with the complexities of the literary genre. However, for students encountering the Gothic for the first

time, Poe’s obscure language and dense symbolism can seem alienating. It is for this reason that this

essay has chosen to analyse a more accessible appropriation of the text – one which offers students a

familiar gateway through which to engage with both the peculiarities of the genre and its literary heroes.

Structure of Text

Yien Yip’s interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven is a richly aesthetic, multimodal text suitable

for students engaging with the Gothic for the first time. As Yang explains, this suitability relates to the

“readability” of the text type; since graphic novels promote multiple modes of expression or

“dual pathways”, they facilitate various entry points for struggling learners to participate as literary

members (Hughes & Morrison, 2014, p. 117). Indeed, graphic novels like Yip’s The Raven have been

used widely in schools to “engage struggling readers and induct them into the language of the

classroom” (Yang, 2008, p. 186). This particular excerpt of Yip’s novel is thus highly useful when read

by students as a stand-alone text before they engage with the entirety of Poe’s poem. Evidently, when

used in this manner, the text becomes a bridge between the familiar and abstruse for EAL/D learners –

that is, between the largely accessible medium of the graphic comic and the often misunderstood

ambiguity of the English poetic language.

Cultural Background Knowledge

While indeed a highly relevant text for this topic, there are significant challenges that arise for EAL/D

and low literacy students, perhaps most significant of which is the complex symbolism of the raven that

stems from Poe’s work. Archaically understood to be a harbinger of death, in the text, the scavenger

bird hurls its body towards the troubled man, only to arrive “rapping, rapping at (his) chamber door.”

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In this single image, EAL/D learners face significant difficulty in attempting to comprehend

the cultural significance of the raven as a foreboding messenger of some terrifying revelation to come.

Yet, before this allusion can even be understood, students must grapple with the use of the verb

“rapping” in relation to a raven. From a cultural viewpoint, Poe uses this word strategically to allude to

the unnatural nature of the bird, while also establishing the forebodingly ominous ‘tapping’ beat.

Evidently, even within this one stanza, students are required to have a deep understanding of the very

“quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore” that frames the text. While teachers would undoubtedly

explain this to students, without a footing in the culture, these allusions are difficult to comprehend.

Language and Vocabulary

The language of this text is undoubtedly complex, and as such, can be difficult for EAL/D or low

literacy learners to decode. The positive feature in this regard is the text’s brevity, which allows teachers

to slowly progress through the text and make explicit key words and techniques. The primary technique

at play is that of rhyming, which is paramount in the text’s construction of deathly tones and foreboding

beats. However, due to a lack in phonological awareness which often develops ‘naturally’ from

experience with childhood rhymes, EAL/D learners can find the pairings of “dreary / weary” and

“napping / rapping” to be confusing, especially since they are often nominalised – for example, ‘there

came a tapping’ (Courcy et al., 2012, p. 4).

In addition, the Western way of making meaning from poetry (that is, deconstruction followed by deep

analysis) is not a “naturally acquired skill” but a “learned behaviour”, and as such, EAL/D learners may

find the rhymes to be initially insignificant in the overall meaning of the poem (Heath, 1982, p. 49).

The second issue in the text is that of archaic language, which is used to both symbolise the timeless

and inevitable nature of death, while also alluding to the irony of its seemingly quick arrival. For EAL/D

learners, before this deeper understanding can even be reached, students will struggle with its

vocabulary; such words as ‘dreary’, ‘quaint’, ‘lore’, ‘’tis’ and ‘chamber’ must all be explained prior to

analysis.

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Visual Literacy

This text is fairly straightforward in its visual representation of the stanza, and indeed, is highly useful

in aiding students in comprehending Poe’s archaic language. For example, the ‘midnight dreary’ is

visually embodied in the stark darkness of the sky coupled with the ominous and overpowering moon.

This visual is strengthened by the colourless and seemingly-textured artistry of the walls and floors.

However, unsurprisingly, the text also takes poetic license with its portrayal of the billowing curtains

juxtaposed against the closed windows – representing the supernatural power underscoring the poem.

In order to understand this dichotomy of logic and fancy, however, students must be familiar with the

language of interpretation in poetic representations. For many EAL/D students, the irony of the closed

window – which fails to keep the supernatural at bay – will be lost without explicit and scaffolded

instruction.

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Teaching Strategies

In light of this analysis, it is evident that EAL/D and low-literacy learners need targeted, systematic,

and explicit instruction that is based on and informed by their language needs and prior learning

(Sim, 2006). Given an inclusive and supportive classroom, appropriate learning experiences and

assessment practices, and the high expectations of their teachers, these students can achieve at a similar

level to their English-speaking peers. In light of this, this paper will now turn to a description and

justification of the differentiated activities one might use in teaching this text in the classroom.

Pre-reading activity

The intention of this structured and scaffolded pre-reading activity is to introduce the idea of animalistic

symbolism to the class and then link this technique to its main premise in Yip’s The Raven. This activity

is thus focused on activating and building the appropriate schema necessary for understanding the

cultural allusions of the text.

A. Animal Match-Up

In this activity, students work in small groups (3-4 people) to compete against each other in a

Kahoot Quiz (see Appendix 1). The Quiz consists of 10 questions, with each question focused on

a different animal; the students are asked to match the animal with the word it is often associated

with (from a choice of four). In doing so, students unwittingly identify the animals’ symbolic

meaning and so connect this to their schematic knowledge of how symbolism as a technique

functions. In doing this through a creative and competitive activity, students are more likely to

engage with the questioning. The final animal in the quiz is, of course, the raven. Once completed,

the teacher awards the winning group with a small prize and begins to explain to the class the

notion that animals can often symbolise certain emotions or attributes. The teacher references

examples from the quiz to explain this notion. The teacher might also make links to their students’

prior knowledge, for example: if the teacher is aware the students have read or seen Narnia, they

may explain how Aslan as a lion symbolises bravery.

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Finally, the teacher links this new knowledge to The Raven, explaining that in ancient myths, the

bird was thought to be a messenger or symbol of death. The teacher can explain this by discussing

the internal colour symbolism (black feathers representing darkness) and characteristics (birds are

often used as messengers / ravens are scavenger birds). The task concludes with students drawing

the outline of a raven in their books and mind-mapping around this picture the attributes of a raven

that add to its symbolism.

Justification of Activity:

Many teachers of struggling learners avoid teaching analytically “because they feel the skills

required are too sophisticated for their students” and they would rather teach “a skills and drills

curriculum” (Olson et al., 2011). Undoubtedly, this mentality is not only unjust, but also untrue.

All students are capable of and entitled to an engagement with higher order thinking skills, if only

the pathways to such skills are properly decoded and scaffolded. In light of this, this activity has

been designed to be a creative, engaging, and accessible entry-point into Yip’s The Raven for

EAL/D and low-literacy learners.

Comprehension Activities

Having been introduced to the literary technique of animalistic symbolism and having identified various

examples of this technique, students are now equipped with the necessary schematic understanding of

symbolism to proceed with Yip’s text. Through these next two activities, students reinforce this

knowledge through a thorough decoding of the text and practice reading aloud to strengthen their

phonemic awareness. These activities thus seek to support students as they first read the text and later

respond to it.

B. Glossary-Assisted Choral Reading

After being first introduced to Yip’s The Raven by their teacher, students engage in a choral

reading activity, assisted by a glossary, to aid their comprehension of the text and strengthen

their speaking literacies. Students first receive a worksheet for the activity which contains both

the first stanza of the poem and a semi-empty glossary table (see Appendix 2). While many

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arrangements for choral reading are possible, this activity utilises echo reading, where the

teacher reads a line of the poem and the students, in unison, repeat it. After each line, the teacher

pauses to work on words that the students may now know. Each word is discussed, its meaning

hypothesised, similar words identified, and a collaborative definition is drafted. The line is then

read again, and repeated by the class, to symbolise acceptance of that line. At the end of the

stanza, students pause to reflect on and identify any words, phrases, or ideas that they are still

unsure of. This activity is concluded with a comprehensive class discussion that is focused on

students comparing their thoughts and reactions to the poem.

Justification of Activity:

As Courcy et al. identified, class-generated glossaries help “support the active learning of

vocabulary, and hence, improved reading comprehension” as they are compiled from a range

of student understandings (2012, p. 6). Such a technique, undoubtedly promotes linguistic

responsiveness in light of the needs of struggling language learners, as by explicitly decoding

words, students feel more capable in proceeding with higher order skills. When coupled with

choral reading, which promotes valuable oral reading practice, EAL/D learners can hear and

practice their English pronunciation of words, phrasing of words in a sentence, and intonation

patterns (Tompkins et al., 2014, p. 398).

C. ‘Rewriting The Raven’ through Pair Construction

In this activity, students begin to connect their preliminary understandings of the linguistics of

the text to Yip’s visual representation, so as to deepen their comprehension of the poem and lay

a strong foundation for future analysis of the genre. This activity begins by students grouping

themselves into pairs. In their pair, they each receive a worksheet which is heavily scaffolded

to aid in deconstructing Yip’s multimodal text (see Appendix 3). To begin the activity, the

teacher encourages students to revisit the worksheet from the previous activity, and utilise it to

uncover how Yip has used colour, symbolism, characterisation, and texture to embody the

poem. The pairs are aided by the italicised questions in identifying such complexities as irony

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and symbolism. Throughout the activity, the teacher walks around the classroom to assist

students where necessary; particularly those who are struggling to draw connections between

the stanza and the text’s other modalities. Once the brainstorm is completed, the students work

together to write their own short paragraph (5-6 sentences) that is inspired by the text and what

they have uncovered. In this piece of work, the students must write from the viewpoint of the

raven. Once the pairs have finished their short recreations, they join with another pair to

compare, contrast, and finally, combine their paragraphs. Upon completion of this, each group

exhibits their work to the class by collectively reading their paragraph aloud. In doing so, they

engage not only with the literacies of reading and writing, but also that of speaking, viewing,

and representing.

Justification of Activity:

This activity is heavily focused on the paired scaffolded deconstruction of a multimodal text,

followed by a tiered collaborative writing exercise. Evidently, collaborative learning is central

to this activity, and has been purposed structured as such so as to encourage peer learning

between diverse students; such a pedagogy has been proven to be extremely helpful for EAL/D

and low-literacy learners (Courcy, 2012). In addition, by first deconstructing then recreating a

text, students solidify their understanding of how that text conforms and challenges the genre.

In sharing their collaboratively-constructed text aloud, students again reinforce their speaking

literacies (Tompkins et al., 2014, p. 398).

In conclusion, these activities have been designed in such a way as to promote progressive and

scaffolded learning within a validating and collaborative learning environment. The activities build

upon one another and seek to encourage students to successfully develop the schematic and linguistic

knowledges that are necessary for success in this unit.

2033 words.

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References Charles, R. (2014). Why we quoth ‘The Raven’ evermore: Edgar Allan Poe’s creepy poem has been

flying high for almost 170 years. Washington: The Washington Post.

Courcy, M., Dooley, K., Jackson, R., Miller, J. & Rushton, K. (2012). Teaching EAL/D learners in

Australian classrooms. Primary English Teaching Association Australia Paper 183. Sydney:

PETAA.

Heath, S. B. (1982). What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Language in

Society, 11(1), 49 – 76.

Hughes, J., & Morrison, L. (2014). The evolution of teaching with graphic novels. Jeunesse: Young

People, Texts, Cultures, 6(2), 116 – 124.

Olson, C.B., Land, R., Anselmi, T & AuBuchon, C. (2011). Teaching secondary English learners to

understand, analyse, and write interpretive essays about theme. Journal of Adolescent and

Adult Literacy, 54(4), 245 – 256.

Sim, A. (2006). An investigation of the literacy demands and support given to a Year 8 class. Australian

Journal of Language and Literacy, 29(3), 240 – 251.

Tompkins, G., Campbell, R., Green, D. & Smith, C. (2014). Literacy in the 21st Century: A balanced

approach. Sydney: Pearson Education.

Yang, G. (2008). Graphic novels in the classroom. Language Arts, 85(3), 185 – 192.

Yip, Y. (2012). “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. In R. Kick (Ed.), The Graphic Canon, Vol. 2: From

“Kubla Khan” to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Seven Stories

Press.

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Kahoot Quiz

Kahoot is an online, interactive game site where teachers are able to create their own visually

dynamic ‘quick quizzes’. The site is extremely easy and efficient to use. In the classroom,

students open the site using a direct link, enter a game code and nickname. They are able to

choose answers using the four shapes and the quiz updates the point score after each question.

If you would like to see the quiz in action, please visit: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/3f25d12b-2b97-

4041-b71b-e3e1c5106d08. You will need to open a player’s version of the Kahoot (at kahoot.it), enter

the game pin, and join the game in order to start playing. If you are unable to access the site, there

are detailed screenshots below:

APPENDIX 1

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‘The Raven’ Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

‘’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door -

Only this, and nothing more.’

Word Meaning Similar Words?

dreary

pondered

quaint

volume

lore

nodded

rapping

chamber

‘tis

APPENDIX 2

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Compare the Pair! Using your deconstruction of the stanza from the previous lesson, identify FIVE ways in which

Yien Yip has embodied the poem in his image.

QUESTIONS?

APPENDIX 3

COLOUR

How does the

colour scheme

reflect the stanza?

TEXTURE

What does this

signify?

SYMBOLISM

What does the

Raven symbolize?

Why is the

window closed

and yet the

curtains billowed?

CHARTERISATION

What is the man thinking? Why?

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From the Raven’s Point of View:

Using your poem deconstruction AND brainstorm, in pairs, write an interpretation of the

opening of the poem. Your interpretation should be original - not a copy of the stanza – and

should be five to six sentences long! Take it slow and make the sentences as descriptive and

vivid as you can. In order to make it original, please write from the Raven’s point of view.

In order to do so, you can:

Use personal pronouns (e.g. I, My, Mine)

Use narrative form (e.g. adjectives, five senses)

Write through the eyes of the Raven (e.g. what can the Raven see? Hear?)

PRE-WRITING THOUGHTS:

IN PAIRS:

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IN SMALL GROUPS:

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