Interpreting Text

Interpreting Text

The purpose of this lesson is for students to develop critical thinking skills by analyzing and interpreting texts effectively

I will use academic vocabulary related to interpreting text.

Students will be able to identify and explain the main theme of a given text. Students will provide textual evidence to support their interpretations.

Do Now:

• Read the excerpt to the right
• Identify any literary devices you notice.

Define

Interpreting is the process of determining and explaining the meaning, or main idea or message, of a work of literature. Readers can increase their understanding and appreciation of a literary work by discussing and writing about the explicit or implicit meanings of the text. Explicit means stated directly. For example, fables usually end with a moral that directly states the meaning of the story. Implicit means implied but not stated directly. Most literary works convey an implicit meaning that readers must find for themselves. To determine the implicit meaning, readers analyze, or examine the different parts of the story, such as the thoughts and actions of the characters and the events and resolution of the plot. *Watch StudySync Video

Vocabulary

verb to examine the parts of something in detail

adjective implied but not stated directly

adjective precisely and clearly expressed, leaving no room for doubt

verb to determine and explain the meaning of

Identification and Application:

In order to identify the explicit or implicit meanings of text, note the following:

• an explicitly stated message
• information and details in the text that implicitly suggest the message

Discuss and write about the explicit or implicit meanings of text, using the following questions as a guide:

• What information or details in the text suggest the author’s message?
• Is the message explicitly stated? Where?
• How might a reader interpret details in more than one way?
• Why might an author state some ideas explicitly and some ideas implicitly?
• What evidence supports my interpretation of ideas, language, or events in a text?

Model

In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, an untrustworthy narrator admits to killing an old man with a haunting “vulture eye.” Interpreting text can help you identify explicit and implicit meanings in the story and determine the main idea or message. Let’s look at how one reader interprets the narrator’s state of mind at the beginning of the story:

The last line does not make sense, since he says in the previous paragraph that he liked the old man. How can the narrator be a sane, kind person like he claims to be? If someone kills a person that they like, it usually means they are neither kind nor sane.

Model

The reader focuses on the explicit meaning of this excerpt, noting what the narrator says directly: “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” That seems confusing to the reader because the literal or explicit meaning doesn’t make sense when combined with the fact that the narrator admits to killing a man he liked. The reader’s confusion is a sign that the author is implying something. Making a note of this explicit meaning is a key first step in interpreting the text. She continues reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” and looks for implicit meaning that will help her interpret the text and solve her confusion about the narrator’s character.

This passage tells us more from the narrator’s perspective. If a person spends this long trying to spy and plan a murder, this must mean that this person is unkind and not mentally stable. Maybe the author is implying that the narrator is actually insane even though he thinks he is sane.

In this passage, the reader finds an implicit meaning in the text. The reader connects a statement in the text with something the narrator says earlier to conclude that the narrator must indeed be a madman even though he claims to be sane. These notes help the reader interpret the text to determine the main idea about an untrustworthy narrator in the story.