SYNTHESIS & COMPARSION
LITERACY
Planning for synthesis
Examples of Filling in the Grid
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How do authors create a sense of mood & atmosphere? |
Text 1 The Promise by Bernard Beckett |
What do these examples add up to? |
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nouns |
Powerful sense of place through use of nouns such as “the bunker” (e.g. connotations of hiding; trapped; war; the shadows evoke a sense of trepidation (e.g. sinister; fear) |
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colour imagery |
Symbolic connotations of: grey (e.g. cold, dull, depressed;) purple evokes bruising. |
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light imagery |
There are “muted” colours with fading light and a lamp that “fizzled and spluttered (e.g. the uncertainty that the characters may be plunged into darkness) or of an uncertain future |
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personification |
There are temperature words such as “cold” (purr word) and freeze (snarl’ word). The cold is personified as “reaching like fingers’ and that the blast “threatened”… |
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verbs |
Verbs also suggest uncertainty such as “guessing”, “estimating”, “claimed”. |
There is a pattern of verbs that create a mood of uncertainty |
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Synthesis statement: |
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One strategy… for supporting students to identify patterns
- List (or highlight) all the verbs (or whatever language feature) in the text that create a strong mood or atmosphere
- Cluster or group the verbs into categories and give that category a name (e.g. “kids playing verbs”, “high energy verbs”, “low energy verbs” etc).
- Share the category names with other groups and experiment with categorising the examples in different ways.
- Write a pattern statement: One way that the author creates a …. mood is by using verbs associated with ……… .
Within-text Synthesis
Another level of synthesis is finding a pattern (or patterns) in the use of one language feature. For Example,
“Some of the main verbs that create a strong mood or atmosphere in this text are …………. (e.g. skipped, danced and hopped). Some things all these verbs have in common is that they are associated with/make me imagine …………. (e.g. children playing, having fun, lots of energy, excitement) which creates a mood of joyfulness etc.”
Comparison Writing
Filling in a Synthesis Grid
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How do authors create a sense of mood & atmosphere? |
Text 1 |
Text 2 |
Text 3 (etc) |
Comparison statement: |
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adjectives |
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colour imagery |
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light imagery |
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pathetic fallacy |
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Synthesis statement: |
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Mood and Atmosphere
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How do authors create a sense of mood & atmosphere? |
Text 1 |
Text 2 |
Text 3 |
Text 4 |
Synthesis |
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nouns |
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personification |
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colour imagery |
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Synthesis |
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Synthesis level |
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Identify patterns in the way nouns are used about one mood within one text |
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Discuss how different techniques work together to create an overall mood or atmosphere |
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Discuss how one technique is used to create ideas about different characters |
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Discuss how a director uses multiple approaches for characterisation |
Examples of Filling in the Grid
|
How do authors create a sense of mood & atmosphere? |
Text 1 The Promise by Bernard Beckett |
What do these examples add up to? |
|
nouns |
Powerful sense of place through use of nouns such as “the bunker” (e.g. hiding; trapped; war; the shadows evoke a sense of trepidation (e.g. sinister; fear) |
|
|
colour imagery |
Symbolic connotations of: grey (e.g. cold, dull, depressed;) purple evokes bruising. |
|
|
light imagery |
There are “muted” colours with fading light and a lamp that “fizzled and spluttered (e.g. the uncertainty that the characters may be plunged into darkness) or of an uncertain future |
|
|
personification |
There are temperature words such as “cold” (purr word) and freeze (snarl’ word). The cold is personified as “reaching like fingers’ and that the blast “threatened”… |
|
|
verbs |
Verbs also suggest uncertainty such as “guessing”, “estimating”, “claimed”. |
There is a pattern of verbs that create a mood of uncertainty |
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Synthesis statement: |
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Comparison Task
Instructions
- Select a short extract from at least two different texts with a strong sense of mood and atmosphere.
- Briefly describe the setting and the mood and atmosphere of each text extract.
- Identify examples of three different language features that are used in the texts.
- For each text, give examples of the language feature and describe a main pattern e.g. “The author uses gloomy colours such as “grey clouds”, “grey jacket” and “black walls”.
- Compare and contrast how the authors use the language features in different ways to create different moods and atmospheres.
Use conjunctions (joining words) to link ideas about the different texts.
A Possible Structure for your Essay
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Introductory paragraph: Introduce the texts and briefly describe the setting and mood/atmosphere of each. List the three language features you will focus on. |
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Body paragraph 1: Compare and contrast the way the authors used your first language feature. |
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Body paragraph 2: Compare and contrast the way the authors used your 2nd language feature. |
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Body paragraph 3: Compare and contrast the way the authors used your 3rd language feature. |
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Summary/Conclusion paragraph |
Here are links to some writing frames
High Expectations Checklist
- I told my readers the title and author of the texts
- I described the setting and the mood/atmosphere of each text
- I identified three different language features used in the texts
- I used the correct terms for each language feature
- I gave examples of the language feature and described a main pattern in its use for each of the texts.
- I explained how each text used each language feature to create a strong mood/atmosphere.
- I compared and contrasted how the authors use the language feature in different ways to create different moods and atmospheres.
- I used conjunctions (joining words) to link ideas about the different texts.
