Analyzing Text Forms, Genres and Cultural Text Forms, and Choosing Texts for a Purpose

Remember from Grade 6

In Grade 6 you compared genres such as fantasy, science fiction, news reports and speeches, and two cultural text forms: the ghazal and spoken word poetry. You chose texts by diverse creators and explained why they suited your purpose.

In Grade 7 you will analyze more genres, including some that often appear in middle-school reading: dystopian fiction, mystery, interviews and opinion columns. You will meet two new cultural text forms, and you will explain more precisely how each text's characteristics create meaning.

Hook: Six texts, one lake

All six texts below are about Cedar Lake, beside the made-up town of Cedar Bend, Ontario. They were written for this website. As you read each one, ask yourself three questions:

1. What kind of text is this?
2. Which clues tell me?
3. What is this text trying to do to me as a reader: make me think, feel, wonder, worry or act?

Text A: Ration Day

In the year 2087, every family in Cedar Bend received exactly 40 litres of water a day, measured by the silver meter bolted beside each kitchen tap. The Water Council said the meters kept everyone safe. The posters in the square said the same thing in tall black letters: SHARE FAIRLY. ASK NO QUESTIONS.

Mira had always believed them. Then, on her way home from school, she saw a Council truck parked behind the mayor's house, its long hose snaking over the fence, filling a swimming pool.

Text B: The Missing Canoe

The red canoe was gone. Theo stared at the empty rack behind the boathouse. The lock lay in the grass, snapped clean through.

"Mrs. Albright did this," said his sister, Nia. "She told everyone our canoe was an eyesore."

But Theo was looking at the mud. Two sets of small sneaker prints led down to the water, and beside them, a single orange mitten with a fox stitched on the cuff. Mrs. Albright, Theo remembered, wore size 10 rubber boots and had been at her sister's in Sudbury all week.

Text C: Cedar Bend Kids Ask, Episode 12 (podcast transcript)

HOST (Jordan, age 12): Welcome back! Today we're talking with a freshwater scientist, Dr. Leila Haddad. Dr. Haddad, why did Cedar Lake turn green last August?

DR. HADDAD: Great question. That green scum was a blue-green algae bloom. Blue-green algae are tiny living things called cyanobacteria. They grow fast when the water is warm and has extra nutrients, like phosphorus. Some of that phosphorus can wash into the lake from lawn fertilizer.

HOST: So, is it safe to swim when the lake looks like that?

DR. HADDAD: Some blooms can make toxins, so the safest choice is to stay out of the water and keep pets out too, until the health unit says it's okay.

(Dr. Haddad and the podcast were made up for this lesson. The science about blue-green algae is real.)

Text D: OPINION: Cedar Lake Needs a No-Fertilizer Zone

by Sam Okoro, Cedar Bend resident

Last summer, families couldn't swim in Cedar Lake for weeks. The cause isn't a mystery. Scientists tell us that extra phosphorus feeds algae blooms, and lawn fertilizer is one source of it.

That's why Cedar Bend should ban fertilizer within 30 metres of the shoreline. Some people say their lawns will look worse. Maybe they will. But a slightly yellow lawn is a small price for a lake our kids can swim in.

Council votes on May 4. Tell them: protect the lake.

Text E: The Lake Remembers (a pantoum)

The lake is quiet before the town wakes up. Mist lifts off the water like breath on a window. My grandfather pushes the canoe from shore. He says the lake remembers everyone who loved it.

Mist lifts off the water like breath on a window. A loon calls once, and the far shore answers. He says the lake remembers everyone who loved it. I dip my paddle slowly, so I won't forget.

A loon calls once, and the far shore answers. My grandfather pushes the canoe from shore. I dip my paddle slowly, so I won't forget. The lake is quiet before the town wakes up.

Text F: Winter Night on Cedar Lake (a sijo)

All night the frozen lake groans and booms beneath the winter stars. My little brother hides his face; he thinks a monster lives below. I tell him it's only the lake, stretching, like us, in its sleep.

Analyzing the genres

• Text A is dystopian fiction. It is set in the future (2087). The society looks orderly and fair (meters, rules, SHARE FAIRLY), but something is wrong underneath: the people in power break their own rules. Slogans like ASK NO QUESTIONS show that questioning is discouraged. The main character is starting to see the truth. Dystopian fiction is a kind of science fiction that often warns readers: If we're not careful about water today, this could happen.
• Text B is a mystery. There is a puzzle (who took the canoe?), a young detective (Theo), clues (small sneaker prints, a fox mitten), a suspect, and a red herring: Nia blames Mrs. Albright, but the clues point away from her. Mysteries keep readers actively thinking, collecting clues alongside the detective.
• Text C is an interview transcript from a podcast. It has speaker labels (HOST, DR. HADDAD), a question-and-answer pattern and conversational language (Great question). The questions come from a curious kid, so the answers are clear and practical. The interview lets an expert explain in her own words.
• Text D is an opinion column (op-ed). It is labelled OPINION, has a byline, states a clear position (ban fertilizer near the shore), gives evidence (scientists, phosphorus), answers a counterargument (Some people say their lawns will look worse), and ends with a call to action. Every feature helps it persuade.
• Texts E and F are cultural text forms, explained below.

Two cultural text forms

Cultural text forms grew out of a particular culture's ways of making and sharing texts. Today, writers around the world use them.

The pantoum (say pan-TOOM) grew from the pantun, a traditional form of Malay poetry. French poets in the 1800s adapted it, and it later spread into English. A pantoum is written in four-line stanzas. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza come back as lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. Often the last stanza brings back the poem's first line, so the poem ends where it began.

The sijo (say SHE-jo) is a Korean poetry form that is many centuries old and was often sung. In English, a sijo is usually written as three long lines of about 14 to 16 syllables each. Line 1 sets up a situation, line 2 develops it, and line 3 begins with a twist: a surprise, a new way of looking, or a joke.

Choosing texts for a purpose

Before you read, listen or view, ask Why? Then choose texts that fit. In Grade 7, explain your choice with clear reasons about the genre, the creator and the text's reliability.

• To learn facts about a topic: an interview with an expert, a report, a reliable science or government website.
• To make up my mind about an issue: opinion columns from different sides, plus a neutral news report.
• To experience a feeling or a moment: poems, memoirs, stories.
• To imagine what the future could be: dystopian or science fiction.
• To exercise my reasoning for fun: a mystery.
• To understand a community's experience: texts by creators from that community.

Diverse creators (different cultures, languages, abilities, genders, ages and places) give you more perspectives. If every text you read is by people who share the same background, you only see part of the picture.