THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

The Functionality of Elements of Literature: Second Course

Bailey Washington
James Madison University
Probst, R. E. (2000). Elements of literature. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
I chose to analyze this text because it is the textbook being used by the
eighth grade English classrooms at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School in Broadway,
Virginia. Though this is the text provided, only one of the English teachers at
Hillyard Middle

School is currently using it, and

even she only

uses it for the samplings of

literature that it

provides. Published in 2000 by

Holt, Rinehart,

and Winston, Elements of

Literature: Second

Course can be found on sites

such as Amazon
READABILITY
Elements of

and Abe Books for around $10.

TEST:
Literature: Second Course was

written with the

intent of being used in an

eighth grade

English classroom. Using the

Flesh-Kincaide

readability scoring model, it is

difficult to

determine whether the

language used

throughout the textbook is

appropriate for its

intended grade level. The

purpose of the Flesch-Kincaide model is to determine how difficult a passage of

prose writing is to read. The model takes word length, sentence length, and word
frequency all into account to determine two numbers: reading ease and grade level.
In determining how Elements of Literature: Second Course would score, I
used a random number generator and took passages from six different pages, three
from instructional pages and three from literature in the book. The first, from a
passage titled, Meet the Writer on page 477, received reading ease score of 48.5
and a grade level score of 12.5. The second instructional score, from a passage

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

titled Reading Skills and Strategies on page 28, was determined to have a reading
ease score of 66 and a grade level score of 8.0. The third passage was taken from a
reading check on page 509 and received a reading ease score of 85.1 and a grade
level score of 6. The first literature passage was taken from an excerpt of the novel
Across Five Aprils on page 587 by Irene Hunt. It received a reading ease score of
89.8 and a grade level score of 3.7. The second passage was taken from a folk tale
titled We Are All One by Laurence Yep on page 264. It has a reading ease score of
82.6 and a grade level score of 5.4. The last passage was taken from a short story
titled Flowers for Algeron by Daniel Keyes on page 69. It received a reading ease
score of 88.8 and a grade level score of 2.7.
Taken all together, the average grade level score of the book was 6.4. While
the average grade level score of the textbook is close to the intended grade level of
use, the individual scores taken appeared to be highly random. This may be so
because of the way in which the Flesch-Kincaid model is scored. Across Five Aprils
has a grade level score of 3.7, despite being one of the more difficult pieces of
literature in the book. With colloquial language and the complex subject of a soldier
deserting during the Civil War, most students would have difficulty reading the text.
However, because many of the words used are fairly common and the dialogue
consists of simple sentences, it received a low score. Similarly, the text of Flowers
of Algeron received a low grade level score because the text is primarily composed
of the narrators thoughts and uses short sentences. The very fact that the text is
primarily composed of thoughts can make it more difficult to read.
On the other hand, page 477 was given a score of 12.5, placing it on the high
school reading level. Relatively uncommon words such keen, mock, and
questionnaire, in addition to sentences with multiple clauses, labels Meet the

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

Writer as a difficult text. With access to a dictionary, however, most students

would not struggle with this text any more than they would with Across Five Aprils.
CONTENT:
Literature:
In 1963, James J. Lynch and Bertrand Evans published High School English
Textbooks: A Critical Examination, a decidedly negative examination of English
textbooks in the United States. Though their examination was published over thirty
years ago, their list of complaints is familiar to anyone who has ever attempted to
work with one of the many anthologies floating through the

Page 94 Dialogue with the

Text

public schools: anthologies are generally far too large, most

of the material provided is in the format of the short story,
and not enough attention is paid to drama. While this
anthology does contain a large amount of short stories
(25% of the texts provided are short stories), they by no
means make up the majority of the texts. Poems hold the
majority with 32% of the texts provided, but
autobiographies, essays, folktales, plays, diaries, fables,
myths, ballads, oral histories, and spirituals are all
represented in addition to other formats. The authors even
attempted to place the anthology in the modern age by
providing the transcript for a TV documentary and the
script for a teleplay.
In addition to coming in many different formats, the
texts provided are rather diverse, both in terms of their authors and their subjects.
In her article Advancing Multicultural Education: New Historicism in the High School
English classroom, Sidney C. Li writes that school anthologies offer very little work
from the perspective of minorities and any literature that is included is vague,

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

surface-level content that provides little understanding. Elements of Literature:

Second Course mostly avoided this pitfall. It contains literature from many different
races, including Native American, and the literature provided gives an in depth
understanding of the authors perspective, rather than an Americanized view of
their way of life.
Instruction:
Labeled Elements of Literature in the table of contents, instructional pages
in Elements of Literature: Second Course are placed in the middle of chapters.
Instead of being the center of
the textbook, the elements of
literature pages are used to
complement the literature in
each chapter. The first few
sections of instruction should be
review for an eighth grade
student, with subjects like
contractions, possessive pronouns, and similes. The necessary vocabulary is
bolded within the paragraphs and definitions are provided. In addition, no more
than four pages of instruction are grouped together, so the information is not
overwhelming.
One bit of content that is confusing is a sidebar titled Dialogue with the Text
that is provided with most of the literature. I could not find any explanation for how
students are to complete this dialogue or why it is useful. Instead, it just provides a
distraction, even if it was written by real students.
FORMAT:
Graphic Elements:
The graphic elements included in the
text cannot be defined as either good or

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

bad. Despite a lack of information graphics, many of the illustrations and pictures
included are relevant to the text and have a caption provided. They break up the
text and make the textbook more interesting to look at. However, some of the
pictures provided have no caption, no relevance, or are simply low quality pictures.
The two page graphic on pages 168 and 169, given as an introduction to Collection
Three: Tales of the Strange and Mysterious, is one such graphic. There is no
Page
quality, and
169
the colors are garish and distracting. In addition to irrelevant graphics, some pages
determining what it actually is, its pixilated and low

are entirely too cluttered with illustrations.

Organization:
Rather than being organized around literary elements or types of literature,
Elements of Literature: Second Course is organized into collections based on broad
concepts such as We All Need Somebody to Lean On, From Generation to
Generation, and Tale of the Strange and Mysterious. I believe that this
organization is beneficial because basing the collections around broad concepts can
help students to find a more meaningful connection with literature. It also keeps
Page 44

students from being bored with just one type of literature over

and over again.

While the organizing the book into collections was a good idea, the publishers
fell short in introducing the collections. Each collection starts directly with a piece
of literature instead of an explanation of the concept or an activity that starts
student thinking. The end of the collections do not provide a tie-in either. Rather,
each collection ends with a Communications Workshop in which students are
provided with information on speaking, listening, writing, building sentences,
reading, and learning in life.

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

Table of Contents:
As mentioned before, the table of contents is
organized into collections based around concepts. The
elements of literature pages are easy to find among the
literature as they are labeled with a red square. The
communications workshops are also easy for students to
find because they are regularly placed and clearly set
apart with bold, blue typing. The table of contents
provides not only the title of the literature, but the author
and the format as well.
The major flaw exhibited by this table of contents is
that pages with language and grammar information have
been set aside. They are given on a sticky note design in
the sidebars of the pages. A students scanning the table of contents would
undoubtedly skip over these.
Glossary:
The glossary provided is rather flawed. It is separated into two groups
containing vocabulary from the literature and literary vocabulary (give in the
handbook for literary terms). This organization would be confusing for any
student who doesnt understand the distinction between the two groups, or doesnt
know that they are separated at all since the literary vocabulary isnt listed in a
glossary. Additionally, many of the vocabulary words refer students to other
words rather than giving the definition. For example, mood is referred to the word
atmosphere and motif says see folktale. Neither atmosphere nor folktale provides
good definitions for these words.
One major benefit of the glossary, however, is that the definition for
vocabulary words are given in the margins of the pages in which they appear.
Index:

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

The index is organized similarly to the glossary. It is split into three groups:
Index of Skills, Index of Authors and Titles, and Index of Art. While this might be a
good idea in theory, most students probably wouldnt think to look in the correct
section. Instead, they would more than likely look for their topic in a random
section and, once they didnt find it, would assume it wasnt there.
Bibliography:
Rather than being listed as a bibliography, the bibliography is listed as
acknowledgements. It is detailed, but it would have been better if it had been
listed as a bibliography so that students would know to look there for other sources,
and so that students would be able to see it as an example of one.
UTILITY:
In determining the utility of this book, it is important to note that it was
published in the year 2000. As such, it is not connected to a related website, nor
does it refer to any. It refers students to a connected CD
meant to enhance the text. As I had no access to the CD, I
cannot determine its usefulness.
Extension Activities:
The extension activities provided in the book are varied
and useful. Each piece of literature has a Making Meanings
section. Some longer selections have more than one. These
activities provide questions at various levels: some ask the
student to merely list characters, whereas others ask
students to provide an opinion or make a connection.
In addition to the Making Meanings sections, there
Page
are also activities labeled Choices: Building Your Portfolio spread throughout
the
112
book. These sections allow students to choose an activity to complete in relation to
the text. From writing and opinion piece, to drawing a scene, to creating a dialogue,
the choices are varied and interesting.

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

Many of the instructional pages also contain a box labeled Try it Out in the
sidebars. These boxes provide quick, fun activities for students to attempt to
practice what they are currently learning.
Supplemental Readings:
Each collection ends with a page titled Read On that provides the titles of
five to ten pieces of literature with summaries. While it is useful for interested
students to have this resource, most of the literature listed was published before
1980 and primarily consists of novels and short stories.
STYLE:
Writing:
The language used in this book is interesting and clear. The authors did not
shy away from difficult vocabulary, but the difficult words are not clustered and the
definitions are often provided. Most of the sentences contain multiple clauses,
though none are two complicated to understand. The average eighth grader should
be able to work their way through the text with diligence. However, a student who
reads below grade level would probably struggle.
Page Layout:
The page layouts of the book are rather inconsistent. Some are simple and
clean with one or two pictures. Others are crowded and confusing, with clashing
colors, multiple boxes, and way too many pictures. The type is a nice, big size, but
there is very little space between the lines so they are close together. No line of
text runs across an entire page. Each line run about half the length of a page.
STRENGTHS:
The authors of the literature provided are diverse, making a nicely
multicultural book. The supplemental readings provided at the end of each chapter
should have reflected this but did not. Similarly, the publishers did a good job of
providing varied formats of writing. It was especially interesting to see the
transcript of a TV Documentary included. However, the supplemental readings
provided did not reflect this aspect either. Finally, the textbook had great extension

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

activities. They were in abundance, they were differentiated among all skill levels
and interests, and they were properly connected to the text.
WEAKNESSES:
This textbook is a bit outdated. Other than the supplemental CD, it had no
elements of media that are now expected in textbooks. This could be remedied by
a teacher finding web activities on their own to supplement the readings.
Separating the collections into concepts was a good idea, but did not reach its
potential. It would have been better had each collection been started with a way to
introduce the concept, and ended with something that tied it all together. Finally,
the book attempted to have a fun an interesting style, but this attempt often
resulted in cluttered and confusing pages. In many cases, a more simple approach
would have been preferable.
CONCLUSION:
While not every part of this textbook is preferable, the literature and
extension activities that it contains would make it worth using if provided by a
school. However, it is not a textbook that I would buy since it falls short in so many
categories.

THE FUNCTIONALITY OF ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE

10

References
Alvermann, D. E., Phelps, S. F., & Gillis, V. R. (2007). Content reading and literacy:
Succeeding in today's diverse classrooms. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.
Beers, G. K., & Probst, R. E. (n.d.). Reading nonfiction: Notice & note stances,
signposts, and strategies.
FleschKincaid readability tests. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FleschKincaid_readability_tests
Li, S. C. (2015). Advancing Multicultural Education: New Historicism in the High
School English Classroom. The High School Journal, 99(1), 4-26.
Lynch, J. Jeremiah. (1963). High school English textbooks: a critical examination. [1st
ed.] Boston: Little, Brown.
Probst, R. E. (2000). Elements of literature. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.