There is more to literature (and movies and songs...) than simply the words on the page. The author crafts their work with an intended purpose for their audience. What is that purpose? How do you know? There are various strategies that can be used. Take a look below.
Seven Strategies of Highly Effective Readers.
Activating
Priming the cognitive pump" in order to recall relevent prior knowledge and experiences from long-term memory in order to extract and construct meaning from text.
Inferring
Bringing together what is spoken (written) in the text, what is unspoken (unwritten) in the text, and what is already known by the reader in order to extract and construct meaning from the text.
Monitoring-Clarifying
Thinking about how and what one is reading, both during and after the act of reading, for purposes of determining if one is comprehending the text combined with the ability to clarify and fix up any mix-ups.
Questioning
Engaging in learning dialogues with text (authors), peers, and teachers through self-questioning, question generation, and question answering.
Searching-Selecting
Searching a variety of sources in order to select appropriate information to answer questions, define words and terms, clarify misunderstandings, solve problems, or gather information.
Summarizing
Restating the meaning of text in one's own words — different words from those used in the original text.
Visualizing-Organizing
Constructing a mental image or graphic organizer for the purpose of extracting and constructing meaning from the text.
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