I Know Why The Caged Bird Can T Talk Assignment
Bianca Hutuleac
Mrs. Mcray
AP Language
December 8, 2014
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” Analysis
In “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read,” Francine Prose argued that high school students are beginning to hate reading even more than before because they aren’t taught correctly how to understand more complicated texts.
She blames the education system for requiring students to read “middlebrow entertainments.”
Francine Prose gives many examples that go to support her argument, that students despise literature because they don’t understand it and because teachers no longer take the time to break it down. These texts aren’t taught well; not only is the literature that is being given to the students mediocre, but it is simply skimmed through and tossed away with the rest. It is no secret that students don’t enjoy reading anymore, there are reasons for this. Students are not challenged to read challenging books and teachers don’t evaluate the books; in the end it’s just the same secondrate books year after. Prose believes that if teachers challenge their students and gives the something that will challenge their minds than the students will be able to face more complicated texts and possibly enjoy reading as a whole. Vocabulary
Longevity A long life.
Robust
Strong and healthy; vigorous.
Scant
Barely sufficient or adequate.
Lucidly
Expressed clearly; easy to understand.
Ambiguity Uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language.
Idiosyncratic A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
Tone
Condescending, Critical
Rhetorical Terms
● Anecdotes "My two youngest son's now twentyone and seventeen, have read..."
(Paragraph 5)
● Rhetorical Question "Why not introduce our kids to the clarity and power of James
Baldwin’s great story “Sonny’s Blues”?" (Paragraph 35)
● Cause and Effect Used through out the whole essay by showing how certain teaching methods affect students.
Mrs. Mcray
AP Language
December 8, 2014
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” Analysis
In “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read,” Francine Prose argued that high school students are beginning to hate reading even more than before because they aren’t taught correctly how to understand more complicated texts.
She blames the education system for requiring students to read “middlebrow entertainments.”
Francine Prose gives many examples that go to support her argument, that students despise literature because they don’t understand it and because teachers no longer take the time to break it down. These texts aren’t taught well; not only is the literature that is being given to the students mediocre, but it is simply skimmed through and tossed away with the rest. It is no secret that students don’t enjoy reading anymore, there are reasons for this. Students are not challenged to read challenging books and teachers don’t evaluate the books; in the end it’s just the same secondrate books year after. Prose believes that if teachers challenge their students and gives the something that will challenge their minds than the students will be able to face more complicated texts and possibly enjoy reading as a whole. Vocabulary
Longevity A long life.
Robust
Strong and healthy; vigorous.
Scant
Barely sufficient or adequate.
Lucidly
Expressed clearly; easy to understand.
Ambiguity Uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language.
Idiosyncratic A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
Tone
Condescending, Critical
Rhetorical Terms
● Anecdotes "My two youngest son's now twentyone and seventeen, have read..."
(Paragraph 5)
● Rhetorical Question "Why not introduce our kids to the clarity and power of James
Baldwin’s great story “Sonny’s Blues”?" (Paragraph 35)
● Cause and Effect Used through out the whole essay by showing how certain teaching methods affect students.