Final answer:
The student is learning to enhance their reading and comprehension skills by engaging with the text through underlining, writing margin notes, and highlighting important words. These techniques will help them to understand the characters' emotions, motivations, and descriptions more deeply.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question focuses on how to effectively interact with and analyze a text, specifically through the acts of underlining, making margin notes, and circling keywords. When reading lines 104–129, the student is instructed to pay close attention to and document the emotions of a character named Thayer after an encounter with a polar bear and to note the reasons for Thayer's gratitude towards another character, Charlie. Textual evidence, margin notes, and highlighting are techniques emphasized to engage with the text and glean a deeper understanding.
By underlining emotions, for example, the student can identify and empathize with Thayer's emotional journey. Making notes in the margin regarding Thayer's gratitude to Charlie can help the student understand character relationships and motivations while circling words that describe the polar bear can enhance the visualization of the scene and character. Effective reading strategies also include summarizing sections, reflecting on readings, and using color codes for recurring themes or images.
Overall, these reading techniques not only foster a better grasp of the material but also prepare the student for critical analysis and discussion. Such strategies apply to English Literature courses where comprehending nuance and authorial intent is essential. Navigating through the emotions of characters or the descriptive language used to portray settings and creatures within texts is foundational to developing analytical skills within the study of English literature.