Get A Clue

Get a Clue:Thinking Through Analytical Writing

Amanda GossGuyer High School

North Star Writing ProjectSummer 2008

Analytical WritingAcademic Writing, Expository Writing…

“When you analyze something, you take it apart and find out what’s inside, how it works, what its purpose and meaning are. Your writing is analytical when you analyze the subject matter for your reader – pre-digesting it, if you will.”

“What Exactly is Analytical Writing”

T.M Georges, 1996

Reading/Understanding/Critical Thinking

Supporting Your Ideas and Explaining Your Thinking in Writing

In Response To…

TAKS Open-Ended QuestionsPoor Research Papers5 – Paragraph EssaysPersuasive Papers with No ArgumentReviews with No OpinionsInability to Incorporate Textual EvidenceLack of College Readiness

On Writing…

“A great deal of the bad writing we see is the product of bad assignments.”

“Writing is not thinking written down after the thinking is completed. Writing is thinking.”

“Teach Writing Your Way”

Donald M. Murray

On Academic Literacy…

“Learning to read at early grade levels will not automatically translate into higher level academic literacy”

“…make explicit the tacit reasoning processes, strategies, and discourse rules that shape successful readers’ and writers’ work.”

“Apprenticing Adolescent Readers to Academic Literacy”

Reading Strategy

XImportant Information

?Something You

Don’t Understand

!Something Interesting

Plot Events

Info about Characters

Info about Setting

Key Words

Theme Statements

FIGURE IT OUT WITH:

Dictionary

Context Clues

Parts of the Word

What does the story make you think of?

Have you had any similar experiences?

What do you think is going to happen next?

TAKS Open-Ended QuestionThe TAKS open-ended items are three questions that require the student to write a brief response to the literary and expository selections as well as a cross-over response that shows the relationship between the two.

Students need to know that the validity of their answers, together with the applicability of their chosen support, must be their focus when responding to an open-ended item. Any prescribed formula or Any prescribed formula or pattern of sentences just obscures the true intent pattern of sentences just obscures the true intent of these open-ended itemsof these open-ended items..

10B: “Reading/literary response. The student expresses and supports responses to various types of texts. The student is expected to use elements of text to defend, clarify, and negotiate responses and interpretations”

TEKS

1 Writing/purposes. Student writes for a variety of purposes(B) write in a voice and style appropriate to audience and purpose;(C) organize ideas in writing to ensure coherence, logical progression, and support for ideas.

4 Writing/inquiry/research. Students uses writing as a tool for learning(A) use writing to formulate questions, refine topics, and clarify ideas;(B) use writing to discover, organize, and support what is known and what needs to be learned about a topic;(C) compile information from primary and secondary sources in systematic ways using available technology;(F) compile written ideas and representations into reports, summaries, or other formats and draw conclusions;

TEKS

9th Grade1 (A) write in a variety of forms using effective word choice, structure, and

sentence forms with emphasis on organizing logical arguments with clearly related definitions, theses, and evidence; write persuasively; write to report and describe; and write poems, plays, and stories;

10th Grade1 (A) write in a variety of forms with an emphasis on persuasive forms such

as logical argument and expression of opinion, personal forms such as response to literature, reflective essay, and autobiographical narrative, and literary forms such as poems, plays, and stories;

11th Grade4 (E) use a manual of style such as Modern Language Association (MLA),

American Psychological Association (APA), and The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

12th Grade1 (E) employ precise language to communicate ideas clearly and concisely;4 (F) link related information and ideas from a variety of sources;

Open-Ended Question…

Answer in your writer’s notebook in no more than six lines…

What has Mitch learned from Morrie Schwartz? Use evidence from the text to

support your answer.

On Analytical Writing…

“If the curriculum and the test are virtually the same, teaching to the test is inevitable and desired…The classic problem in teaching to the test is that students are learning only the test item and not the concept, process, or idea that lies behind it.”

Deciding What to Teach and TestFenwick English, 2000

Writing Strategies

APE = Answer, Proof, Explain

ABC = Answer, Back up your answer, Connect the quote to the answer

PLEASE = Pick a Topic, List Ideas, Evaluate Ideas, Activate with a Topic Sentence, Support Sentences, Ending Sentence/Evaluate

Jane Shaffer = Topic Sentence, Concrete Detail, Commentary, Concluding Sentence

On Discussion-Based Approaches…

“A variety of investigators have argued that high-quality discussion and exploration of ideas – not just the presentation of high-quality content by the teacher or text – are central to the developing understandings of readers and writers”

Arthur N. Applebee

and Judith A. Langer

Clues to Remember the Thinking ProcessClues to Remember the Thinking Process

Writing Thinking

CClaim Write a Topic Sentence

Know your opinion, Know the Answer

LLook for Evidence Use a Quote From the Story

Know where to pull textual evidence

UUnderstanding Why Incorporate the Quote

Know why Evidence is important

EExplain Explain Your Quote and Answer

Know how the evidence connects

to the answer

SSentences Write in Complete Sentences

Know how to edit and revise

Claim

Claim, Thesis, Topic Sentence, Main IdeaWhat do I think about a given topic?What do I have to say about a topic?What do I believe or know to be true?

Open-Ended Response

As Mitch listens to Morrie, he realizes how unsatisfied he is with the choices he has made in his life. Morrie explains, “I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that?” Mitch has a career and a big paycheck, but it seems he has lost sight of what matters most.

Look for Evidence

Evidence, Support, Proof, Quotes,What is evidence?Where do I find it?How do I quote?How do I paraphrase? I can use sentences for my quotes other

than the ones in quotation marks in the text?

Open-Ended Response

As Mitch listens to Morrie, he realizes that he is unsatisfied with his life. Morrie explains, “I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that?” Mitch has a career and a big paycheck, but it seems he has lost sight of what matters most.

Understand Why?

Why Use THIS Textual Evidence?Does the evidence prove your claim?How does it fit with your response? If the evidence doesn’t help your claim…

Go Back and Change Your ClaimKeep Looking for Different Evidence

Open-Ended Response

As Mitch listens to Morrie, he realizes that he is unsatisfied with his life. Mitch keeps repeating, “what happened to me?” which shows how unsettled he is about the way his life has turned out. Mitch has a career and a big paycheck, but it seems he has lost sight of what matters most.

Explain

Explain, Commentary, AnalysisWhat do I understand better as a result of

looking at this evidence? What does my reader need to know to

understand why I used this evidence?What can I say to explain how my evidence

supports my claim?

Open-Ended Response


Sentences

Topic Sentence Evidence Sentence Explanation Sentence

“Recently sentence combining was listed as one of the ten strategies that make a difference in student writing (Graham and Perin 2006). Without explicit teaching of the possibilities, there is only correction and frustration, for both the student and teacher. With focused teaching on sentence work, students improve.”

Write Beside ThemPenny Kittle

Open-Ended Response



“Children are frequently asked to take a position on some topic and defend it in writing. The power of this defense depends in large part on the quality of evidence they offer to support their premise. They often fail to let the reader know their position, refute evidence for the other side, or provide a concluding statement.”

Writing BetterSteve Graham and Karen R.

Harris

On Analytical Writing

“For English teachers who have been well trained in the practice of writing the five-paragraph theme essay it can be very difficult to let students choose their own texts, find their own thesis, develop their own arguments, and explain their own evidence.”

Thinking Through Genre

Heather Lattimer


The survey reveals that good writing is taken as a given in today’s professional work. Writing is a “threshold skill” for salaried employment and promotion. It is particularly important in services and in finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE), growing employment sectors that are likely to generate the most new jobs in the coming decade. In a nutshell, the survey confirms our conviction that individual opportunity in the United States depends critically on opportunity in the United States depends critically on the ability to present one’s thoughts coherently, the ability to present one’s thoughts coherently, cogently, and persuasively on paper.cogently, and persuasively on paper.

Bob KerreyNational Commission on Writing forAmerica’s Families, Schools, and

Colleges.

Thinking Through Analytical Writing in All Grades…

• Pictures with Quotes• Using Textual Evidence in all Content Areas• Building Choice into Assignments – Multigenre Research

References

Albom, Mitch. Tuesday's with Morrie. New York: Broadway Books, 1997.

Graham, Steve, and Karen R. Harris. Writing Better: Effective Strategies

for Teaching Students with Learning Difficulties. Baltimore: Paul H.

Brookes, 2005.

Greenleaf, Cynthia L., Ruth Schoenbach, Christine Cziko, and Faye L.

Mueller. "Apprenticing Adolescent Readers to Academic Literacy."

Harvard Educational Review 71 (2001): 79+. ProQuest. Denton. 13

Dec. 2006.

Kittle, Penny. Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School

Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2008.

Lattimer, Heather. Thinking Through Genre: Units of Study in Reading

and Writing Workshop 4-12. Portland: Stenhouse, 2003.

References

Murray, Donald M. "Teach Writing Your Way." Adolescent Literacy:

Turning Promise Into Practice. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2007. 179-

187.

Stephens, Elaine C., and Jean E. Brown. A Handbook of Content

Literacy Strategies. 2nd ed. Norwood: Christopher-Gordon, 2005.

TAKS Open-Ended Response Guide Grades 9-12. Region 4 Educated

Solutions. 20 June 2008 <http://www.esc4.net/docs/119-

rlapsample_taksoer9-11.pdf>.

Tovani, Cris. I Read It, But I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for

Adolescent Readers. Portland: Stenhouse, 2000.