Distinctions in Ratiocination

Sometimes, we get bogged down in the "steps" to do an activity and forget why we are doing them. Often, I find sheets of ratiocination topics and codes that turn into mindless lists for students to use when they are editing their papers. One time, I conferenced with a struggling student about his paper. "I just need a vivid verb in this sentence, Miss." Sure, we can help you with that. Why do you need a vivid verb there? Where do you think one belongs? "Miss, I don't really care. I just have to have one for this paper here," he sighed waving the long list of tasks he was to demonstrate in his paper.

Oh my. Nothing on that sheet was a bad thing for the writer to consider. Not at all. I'm just not sure he understood why he might need to do those things in his writing. He was treating the sheet as a checklist for compliance rather than a tool for meaning to help him communicate with the reader. Jennifer Jackson Whitley, in the 2016 Journal of Literacy Innovation Article of the Year, has a solution: "Students will care if we give them reason to, if they can learn how to make connections from texts to what they care about - from words to life (2016, p. 9).

The teacher and I developed this set of notes to guide our thinking and point students to the reasons we ratiocinate. This, of course, would happen after we have set the purpose with an engaging beginning.

(I've tried to mark the distinctions in italics for those of you that are already familiar with ratiocination.) 

1. Circle all the sentence beginnings.
2. Write them in the margin next to the paragraphs they belong to. (This makes them easier to find when revising.)
3. Come back as a class and discuss: Ask: What did you notice about your sentence beginnings? Record their ideas on the board or on a chart paper. (I think it is very important to "build your board" as you go. Make things visible and retrievable later.)

4. The kids in this class noticed what we all do when first completing this activity. And then they noticed some more. This then gave us a chance to teach from each example. We considered repeated words, articles, pronouns, conjunctions, etc.

CAUTION: Many  times, we have the kids look for things that need to be changed. Sometimes, you DON'T need to change it. You, as the author, have made an intentional choice. Our first discussion came from what the students noticed about how many of their sentences began in the same way. Sometimes, beginning a sentence in the same way is monotonous and the reader becomes bored. Other times, the writer is looking to emphasize something or create a parallel structure that fits the message or craft elements. 

5. The second question we asked about every "noticing" brought us back to purpose, craft, accuracy, and the impact on the reader. The conversation about the use of pronouns is a perfect example of these distinctions and choices. We looked at both the positive (+)  and negative (-)elements of using pronouns and the mechanics and usage features (!) connected to this part of speech. 

+ - to avoid using the same nouns over and over, to create a flow and natural sounding sentence

! - make sure each has an antecedent; example: check to see if you have multiple people that you can still tell which pronoun references which person

- - Sometimes, logical fallacies are found when using pronouns and vague language. This could impact your ethos

-/+ - Vague langue can be imprecise and ineffective; or you could be vague for a purpose such as innuendo

6. Our conversation about sentence variety was equally rich. We had them use alternating highlighters on every sentence. This made it very easy to see run-ons, long sentences, short sentences, etc. Students decided that short sentences served these positive features:

• for emphasis - Were you repetitive on purpose? Why? 
• simplicity in explaining something difficult - Is there a place in the reading that is particularly difficult? How could you shorten the sentences to make sure the point is understood?
• break for the reader - Try reading the sentence in one breath. Will the reader be able to keep all your ideas in mind during this sentence? Have there been several long sentences in a row? 
• to speed up the pace - short sentences can sometimes pick up the pace and tone of a text

Students discussed how having a balance of sentences made the writing feel natural. They also noticed that when the paper was all one color, or seven to eight lines were the same color, that there was probably a runon, splice, or an overly complex sentence that needed revision.

7. Which leads us into the last phase of ratiocination: actual revision. With the sentence beginning activity, we had them return to their papers and highlight any words in the margin that were repetitive or boring. Next, we asked students to  highlight those that were unnecessarily boring or repetitive in the paragraphs themselves. (Not every repetitive beginning needs revision. Students need to focus on the ones that impact their purpose and message.) Now were were ready to focus on solutions: Here are the solutions we brainstormed: (I wish we would have asked students to give their examples.)

•  use a different term/synonym
• change the order of the words
• use a dependent clause at the beginning or the end
• combine sentence
• divide sentences
• use an introductory clause

8. Now it was time to revise and reconsider...we gave students time to compose and then conducted a grouping protocol to share and discuss the effectiveness of their trial revisions.