Good Morning Dr. Rose,
Today, I will begin using QA12345 with my students. However, this semester I have honors students, and I was wondering what you think I can do to increase the rigor using the QA12345. What are some ways we can have them elaborate, or expand their thinking and writing using the QA12345?
Any suggestions or feedback helps.
Thank you,
High School Teacher
How lovely to hear from you. Thank you for asking. I was working with a group of teachers in Small City, Texas this week that had similar questions. I see a few directions to go.
One: First we use the QU12345 to get the basic topic sentences. Then we use strategies such as looping to help students think of the next thing to say that is connected with the previous statement to deepen the elaboration into a paragraph. With my students, I always teach prove-it's next, then depth charge. At this point, students are ready for Starring or CAFE Squidd. If they are writing narratives, I present tampering with time lessons from After the End. By this point, students are ready to delete stuff from their writing that is repetitive. I also introduce the dead giveaways from Gretchen's site and throwaway writing activities. My friend Cheryl gives kids this activity to think about within and between paragraph structures to try as well.
Two: Sharing. Students should be sharing their writing by reading it aloud to peers and receiving feedback. Start with Pointing and then follow the first two rows of activities.
Three: Examine the craft of other writers and how they develop their ideas. Then try out these ideas in your own writing. Share the befores and afters in small groups. Here's how we worked that out in Small City, Texas this week. Kids began with lesson one in Text Structures from the Masters. We introduced it by saying that as they are maturing as 9th graders, we see a lot of growth in the second semester. They are becoming more of who they are going to be as adults. (We're trying to combat the immaturity we have seen after COVID.)
Next, we had them annotate the kernels in the Hippocratic Oath. Then we went deeper to analyze how the author pitchforked: "I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius the surgeon, likewise Hygeia and Panacea, and call all the gods and goddesses to witness, that I will observe and keep this underwritten oath, to the utmost of my power and judgment." We noticed that he was referencing authorities that influenced him. We noticed how he put these as items in a series using /likewise/ as a connector as well as the common conjunction, /and/. We noticed how the prepositional phrase at the end allowed the writer to clarify the depth of his devotion and efforts.
Teachers then re-entered their writing to show how they could try out these techniques in their own writing. After modeling the process, teachers allowed students some time to imitate these moves in their own writing from the original writing. They color coded or annotated their moves and revisions just as we did in the mentor text and tested out the ideas with their feedback groups.
For the next lesson, we chose Sojourner Truth's, Ain't I a Woman? speech. We followed the same write, share, kernelize to comprehend, and then annotate for craft process as with the other text. We dug in deeply to name colloquialisms and the irony in the speech. (Normally when people talk in rough mannerisms, they are considered dumb. But Truth's analysis here is astute and wise, full of rhetorical techniques.) We dug into the anaphora (repetition) with her rhetorical questions and the impact they had on us as readers and on delivering the message. We looked at the biblical allusions and how they were used as criticisms/attacks on the reasoning of those who didn't take her perspective.
Next, teachers re-entered their writing to try out the anaphora or one of the other techniques. Since we were in a PLC, teachers were able to take different techniques and try them out in class. These became more modeling texts that they could use in class. (It is important to note: teachers may have prepared the writing beforehand, but when it came time for class, they wrote live and explained their thinking aloud.) Next, students tried the strategies in their own texts, shared them with peers, etc.
That's a lot. Let me know if you want to talk on the phone or zoom. As teachers implement these lessons, we'll have some exemplars.
With Love and Lessons,
Dr. Rose
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