Analytical thinking skills and writing: how do you *teach* these?

[RobinL in Canada]

I've been homeschooling for 17 years. My own background/ degrees are in literature and writing. My own sons have all become strong, articulate writers who can actually analyze literary material and discuss it thoughtfully and insightfully(as affirmed by other teachers). I've taught for years in co-op classes and invariably receive very positive evaluations from the students who say that "it was challenging, but I learned so much!" So I must be doing something right, yes?

 

Then why is it that my co-op students struggle so badly at writing a basic lit analysis paper after a semester of instruction? I have taught both basic essay writing and lit analysis in our local co-op for high school kids (so far, using primarily Elegant Essay and Windows to the World), and I continue to shake my head at how minimally or simplistically so many of these students *think.* I don't want to go into a rant here ; what I'm wondering is how to teach students to think analytically so that they actually can write analytically. Yes, the WW program presents a basic lit analysis paragraph model to follow: TS, assertion; proof/ quotations; commentary; etc. Where the students seem to fall down is with the commentary section of the paragraph--ie, the part that actually makes literary analysis literary analysis ; ) Despite our having worked together in class to understand what commentary is, asking how and why and to what effect, they still seem to fall back on the most basic sorts of observations which do not actually *say* anything. For example, their last essay assignment was to write about the significance of setting in one of three stories. Using "A Jury of Her Peers," one student wrote: "Additionally, the inside of the house is described as grey and unwelcoming [assertion]. The furnishings, such as a "dingy red" chair with the "middle rung gone," create the grey and unwelcoming feeling, The way Glaspell describes the chair begins to paint an image in the reader's mind, The reader combines the idea of the kitchen having a "dingy" and broken chair with the description of the outside of the house to create a picture of a grey, run down interior" [commentary]. Lots of words, lots of repetition--very little meat! (Don't let me even start on weak writing styles...) But how do you help a student to see that and then to think more deeply about a text and how to express those deeper thoughts more effectively? My sons have seemed to catch on readily--why can't these kids?

 

Thanks for any input,

Robin

(banging my head quietly against the table as I mark these essays....)

[TippyCanoe]

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[RobinL in Canada]

I think that in general you are quite right. I know that a number of these students, though, come from "literary" homeschools--ie, they've done a lot of reading and been read to throughout their early years. Still, something is just lacking in their ability to think about a text--to look at the diction used, to make connections when an image recurs, etc. But overall, yes, the time factor is critical. We did spend time writing an entire essay on the board, but how much can you do in 12 weeks? (And WW is actually geared to be used over 18 weeks.) Honestly, I did not spend much time with my own sons teaching them how to write literary analysis essays (beyond using WW with them,also in a co-op setting, but over a longer stretch of time) or discussing lit with them (they were always in a hurry to get outside and play ball hockey), but somehow they seem to have come out of it all with the ability to think more attentively about a given text. I'm not sure how to manage this issue in a 12-week co-op class though, for all the reasons you listed.

[fiddle]

Well, I'm new to homeschooling, so not sure I even qualify to give advice. But I've been doing hours of research on writing, and isn't the "thinking" part what Lost Tools of Writing is supposed to develop? Just a thought...... We're doing IEW to start out with but I've been eyeing LTOW for either 8th or 9th grade, depending on how my rising 7th grader does this year and next with the IEW materials.

 

Paula

[Susan C.]

Also, teens don't have fully developed brains, and higher level reasoning is the last thing to develop. Its hard as an adult to go back to that age and remember how hard it is to have to figure out how to write how you feel and think about a literature piece. Also, since you are good at this, your kids may have your genes!

 

I am about to be finished homeschooling forever (yeah). Ds just graduated as an English major, and dd is going to start the same degree in the fall. We have worked through WttW and a British Lit. text. It seems that you build the skill of literary analysis bit by bit. I'll assign something that stretches her one unit, then the next, I'll let her write about how the pieces make her feel, etc. (whatever she wants to say). I can envision taking that and building on it to extend the paper, that is what ds's professors in college did. Each kid is different and learns at a different speed, so it seems that you would just go at the pace they can go, and work on getting them to get their thoughts together, first orally, then on paper.

[Testimony]

I am using IEW's Teaching the Classics.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[JanetC]

I remember struggling with this in school. What helped me was when teachers would read examples (without the students' names) after the assignments were graded and before they were turned back, and I could hear the difference between an A, a B, and a C response.

 

It really helps more than looking at an example beforehand, because you have already struggled with exactly the same assignment that the teacher is reading from.

 

If the kids still can't tell the difference, maybe read two essays and have the class discuss and figure out which was an A and which was a B and why.

 

--Janet

[RobinL in Canada]

I remember struggling with this in school. What helped me was when teachers would read examples (without the students' names) after the assignments were graded and before they were turned back, and I could hear the difference between an A, a B, and a C response.

 

It really helps more than looking at an example beforehand, because you have already struggled with exactly the same assignment that the teacher is reading from.

 

If the kids still can't tell the difference, maybe read two essays and have the class discuss and figure out which was an A and which was a B and why.

 

--Janet

 

Yup, done that sort of thing. Increasingly I'm seeing that analytical thinking, which supposedly is a logic-stage skill, really doesn't seem to develop with most kids until well into high school or even after.

[TippyCanoe]

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[1Togo]

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Edited May 1, 2012 by 1Togo

[RobinL in Canada]

Thank you for the input and suggestions. As I mentioned, the course was based on Windows to the World, which is actually meant to be an 18-week program and we had to cram it into 12 ; ) Some of the material we skimmed quickly or did not review in class because most of the students had been in a poetry class I taught last year where we covered such elements as similes. metaphors, imagery, etc. For short fiction though, other elements and techniques need to be covered, so I did include more stories to exemplify what we were studying. Doing so provided the students with more/ richer resources for discussion and analysis, but , yup, I'd say the time factor was probably what did them all in--having to absorb and process so much that was new so quickly. Overall, I guess they actually did a pretty decent job. If I were to teach this again, I would alter certain things we did (eg, skip the biblical and classical allusions study--it took up too much time in class) and do as much modeling of writing as possible.