December Unit: Analysis 201
Taking students deeper into finding, citing, and discussing text evidence
So, here’s what I’m thinking about … what would a multi-part scope and sequence look like just for authentic analytical writing?
What if a teacher was going to work on three different pieces of analytical writing with her students during the year — how would those units look different from one another and become increasingly challenging?
Or if a whole high school English department were to commit to teaching the essential skills of analytical writing, how could they meaningfully build on those skills each year without simply repeating the same lessons and the same pieces of writing? And what if we extended that to middle school? What would it look like for seven years?
And what about other genres and modes of writing?
These are big questions. And ones I can’t entirely answer today.
But here’s what I am offering: a step up from our Analysis 101 unit. A “what’s next” for students who have had an introduction to analytical writing, and now they are going to do it again.
Analysis 101 vs. Analysis 201
Our Analysis 101 unit was a true introduction to the concept of analytical writing: making a claim, gathering different kinds of evidence, finding an authentic structure that isn’t 5-paragraphs, considering how to use words to gain authority as a writer. The basics.
So, for the next lap around the analysis track, the focus becomes deepening students’ engagement with evidence while continuing to nudge them toward more original claims.
When thinking about the four essential elements of analysis (passion, ideas, structure, and authority), we might think about these two units like this:
We always want to touch on all four elements each time we return to a unit of analytical writing, but the proportions will change as students become more experienced with this kind of writing.
Analysis Mentor Texts
Now, by now you know my bent is toward authentic analysis — that is, analysis of any text. (And a text is anything that has a beginning, middle, and end that can be broken down into smaller pieces and examined.)
When my students write analysis, I pull MANY mentor texts of a wide variety: sports analysis, film analysis, music analysis, literary analysis, etc. You can find mentor texts like these in the Analysis 101 unit!
And there is an argument to be made for using the exact same mentor texts again — especially if you are teaching these two analytical writing units in the same year. If students are already familiar with the mentor texts, you are starting the unit off at an advantage by returning to them. Students will be able to go even deeper because they are not encountering the text for the first time.
If we’re tired of those same texts, then I would just go find more recent examples of the same — a wide range of different kinds of textual analysis that are well-written and would appeal to my students.
But, if you are looking ONLY for mentor texts that are literary analysis, let me point you in the right direction: