Drew’s semester exam assessed all four skills. Below, I have pulled information from discussion with him here a few weeks ago about his use of thesis statements to create meaningful writing. By meaningful I mean writing that is interesting to the kids and is not just another prompt from a teacher. Using a novel over the course of a semester to set up these summative assessments is a brilliant idea, in my view, and maybe some of us can benefit from what Drew has provided in the notes and comments below:
So the process looked like this:
Monday: Big class brainstorm on all motifs, characters, and themes from the novel. We PQA phrases like “se trata” (it’s about), “Turner y Ray muestran” (Turner and Ray show), “se puede ver” (one can see), “se nota” (it’s noticed), phrases that the students will need for the AP test.* We take a possible theme and look for a quote and talk about how to introduce it in a text and parenthetically cite (Connection to English/Lit classes) “Turner y Ray escriben: … (Turner y Ray #).” And then follow it up with a phrase like “para mostrar” (to show). Homework Monday night: Write your thesis statement. Use the brainstorm to focus on one or two ideas that you will analyze using the book.
Tuesday in-class: In 2nd period I let kids turn in their thesis statements for discussion under the document camera and on the projector. We talked about how “el tesis es un mapa” (a thesis is a map) “¿cuál es su idea y cómo me va a presentarla?” (what is your idea and how will you present it?). Then they saw examples of all of the thesis sentences on the screen. They also had the books and were using a notecard to pull any quotes from the text that they wanted. Every paragraph needed to have a quote.
In 3rd period my bulb blew up in my projector so I called kids 5 at a time to discuss the 5 thesis statements. The cool thing was that some kids said “Oh I need to redo mine, I’ll be back” before we even got to theirs . Powerful group learning. I think I preferred the one-on-fives.
Tuesday after school: A few kids wanted more help outlining, and writing thesis statements. A few kids wanted to pull more quotes.
Wednesday: In-class writing. Checked their notecards for quotes. They could use their pink sheets with about 100 transitional phrases (on it. (Those hard-to-PQA words like “in summary” “throughout the novel”). They had the entire hour for the 4-paragraph essay (Intro, 2 body paragraphs, and a conclusion). They all finished in our 52-minute class period. We practice free writes every Friday so they know how to write a lot in a short period of time.
Here is how Drew prepared the kids for the actual writing activity which, again, was part of his semester exam process:
Thesis Practice
Spanish III
This is on different slides. We scored each thesis statement after watching the season of the Amazing Race (props to Laurie Clarq) and in preparation for the final essay. These were all written by students with the language cleaned up a bit.
Slide 1
Analysis
4.0 In addition to 3.0, in-depth applications that go beyond what was taught.
2.0 Student draws inferences from the text and creates and supports a thesis.
3.0 Recognizes the key elements of the text in isolation.
Slide 2
Yo decido escribir sobre las fuerzas y sus debilidades en Edison y Edison en contraste con Marietta y José. Primero quiero hablar como los equipos muestran el amor y la paciencia y finalmente quiero hablar de la actitud de los equipos.
[First I want to talk about how the teams show love and patience and finally I want to talk about the attitude of the teams].
Slide 3
Yo escogí Marietta y José y también Edison y Edison. Entre los dos equipos, ellos son muy diferentes. Marietta y José son novios. Edison y Edison son padre e hijo. Ellos tienen el mismo nombre. Los dos equipos estan en el Amazing Race porque quieren ganar $250.000. Para ellos es mucho dinero.
[no Thesis statement present]
(I chose Marietta and Jose and also Edison and Edison. Between the two teams they are very different. Marietta and Jose are boyfriend and girlfriend. Edison and Edison are father and son. They have the same name. The two teams are in the AR because they want to win $250,000. For them it’s a lot of money).
Slide 4
El programa “The Amazing Race” hay dos equipos que son los mejores. Toño y Lili de México y Mauricio y Carlos de México. Los dos equipos son fuertes, inteligentes, y tienen confianza.
[The two teams are strong, intelligent and are confident.]
Slide 5
En la carrera de “The Amazing Race” parejas de toda América participan para ganar un premio de mucho dinero. Las parejas muestran muchas fuerzas pero también muestran muchas debilidades. Cuando el equipo de México, Carlos y Mauricio, tienen el corazón y la resistencia para estar en la competición, el equipo Mauricio y Mariana mostraron sus defectos y sus debilidades.
(In the race The Amazing Race, teams from all of American participate to win a prize of a lot of money. The teams show many strengths but also show a lot of weaknesses. [When the team from Mexico, Carlos and Mauricio, have heart and the resistance to be in the competition, the team Mauricio and Mariana showed their defects and their weaknesses.])
Spanish II
From Mi propio auto (My own car) by Turner and Ray
These are student-created with teacher assistance beforehand.
I’ll type their language and their mistakes and translate into English.
Ben es un persona materialismo en la empieza pero en el termina en la novela, Ben es differente y tiene compación y un corazon para los personas en El Salvador.
(Ben is a materialistic person at the beginning but at the end of the novel Ben is different and has compassion and heart for the people in El Salvador.)
En la novella Mi propio auto, los autores Turner y Ray muestran lo que es importante de la vida cuando Ben a viaje a El Salvador, trabaja mucho, y conoce a salvadoreños felies.
(In the novella My Own Car, the authors, Turner and Ray, show what is important in life when Ben travels to El Salvador, works a lot, and meets the happy El Salvadorians.)
En la novella, Mi propio auto, Lisa Ray Turner y Blane Ray comparan lo que es una civilización segun Ben y segun Anabel y como afectó la definición de Ben.
(In the novel, My Own Car, Lisa Ray Turner and Blane Ray compare what is a civilization according to Ben and according to Anabel and how it affected the definition of Ben. )
En mi propio auto, Ben para musear Anabel esta la importante de la vida es en la familia y educacion.
(In My Own Car, Ben ??? the importance of life is in family and education.)
I realize that these aren’t deep at all, but the fact that they are creating a thesis statement at all and then adhering to it and to paragraphing their ideas is what I am aiming for.