TOC to Come
Jim Burke
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1
THE NEW ACADEMIC ESSENTIALS: COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS
Name:
„
Date:
Major/Field:
8/13/13
School/Other:
Fall
DOMAINS (Score yourself 0-3. 0 = don’t know it/can’t do it; 3 = major strength)
Spr
∆
COMMUNICATING: WRITTEN, ORAL, VISUAL, & OTHER MEANS OR MEDIA
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Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and evidence.
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately.
Use writing as one of many different ways to understand and deepen your grasp of a topic or a text.
Produce clear, coherent writing that develops and organizes ideas, and uses style appropriate to task, purpose, audience.
Demonstrate a command of conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics when writing or speaking.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
Design texts using images, words, different features (e.g., fonts), formats, or media in light of your purpose and audience.
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assessing its credibility before integrating it.
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support your analysis, reflection, and research.
Convey arguments, ideas, and information using visual, graphic, or multimedia formats.
Use language when speaking or writing that is appropriate to your subject, occasion, audience, and purpose.
Participate effectively in conversations and collaborations in person and online for different purposes and contexts.
READING: WORDS, IMAGES, INFORMATION, GRAPHICS
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Read closely to determine the text’s explicit meaning and make logical inferences based on evidence from the text.
Determine central ideas/themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details/ideas.
Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Interpret words and phrases as used in a text, including determining their technical, connotative, and figurative meanings.
Analyze how specific word choices, figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in meanings shape meaning or tone.
Analyze how text structures––specific sentences, paragraphs, larger sections––relate to each other and affect the whole.
Assess how point of view or the author’s purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Integrate and evaluate content in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
Delineate and evaluate the author’s argument, its specific claims, and the validity of reasoning and quality of evidence.
Analyze how two or more texts treat similar themes/topics in order to build knowledge and compare the authors’ approaches.
Interrogate texts: preview, annotate, outline/summarize, notice repetitions/patterns, compare/contrast with prior texts/topics.
LEARNING: TAKING NOTES, TAKING TESTS, OBSERVING, REMEMBERING, & RESEARCHING
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Take effective, organized notes that can be used to help you study, write, research, remember, or understand content.
Use different tools and techniques to capture ideas, evidence, or data during reading, observations, lectures, or experiments.
Employ a range of strategies when studying for and taking tests of any type.
Draw on different techniques to identify what you need to remember and to help you remember and apply that content.
Determine the criteria or questions to use when reading, viewing, or observing so you know what to notice and ignore.
Create and use a system for gathering, organizing, and using notes and documents essential to success in each class.
Seek out and use all available resources, including tutors, websites, and your teachers to help you learn and improve.
Identify a question or problem to investigate, collecting, evaluating, and synthesizing data from various sources.
THINKING: IMAGINATION, CURIOSITY, CREATIVITY, & HABITS OF MIND
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Ask questions to clarify, generate, connect, evaluate, analyze, solve/identify problems, challenge ideas, and show curiosity.
Identify, frame, analyze, and solve problems using a variety of tools or approaches.
Access and analyze information, determining what it means, why it matters, and how best to convey the findings.
Generate ideas, questions, hypotheses, interpretations, problems, solutions, alternatives, perspectives, and arguments.
Reflect on your own processes and performances, using the insights to improve your work in the future.
Explore other ways of doing, learning, solving, generating by being playful, curious, open, and even daring.
Imagine how others would perceive, respond to, or otherwise think about an idea, question, interpretation, or event.
Seek critical feedback about your work, allowing yourself to listen to, consider, and use any details that will improve it.
Construct logical arguments supported by valid evidence that acknowledges and addresses other perspectives.
Synthesize seemingly competing sources or findings when exploring a subject across a range of texts.
MANAGING: YOURSELF, RELATIONSHIPS, RESOURCES, & YOUR REPUTATION
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Know your needs and strengths; harness these to ensure success with whatever you do, whomever you work.
Monitor and manage your stress, impulsivity, attention, and energy to achieve the desired or specified outcomes.
Respect other perspectives, cultures, and values when collaborating, evaluating, or communicating.
Collaborate effectively with a range of people for different purposes in different situations in-person and online.
Make responsible, ethical choices regarding work and relationships; accept the consequences of your decisions.
Adhere to a strict work ethic by always being prompt, prepared, precise and accurate; and doing/submitting your own work.
Cultivate and maintain an ethos that establishes that you are trustworthy, ethical, committed, competent, and likable.
Demonstrate resiliency, initiative, grit, and persistence when encountering obstacles on solo or group projects.
Show adaptability and agility as conditions, demands, or required skills and knowledge change suddenly and over time.
TOTAL SCORE
© 2013 Jim Burke. Sources: Academic Literacy (UC/CSU/CCC 2002); Closing the Global Achievement Gap (Wagner 2010); Common Core Standards (2010);
Jim
Burke for Success in College Writing (CWPA 2011);
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more information 2010); College Knowledge (Conley 2005);
Framework
The
Flat World & Educationfor
(Darling-Hammond
“Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard” (Harvard 2011).
2
The Four Cs of Academic Success (from School Smarts, Jim Burke. Heinemann 2004)
COMMITMENT
CONTENT
Commitment describes the extent to which students care
about the work and maintain consistency in their attempt
to succeed.
Content refers to information or processes students
must know to complete a task or succeed on an
assignment in class. Domains include: academic, social,
procedural, cultural, vocational, ethical, and cognitive.
Key aspects of commitment are:
• Consistency: Everyone can be great or make heroic
efforts for a day or even a week; real, sustainable success
in a class, or on large assignments requires consistent
hard work and “quality conscience”
• Effort: Some students resist making a serious effort
when they do not believe they can succeed. Without
such effort, neither success or improvement are
possible
• Emotional investment: Refers to how much students
care about their success and the quality of their work on
this assignment or performance. Directly related to
perceived relevance and importance. This is what Jaime
Escalante calls ganas, which means “the urge to
succeed, to achieve, to grow.”
• Faith: Students must believe that the effort they make
will eventually lead to the result or success they seek.
Faith applies to a method or means by which they hope
to achieve success
• Permission: Students must give themselves permission
to learn and work hard, and others permission to teach
and support them if they are to improve and succeed.
Content knowledge includes:
• Conventions related to documents, procedures,
genres, or experiences
• Cultural reference points not specifically related to the
subject but necessary to understand the material such
as:
• People
• Events
• Trends
• Ideas
• Dates
• Discipline or subject-specific matter such as names,
concepts, and terms
• Features, cues, or other signals that convey meaning
during a process or within a text
• Language needed to complete or understand the task
• Procedures used during the course of the task or
assignment.
Competencies are those skills students need to be able to
do to complete the assignment or succeed at some task.
Capacities account for the quantifiable aspects of
performance; students can have great skills but lack the
capacity to fully employ those skills.
Representative, general competencies include the ability
to:
• Communicate ideas and information to complete and
convey results of the work
• Evaluate and make decisions based on information
needed to complete the assignment or succeed at the
task
• Generate ideas, solutions, and interpretations that will
lead to the successful completion of the task
• Learn while completing the assignment so students can
improve their performance on similar assignments in
the future
• Manage resources (time, people, and materials) needed
to complete the task; refers also to ability to govern
one’s self
• Teach others how to complete certain tasks and
understand key concepts
• Use a range of tools and strategies to solve the problems
they encounter
Primary capacities related to academic performance
include:
• Confidence in their ideas, methods, skills, and overall
abilities related to this task.
• Dexterity which allows students, when needed, to do
more than one task at the same time (a.k.a.
multitasking)
• Fluency needed to handle problems or interpret ideas
that vary from students’ past experience or learning
• Joy one finds in doing the work well and in a way that
satisfies that individual’s needs
• Memory so students can draw on useful background
information or store information needed for
subsequent tasks included in the assignment
• Resiliency needed to persevere despite initial or
periodic obstacles to success on the assignment or
performance
• Speed with which students can perform one or more
tasks needed to complete the assignment or
performance
• Stamina required to maintain the requisite level of
performance; includes physical and mental stamina
COMPETENCIES
Jim Burke
CAPACITIES
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QUICK REFERENCE: 6-12 ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
DIRECTIONS
Read through the following CC anchor
standards, giving yourself a score of
1-3 (1 = Weakness/3 = Strength)
READING
Key Ideas and Details
1. Read closely to determine what the
text says explicitly and to make logical
inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support
conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of
a text and analyze their development;
summarize the key supporting details and
ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals,
events, and ideas develop and interact over
the course of a text.
Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as they
are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and
figurative meanings, and analyze how
specific word choices shape meaning
or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts,
including how specific sentences,
paragraphs, and larger portions of the
text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or
stanza) relate to each other and the
whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose
shapes the content and style of a text.
Integration of Knowledge/Ideas
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media,
including visually and quantitatively,
as well as in words.
8. Delineate and evaluate the argument
and specific claims in a text, including
the validity of the reasoning as well
as the relevance and sufficiency of the
evidence.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order
to build knowledge or to compare the
approaches the authors take.
Range and Level of Complexity
10. Read and comprehend complex
literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
WRITING
Production/Distribution of Writing
1. Write arguments to support
claims in an analysis of substantive
topics or texts, using valid reasoning
Jim Burke
4. Produce clear and coherent writing
in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
5. Develop and strengthen writing as
needed by planning, revising, editing,
rewriting, or trying a new approach.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing
and to interact and collaborate with
others.
Research to Build/Present Knowledge
7. Conduct short as well as more
sustained research projects based on
focused questions, demonstrating
understanding of the subject under
investigation.
8. Gather relevant information from
multiple print and digital sources,
assess the credibility and accuracy of
each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
9. Draw evidence from literary or
informational texts to support analysis,
reflection, and research.
rhetoric. Presentation of Knowledge & Ideas
10. Write routinely over extended time
frames (time for research, reflection,
and revision) and shorter time frames
(a single sitting or a day or two) for a
range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
SPEAKING AND LISTENING
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and
collaborations with diverse partners,
building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information
presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively,
and orally.
3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view,
reasoning, and use of evidence and
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4. Present information, findings, and
supporting evidence such that listeners
can follow the line of reasoning and
the organization, development, and
style are appropriate to task, purpose,
and audience.
5. Make strategic use of digital media
and visual displays of data to express
information and enhance understanding of presentations.
6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts
and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when
indicated or appropriate.
LANGUAGE
Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar
and usage when writing or speaking.
2. Demonstrate command of the
conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
when writing.
Knowledge of Language
3. Apply knowledge of language to
understand how language functions
in different contexts, to make effective
choices for meaning or style, and to
comprehend more fully when reading
or listening.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Range of Writing
Text Types and Purposes
and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts
to examine and convey complex ideas
and information clearly and accurately
through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
3. Write narratives to develop real
or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event
sequences.
4. Determine or clarify the meaning
of unknown and multiple-meaning
words and phrases by using context
clues, analyzing meaningful word
parts, and consulting general and
specialized reference materials, as
appropriate.
5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships,
and nuances in word meanings.
6. Acquire and use accurately a range
of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for
reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness
level; demonstrate independence in
gathering vocabulary knowledge when
considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
NEXT STEPS: Content: © NGA/CCSSO (CCSS)
Design: Jim Burke
4
Academic Text Types
Examples
By Form
Arguments
Provide arguments
that support claims
about topics or texts,
using evidence and
logic.
Inform/Explanations
Explain or convey ideas
and information about
concepts, procedures,
events, places, or
people.
Foundational Texts
Represent and express the
principles of the nation as
reflected through the texts
used to create and lead it.
Seminal Texts
Influence or express
something essential about
our culture; to know our
country and culture, read
these texts.
Literary/Narrative
Convey a real or imagined
experience through a
story, poem, or other form
or medium.
Ads
Debates
Editorials
Essays
Letters
Literary analysis
Petition
Proposals
Reports
Reviews
Speeches
Articles
Charts
Diagrams
Directions
Essays
Graphs
Infographics
Lab Narrative
Manuals
Presentations
Procedural Narratives
Reports
Resumes
Summaries
Tables
Websites
Wikis
13th Amendment
Bill of Rights
Declaration of
Independence
Emancipation Proclamation
U.S. Constitution
Articles
Declarations
Diaries
Essays
Executive Orders
Letters
Lyrics
Opinion/Editorials
Pamphlets
Poems
Sermons
Speeches
Supreme Court Opinions
Tracts
Artworks/Images
Biographical Narratives
Fairytales/Folktales/Myths
Fiction (story/novel)
Films
Graphic fiction/nonfic
Literary Nonfiction
Memoir
Mixed media narratives
Monologues
Personal narratives
Photoessays
Plays
Poems
Prose Fiction
Scripts
By Purpose
Examples
Description
Persuasive
Explanatory
Imaginative
Expressive
Provides arguments that
support claims about
topics or texts, using
evidence and logic.
Explains or conveys ideas
and information about
concepts, procedures,
events, places, or people.
Captures and conveys
a real or imagined
experience through a
story, poem, or other
form or medium rich in
detail and design.
Uses informal, loosely
organized language
intended to convey
attitudes, feelings,
thoughts to an interested
audience
Ads
Debates
Editorials
Essays
Letters
Literary analysis
Proposals
Reviews
Speeches
Articles
Essays
Infographics
Manuals
Presentations
Reports
Resumes
Summaries
Websites
Wikis
Artworks/Images
Biographical Narratives
Creative Nonfiction
Digital stories
Graphic fiction
Mixed media
Monologues
Personal narratives
Poems
Prose Fiction
Scripts
Artworks/Images
Blogs
Emails
Journals
Mixed Media
Personal statements
Reader’s responses
Reflections
Reviews
Social network posts
Text messages
Jim Burke
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Protocols for Effective Literacy Instruction
1. Provide the necessary physical, emotional, and intellectual conditions for optimum learning and
engagement.
2. Establish and communicate clear, specific learning objectives aligned with state, postsecondary, and career
standards.
3. Make explicit connections between present and past lessons, students’ lives, other texts or subjects, the real
world, and the Big Ideas around which lessons are organized.
4. Prepare students by teaching relevant background knowledge, skills, and academic language and literacies.
5. Integrate assessment throughout the instructional process, using the data to determine initial understanding,
measure progress, provide feedback, refine instruction, and prepare students for future performances.
6. Teach students a range of strategies for learning, remembering, and doing.
7. Demystify literacy practices and assignments by modeling, providing examples, and giving clear directions
as students graduate from depending on you to take responsibility for their own learning.
8. Instruct students using all appropriate methods, modes, and media.
9. Develop students’ ability to generate a range of ideas, interpretations, solutions, questions, and connections.
10.Provide meaningful opportunities to practice, perfect, and perform all lessons in class and at home.
––Jim Burke, from The English Teacher’s Guide 4e (Heinemann 2013)
Directions: After completing the self-assessment, reflect here on what you realize are your strengths and weaknesses.
Jim Burke
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From Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools (Graham and Perin
2007), in which the authors identify the following strategies as effective based on an extensive review of the research:
1. Writing Strategies, which involves teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their
compositions
2. Summarization, which involves explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts
3. Collaborative Writing, which uses instructional arrangements in which adolescents work together to plan, draft,
revise, and edit their compositions
4. Specific Product Goals, which assigns students specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete
5. Word Processing, which uses computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments
6. Sentence Combining, which involves teaching students to construct more complex, sophisticated sentences
7. Prewriting, which engages students in activities designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their
composition
8. Inquiry Activities, which engages students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help them develop ideas and
content for a particular writing task
9. Process Writing Approach, which interweaves a number of writing instructional activities in a workshop
environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized
instruction, and cycles of writing
10. Study of Models, which provides students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing
11. Writing for Content Learning, which uses writing as a tool for learning content material.
The Elements of Effective Reading Instruction
From Reading Next—A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School (Biancarosa and Snow 2004), in which
the authors identify the following fifteen strategies as effective secondary-level reading instruction based on an extensive
review of the research:
1. Direct, explicit comprehension instruction, which is instruction in the strategies and processes that proficient
readers use to understand what they read, including summarizing, keeping track of one’s own understanding, and
a host of other practices
2. Effective instructional principles embedded in content, including language arts teachers using content-area texts
and content-area teachers providing instruction and practice in reading and writing skills specific to their subject
area
3. Motivation and self-directed learning, which includes building motivation to read and learn and providing students
with the instruction and supports needed for independent learning tasks they will face after graduation
4. Text-based collaborative learning, which involves students interacting with one another around a variety of texts
5. Strategic tutoring, which provides students with intense individualized reading, writing, and content instruction as
needed
6. Diverse texts, which are texts at a variety of difficulty levels and on a variety of topics
7. Intensive writing, including instruction connected to the kinds of writing tasks students will have to perform well in
high school and beyond
8. A technology component, which includes technology as a tool for and a topic of literacy instruction
9. Ongoing formative assessment of students, which is informal, often daily assessment of how students are
progressing under current instructional practices
10. Extended time for literacy, which includes approximately two to four hours of literacy instruction and practice that
takes place in language arts and content-area classes
11. Professional development that is both long term and ongoing
12. Ongoing summative assessment of students and programs, which is more formal and provides data that are
reported for accountability and research purposes
13. Teacher teams, which are interdisciplinary teams that meet regularly to discuss students and align instruction
14. Leadership, which can come from principals and teachers who have a solid understanding of how to teach reading
and writing to the full array of students present in schools
15. A comprehensive and coordinated literacy program, which is interdisciplinary and interdepartmental and may even
coordinate with out-of-school organizations and the local community.
Jim Burke
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The Goldilocks Continuum of Text Complexity
Title:
Appropriate Grade Level:
QUANTITATIVE FACTORS
Word Length
 What is the average length of a word in this text?
 Do the words tend to have one or many meanings?
Author
Length:
Too Simple
Date:
Text Type/Genre:
Just Right
Too Complex
Sentence Length
 How long is the average sentence?
 Do they tend to be all the same length or vary as a function of style?
 Do the sentences have a range of syntactical complexity—or do they
tend to follow the same pattern?
Word Frequency
 Which words are used frequently?
 Are these words known/familiar?
Text Cohesion
 How well does this text hold together or flow (thanks to signal words
such as transitions)?
 Does the text use other techniques such as repetition, concrete language
to improve cohesion?
 Does the text lack cohesion as a result of having no signal words?
Text Structure
 Does the text use simple, predictable structures such as chronological
order?
 Does the text use complex literary structures such as flashbacks or, if
informational, sophisticated graphics and genre conventions?
 Does the text use other features—layout, color, graphics—in ways that
might confuse or challenge some readers?
Language Conventions & Clarity
 Is the language literal, clear, modern, and conversational?
 Is the language figurative, ironic, ambiguous, archaic, specialized, or
otherwise unfamiliar?
Knowledge Demands
 Does the text make few assumptions about what you have experienced
or know about yourself, others, and the world?
 Does the text assume you know about this topic or text based on prior
experience or study?
1
QUALITATIVE FACTORS
Levels of Meaning or Purpose
 If literary, does the text have more than one obvious meaning?
 If informational, is the purpose explicitly stated or implied?
 Does the text explore more than one substantial idea?
READER AND TASK CONSIDERATIONS
Motivation, Knowledge, and Experience
 How motivated is this student to read this text?
 How much does this student know about this topic or text?
 How much experience does the student have with this task or text type?
Purpose and Complexity of the Assigned Task
 Is this student able to read and work at the assigned level?
 Are these questions the student will know how to answer?
 Is the student expected to do this work alone and without any support–
–or with others and guidance?
 Is this text or task appropriate for this student at this time?
 Is this text or task as, less, or more complex than the last one?
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1
The CCSS states that “preference should likely be given to qualitative measures of text complexity when evaluating narrative fiction
for students in grade 6 and above” (8).
Jim Burke
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Teach by Design: Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Model
Created by Jim Burke
This page offers you a quick-reference guide to using Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) model when you are developing instructional
units, assessment tasks, or specific assignments in your content area. Two central concepts in the DOK model are the cognitive demands the
learning or assessment tasks make on students, and the depth of knowledge or understanding a given task or question requires to complete
or learn it. The assigned DOK level reflects the degree of cognitive processing a task, topic, text, or test demands. Bloom’s Taxonomy assumed
certain verbs required a level of cognitive processing; in his DOK model, however, Webb, argues that it is what follows the verb that determines
the complexity of the task. Thus, a word like describe could appear at any of the four DOK levels, depending on what one was asked to describe.
LEVEL 1
RECALL & REPRODUCE: We know but do not transform facts, details, terms, or principles.
DESCRIPTION: LEVEL 1
Asks students to remember, list, locate, retell,
identify, define, or use similar skills on assignments or assessments to show that they
know certain target knowledge or skills. At
this level, the cognitive demands are basic,
requiring knowledge and skills that students
either do or do not know; that is, Level 1
questions or tasks do not ask students to use
the facts or other details to solve any problems or figure out additional questions.
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS
• Identify all metaphors used in a passage.
• List three examples of irony from the text.
• Retell what happens to _____ in the text.
• Define the word _____ using a dictionary.
• Locate all details to include in works cited.
• Label each of the types of sentences in a ¶.
• Memorize a passage or a complete poem.
• Recall the questions to ask about a poem.
• Find the key facts about _____ in a text.
• Search online using the terms provided.
ASSIGNMENT & ASSESSMENT TASKS
• Which definition is more accurate for the
word ____ as it is used in line 4?
• What does the author say is the most
memorable quality of ____ in his essay?
• What are the elements of a Shakespearean
sonnet?
• In his second soliloquy, Hamlet describes
himself as: a.___ b.___ c.___.
• What different definitions does the dictionary offer for the word ____?
LEVEL 2
SKILLS & CONCEPTS: We process/transform specified knowledge––then use or apply it.
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS
• Organize details in order of importance.
• Compare how X is similar to Y.
• Predict what X will do next based on ___.
• Display data as a table or graph.
• Summarize an author’s argument.
• Translate a table/graph into a paragraph.
• Paraphrase a specified portion of the text.
• Distinguish the effect of X from Y.
• Define ___ based on context clues in text.
• Represent the story using a plot diagram.
DESCRIPTION: LEVEL 2
Asks students to infer, organize, predict, compare, classify, show cause-effect, solve simple
problems, or complete similar processes that
require students to determine what a word
or concept means––based on any available
context or background information––then
to go beyond the obvious meaning of the
word or concept, using it to estimate, classify, summarize, revise, translate, or modify
something to show they understand it.
ASSIGNMENT & ASSESSMENT TASKS
• How would you visually represent the
relationship between X and Y?
• What other words could you use to describe X based on what you know?
• What question is the author trying to
answer in this essay or presentation?
• What other defendible claims could you
make about this text?
• Which of the following sentences makes
the clearest, most effective claim?
LEVEL 3
STRATEGIC THINKING & REASONING: We integrate in-depth knowledge & skills to solve/produce.
DESCRIPTION: LEVEL 3
Asks students to assess, develop, draw
conclusions, explain events/processes in terms
of concepts, solve complicated problems, and
engage in similar higher order thinking
skills that require planning, reasoning, analysis, and evaluation. Students combine their
deepening conceptual knowledge and growing array of skills to think strategically about
how to solve and create. Level 3 emphasizes
deep understanding of one text or source.
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS
• State the reasoning behind a position and
provide relevant evidence that supports it.
• Investigate a problem or question, explaining its origins and how it has evolved over
time as a result of human intervention.
• Develop a logical argument about how a
literary character changes over the course
of a story and how they contribute to the
meaning of the text as a whole; provide
textual evidence to support any claims.
ASSIGNMENT & ASSESSMENT TASKS
• What tone is most appropriate given your
task, audience, occasion, or purpose?
• What logic informs the sequence of information in this text and how does it relate
to the author’s (or your own) purpose?
• How could you revise your paper to improve the logic or cohesion of your ideas?
• Explain how this poem honors and departs from the sonnet form, and how that
departure affects the poem’s meaning.
LEVEL 4
EXTENDED THINKING: We extend our knowledge to address complex, real problems or questions.
DESCRIPTION: LEVEL 4
Asks students to extend, integrate, reflect,
adjust, design, conduct, and initiate or monitor authentic problems that have no obvious
or predictable solution, drawing on a range
of sources, texts of different types and perspectives, often in collaboration with others
and over an extended period of time. Level
4 thinking demands we extend our thinking
across sources, disciplines, and perspectives
to solve a problem or create a final product.
Jim Burke
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS
• Design a multimedia slide presentation
that documents the civil rights movement
from different perspectives, analyzing key
moments and explaining their effect on
the movement and the people involved.
• Investigate a substantive topic for an
extended time from multiple perspectives
that results in a 10-page formal paper
presented in a 3-5 minute multimedia
TED-Talk format to parents and peers.
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ASSIGNMENT & ASSESSMENT TASKS
• Identify themes that are common to the
different texts provided, explaining how
these themes are treated and developed.
• Analyze how identity contributes to the
meaning of each text, choosing a metaphor
that effective captures what these various
sources are saying about identity.
• Write an analysis of two (or more) sonnets,
constructing and supporting with evidence
a claim about what says about a subject
they have in common.
9
THE ANCHOR WORDS: Essential Academic Terms
(Detailed Definitions)
These words describe the mental moves at the core of all assignments, assessments, problems, and prompts.
1
Analyze
break down • deconstruct • examine
Argue
2
3
claim • persuade • propose
Compare/Contrast
differentiate • distinguish • separate
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
© 2014
Jim
BurkeJim
Define
classify • delineate • specify
Describe
illustrate • report • represent
Determine
establish • identify • resolve
Develop
formulate • generate • elaborate
Evaluate
assess • figure out • gauge
Explain
clarify • demonstrate • discuss
Integrate
combine • incorporate • synthesize
Interpret
conclude • infer • translate
Organize
arrange • classify • form
Summarize
outline • paraphrase • report
Support
cite • justify • maintain
Transform
alter • change • convert
break something down methodically into its parts to
understand how it is made, what it is, how it works; look at
something critically in order to grasp its essence
provide reasons or evidence in order to support or
oppose something; persuade another by reason or
evidence; contend or maintain that something is true
identify similarities or differences between two or more
items in order to understand how they are alike, equal, or
analogous to each other
state the meaning of a word or phrase as it is used by a
reliable source (dictionary), a discipline (physics), or a field
(law); also involves describing the quality of something
report what one observes or does in order to capture and
convey to others a process, impression, or a sequence of
events in a narrative
consider all possible options, perspectives, results, or
answers in order to arrive at a decision; provide guidance
by establishing what is most important or relevant
improve the quality or substance of; extend or elaborate
upon an idea in order to give it greater form; add more
complexity or strength to an idea, position, or process
determine the value, amount, importance, or effectiveness
of something in order to understand if it matters or means
something
provide reasons for what happened or for one’s actions in
order to clarify, justify, or define those events, actions,
causes or effects
make whole by combining the different parts into one;
join or make something part of a larger unit; synthesize
many disparate parts into one form
draw from a text, data set, information or artwork some
meaning or significance; make inferences or draw
conclusions about what an act, text, or event means
arrange or put in order according to some guiding
principle; impose coherence, order, structure, or function
according to type, traits, or other quality
retell the essential details of what happened, what
someone did or said, in order to better understand and
remember it; outline key details in accessible language
offer evidence, examples, details, or data in order to
illustrate or bolster your claim or conclusion; cite those
sources of information that justify your position
change in form, function, or nature in order to reveal or
emphasize something; convert data from one form into
another; alter something through a process
Burke. For more information visit
Teachers
may photocopy for classroom use only. 10
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information
DAILY LESSON PLAN
Date
Instructional Checklist
 Provide the necessary conditions.
 Establish and communicate clear,
specific learning objectives.
 Make explicit connections.
Class
Objectives:
Unit
ACT 1:
 Prepare students.
 Integrate assessment throughout;
include time for reflection.
 Teach students strategies.
 Demystify literacy practices and
performances.
 Use different instructional
methods, modes, and media.
 Ask students to generate.
 Provide meaningful opportunities
to practice, perfect, and perform
all lessons in class and at home.
Checklist
ACT 2:
Did you:




Remember and Reflect
ACT 3:
Homework Jim Burke
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11
Name:
1984 Close Reading and Discussion Questions
Directions: Answer any five of the questions listed below. Do your work on separate paper or the back
and turn in with these questions attached.
Chapter 1.1
1. Define ironic (1) as it appears in the dictionary and (2) as you understand it in your own words.
2. Explain how Orwell’s use of the word “victory” (e.g., Victory Mansions, Victory Gin) is ironic,
supporting your answer with details or examples from the text.
3. Why was “nothing illegal” and why were “laws no longer needed” (6)?
4. A “conditioned response” is defined as:
The learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. For example, let's suppose that the smell of food is an
unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in response the smell is a unconditioned response, and the sound of a
whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response would cause you to feel hungry when you heard the
sound of the whistle. The conditioned response is the learned reflexive response.
Respond to the claim that everyone’s behavior during the Two Minute Hate (pgs. 11-17) is a
conditioned response. In your response, you should agree, disagree, or do both (agree and disagree).
Explain your reasoning, supporting your explanation with examples from the text.
5. Contrast the emotions the Two Minute Hate film associates with Goldstein and Big Brother. Support
your answers with specific details or quotations from the text.
6. Describe Winston’s relationship with others and Oceania in general using a metaphor or simile.
Develop your metaphor or simile by explaining how it applies and providing examples that support
your comparison.
7. Summarize the notion of Thoughtcrime (pg. 19), including two examples from chapter 1 and
explaining what makes them thoughtcrimes.
8. List three adjectives that describe Oceania as it appears in chapter 1. Choose the best adjective and
explain how it, of your three words, best captures Orwell’s world.
Jim Burke
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12
Name:
1984 Close Reading and Discussion Questions
Directions: Answer any five of the questions listed below. Do your work on separate paper or the back
and turn in with these questions attached.
Chapters 1.2-1.3
1. Of Hitler’s Junior Spies organization, one source wrote that “If parents did not register their
children for the Hitler Youth they could possible face fines or imprisonment. Also,
questionnaires were distributed to high school students asking to list information on parents,
teachers, or employers that interfered with the Hitler Youth duties. It was also helpful to turn in
an anti-Nazi person to better their chances of promotion” (Hitler’s Children 1998)
Question: Compare Mrs. Parsons’ children (pages 23-24 in my edition) to Hitler’s child spies:
explain why you think this is or is not an accurate comparison, taking time to describe how the
two groups are similar (or different).
2. Interpret the following line, supporting your interpretation with details from the text: “Nothing
was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull” (27).
3. Define the word annihilation (1) as it appears in the dictionary and (2) as it is used in 1984 (pgs.
27, 31, 19).
4. Interpret the line, “He was already dead, he reflected” (28). Explain what you think it means in
the context in which Winston thinks it.
5. Summarize the following passage from Winston’s dream (in your own words):
The girl with dark hair was coming toward him across the field. With what seemed
a single movement she tore off her clothes and flung them disdainfully aside. Her
body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him; indeed, he barely
looked at it. What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture
with which she had thrown her clothes aside. With its grace and carelessness it
seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big
Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into nothingness
by a single splendid movement of the arm. That too was a gesture belonging to the
ancient time. (31)
6. Analyze this portion of the previous passage, paying close attention to the language:
What overwhelmed him in that instant was admiration for the gesture with
which she had thrown her clothes aside. With its grace and carelessness it
seemed to annihilate a whole culture, a whole system of thought, as though Big
Brother and the Party and the Thought Police could all be swept into
nothingness by a single splendid movement of the arm. That too was a gesture
belonging to the ancient time. (31)
Jim Burke
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13
Name:
1984 Close Reading and Discussion Questions
Directions: Answer any five of the questions listed below. Do your work on separate paper or the back and turn
in with these questions attached.
Chapters 1.4-1.5
1. There are two parts to this question, both of which you must answer correctly to receive credit:
a. PART A: Define the word rectify as given by the dictionary.
b. PART B: Explain the meaning of the word rectify as it is used in the context of Winston’s job in 1984
(pgs. 38-39). Discuss the implications of the word (and the act of rectifying) as it is used in 1984.
2. Reread the discussion about “truth” and “facts” on pages 40-41. Generate three questions one can ask to
determine (in our world today) with certainty if something is true, is a fact. Explain briefly how each
sentence works to determine if something is true—and why you would be vaporized for even thinking, let
alone asking, those questions.
3. Which of the following diagrams best represents the relationship between people in Oceania. Explain why
that diagram best illustrates the nature of the relationship.
A.
B.
C.
4. Determine the type of power, according to French and Raven’s model, that best describes the Ministry of
Truth’s source of power. Then explain your answer. You may circle more than one.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Reward
Legitimate
Referent
Expert
Informational
Coercive
None of the above
All the above.
5. Read the following claim and respond as directed below:
“The woman with sandy hair” (pg. 42) is complicit in the systematic murder of
thousands because she “tracks down and deletes from the press the names of
those who have been vaporized.”
State and explain why you (a). agree (b). disagree (c) agree and disagree.
6. Winston’s job calls for him to fabricate a person to rectify a story. As Orwell says, “but a few lines of print
and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring [Ogilvy] into existence” (46), then adds, “Comrade
Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact. It struck [Winston] as curious that you could create dead
men but not living ones” (47).
Question: List three says you could create a person today who others would assume was real.
Jim Burke
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14
“THEY SAY” NOTES
WHO
“SAYS”
Created by Jim Burke
WHAT: POSITION
WHY: MOTIVE
WHAT: MEANS
WHY: MATTERS
Examples include:
} The author(s)
} A character
} A source/source(s)
referred to or cited
by an the author(s)
Examples include:
} Claims
} Insists
} Rejects
} Dismisses
} Argues
} Urges
} Describes
The claim, argument, opinion,
perspective, or general idea the source
attempts to convey through his or her
speech, book, article, or other means.
The motive for saying, doing, thinking,
feeling, or otherwise responding as the
source is in the context of the message.
Consider the context and audience as it
relates to the motive.
The interpretation or summary of what
the source is saying, put into your own
words by way of saying what “they say”
prior to responding with your own
position or perspective.
The significance, the “So what?” or “Who
cares?” of what the source is saying.
Edward Said,
author of
Orientalism, one of
the founding texts
of postcolonial
theory,
insists
that the “category of ‘the oriental’
is culturally constructed in the
West for Western purposes”
(Bonnycastle 231)
in order to justify the West’s
treatment of such disenfranchised
groups as “other” or different from
itself.
Said is saying is that classifying a
person or people as “other” frees the
West from any sense of obligation it
might feel to help fellow human
beings under certain circumstances.
Such groups of people—classed by
their race, ethnicity, faith, gender,
or some other aspect—when
marginalized or “othered,” as Said
describes this process, pose a threat
to the larger society in which they
reside because they feel they have
no place and thus nothing to lose.
Jim Burke
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15
SOURCE NOTES: WHAT THEY SAY • WHAT THEY MEAN • WHY THEY MATTER
NAME:
PART ONE: Use the sheet as a tool to help train your attention when reading sources for your research project. When you turn to work on your
own project or paper, remember to use these same steps to ensure that you do more than merely summarize others’ ideas.
Topic/Research Question
Source/Citation information
Quote: What they SAY
“As the 24 episode suggests…the culture is getting more cognitive demanding, not less. To make sense of an episode of 24, you have to integrate far more information than you would have a few decades ago watching a comparable show” (278 in TS/IS). Jim Burke
Sample: Does technology help or hurt us?
Sample: Steven Johnson “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” pages 278-294 in They Say/I Say
Interpret: What it MEANS
Johnson argues that today’s TV shows are much more complex than they were 20 years ago; as a result, the shows make much greater demands on our brains. Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
Explain: Why it MATTERS
This point is important because it refutes criticisms that today’s media dumbs us down by showing how their complexity actually makes us smarter. 16
ENTERING THE CONVERSATION: DISCOVERING WHAT “THEY SAY”––AND WHAT YOU SAY
Directions
Use this tool to help guide your investigation into the conversation you are trying to enter as you begin to discover and
develop your own ideas. Keep in mind the importance of using precise verbs (see the “Signal Verb Continuum”
handout) when summarizing other’s positions on this topic. Do not limit your ideas to the space provided; what matters
is that you gather a range of views against which to compare and convey your own position.
My Subject (One Word):
My Guiding Question/Topic/Position/Working Thesis (phrase or sentence):
Those who AGREE with or SUPPORT this idea say:
Those who DISAGREE with or CHALLENGE this idea say:
1.
1.
Ex: This idea is further validated by X, who contends…
Those who AGREE and DISAGREE with this idea say:
Ex: While X concedes that _________ is true, he dismisses
the notion that _________ is also true, suggesting
instead that __________ is the correct interpretation.
1.
Ex: X, however, questions this argument, insisting instead that….
As for my own position,
Ex: I agree with X that _______, but think _______ is true
because __________ not __________, as X insists.
Ex: I disagree with X, who claims __________; instead, I would
argue _________, since all evidence suggests_________.
Ex: Although I agree, as X suggests, that _______, I disagree
with his idea that _______, as both cannot possibly be true
given that _______.
1.
© 2014 Jim Burke. Visit www.englishcompanion.com for more information. May copy for classroom use only.
Jim Burke
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17
CLOSE READING NOTES: CHARACTER STUDY
WHO
DOES WHAT
Sees
Marlow
Jim Burke
Name:
A uniformed African
guarding a group of
“criminals” chained
Feels/Thinks
Private
Says
Public
WHY
Does
Public or Private
Says to the Accountant et al…thinks (but does not say) in Africa….
“Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces
at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a
uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path,
hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity…. After all, I also was a part
of the great cause of these high and just proceedings.” (33).
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Reason They Do Say • Think • Do
Public or Private
He does not approve of what he sees
upon arrival but cannot say this.
Probably a self-loathing, sardonic tone
behind his words, for he cannot see
these as “high and just proceedings.”
But if he spoke out, would lose his
position and be sent packing.
18
ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCES: WHERE WE ARE (with sample standards alignment)
Department:
Description
Read a range of literary
texts (stories, plays,
poems, art). RS.10
Class Level:
9
10
Date:
11
12
Read a range of literary
and informational
nonfiction (books, essays,
autobiographies, articles).
RS.10
Read a range of graphic,
visual, and multimedia
texts (websites, images,
art). RS.10
Arguments: Write to
support claims in an
analysis of substantive
topics or texts. WS.1
∗
Inform &
Explanations: Write to
examine and convey
complex ideas and
information. WS.2
Narratives: Write to
develop real or imagined
experiences or events.
WS.3
Research: Write short
and sustained research
projects for a range of
purposes. WS.7
On-Demand: Write
over a shorter time for a
range of tasks, purposes,
and audiences. WS.10
Discussion: Participate
in a range of collaborative
discussions. SS.1
Speech/Presentation:
Present information
making strategic use of
digital media. SS.4-5
Jim Burke
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19
STEP 2: ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCES: WHERE WE NEED TO BE
Department:
Description
Jim Burke
Class Level:
9
10
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Date:
11
12
20
STEP 1: ESSENTIAL PERFORMANCES: WHERE WE ARE
Department:
Description
Jim Burke
Class Level:
9
10
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Date:
11
12
21
CONTINUUM OF ACADEMIC SIGNAL VERBS (created by Jim Burke)
THE
AUTHOR
Neutral
Weak
Strong
agrees
admits
allows
concedes
accepts
acknowledges
agrees
concurs
confirms
recognizes
applauds
embraces
endorses
extols
praises
argues
appeals
apologizes
believes
pleads
holds
alleges
implies
encourages
interprets
justifies
reasons
alerts
argues
boasts
claims
contends
demands
exhorts
believes
assumes
considers
hopes
imagines
pretends
suspects
attribute
believes
claims
credits
declares
expresses
disagrees
doubts
suspects
wonders
challenges
debates
disagrees
distinguishes
downplays
positions
questions
accuses
attacks
complains
contradicts
denounces
discounts
dismisses
discusses
comments
considers
mentions
refers to
discusses
explores
examines
ruminates
explores
contemplates
reasons
debates
reiterates
studies
treats
emphasizes
downplays
recognizes
subordinates
acknowledges
alludes to
emphasizes
mentions
refers to
highlights
singles out
stresses
underscores
warns
examines
touches on
alludes to
analyzes
compares
contrasts
distinguishes
critiques
evaluates
investigates
inquires
delineates
ignores
scrutinizes
seeks
presents
lists
speculates
comments
defines
describes
estimates
identifies
illustrates
implies
indicates
informs
introduces
mentions
notes
observes
outlines
presents
remarks
reports
shows
announces
confers
declares
suggests
alleges
hints
intimates
speculates
wonders
advocates
encourages
posits
postulates
proposes
recommends
Jim Burke
feels
figures
holds
professes
subscribes to
thinks
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insists
implores
maintains
proves
shows
threatens
warns
asserts
assures
defends
guarentees
insists
promises
upholds
disputes
disregards
distances
objects to
opposes
refutes
rejects
asserts
evinces
evokes
urges
22
Step One:
Find Your Subject
description/notes
Overview
This tool is designed to
help you do some initial
thinking about your
subject as you prepare to
begin your project. The
idea for right now is to
come up with as many
ideas as possible, then
see which idea interests
you the most and seems
the most viable topic. The
first tool generates ideas;
the second one helps you
narrow, refine, and begin
to develop.
category/aspects
subject
Directions:
1. Write your subject
(e.g., food) in the center
of the target on top.
2. In first ring
(“categories”), put
symbols, single words,
or very short phrases
that identify the smaller
slices we can use to
consider the topic and
generate ideas for the
one you finally choose.
3. In the outer ring
(“description”), jot
down a very brief note
that explains something
about this category, its
importance, and its
relevance.
4. Choose one slice from
the top organizer and
write that in the middle
of the tool on the
bottom. This should be
written as a phrase (e.g.
the effect of technology
on relationships)
Aspect 1: __________________________
Aspect 2: __________________________
topic
Aspect 3:
Aspect 4:
_____________
_____________
5. In the four “Aspect”
boxes, generate four
aspects or sides of the
topic, then fill that box
in with ideas,
questions, or examples.
Jim Burke
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23
Hidden Intellectualism
by Gerald Graff
Gerald Graff is a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This piece is adapted from his book Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the
Life of the Mind.
Everyone knows some young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poorly
in school. What a waste, we think, that one who is so intelligent about so many things in life
seems unable to apply that intelligence to academic work. What doesn’t occur to us, though,
is that schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such
street smarts and channel them into good academic work.
Nor do we consider one of the major reasons why schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts: the fact that we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns. We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and
exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We
assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution,
and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, clothing fashions, sports, TV, or video games.
The trouble with this assumption is that no necessary connection has ever been established
between any text or subject and the educational depth and weight of the discussion it can
generate. Real intellectuals turn any subject, however lightweight it may seem, into grist for
their mill through the thoughtful questions they bring to it, whereas a dullard will find a way
to drain the interest out of the richest subject. That’s why a George Orwell writing on the
cultural meanings of ephemeral penny postcards is infinitely more substantial than the deep
cogitations of many professors on Shakespeare or globalization.
Students do need to read models of intellectually challenging writing—and Orwell is a
great one—if they are to become intellectuals themselves. But they would be more prone to
take on intellectual identities if we encouraged them to do so at first on the subjects that interest them rather than those that interest us.
I offer my own adolescent experience as a case in point. Until I entered college, I hated
books and cared only for sports. The only reading I cared to do or could do was sports magazines, on which I became hooked, becoming a regular reader of Sport magazine in the late
forties, Sports Illustrated when it began publishing in 1954, and the annual magazine guides
to professional baseball, football, and basketball. I also loved the sports novels for boys of
John R. Tunis and Clair Bee and autobiographies of sports stars like Joe DiMaggio’s Lucky to
Be a Yankee and Bob Feller’s Strikeout Story. In short, I was your typical teenage anti-intellectual—or so I believed for a long time. I have recently come to think, however, that my preference for sports over schoolwork was not anti-intellectualism so much as intellectualism by
other means.
Jim Burke
In the Chicago neighborhood I grew up in, which had become a melting pot after World
War II, our block was solidly middle class, but just a block away—doubtless concentrated
there by the real estate companies—were African Americans, Native Americans, and “hillbilly” whites who had recently fled postwar joblessness in the South and Appalachia. Negotiating this class boundary was a tricky matter. On the one hand, it was necessary to maintain
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24
the boundary between “clean-cut” boys like me and working-class “hoods,” as we called
them, which meant that it was good to be openly smart in a bookish sort of way. On the
other hand, I was desperate for the approval of the hoods, whom I encountered daily on the
playing field and in the neighborhood, and for this purpose it was not at all good to be booksmart. The hoods would turn on you if they sensed you were putting on airs over them:
“Who you lookin’ at, smart ass?” as a leather-jacketed youth once said to me as he relieved
me of my pocket change along with my self-respect.
I grew up torn, then, between the need to prove I was smart and the fear of a beating if I
proved it too well; between the need not to jeopardize my respectable future and the need to
impress the hoods. As I lived it, the conflict came down to a choice between being physically
tough and being verbal. For a boy in my neighborhood and elementary school, only being
“tough” earned you complete legitimacy. I still recall endless, complicated debates in this period with my closest pals over who was “the toughest guy in the school.” If you were less than
negligible as a fighter, as I was, you settled for the next best thing, which was to be inarticulate, carefully hiding telltale marks of literacy like correct grammar and pronunciation.
In one way, then, it would be hard to imagine an adolescence more thoroughly anti-intellectual than mine. Yet in retrospect, I see that it’s more complicated, that I and the 1950s
themselves were not simply hostile toward intellectualism, but divided and ambivalent.
When Marilyn Monroe married the playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 after divorcing the retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio, the symbolic triumph of geek over jock suggested the way
the wind was blowing. Even Elvis, according to his biographer Peter Guralnick, turns out to
have supported Adlai over Ike in the presidential election of 1956. “I don’t dig the intellectual
bit,” he told reporters. “But I’m telling you, man, he knows the most.”
Though I too thought I did not “dig the intellectual bit,” I see now that I was unwittingly in
training for it. The germs had actually been planted in the seemingly philistine debates about
which boys were the toughest. I see now that in the interminable analysis of sports teams,
movies, and toughness that my friends and I engaged in—a type of analysis, needless to say,
that the real toughs would never have stooped to—I was already betraying an allegiance to
the egghead world. I was practicing being an intellectual before I knew that was what I wanted to be.
It was in these discussions with friends about toughness and sports, I think, and in my
reading of sports books and magazines, that I began to learn the rudiments of the intellectual
life: how to make an argument, weigh different kinds of evidence, move between particulars
and generalizations, summarize the views of others, and enter a conversation about ideas. It
was in reading and arguing about sports and toughness that I experienced what it felt like to
propose a generalization, restate and respond to a counterargument, and perform other intellectualizing operations, including composing the kind of sentences I am writing now.
Only much later did it dawn on me that the sports world was more compelling than school
because it was more intellectual than school, not less. Sports after all was full of challenging
arguments, debates, problems for analysis, and intricate statistics that you could care about,
as school conspicuously was not. I believe that street smarts beat out book smarts in our
culture not because street smarts are non-intellectual, as we generally suppose, but because
they satisfy an intellectual thirst more thoroughly than school culture, which seems pale and
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unreal.
They also satisfy the thirst for community. When you entered sports debates, you became
part of a community that was not limited to your family and friends, but was national and
public. Whereas schoolwork isolated you from others, the pennant race or Ted Williams’s
.400 batting average was something you could talk about with people you had never met.
Sports introduced you not only to a culture steeped in argument, but to a public argument
culture that transcended the personal. I can’t blame my schools for failing to make intellectual culture resemble the Super Bowl, but I do fault them for failing to learn anything from the
sports and entertainment worlds about how to organize and represent intellectual culture,
how to exploit its gamelike element and turn it into arresting public spectacle that might
have competed more successfully for my youthful attention.
For here is another thing that never dawned on me and is still kept hidden from students,
with tragic results: that the real intellectual world, the one that existed in the big world beyond school, is organized very much like the world of team sports, with rival texts, rival interpretations and evaluations of texts, rival theories of why they should be read and taught,
and elaborate team competitions in which “fans” of writers, intellectual systems, methodologies, and -isms contend against each other.
To be sure, school contained plenty of competition, which became more invidious as one
moved up the ladder (and has become even more so today with the advent of high-stakes
testing). In this competition, points were scored not by making arguments, but by a show of
information or vast reading, by grade-grubbing, or other forms of oneupmanship. School
competition, in short, reproduced the less attractive features of sports culture without those
that create close bonds and community.
And in distancing themselves from anything as enjoyable and absorbing as sports, my
schools missed the opportunity to capitalize on an element of drama and conflict that the
intellectual world shares with sports. Consequently, I failed to see the parallels between the
sports and academic worlds that could have helped me cross more readily from one argument culture to the other.
Sports is only one of the domains whose potential for literacy training (and not only for
males) is seriously underestimated by educators, who see sports as competing with academic
development rather than a route to it. But if this argument suggests why it is a good idea to
assign readings and topics that are close to students’ existing interests, it also suggests the
limits of this tactic. For students who get excited about the chance to write about their passion for cars will often write as poorly and unreflectively on that topic as on Shakespeare or
Plato. Here is the flip side of what I pointed out before: that there’s no necessary relation between the degree of interest a student shows in a text or subject and the quality of thought or
expression such a student manifests in writing or talking about it. The challenge, as college
professor Ned Laff has put it, “is not simply to exploit students’ nonacademic interests, but to
get them to see those interests through academic eyes.”
To say that students need to see their interests “through academic eyes” is to say that street
smarts are not enough. Making students’ nonacademic interests an object of academic study
is useful, then, for getting students’ attention and overcoming their boredom and alienation,
but this tactic won’t in itself necessarily move them closer to an academically rigorous treatJim Burke
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ment of those interests. On the other hand, inviting students to write about cars, sports, or
clothing fashions does not have to be a pedagogical cop-out as long as students are required
to see these interests “through academic eyes,” that is, to think and write about cars, sports,
and fashions in a reflective, analytical way, one that sees them as microcosms of what is going on in the wider culture.
If I am right, then schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not
encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study. It is
self-defeating to decline to introduce any text or subject that figures to engage students who
will otherwise tune out academic work entirely. If a student cannot get interested in Mill’s
On Liberty but will read Sports Illustrated or Vogue or the hip hop magazine Source with absorption, this is a strong argument for assigning the magazines over the classic. It’s a good
bet that if students get hooked on reading and writing by doing term papers on Source, they
will eventually get to On Liberty. But even if they don’t, the magazine reading will make them
more literate and reflective than they would be otherwise. So it makes pedagogical sense to
develop classroom units on sports, cars, fashions, rap music, and other such topics. Give me
the student anytime who writes a sharply argued, sociologically acute analysis of an issue of
Source over the student who writes a lifeless explication of Hamlet or Socrates’ Apology.
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Your Name:
Date: Period: Before you read the article, jot down your understanding of the following words:
1. Cognitive
2. Traits
3. Disparate
4. Linear
5. Premise
6. Disservice
As you read, write in the margins next to each paragraph as directed below.
Wall Street Journal
THEY SAY
In the left margin,
summarize what “They
Say” (the author) in each
paragraph on the left.
ESSAY
September 7, 2012, 6:12 p.m. ET
Opting Out of the ‘Rug Rat Race’
For success in the long run, brain power helps, but what our kids
really need to learn is grit
I SAY
In the right margin, write
down what you say to the
paragraph you just read.
By PAUL TOUGH
We are living through a particularly anxious moment in the history of American
parenting. In the nation’s big cities these days, the competition among affluent parents
over slots in favored preschools verges on the gladiatorial. A pair of economists
from the University of California recently dubbed this contest for early academic
achievement the “Rug Rat Race,” and each year, the race seems to be starting earlier
and growing more intense.
At the root of this parental anxiety is an idea you might call the cognitive
hypothesis. It is the belief, rarely spoken aloud but commonly held nonetheless, that
success in the U.S. today depends more than anything else on cognitive skill—the
kind of intelligence that gets measured on IQ tests—and that the best way to develop
those skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.
Jim Burke
There is something undeniably compelling about the cognitive hypothesis. The
world it describes is so reassuringly linear, such a clear case of inputs here leading
to outputs there. Fewer books in the home means less reading ability; fewer words
spoken by your parents means a smaller vocabulary; more math work sheets for your
3-year-old means better math scores in elementary school. But in the past decade,
and especially in the past few years, a disparate group of economists, educators,
psychologists and neuroscientists has begun to produce evidence that calls into
question many of the assumptions behind the cognitive hypothesis.
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What matters most in a child’s development, they say, is not how much information
we can stuff into her brain in the first few years of life. What matters, instead,
is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities, a list
that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and selfconfidence. Economists refer to these as noncognitive skills, psychologists call them
personality traits, and the rest of us often think of them as character.
If there is one person at the hub of this new interdisciplinary network, it is James
Heckman, an economist at the University of Chicago who in 2000 won the Nobel
Prize in economics. In recent years, Mr. Heckman has been convening regular
invitation-only conferences of economists and psychologists, all engaged in one form
or another with the same questions: Which skills and traits lead to success? How do
they develop in childhood? And what kind of interventions might help children do
better?
The transformation of Mr. Heckman’s career has its roots in a study he undertook
in the late 1990s on the General Educational Development program, better known
as the GED, which was at the time becoming an increasingly popular way for highschool dropouts to earn the equivalent of high-school diplomas. The GED’s growth
was founded on a version of the cognitive hypothesis, on the belief that what schools
develop, and what a high-school diploma certifies, is cognitive skill. If a teenager
already has the knowledge and the smarts to graduate from high school, according
to this logic, he doesn’t need to waste his time actually finishing high school. He can
just take a test that measures that knowledge and those skills, and the state will certify
that he is, legally, a high-school graduate, as well-prepared as any other high-school
graduate to go on to college or other postsecondary pursuits.
Mr. Heckman wanted to examine this idea more closely, so he analyzed a few
large national databases of student performance. He found that in many important
ways, the premise behind the GED was entirely valid. According to their scores on
achievement tests, GED recipients were every bit as smart as high-school graduates.
But when Mr. Heckman looked at their path through higher education, he found that
GED recipients weren’t anything like high-school graduates. At age 22, Mr. Heckman
found, just 3% of GED recipients were either enrolled in a four-year university or had
completed some kind of postsecondary degree, compared with 46% of high-school
graduates. In fact, Heckman discovered that when you consider all kinds of important
future outcomes—annual income, unemployment rate, divorce rate, use of illegal
drugs—GED recipients look exactly like high-school dropouts, despite the fact that
they have earned this supposedly valuable extra credential, and despite the fact that
they are, on average, considerably more intelligent than high-school dropouts.
Jim Burke
These results posed, for Mr. Heckman, a confounding intellectual puzzle. Like most
economists, he had always believed that cognitive ability was the single most reliable
determinant of how a person’s life would turn out. Now he had discovered a group—
GED holders—whose good test scores didn’t seem to have any positive effect on their
eventual outcomes. What was missing from the equation, Mr. Heckman concluded,
were the psychological traits, or noncognitive skills, that had allowed the high-school
graduates to make it through school.
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So what can parents do to help their children develop skills like motivation and
perseverance? The reality is that when it comes to noncognitive skills, the traditional
calculus of the cognitive hypothesis—start earlier and work harder—falls apart.
Children can’t get better at overcoming disappointment just by working at it for more
hours. And they don’t lag behind in curiosity simply because they didn’t start doing
curiosity work sheets at an early enough age.
Instead, it seems, the most valuable thing that parents can do to help their children
develop noncognitive skills—which is to say, to develop their character—may be to do
nothing. To back off a bit. To let our children face some adversity on their own, to fall
down and not be helped back up. When you talk today to teachers and administrators
at high-achieving high schools, this is their greatest concern: that their students are so
overly protected from adversity, in their homes and at school, that they never develop
the crucial ability to overcome real setbacks and in the process to develop strength of
character.
American children, especially those who grow up in relative comfort, are, more
than ever, shielded from failure as they grow up. They certainly work hard; they often
experience a great deal of pressure and stress; but in reality, their path through the
education system is easier and smoother than it was for any previous generation.
Many of them are able to graduate from college without facing any significant
challenges. But if this new research is right, their schools, their families, and their
culture may all be doing them a disservice by not giving them more opportunities to
struggle. Overcoming adversity is what produces character. And character, even more
than IQ, is what leads to real and lasting success.
AFTER You Read the Article
Using your notes as a guide, write a carefully organized paragraph (on a separate sheet of paper) in which you
compare what Paul Tough says and what you say about the different ideas this article about success discusses.
You should be sure to do the following:
}Refer to the Paul Tough article
}Use appropriate verbs to describe what Tough does in this article (see the Signal Verb sheet I provided
you)
}Use effective transition words to signal your comparisons and contrasts (however, in addition)
}Write a fully developed paragraph, with quotations from the articles to support and illustrate what you
are saying about and in response to Tough’s claim about the importance of grit in one’s success.
}Attach that paragraph to this article, which should be written on in both margins next to each paragraph.
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A Conversation Between Different Texts About Academic and Argument Literacy
1. Scholars from a range of disciplines have described the “culture” of academia in different ways but essentially agree
that it involves particular habits of thinking, acting, speaking, and writing that are often incomprehensible and
alienating to people outside academia. James Gee, a literacy theorist, has called this culture a Discourse (with a capital
“D”) and noted that particular literacy practices are intertwined with beliefs and ways of thinking common to any
Discourse. Students who are familiar with the norms of appropriate conduct and adept at adhering to them experience
no problem. If a person has not assimilated or otherwise learned the rules, however, then Discourse—as well as the
specific literacy practices associated with it—functions as an obstacle to participation and success….Gerald Graff
has identified the characteristics of academic Discourse that serve as the stumbling blocks to students’ productive
engagement. One obstacle, he contends, is the dominance of what he calls argument literacy, which requires students to
take positions and support them with persuasive reasoning. Another is the tendency of academics to discover or invent
problems—thanks to maneuvers that appear to students exasperatingly pointless. Still another major impediment
is the prevalence of abstruse and mangled language, which underscores students’ perceptions that the topics under
discussion are “remote and artificial.” Without explicit explanation (and translation), the academic conversation can
easily remain unintelligible, irrelevant, and thoroughly unappealing…. Consequently, students who are unfamiliar with
the Discourse are often left to figure it out for themselves if they are to succeed.
––Rebecca D. Cox from “Academic Literacies” in The College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand
One Another (Harvard University Press 2009, 140)
2. In thinking through these issues, I have found what I believe to be a connecting and complex theme: what I have come
to call ‘the culture of power.’ There are five aspects of power I would like to propose as given …
1. Issues of power are enacted in classrooms.
2. There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power.”
3. The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power.
4. If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring
power easier.
5. Those with power are frequently least aware of—or least willing to acknowledge—its existence. Those with less power are
often most aware of its existence.
––Lisa Delpit, Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (New Press 2006, 24)
3. Although some students show up at school as “intentional learners”––people who are already interested in doing
whatever they need to do to learn academic subjects––they are the exception rather than the rule. Even if they are
disposed to study, they probably need to learn how. But more fundamental than knowing how is developing a sense
of oneself as a learner that makes it socially acceptable to engage in academic work. The goal of school teaching is not
to turn all students into people who see themselves as professional academics, but to enable all of them to include a
disposition toward productive study of academic subjects among the personality traits they exhibit while they are in
the classroom. If the young people who come to school do not see themselves as learners, they are not going to act like
learners even if that would help them to be successful in school. It is the teacher’s job to help them change their sense
of themselves so that studying is not a self-contradictory activity. One’s sense of oneself as a learner is not a wholly
private construction. Academic identity is formed from an amalgamation of how we see ourselves and how others see
us, and those perceptions are formed and expressed in social interaction. How I act in front of others expresses my
sense of who I am. How others then react to me influences the development of my identity.
––Magdalene Lampert, from “Teaching Students to Be People Who Study in School,” in Teaching Problems and the
Problems of Teaching (Yale University Press 2003, 265)
4. Experienced graphic designers and writers understand that they must draw on all their resources when they compose.
From their prior reading and viewing, they learn about what makes texts work. (Remember, in our contemporary
world texts increasingly include not only the written word but also images and graphics.) They analyze their own
situations, think about the purpose and goals of particular projects—the meaning they wish to communicate, their
reasons for composing—and consider their audience. They explore their own ideas, challenging themselves to express
their ideas as clearly and carefully as possible. They play with words, phrases, images, and other graphic elements
to make their work stylistically effective. And they take advantage of such computer and online resources as word
processing, image editing, and spreadsheet programs, as well as specialized programs for their particular areas of
interest. In all of these activities, experienced writers and designers practice rhetorical sensitivity.
––Lisa Ede, from The Academic Writer: A Brief Guide (Bedford/St. Martin’s 2011, 14)
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5. Every K-­12 teacher and administrator should know the powerful case for argument. (They currently do not). For
decades, the most enlightened educators and academics have put it at the center of education. They implore us to see
that argument enlivens learning and is at the heart of inquiry, innovation, and problem-solving. Education researchers
like Robert Marzano, George Hillocks, and Deanna Kuhn have demonstrated that in-­school opportunities to argue and
debate about current issues, literary characters, and the pros and cons of a math solution have an astonishing impact
on learning—and test scores. Argument not only makes subject matter more interesting; it also dramatically increases
our ability to retain, retrieve, apply, and synthesize knowledge. It works for all students—from lowest-­to highest-­
achieving. Yet many educators never learn this. And they never learn that argument is the unrivaled key to effective
reading, writing, and speaking.
Argument, in short, is the essence of thought.... To succeed, students can’t simply amass information (as important as
that is); they must also weigh its value and use it to resolve conflicting opinions, offer solutions, and propose reasonable
recommendations. The same could be said for the demands of citizenship and the modern workplace.
––Mike Schmoker and Gerald Graff, “More Argument, Fewer Standards.” Education Week April 19, 2011
6. Chances are that your first attempt to communicate was an argument. Your first cry, that is, argued that you were
hungry or sleepy or wanted to be held. Later, you could use words to say what you wanted: “More!” “No!” “Candy!”
All arguments. So if you think that argument is just about disputes or disagreements, think again. In rhetorical terms,
argument refers to any way that human beings express themselves to try to achieve a certain purpose––which, many
would argue, means any way that people express themselves at all.
[It] is easy to understand that an op-ed-taking a position on a political issue or a TV critic’s rave review of a new
movie is “arguing” for or against something. An editorial cartoon about the issue or an ad for the movie is making an
obvious argument, too. But even when you post an update on Facebook about something you did yesterday, you;re
implicitly arguing that it will be intriguing or important or perhaps amusing to your audience, those who follow you on
Facebook. Likewise, when you write a lab report, you’ll describe and interpret the results of an experiment, arguing that
your findings have certain implications.
The point we want to make is simple: You are the author of many arguments and the target of many more––and
you’ll be better at making your own arguments if you understand how they work.
––Andrea Lunsford, et al. from Everyone’s an Author (W. W. Norton 2013, 269)
7. While all three text types are important, the Standards put particular emphasis on students’ ability to write sound
arguments on substantive topics and issues, as this ability is critical to college and career readiness. English and
education professor Gerald Graff (2003) writes that “argument literacy” is fundamental to being educated. The
university is largely an “argument culture,” Graff contends; therefore, K–12 schools should “teach the conflicts” so
that students are adept at understanding and engaging in argument (both oral and written) when they enter college.
He claims that because argument is not standard in most school curricula, only 20 percent of those who enter college
are prepared in this respect. Theorist and critic Neil Postman (1997) calls argument the soul of an education because
argument forces a writer to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of multiple perspectives. When teachers ask students
to consider two or more perspectives on a topic or issue, something far beyond surface knowledge is required: students
must think critically and deeply, assess the validity of their own thinking, and anticipate counterclaims in opposition to
their own assertions.
The unique importance of argument in college and careers is asserted eloquently by Joseph M. Williams and
Lawrence McEnerney (n.d.) of the University of Chicago Writing Program [who] define argument not as “wrangling”
but as “a serious and focused conversation among people who are intensely interested in getting to the bottom of things
cooperatively”:
Those values are also an integral part of your education in college. For four years, you are asked to read, do research,
gather data, analyze it, think about it, and then communicate it to readers in a form . . . which enables them to assess
it and use it. You are asked to do this not because we expect you all to become professional scholars, but because in
just about any profession you pursue, you will do research, think about what you find, make decisions about complex
matters, and then explain those decisions—usually in writing—to others who have a stake in your decisions being
sound ones. In an Age of Information, what most professionals do is research, think, and make arguments. (And part
of the value of doing your own thinking and writing is that it makes you much better at evaluating the thinking and
writing of others.)
––from Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts Appendix A, (2010, 24).
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Rhetorical Précis Notes
Name: Date: Period: Introduction
While a summary provides an objective retelling of what an author says, a rhetorical précis (pronounced praysee) focuses on what an author does and what the author says about the subject. The précis is a highly-structured
move in academic writing which the writer (that would be you) discusses his or her insights about the author’s
content, argument, and the strategies used to make and support that argument to the intended audience.
What is the subject of this text?
TEMPLATE
1. Introduce the speaker or writer, the text, and the central claim.
}Identify the type of text.
NOTES
}Include the title of the text.
}List the author’s first and last name
}Add a phrase/clause with information about
author
}Use a verb describing what the author does:
claims…
}Paraphrase or directly quote the central claim as
well as any essential subclaims.
2. Explain how the author develops or advances the argument
}Use appropriate author pronoun(s) (he, she,
they)
}Choose a verb that captures the author’s action
(supports)
}Identify and explain what the author does next
}Identify and explain what the author does near
the end of the text.
3. State the author’s purpose in writing or speaking about this topic in this text.
}State the author’s purpose using a verb phrase
(i.e., what the author wants to audience/reader
to do, feel, think, or believe as a result of reading
this text).
4. Describe the intended audience and the author’s relationship to that audience.
}Identify and describe the author’s audience.
}Describe the author’s relationship with that
audience.
5. Explain the significance of this work.
}Identify and examine the reasons why this
work is important, why people should
care, or what it might mean to the larger
society.
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The Rhetorical Précis Template
In (type of text here) (title of the text), (the author’s first and last name), (a phrase or clause
providing information about the author, usually an appositive phrase or adjective clause) , (verb
describing what the author does: claims, argues, asserts, implies, suggests, contends) that (paraphrase
or direct quotation of the central claim as well as any other essential subclaims). He/She/They verb
(supports, develops) this claim by first (explain what the author is doing, beginning with a verb that
accurately captures the author’s actions (e.g., shows, connects, analyzes, etc.). Then, (explain what
the author does next). Toward the end of the text (or a similar prepositional phrase), (describe
what the author does, choosing an appropriate verb). X’s purpose is to
in
order to (verb phrase describing what the author wants to audience/reader to do, feel, think,
or believe as a result of reading this text). X establishes (a word that describes the author’s tone
in this piece) for (identify and describe the relationship between the author and the audience
of this text). (This work/author’s ideas/conclusions) is/are significant/important because
____________________________.
Sample Rhetorical Précis
In his essay, “Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff, a professor of English and education,
proposes that students may be more successful intellectually when studying things that interest
them. He supports this claim by first analyzing how his own interest in sports as a child taught him
how to channel his own intellect, whereas school never did. Then, he stresses that students who
pursue their passions and interests “through academic eyes” will be more successful than if they
were studying a traditional curriculum. However, towards the end of the text, Graff acknowledges
the fact that this technique isn’t always effective depending on the student and circumstances.
Graff aims to reshape society’s view on intellectualism, which is primarily restricted to academics,
and to open a new window of opportunity for students. He establishes a formal tone for students,
parents, and educators like himself. This work is significant because it promotes the idea of teaching
students to channel their strengths academically which could in return lead to success in school
and life thereafter.
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Informational/Reference Text: Dictionary
freedom
noun
the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint : we do have some freedom of choice |
he talks of revoking some of the freedoms. See note at liberty .
• absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government : he was a champion of Irish freedom.
• the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved : the shark thrashed its way to freedom.
• the state of being physically unrestricted and able to move easily : the shorts have a side split for freedom of movement.
• ( freedom from) the state of not being subject to or affected by (a particular undesirable thing) : government policies to
achieve freedom from want.
• the power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity.
• unrestricted use of something : the dog is happy having the freedom of the house when we are out.
• archaic familiarity or openness in speech or behavior.
ORIGIN Old English frēodōm (see free , -dom ).
liberty
noun ( pl. -ties)
1 the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or
political views : compulsory retirement would interfere with individual liberty.
• (usu. liberties) an instance of this; a right or privilege, esp. a statutory one : the Bill of Rights was intended to secure
basic civil liberties.
• the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved : people who have lost property or liberty without due process.
• ( Liberty) the personification of liberty as a female figure.
2 the power or scope to act as one pleases : individuals should enjoy the liberty to pursue their own interests and
preferences.
• Philosophy a person’s freedom from control by fate or necessity.
• informal a presumptuous remark or action : how did he know what she was thinking?—it was a liberty!
• Nautical shore leave granted to a sailor.
PHRASES
at liberty 1 not imprisoned : he was at liberty for three months before he was recaptured. 2 allowed or entitled to do
something : competent adults are generally at liberty to refuse medical treatment.
take liberties 1 behave in an unduly familiar manner toward a person : you’ve taken too many liberties with me. 2 treat
something freely, without strict faithfulness to the facts or to an original : the scriptwriter has taken few liberties with the
original narrative.
take the liberty venture to do something without first asking permission : I have taken the liberty of submitting an idea to
several of their research departments.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French liberte, from Latin libertas, from liber ‘free.’
THE RIGHT WORD
The Fourth of July is the day on which Americans commemorate their nation’s independence, a word that implies the
ability to stand alone, without being sustained by anything else.
While independence is usually associated with countries or nations, freedom and liberty more often apply to people.
But unlike freedom, which implies an absence of restraint or compulsion (: the freedom to speak openly), liberty implies
the power to choose among alternatives rather than merely being unrestrained (: the liberty to select their own form
of government). Freedom can also apply to many different types of oppressive influences (: freedom from interruption;
freedom to leave the room at any time), while liberty often connotes deliverance or release (: he gave the slaves their
liberty).
License may imply the liberty to disobey rules or regulations imposed on others, especially when there is an advantage
to be gained in doing so (: poetic license). But more often it refers to an abuse of liberty or the power to do whatever one
pleases (: a license to sell drugs).
Permission is an even broader term than license, suggesting the capacity to act without interference or censure, usually with
some degree of approval or authority (: permission to be absent from his post).
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fifth Edition (2011)
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A COMMONPLACE BOOK: FREEDOM
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule
of law under God is acknowledged.
––Ronald Reagan
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
––John Adams
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for
the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
––Soren Kierkegaard
Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I
didn't have a cent.
––Mike Tyson
For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to
live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of
others.
––Nelson Mandela
Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces
to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can
stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it
to others.
––Coretta Scott King
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.
––Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
––Albert Camus
You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.
––Robert Frost
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of
pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we
do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede
their efforts to obtain it.
––John Stuart Mill
We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.
––H. L. Mencken
Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we
wish? Nothing else.
––Epictetus
Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he
pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.
––Marcus Tullius Cicero
There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to
do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he
ought.
––Charles Kingsley
Freedom rings where opinions clash.
––Adlai E. Stevenson
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
themselves.
––Abraham Lincoln
Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not
want to hear.
––George Orwell
Most people do not really want freedom, because
freedom involves responsibility, and most people are
frightened of responsibility.
––Sigmund Freud
We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the
enemy of growth.
––John F. Kennedy
Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in
having the right to do what we ought.
––Pope John Paul II
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
––Nikos Kazantzakis
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
––Nikos Kazantzakis
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to
preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of
created beings capable of law, where there is no law,
there is no freedom.
––John Locke
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
––Nikos Kazantzakis
For a nice collection of Commonplace Books, visit: http://
theamericanscholar.org/dept/commonplace-book/
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36
“Four Freedom’s Speech” (a.k.a. 1941 State of the Union Address)
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, members of the 77th Congress:
I address you, the members of this new Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of
the union. I use the word “unprecedented” because at no previous time has American security been
as seriously threatened from without as it is today.
Since the permanent formation of our government under the Constitution in 1789, most of the
periods of crisis in our history have related to our domestic affairs. And, fortunately, only one of
these -- the four-year war between the States -- ever threatened our national unity. Today, thank
God, 130,000,000 Americans in 48 States have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity.
It is true that prior to 1914 the United States often has been disturbed by events in other continents. We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared
wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American
rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce. But in no case had a serious threat been raised
against our national safety or our continued independence.
What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times
maintained opposition -- clear, definite opposition -- to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient
Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past. Today, thinking of our children and of
their children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part of the Americas….
I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world -- assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous
propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at
peace. During 16 long months this assault has blotted out the whole pattern of democratic life in
an appalling number of independent nations, great and small. And the assailants are still on the
march, threatening other nations, great and small.
Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional duty to "give to the Congress information of the state of the union," I find it unhappily necessary to report that the future and the
safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our
borders.
Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in four continents. If
that defense fails, all the population and all the resources of Europe and Asia, and Africa and Austral-Asia will be dominated by conquerors. And let us remember that the total of those populations
in those four continents, the total of those populations and their resources greatly exceed the sum
total of the population and the resources of the whole of the Western Hemisphere -- yes, many
times over.
In times like these it is immature -- and, incidentally, untrue -- for anybody to brag that an
unprepared America, single-handed and with one hand tied behind its back, can hold off the whole
world.
No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of
true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion -- or
even good business. Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. Those who
would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
As a nation we may take pride in the fact that we are soft-hearted; but we cannot afford to be
soft-headed. We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal
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preach the “ism” of appeasement. We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men
who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests….
I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans
to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my
budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for
from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of
the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.
If the Congress maintains these principles the voters, putting patriotism ahead pocketbooks, will
give you their applause.
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four
essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the
world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere
in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in
our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order”
of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to
face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.
Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual,
peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek
is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men
and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy
of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep
them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
To that high concept there can be no end save victory.
By President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I.
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Option A: Norman Rockwell ©1943 SEPS: The Curtis Publishing Co., Agent. Printed by the Government Printing Office
for the Office of War Information NARA Still Picture Branch (NWDNS-208-PMP-44)
Option B: Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War Two. National Archives and Records Administration. This
online exhibit features 11 posters and 1 sound file from a more extensive exhibit that was presented in the
National Archives Building in Washington, DC, from May 1994 to February 1995. http://www.archives.gov/
exhibits/powers_of_persuasion/four_freedoms/four_freedoms.html
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Source: Time/CNN/ORC Poll April 30, 2013.
Source: Time May 13, 2013 (p. 28)
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Poll: Americans More Concerned About Civil Liberties in Wake of Boston Bombing
Two weeks after the Boston Marathon terror attacks, the Americans people are far more concerned about new government
limits on civil liberties than the need for new law enforcement measures to prevent future attacks.
By Zeke J Miller @zekejmiller
May 01, 2013
46 Comments
Two weeks after the Boston Marathon terror attacks, the American people are far more concerned about new government
limits on civil liberties than the need for new law enforcement measures to prevent future attacks, according to a new
TIME/CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday.
When given a choice, 61 percent of Americans say they are more concerned about the government enacting new anti-terrorism policies that restrict civil liberties, compared to 31 percent who say they are more concerned about the government
failing to enact strong new anti-terrorism policies.
The poll comes at a time when the Boston bombings, which killed three and maimed dozens, has reignited the debate over
the unresolved tensions between civil liberties and our security, a topic that is the subject of TIME Magazine’s cover story
this week. As Massimo Calabresi and Michael Crowley report, Tamerlan Tsarnaev exhibited a classic pattern of radicalization that might have been spotted through more intrusive surveillance of his online and religious activities. But although
new guidelines expanded the FBI‘s counterterrorism powers in 2011, they also limited the bureau’s ability to conduct surveillance on mosques like the one where Tamerlan had two public outbursts suggesting the extent of his religious radicalism.
The TIME/CNN/ORC poll, which was conducted to coincide with the cover story release, found that Americans are
becoming more resigned to the reality that future terrorist attacks will occur on the homeland. Only 32% of Americans believe that the U.S. government can prevent all major attacks, down from an average of 40% in 2011 and 41% in 2006. That
said, only 27% of Americans said they are less likely to attend large public events in the future because of fears of terror
attacks, a number roughly on par with polls taken after the Atlanta Olympics bombing in 1996.
Concerns about government encroachment on civil liberties, however, have grown in recent years, despite the Boston
attacks. When asked if they would be willing to give up some civil liberties if that were necessary to curb terrorism, 49% of
Americans said they were not willing, compared to 40% who were willing. A poll by the Los Angeles Times in 1996 after
the Atlanta Olympics bombing asked the same question, and found resistance from only 23% of the country.
But popular opinion varies significantly about specific law enforcement techniques to track and detect terrorists. Expanding camera surveillance on streets and in public places draws the support of 81 percent of Americans, up from a 70 percent
in a 2006 Harris Interactive poll and 63 percent in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Surveillance cameras proved to be a
pivotal law enforcement resource toward identifying and hunting down the perpetrators of the Boston attack. But expanding government monitoring of cell phones and email has just 38 percent in favor and 59 percent opposed — down from 52
percent in favor in the 2006 poll and 54 percent in favor after 9/11. The nation is more evenly split on the question of law
enforcement monitoring online chat rooms and forums, with 55% saying they would support increased efforts and 42%
saying they would oppose.
But while Americans are increasingly amenable to passive surveillance efforts, including cameras and facial recognition,
they are growing more opposed to expanded monitoring of cell phones and email and are more concerned about law
enforcement monitoring Internet chat rooms. A plurality, 49 percent, are unwilling to give up civil liberties even if deemed
necessary to curb terrorism in the United States — 40 percent say they are willing, and 9 percent day it depends....
The poll surveyed 606 adult Americans by telephone on April 30, 2013 and has a sampling error of ± 4 percentage points.
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/01/poll-americans-more-concerned-about-civil-liberties-in-wake-of-boston-bombing/#ixzz2Y5nURepE
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41
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From Into the Wild, Krakauer, Jon. New York: Anchor Books. 1996. 1-­‐7. Print. AUTHOR’S NOTE In April 1992, a young man from a well-­‐to-­‐do East Coast family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. Four months later his decomposed body was found by a party of moose hunters. Shortly after the discovery of the corpse, I was asked by the editor of Outside magazine to report on the puzzling circumstances of the boy’s death. His name turned out to be Christopher Johnson McCandless. He’d grown up, I learned, in an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., where he’d excelled academically and had been an elite athlete. Immediately after graduating, with honors, from Emory University in the summer of 1990, McCandless dropped out of sight. He changed his name, gave the entire balance of a twenty-­‐four-­‐thousand-­‐dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet. And then he invented a new life for himself, taking up residence at the ragged margin of our society, wandering across North America in search of raw, transcendent experience. His family had no idea where he was or what had become of him until his remains turned up in Alaska. Working on a tight deadline, I wrote a nine-­‐thousand-­‐word article, which ran in the January 1993 issue of the magazine, but my fascination with McCandless remained long after that issue of Outside was replaced on the newsstands by more current journalistic fare. I was haunted by the particulars of the boy’s starvation and by vague, unsettling parallels between events in his life and those in my own. Unwilling to let McCandless go, I spent more than a year retracing the convoluted path that led to his death in the Alaska taiga, chasing down details of his peregrinations with an interest that bordered on obsession. In trying to understand McCandless, I inevitably came to reflect on other, larger subjects as well: the grip wilderness has on the American imagination, the allure high-­‐risk activities hold for young men of a certain mind, the complicated, highly charged bond that exists between fathers and sons. The result of this meandering inquiry is the book now before you. I won’t claim to be an impartial biographer. McCandless’s strange tale struck a personal note that made a dispassionate rendering of the tragedy impossible. Through most of the book, I have tried— and largely succeeded, I think— to minimize my authorial presence. But let the reader be warned: I interrupt McCandless’s story with fragments of a narrative drawn from my own youth. I do so in the hope that my experiences will throw some oblique light on the enigma of Chris McCandless. He was an extremely intense young man and possessed a streak of stubborn idealism that did not mesh readily with modern existence. Long captivated by the writing of Leo Tolstoy, McCandless particularly admired how the great novelist had forsaken a life of wealth and privilege to wander among the destitute. In college McCandless began emulating Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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Tolstoy’s asceticism and moral rigor to a degree that first astonished, and then alarmed, those who were close to him. When the boy headed off into the Alaska bush, he entertained no illusions that he was trekking into a land of milk and honey; peril, adversity, and Tolstoyan renunciation were precisely what he was seeking. And that is what he found, in abundance. For most of the sixteen-­‐week ordeal, nevertheless, McCandless more than held his own. Indeed, were it not for one or two seemingly insignificant blunders, he would have walked out of the woods in August 1992 as anonymously as he had walked into them in April. Instead, his innocent mistakes turned out to be pivotal and irreversible, his name became the stuff of tabloid headlines, and his bewildered family was left clutching the shards of a fierce and painful love. A surprising number of people have been affected by the story of Chris McCandless’s life and death. In the weeks and months following the publication of the article in Outside, it generated more mail than any other article in the magazine’s history. This correspondence, as one might expect, reflected sharply divergent points of view: Some readers admired the boy immensely for his courage and noble ideals; others fulminated that he was a reckless idiot, a wacko, a narcissist who perished out of arrogance and stupidity— and was undeserving of the considerable media attention he received. My convictions should be apparent soon enough, but I will leave it to the reader to form his or her own opinion of Chris McCandless. CHAPTER 1: THE ALASKA INTERIOR April 27th, 1992 Greetings from Fairbanks! This is the last you shall hear from me Wayne. Arrived here 2 days ago. It was very difficult to catch rides in the Yukon Territory. But I finally got here. Please return all mail I receive to the sender. It might be a very long time before I return South. If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t ever hear from me again I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild. Alex. POSTCARD RECEIVED BY WAYNE WESTERBERG IN CARTHAGE, SOUTH DAKOTA Jim Gallien had driven four miles out of Fairbanks when he spotted the hitchhiker standing in the snow beside the road, thumb raised high, shivering in the gray Alaska dawn. He didn’t appear to be very old: eighteen, maybe nineteen at most. A rifle protruded from the young man’s backpack, but he looked friendly enough; a hitchhiker with a Remington Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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semiautomatic isn’t the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the forty-­‐ninth state. Gallien steered his truck onto the shoulder and told the kid to climb in. The hitchhiker swung his pack into the bed of the Ford and introduced himself as Alex. “Alex?” Gallien responded, fishing for a last name. “Just Alex,” the young man replied, pointedly rejecting the bait. Five feet seven or eight with a wiry build, he claimed to be twenty-­‐four years old and said he was from South Dakota. He explained that he wanted a ride as far as the edge of Denali National Park, where he intended to walk deep into the bush and “live off the land for a few months.” Gallien, a union electrician, was on his way to Anchorage, 240 miles beyond Denali on the George Parks Highway; he told Alex he’d drop him off wherever he wanted. Alex’s backpack looked as though it weighed only twenty-­‐five or thirty pounds, which struck Gallien— an accomplished hunter and woodsman— as an improbably light load for a stay of several months in the back-­‐country, especially so early in the spring. “He wasn’t carrying anywhere near as much food and gear as you’d expect a guy to be carrying for that kind of trip,” Gallien recalls. The sun came up. As they rolled down from the forested ridges above the Tanana River, Alex gazed across the expanse of windswept muskeg stretching to the south. Gallien wondered whether he’d picked up one of those crackpots from the lower forty-­‐eight who come north to live out ill-­‐considered Jack London fantasies. Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing. “People from Outside,” reports Gallien in a slow, sonorous drawl, “they’ll pick up a copy of Alaska magazine, thumb through it, get to thinkin’ ‘Hey, I’m goin’ to get on up there, live off the land, go claim me a piece of the good life.’ But when they get here and actually head out into the bush— well, it isn’t like the magazines make it out to be. The rivers are big and fast. The mosquitoes eat you alive. Most places, there aren’t a lot of animals to hunt. Livin’ in the bush isn’t no picnic.” It was a two-­‐hour drive from Fairbanks to the edge of Denali Park. The more they talked, the less Alex struck Gallien as a nutcase. He was congenial and seemed well educated. He peppered Gallien with thoughtful questions about the kind of small game that live in the country, the kinds of berries he could eat—“ that kind of thing.” Still, Gallien was concerned. Alex admitted that the only food in his pack was a ten-­‐
pound bag of rice. His gear seemed exceedingly minimal for the harsh conditions of the interior, which in April still lay buried under the winter snowpack. Alex’s cheap leather hiking boots were neither waterproof nor well insulated. His rifle was only .22 caliber, a bore too small to rely on if he expected to kill large animals like moose and caribou, which he would have to eat if he hoped to remain very long in the country. He had no ax, no bug dope, no snowshoes, no compass. The only navigational aid in his possession was a tattered state road map he’d scrounged at a gas station. Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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A hundred miles out of Fairbanks the highway begins to climb into the foothills of the Alaska Range. As the truck lurched over a bridge across the Nenana River, Alex looked down at the swift current and remarked that he was afraid of the water. “A year ago down in Mexico,” he told Gallien, “I was out on the ocean in a canoe, and I almost drowned when a storm came up.” A little later Alex pulled out his crude map and pointed to a dashed red line that intersected the road near the coal-­‐mining town of Healy. It represented a route called the Stampede Trail. Seldom traveled, it isn’t even marked on most road maps of Alaska. On Alex’s map, nevertheless, the broken line meandered west from the Parks Highway for forty miles or so before petering out in the middle of trackless wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. This, Alex announced to Gallien, was where he intended to go. Gallien thought the hitchhiker’s scheme was foolhardy and tried repeatedly to dissuade him: “I said the hunting wasn’t easy where he was going, that he could go for days without killing any game. When that didn’t work, I tried to scare him with bear stories. I told him that a twenty-­‐two probably wouldn’t do anything to a grizzly except make him mad. Alex didn’t seem too worried. ‘I’ll climb a tree’ is all he said. So I explained that trees don’t grow real big in that part of the state, that a bear could knock down one of them skinny little black spruce without even trying. But he wouldn’t give an inch. He had an answer for everything I threw at him.” Gallien offered to drive Alex all the way to Anchorage, buy him some decent gear, and then drive him back to wherever he wanted to go. “No, thanks anyway,” Alex replied, “I’ll be fine with what I’ve got.” Gallien asked whether he had a hunting license. “Hell, no,” Alex scoffed. “How I feed myself is none of the government’s business. Fuck their stupid rules.” When Gallien asked whether his parents or a friend knew what he was up to— whether there was anyone who would sound the alarm if he got into trouble and was overdue— Alex answered calmly that no, nobody knew of his plans, that in fact he hadn’t spoken to his family in nearly two years. “I’m absolutely positive,” he assured Gallien, “I won’t run into anything I can’t deal with on my own.” “There was just no talking the guy out of it,” Gallien remembers. “He was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited. He couldn’t wait to head out there and get started.” Three hours out of Fairbanks, Gallien turned off the highway and steered his beat-­‐up 4x4 down a snow-­‐packed side road. For the first few miles the Stampede Trail was well graded and led past cabins scattered among weedy stands of spruce and aspen. Beyond the last of the log shacks, however, the road rapidly deteriorated. Washed out and overgrown with alders, it turned into a rough, unmaintained track. In summer the road here would have been sketchy but passable; now it was made unnavigable by a foot and a half of mushy spring snow. Ten miles from the highway, worried that he’d get stuck if he drove farther, Gallien stopped his rig on the crest of a low Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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rise. The icy summits of the highest mountain range in North America gleamed on the southwestern horizon. Alex insisted on giving Gallien his watch, his comb, and what he said was all his money: eighty-­‐five cents in loose change. “I don’t want your money,” Gallien protested, “and I already have a watch.” “If you don’t take it, I’m going to throw it away,” Alex cheerfully retorted. “I don’t want to know what time it is. I don’t want to know what day it is or where I am. None of that matters.” Before Alex left the pickup, Gallien reached behind the seat, pulled out an old pair of rubber work boots, and persuaded the boy to take them. “They were too big for him,” Gallien recalls. “But I said, ‘Wear two pair of socks, and your feet ought to stay halfway warm and dry.’” “How much do I owe you?” “Don’t worry about it,” Gallien answered. Then he gave the kid a slip of paper with his phone number on it, which Alex carefully tucked into a nylon wallet. “If you make it out alive, give me a call, and I’ll tell you how to get the boots back to me.” Gallien’s wife had packed him two grilled-­‐cheese-­‐and-­‐tuna sandwiches and a bag of corn chips for lunch; he persuaded the young hitchhiker to accept the food as well. Alex pulled a camera from his backpack and asked Gallien to snap a picture of him shouldering his rifle at the trailhead. Then, smiling broadly, he disappeared down the snow-­‐covered track. The date was Tuesday, April 28, 1992. Gallien turned the truck around, made his way back to the Parks Highway, and continued toward Anchorage. A few miles down the road he came to the small community of Healy, where the Alaska State Troopers maintain a post. Gallien briefly considered stopping and telling the authorities about Alex, then thought better of it. “I figured he’d be OK,” he explains. “I thought he’d probably get hungry pretty quick and just walk out to the highway. That’s what any normal person would do.” Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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WHERE I LIVED, AND WHAT I LIVED FOR
Thoreau, Henry David. from Walden. Ed. Jeffrey S. Cramer. New Haven: Yale UP. 2004. 88-96. Print
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I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-­‐like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever. Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-­‐nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-­‐and-­‐one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion. Our life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell you how it is bounded at any moment. The nation itself, with all its so-­‐called internal improvements, which, by the way are all external and superficial, is just such an unwieldy and overgrown establishment, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense, by want of calculation and a worthy aim, as the million households in the land; and the only cure for it, as for them, is in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose. It lives too fast. Men think that it is essential that the Nation have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a telegraph, and ride thirty miles an hour, without a doubt, whether they do or not; but whether we should live like baboons or like men, is a little uncertain. If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads? And if railroads are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season? But if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want railroads? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. And when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again. Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow. As for work, we haven't any of any consequence. We have the Saint Vitus' dance, and cannot possibly keep our heads still. If I should only give a few pulls at the parish bell-­‐
rope, as for a fire, that is, without setting the bell, there is hardly a man on his farm in the outskirts of Concord, notwithstanding that press of engagements which was his excuse so many times this morning, nor a boy, nor a woman, I might almost say, but would forsake all and follow that sound, not mainly to save property from the flames, but, if we will confess the truth, much more to see it burn, since burn it must, and we, be it known, did not set it on fire — or to see it put out, and have a hand in it, if that is done as handsomely; yes, even if it were the parish church itself. Hardly a man takes a half-­‐hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, "What's the news?" as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels. Some give directions to be waked every half-­‐hour, doubtless for no other purpose; and then, to pay for it, they tell what they have dreamed. After a night's sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. "Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe" — and he reads it over his coffee and rolls, that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wachito River; never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world, and has but the rudiment of an eye himself. For my part, I could easily do without the post-­‐office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life — I wrote this some years ago — that were worth the postage. The penny-­‐post is, commonly, an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest. And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter — we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Yet not a few are greedy after this gossip. There was such a rush, as I hear, the other day at one of the offices to learn the foreign news by the last arrival, that several large squares of plate glass belonging to the establishment were broken by the pressure — news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelve-­‐month, or twelve years, beforehand with sufficient accuracy. As for Spain, for instance, if you know how to throw in Don Carlos and the Infanta, and Don Pedro and Seville and Granada, from time to time in the right proportions — they may have changed the names a little since I saw the papers — and serve up a bull-­‐fight when other entertainments fail, it will be true to the letter, and give us as good an idea of the exact state or ruin of things in Spain as the most succinct and lucid reports under this head in the newspapers: and as for England, almost the last significant scrap of news from that quarter was the revolution of 1649; and if you have learned the history of her crops for an average year, you never need attend to that thing again, unless your speculations are of a merely pecuniary character. If one may judge who rarely looks into the newspapers, nothing new does ever happen in foreign parts, a French revolution not excepted. Visit englishcompanion.com for more information
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“The Stones” ––by Richard Shelton (from Flash Fiction) I love to go out on summer nights and watch the stones grow. I think they grow better here in the desert, where it is warm and dry, than almost anywhere. Or perhaps it is only that the young ones are more active here. Young stones tend to move about more than their elders consider good for them. Most young stones have a secret desire which their parents had before them but have forgotten ages ago. And because this desire involves water, it is never mentioned. The older stones disapprove of water and say, "Water is a gadfly who never stays in one place long enough to learn anything." But the young stones try to work themselves into a position, slowly and without their elders noticing it, in which a sizable stream of water during a summer storm might catch them broadside and unknowing, so to speak, push them along over a slope or down an arroyo. In spite of the danger this involves, they want to travel and see something of the world and settle in a new place, far from home, where they can raise their own dynasties, away from the domination of their parents. And although family ties are very strong among stones, many have succeeded; and they carry scars to prove to their children that they once went on a journey, helter-­‐skelter and high water, and traveled perhaps fifteen feet, an incredible distance. As they grow older, they cease to brag about such clandestine adventures. It is true that old stones get to be very conservative. They consider all movement either dangerous or downright sinful. They remain comfortably where they are and often get fat. Fatness, as a matter of fact, is a mark of distinction. And on summer nights, after the young stones are asleep, the elders turn to a serious and frightening subject–––the moon, which is always spoken of in whispers. "See how it glows and whips across the sky, always changing its shape," one says. And another says, "Feel how it pulls at us, urging us to follow." And a third whispers, "It is a stone gone mad." Jim Burke
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The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down o ne as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had w orn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this w ith a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. By Robert Frost Frost, Robert. Mountain Interval. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1 920 Legal Alien
Bi-­‐lingual, Bi-­‐cultural, able to slip from "How's life?" to "Me'stan volviendo loca," able to sit in a paneled office drafting memos in smooth English, able to order in fluent Spanish at a Mexican restaurant, American but hyphenated, viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic, perhaps inferior, definitely different, viewed by Mexicans as alien, (their eyes say, "You may speak Spanish but you're not like me") an American to Mexicans a Mexican to Americans a handy token sliding back and forth between the fringes of both worlds by smiling by masking the discomfort of being pre-­‐judged Bi-­‐laterally. By Pat Mora Chants . Arte Publico Press © 1985 The Gift Outright
The land w as ours before we were the land’s. She was our land more than a hundred years Before w e were her people. She w as ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England’s, still colonials, Possessing w hat we still w ere unpossessed by, Possessed by w hat we now no more possessed. Something w e were withholding made us w eak Until w e found o ut that it w as ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we w ere we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become. By Robert Frost The Poetry of Robert Frost (Henry Holt & Co., 1 969) Jim Burke
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50
Foundational Document: The Declaration of Independence
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the
Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should
not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their
future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove
this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
­­­He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation
till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish
the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the
people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers,
incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time
exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization
of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their
salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their
substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;
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giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of
these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government,
and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute
rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our
Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the
executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and
conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have
been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is
unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts
by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them
by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in
the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace
Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People
of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and
Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection
between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States,
they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and
Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear below…
Jim Burke
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Foundational Document: The Bill of Rights
The Preamble to The Bill of Rights
Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven
hundred and eighty nine.
THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire,
in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added:
And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.
RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two
thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.
ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress,
and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.
The Bill of Rights (which consist of the first ten amendments to the Constitution in their original form; they were ratified December 15, 1791)
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not
be infringed.
Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a
Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public
danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled
in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and
district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to
be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory
process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Amendment VII
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved,
and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the
common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.
Note: The capitalization and punctuation in this version is from the enrolled original of the Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the
Bill of Rights, which is on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building, Washington, D.C.
Jim Burke
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The Story of An Hour (Kate Chopin)
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break
to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in
half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been
in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently
Mallard’s name leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of its
truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in
bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability
to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms.
When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no
one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank,
pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her
soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver
with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler
was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met
and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except
when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain
strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on
one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it?
She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky,
reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that
was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless
as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under hte breath: “free,
free, free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They
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stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every
inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and
exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She knew that she would
weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked
save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long
procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her
arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and
women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief
moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could
love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she
suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold, imploring for
admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are
you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the door.”
“Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through
that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days,
and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long.
It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a feverish
triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped
her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the
bottom.
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered,
a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from
the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.
––Kate Chopin. The Awakening and Other Stories. (Penguin 1894)
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ENTERING THE ACADEMIC CONVERSATION: DISCUSSION & QUESTION STEMS
When participating in an academic or formal discussion remember to:
• Acknowledge others’ comments before making your own (e.g., “Picking up on what Juan said…).
• Listen and process what others are saying (instead of merely looking for your chance to jump in).
• Show you are listening by responding to and acknowledging key ideas in others’ comments (e.g., “Maria makes a good
point when she says…I would add that…”).
• Avoid slang or otherwise informal language more appropriate to discussion with friends.
• Provide examples, details, or evidence when appropriate and possible to support or illustrate your ideas.
Purpose
Acknowledge
Comments and questions that
recognize others’ comments
and ideas; signals the listener
hears, understands, and accepts
as a valid contribution the
speaker’s ideas.
Comment Stems
Question Stems
• X makes an interesting point about y. • X identifies key differents, but
how do they relate to Y’s claim?
• My idea echoes what X was saying
about y…
• I think it’s important that we
think about what X is saying…
• X raises some important
questions, but how are they
similar to/different from Y’s?
• Your idea is great! Can you
connect it somehow to what we
were just discussing?
Agree
•
•
•
•
•
Most would agree that…
I share your belief that…
I also think that…
You seem to believe, as X does, that…
Your position is the same as X’s…
• Isn’t that the same as…?
• So what you are saying is that you agree
with X that…?
• I’m not sure I understand: How is your
position different from X’s?
• Aren’t you saying the same thing as X?
Agree and Disagree
• I agree that…but can’t accept that…
• We both agree that…but I think
differently about the idea that…
• While I agree with you that…I reject
the idea that…based on…
• Yes, I share the author’s view that…but
think differently about…
• You clearly agree that…but seem to
disagree with the idea that….
• What part of the argument (or idea) do
you agree with?
• You don’t disagree with everything X
said, though, do you?
• Even though you think…don’t you
agree with the idea that…?
• I see why you think _____, but you
seem to also agree (or disagree) that…,
don’t you?
Clarify
•
•
•
•
•
Your main idea appears to be that…
You seem to suggest that…
The author is saying that…
I’m saying that x means (or is) y…
My point is that…
•
•
•
•
•
Disagree
•
•
•
•
•
I’m not sure I agree that…since…
X thinks____, but I disagree…
While X suggests___, I think…
You seem to disagree with X since…
I have to disagree because…
• Isn’t that different from what X just
said?
• X thinks…but you disagree, don’t you?
• Don’t you disagree, though, since you
said…?
• How can you say x when you think y?
Comments or questions that
establish your shared position in
relation to others’ through sympathy,
agreement, or concession.
Comments or questions that agree
with or concede part of an idea but
also challenge or otherwise reject
another part of a stated position.
Comments or questions intended
to achieve greater clarity through
evidence, examples, or summary.
Comments or questions that
establish your opposing position by
challenging, questioning, or actively
(but respectfully!) rejecting an idea
or perspective.
Jim Burke
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Can you explain why…?
Why do you think that…?
Are you saying that…?
Is that the same as…?
Can you give an example of that?
76
Into the Wild: An Inquiry into Freedom
Mr. Burke/English 7CP
Overview
We have read Into the Wild as an inquiry into the concept of freedom. To that end, we have
considered a range of perspectives (Adler, Thoreau, Maslow); definitions (liberty vs. freedom
vs. license vs. autonomous vs. independent); and approaches (philosophical, psychological,
socio-economical). All give us useful insights into the book in general and Chris McCandless/
Alex Supertramp in particular. The following assignment asks you to examine one aspect of
freedom that interests you.
Guidelines
This paper should:
£Have 6 paragraphs: 1 introduction, 1 conclusion, and 4 paragraphs written in
response to Into the Wild as we read it (all of which should be related to the same idea)
£Be double-spaced, 1-1.25” margins, 12-point font, formatted in a serif font (like
Minion versus this font, which is the sans serif font Arial), with a header formatted
with the page number and your name)
£Include abundant textual evidence in the form of direct and indirect quotations, each
one properly cited in the text).
Standards
£Feature your name, this class, my name, period, and class on first page justified-left
The following standards apply to this assignment:
WS 1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and
relevant and sufficient evidence.
WS 7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating
understanding of the subject under investigation.
WS 8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each
source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
WS 9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Directions
This paper asks you to do the following:
£Introduce and establish a precise, knowledgeable claim about your topic.
£Organize your claims, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence to establish a clear
relationship among them.
£Develop your claims and counterclaims about your subject fairly and thoroughly using
relevant evidence from Into the Wild and other texts we read.
£Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationship between claims, reasons,
evidence, and counterclaims.
£Provide a conclusion that follows from and supports your argument.
£Establish and maintain a formal style appropriate to the topic and audience.
Assessment
Jim Burke
This paper will be evaluated using the attached rubric for writing an argument.
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Into the Wild: An Inquiry Into the Idea of Freedom
List of Claims/Other for Each Chapter
1. Claim: The first impression one gets of Chris McCandless is that he wants to escape mainstream American society in
general and his own past and family in particular.
2. Claim: Alaska is a breathtaking but inhospitable landscape that resist man’s best efforts to control it--and the government’s attempts to control the people who live there.
3. Claim: We really only feel free when we are with those who truly know and accept us for who we are, which is why
McCandless found a sense of home in Carthage with the people there.
4. Claim: It was only after he burned his last money and left behind his remaining possessions that McCandless begins
his real odyssey, for only then was he free to live in the world as he chose. 5. Claim: One thing we can never get entirely free of or fully escape is our need for money.
6. Claim: Chris also resisted the demands of intimate relationships with those he met along the way, preferring
instead to remain free of any obligations to others. 7. Alternate: Provided students with a series of quotations from chapter 7, all related to the paradox that often the more
we try to be free (from something—a desire, a person, past) the more we are bound to that source for in trying to
escape it we can only think of it.
Into the Wild: An Inquiry Into the Idea of Freedom
Chapter 7
Directions
After reading chapter 7, examine the following quotations from the chapter, looking for
a common element to them that would support some claim about an aspect of freedom in
this chapter.
1. “Knowing Alex, I think he must have just got stuck on something that happened
between him and his dad and couldn’t leave it be” (64).
2. “He brooded at length over what he perceived to be his father’s moral
shortcomings, the hypocrisy of his parents’ lifestyle, the tyranny of their
conditional love” (64).
3. “McCandless was drawn to women but remained largely celibate, as chaste as a
monk” (65).
4. “McCandless seems to have been driven by a variety of lust that supplanted
sexual desire” (66).
5. “Once Alex made up his mind about something, there was no changing it” (67).
6. “No, I want to hitch north. Flying would be cheating” (67).
What is the subject common (hint: it’s more specific than just “freedom”) to these
quotations?
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LISTENER’S NOTES
Who
Mr. Burke
Says What (Claim)
Name:
Date:
I Say (in response)
Period:
Claimed three elements are essential for I agree with the importance of the
meaningful work: purpose, pride, and
“three Ps” but would add a fourth: pay
pleasure.
Reasoning
since work, if it is to be meaningful,
should not ask us to sacrifice pay in
order to find pleasure in our work.
Reflect and Respond (Establishing and Responding to Standard Views) in a paragraph
1. Most have emphasized ____________, arguing that _____________; however, I would suggest____________.
2. Speakers have argued __________, pointing out that __________, all of which I agree with, but would add_________.
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PARAGRAPH NOTES
Name:
Directions As you read the assigned text, do each of the following in the order listed:
1. Jot down the title of the text you are reading in the designated space.
2. Identify a topic or question to pay attention to while you read.
3. Note down 4 key quotations on the left side and their page numbers in parentheses using the
Introduce the Quotations templates
4. Explain each quotation on the right side to convey its meaning.
5. Write a paragraph at the bottom (and onto the back) about the topic of your inquiry after you
finish. Be sure to use most of the quotations you selected.
Text/Title:
Topic/Question:
Author:
Page #s:
Templates for INTRODUCING the Quotations
Adopt or adapt one of the following templates for
introducing your quotation
 X states, “_______________” (23).
 According to X, “_______________” (23).
 Writing in his book _________, X observes that
“______________” (23).
 In X’s view, “_____________” (23).
Templates for EXPLAINING Quotations
Adopt or adapt one of the following templates for explaining
your quotation:
 In other words, X believes _____________.
 X is insisting that ______________.
 The essence of X’s argument is that________.
 In making this comment, X argues that______.
 X’s point is that _____________.
Paragraph: Draw a conclusion from your quotations; arrange your quotations and commentary; use effective transitions. Jim Burke
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How to Write an Argument (by Gerald Graff)
from Clueless in Academe, How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind (Yale U. Press, 2004)
In his book Clueless in Academe, Gerald Graff states his objective as a teacher as follows: “I see my goal as a teacher,
and the bottom line goal of education, as that of demystifying the ‘club we belong to’ and breaking up its exclusivity.
I want to help students enter this club, which often involves flushing out and engaging their resistance to entering,
addressing questions about why as well as how. Demystifying the club...means widening our notion of who qualifies
as ‘intellectual’ and building on the argumentative talents students already possess” (25). Here Graff provides a
concise but very useful summary of what a good written argument does, what it includes.
1. Enter a conversation just as you do in real life. Begin your text by directly identifying the prior conversation
or debate that you are entering. What you have to say won’t make sense unless your readers know the
conversation in which you are saying it.
2. Make a claim, the sooner the better, preferably flagged for the reader by a phrase like “My claim here is
that....” You don’t actually have to use this exact phrase, but if you couldn’t do so you’re in trouble.
3. Remind readers of your claim periodically, especially the more you complicate it. If you’re writing about a
disputed topic—and if you aren’t, why write?—you’ll also have to stop and tell the reader what you are not
saying, what you don’t want readers to take you as saying. Some of them will take you to be saying it anyway,
but you don’t have to make it easy for them.
4. Summarize the objections that you anticipate will be made (or that have in fact been made) against your
claim. This is done by using such formulas as “Here you will probably object that…,” “To put the point another
way…,” or “But why, you may ask, am I so emphatic on this point?” Remember that your critics, even when
they get mean and nasty, are your friends: you need them to help you clarify your claim and to indicate why
what you’re saying is of interest to other besides yourself. Remember, too, that if naysayers didn’t exist, you’d
have no excuse for saying what you are saying.
5. Say explicitly why you think what you’re saying is important and what difference it would make to the world
if you are right or wrong. Imagine a reader over your shoulder who asks, “So what?” Or “Who cares about any
of this?” Again, you don’t actually have to write such questions in, but if you were to do so and couldn’t answer
them you’re in trouble.
6. Write a meta-text into your essay that stands apart from your main text and puts it in perspective. An
effective argumentative essay really consists of two texts, one in which you make your argument and a second
one in which you tell readers how and how not to read it. This second text is usually signaled by reflexive
phrases like “Of course I don’t mean to suggest that…,” “What I’ve been trying to say here, then, is that…,”
etc. When student writing is unclear or lame, the reason often has less to do with jargon, verbal obscurity, or
bad grammar than with the absence of this layer of meta-commentary, which explains why the writer thought
it was necessary to write the essay in the first place.
7. Remember that readers can process only one claim at a time, so resist the temptation to try to squeeze in
secondary claims that are better left for another essay or paragraph, or for another section of your essay that’s
clearly marked off from your main claim. If you’re a professional academic, you are probably so anxious
to prove that you’ve left no thought unconsidered that you find it hard to resist the temptation to try to say
everything all at once. Remember that giving in to this temptation to say it all at once will result in saying
nothing that will be understood while producing horribly overloaded paragraphs and sentences like this one,
monster-sized discursive footnotes, and readers who fling your text down and reach for the TV Guide.
8. Be bilingual. It is not necessary to avoid Academicspeak—you sometimes need the stuff to say what you want
to say. But whenever you do have to say something in Academicspeak, try also to say it in conversational
English as well. You’ll be surprised to discover that when you restate an academic point in your nonacademic
voice, the point will either sound fresher or you’ll see how shallow it is and remove it.
9. Don’t kid yourself. If you couldn’t explain it to your parents the chances are you don’t understand it yourself.
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(5). Ethos
(Invisible sixth element of any
argument, relates to your own
credibility as reflected in the
claim and supporting details.)
What is the author’s or
speaker’s ethos? How do
we know we can believe
what he or she says?
• thorough
• establish and main
credibility throughout
• quality of the argument’s
construction
• integrity of sources
What the writer/speaker does
not want to do is use––or at
least overuse––the pronoun “I,”
as if to imply “if I say or think
it, it must be true.”
Many ideas here are adapted from The Craft of Research (Second Edition), by David Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joe Williams (University of Chicago Press, 2003).
Element
Question to Ask
Traits of Effective…
Example
Language
1. Make a claim.
What do you claim?
• not obvious
• qualifiers: many, often,
(Your proposition, or assertion;
• x is true
• defendable
almost, tends to, might
the central point you will argue.
• x is important
• debatable
• verbs: suggests, implies,
The “main claim” for a paper is
• x should be done
• not a fact/opinion
supports, contends,
also known as the “thesis.”).
• x is of a certain quality • significant
demonstrates
• avoids either/or
2. State your reasons.
What reasons support
• logical
• I think x because…
(Sentence or two that explain
that claim?
• persuasive
• X suggests Y since…
why readers should accept your
• relevant
• Because X leads Y, Z must
claim.)
• substantial
happen.
• appealing
• A leads to B because C…
3. Provide evidence to support
What evidence supports • avoid the logical fallacies
• based on…
your claim.
those reasons?
• evidence is:
• According to A, B stems from
(Consists of facts, figures, or
• Studies consistently show that
• Authoritative
statistics used to prove the
A leads to B…
• Relevant
claim. Should be something that
•
X
found that Y caused Z when
• Specific
can be seen, touched, heard,
A
happened.
• Effective
felt; a fact.)
•
A
concluded
B based on C
• Current
•
X
demonstrated
that Y will…
• Compelling
4. Acknowledge and respond to
Do you acknowledge
• Use concessionary
• use subordinating
opposing perspectives.
this alternative/
language to acknowledge
conjunctions to signal
(A good claim challenges
complication/ objection–
and respond.
concession
previously-held beliefs. You
–and how do you
• Cite specific, important
• While x consistently shows y,
must recognize the other
respond?
alternatives or
not everyone agrees with the
points-of-view, then explain
objections; then address
results or the method by
how yours disproves or
them head on with
which these results are
otherwise improves upon the
reliable evidence to
obtained.
previous or other claims.)
support your claim.
Crafting an Argument
Jim Burke
Evidence
• Facts
• Figures
• Statistics
• Observations
Acknowledge
Evidence
Reason
Why should readers
accept your claim?
Claim
What is the main
point you will argue?
Argument Organizer
Acknowledge
& Respond
to other
perspectives on
the subject
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Respond
Evidence
© 2005 Jim Burke. May reproduce for classroom use only. www.englishcompanion.com
Evidence
Reason
Claim
Name:
A Modern Approach to Writing: FODP F
O
D
P
(Created by Jim Burke)
Introduction
We need an approach that is intuitive but flexible, one capable ot accomodating complex ideas and our own style. We also
need, as teachers, a way of discussing writing that works across mediums, grade levels and subject areas so a school can create a more unified way of teaching and talking about writing that students can carry with them from class to class but that
also grows to accommodate the increased complexity of each grade level and the world beyond school.
FOCUS
Whether it is an entire document, a paragraph, a sentence, a slide, or a screen, all good writing needs a FOCUS, which we
might summarize as our subject + what we say about it = our main idea. It is similar to but not necessarily the same as your
point. The focus could be compared to the spine: it runs the length of the body and holds everything together to create a coherent whole. It need not be overt; in more sophisticated writing, of course, the main idea may be implied, woven throughout the paragraph. Writing that lacks a clear and compelling focus often suffers from other ailments related to organization,
development, and purpose because the writer does not know what lies at the center of all they are saying. The writer’s focus
may be on Hamlet’s language, Shakespeare’s imagery, or Aristotle’s ideas about tragedy; in a less academic context, the slide
might focus on an emerging market or a letter might concentrate on a new product being proposed. In a more visual way,
we might think of the focus as the center of a target.
ORGANIZATION
All texts, regardless of type, require an organizing structure or strategy that complements the focus in a logical, effective way.
In more traditional academic writing, details, ideas, events, or data might be organized according to the writer’s purpose
at any given time (e.g., to compare and contrast, to describe a sequence or location of one thing in relation to another).
Organization these days includes spatial arrangement on a page or screen; yet it could also organize details, events, or ideas
in more graphic ways (e.g., timelines, charts, maps, or tables) or as lists that may be arranged by some principle (numerical,
chronological, importance, or randomly so as to suggest there is no specified order to the information. Digital texts, due
to such features as hotlinks or embedded multimedia, allow for less linear ways of organizing information. However the
contents of a text are organized, there is inevitably some logic to it and various techniques are used to create and reinforce
that organizational logic. Ultimately, it is the writer’s focus and purpose that determine how the contents are organized, for
organization is primarily a way of establishing and maintaining a focus and helping to achieve some purpose.
DEVELOPMENT
Once you get a focus set up and establish some organizing principle for the text that serves both to maintain the focus and
achieve the purpose, you must develop those ideas, events, or other key details around which you organize your text. Development thus has at least two components: the examples, quotations, data, or other content that you include to support
and illustrate the larger ideas and aims of the text; and the commentary, discussion or explanation of the meaning or importance of those ideas, examples, or quotations you initially included to develop your focus or achieve your purpose. Development accounts for other, more subtle but no less influencial elements of the text such as rhetorical strategies or nuances
of style such as sound, imagery, or allusions writers use to develop an idea or make a point. In most student writing, it is in
the area of development that students trip up, failing to provide the details, quotations, or examples--as well as the commentary on or explanation them--that robust, insightful, well-reasoned and effectively-argued writing requires if the writer
is to maintain that focus and achieve his or her purpose.
PURPOSE
Each sentence, paragraph, slide, or screen comes with its own purpose and, ultimately, exists to serve the larger, overarching aim of the writer, speaker, or designer of the text regardless of its format or medium. The most common purposes
are the same they have been since Aristotle began identifying and classifying the different rhetorical aims so long ago: to
persuade, to entertain, to inform, and to express. To these we might add such objectives as to inspire and explain, both of
which involve elements of persuasion and information. Some argue that regardless of our stated purpose, we are always out
to persuade: “Everything is an argument” as the saying goes. Purpose is rarely fixed or one-dimensional in any piece of real
writing: some sentences, paragraphs, or sections (a chapter of a book or a subsection within a chapter) have a distinct purpose which may, at first, not be obviously linked to the larger purpose of the entire text. Thus as writers, readers, speakers,
or listeners, we should always be on the look out for signs of the writer’s or speaker’s purpose at any point, but also mindful
of how that portion of the text and its purpose relate to and support the greater aim first established by the focus.
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Academic Writing Moves
The following “moves” are designed to help students write more effective analytical sentences and paragraphs. While
many of these examples complement each other (e.g., you could organize a paragraph around an analogy in order to
define something), they often work fine or even best on their own. The goal here is to help students arrange their
ideas and paragraphs as they draft and revise in light of their purpose.
Type and Description
Sample Expository Sentence Frames
Analogy
Connects things or ideas based on common
elements such as structure or qualities to
illustrate or emphasize similarities and/or
differences.
Cause and Effect
Examines and reveals causes, effects—or
both. Explaining why focuses on causes;
focusing on what did, will, or could happen
involves effects.
Chronological
Emphasizes time sequences to show when
things happened, the order in which they
occurred. Used to describe events,
processes, experiences.
Classification
Breaks down or links subjects and
processes, based on differences (divisions)
or similarities (classes).
Comparison and Contrast
Focuses on the similarities to compare;
examines the differences to contrast. It’s
possible, even wise, to look compare and
contrast.
Definition
Explains what something means, what it is,
in order to define; clarifies how it is similar
to or different from other ideas, subjects, to
define it by classifying, or
comparing/contrasting.
Illustration
Shows what we mean, what something looks
like in order to illustrate our point by using
examples to clarify or define.
List
Provides a string of reasons, examples,
ideas, features, or other factors; we list, tries
to make a point by repetition, quantity of
example, or force of multiples.
Narration
Uses stories and anecdotes to illustrate ideas
or make a point. Narrative power stems
from its ability to inspire, move people.
Pros and Cons
Considers the pros and cons
(ad/disadvantages) in order to allow/force
readers to consider a subject or choice from
multiple perspectives.
Problem and Solution
Emphasizes the problem(s) or identifies
solution(s) by way of framing the subject,
process, or argument.
Jim Burke
• Despite their relationship, they were more like enemies than allies…
• His mind, by this point, resembled a pinball machine as ideas bounced…
• Like a game of chess, the plot advanced, guided not by x but y.
• It was x, not y, that explained his decision to do z.
• Doing x caused y, which ultimately led to z, an outcome that shows…
• True, x stemmed from y, but z did not; rather, z was caused by a and b.
• After x happened, y began, which led to z, the final phase of…
• First, they did x, after which they did y, all of which culminated in z.
• They tried x; then they attempted y; finally, they turned to z.
• X belonged to a class of people who…
• Among them there were differences which at first were not apparent…
• X and Y rejected z; however, Y, as a member of the ___ class, accepted…
• X and Y were both z, while A and B were c…
• X shared the sentiments of Y but not Z, believing…
• Though X and Y agreed that…. Y alone argued that…
• By any measure, by any criteria, x was…
• X was y but not z, a but not b….
• According to X, Y was…a as well as b…
• One example x appears early on when Y does z…
• X proves this when he does y, a gesture that clearly shows z….
• In case we doubted that X was y, we need only remember that he…
• X was many things. It was y but also z. It was a and b. It was also c and d.
• Everyone had a theory about x. Y thought… Z argued…. A believed….
• At this point, he offered a string of reasons for his actions. He said he did it
because of x. He then said he did it for y. Then he said it was really z…
• One time, X left for y, heading off to discover z, an experience that…
• He had, in the past, done x but only when he began to suffer from…
• They were different from others; they would run away and be happy…
• Of course x offered advantages, chief among them being y, which…
• One could not consider x without realizing y, which was unacceptable…
• True, x was…; however, y offered an alternative, one that promised…
• X lacks y, which means z will have to happen
• The cause of x is most often y; however, x can be solved by doing z.
• Many argue that X undermines Y, causing it to…; however, Z addresses…
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Process
Focuses on the steps or causes that led to the
result or current situation; emphasizes the
causes and effects; can be mental, physical,
or structural.
Spatial
Emphasizes the location, arrangement, or
direction of elements, people, processes;
helps reader visualize what it looks like or
how x relates to y within a space.
Agree
Refers to another’s point and explains why
you agree with or support the idea. May
involve a brief summary of the other’s idea
to create context for your agreement.
Disagree
Refers to another’s point and explains why
you disagree or oppose it. May involve a
brief summary of other’s idea to create
context for your opposition or rejection.
Agree and Disagree
Refers to another’s point and explains why
you both agree and disagree. May involve a
brief summary of the other’s idea to create
context for your position(s).
Acknowledge Alternatives
Recognizes that academic writing makes a
claim of some sort; inevitably, others will
accept or reject this claim; anticipates and
discusses these “naysayers,” using their
counterarguments to further clarify and
emphasize your own argument.
Alternative Strategies
Recognizes that in addition to other
strategies that are equally useful but fall
between the tidy definitions offered above.
• Such a problem does not happen all at once, but in a series stages…
• While he seems to have suddenly become x, the truth is that it was the
culmination of many such small decisions, each of which led to…
• X slowly begins to reveal y, which leads to z and, eventually, a and even b.
• Upon entering x you see y near z; look to the left of z to find a…
• X appears between y and z, which results in a further down the page.
• In the first quatrain, the poet does x; in the next two, however, he…
• X argues…, a point I agree with since it suggests…
• In her article, X states that…which confirms my assertion that…
• X could only be y, something Jones verifies in her article, saying…
• While X says…, this makes little sense in light of…
• True, x is…, but Y forgets…, which undermines her argument by…
• Several (Jones 2007; Smith 2002) argue that x is…; however, I disagree as it
is clear that…
• Yes, x is…, a point clearly established by Y early on; however, this same
point comes into question later, when Z demonstrates….
• It is not difficult to see that both are correct: X is, as Jones (2007) says, crazy;
X is also, however, as Smith (2002) shows…
• I agree that X is… but reject the notion that X could be…
• Some will argue that x is, in fact, y, a point many (Jones 2007; Smith 2002)
bring up when considering z.
• Indeed, as many have noted, x is y, even, in some cases, z.
• Not everyone agrees, however. Jones (2007) contends… Others, including
Smith (2002), go so far as to argue….
• Element-by-Element: Each ¶ focuses on a different element of the subject.
• Text-by-Text: Each ¶ focuses on a different text in relation to the subject.
• Idea-by-Idea: Each ¶ focuses on a different idea within the text.
• Character-by-Character: Each ¶ focuses on character A or B (or C and D)
• Event-by-Event: Each ¶ focuses on a different event and its relationship to
those that came before it (e.g., the relationship between each of Hamlet’s
soliloquies and how they evolve and build on each other)
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Thesis Generator: Creating a Working Thesis
Introduction
A good thesis has some essential qualities to keep in mind as you use the Thesis Generator to develop
your own working thesis. Such a viable thesis must be:
• arguable: your claim requires you to gather and use evidence to make your case.
• limited in its scope and focus: it is clear to both writer and reader what is at stake.
• substantive: this is a worthy, significant subject; it is a case worth making.
• defensible: you can provide adequate and relevant evidence to support your claim.
LITERARY THESIS
1.Identify the subject of your paper
The development of one’s own identity.
2.Turn your subject into a guiding question
How does a young man go about developing his own identity
apart from his parents?
3.Answer your question with a statement
Telemachus realizes that he must set out on his own journey to
find his own identity.
In the absence of his father, Telemachus assumes the role,
sending himself on a quest that will transform him into the
man he needs to become.
4.Refine this statement into a working thesis
NON-LITERARY VARIATION
1.Identify the subject of your paper
Relationships between teenagers and their parents
2.Turn your subject into a guiding question
How does the relationship between teenagers and their parents
change?
3.Answer your question with a statement
As teens grow more independent, they resent and resist the
limitations and expectations their parents impose on them.
4.Refine this statement into a working thesis
Conflict between teenagers and their parents is a difficult but
necessary stage in kids’ development.
YOUR TURN!
1.Identify the subject of your paper
2.Turn your subject into a guiding question
3.Answer your question with a statement
4.Refine this statement into a working thesis
Jim Burke
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Expert Project: Critical Notes 2.0
Name:
Date:
Period:
These Critical Notes are a weekly required assignment for the Expert Project. They are due each Monday and will be
used as part of a weekly discussion with those classmates studying a similar topic. This handout is not a worksheet
to fill in; rather, it outlines what to do. All work for this assignment should be done on a separate sheet of paper.
Typing is encouraged—but not required.
1. Restate the subject and Guiding Question (GQ) of your Expert Project inquiry.
2. Identify the source and subject of your inquiry this week:
I read/viewed/listened to
…which was about
3. Collect Works Cited Information
Author:
Title:
Type:
Date Published:
Date Accessed:
Pages:
URL:
Issue:
City Published:
Publication:
4. Before you read, do the following on a separate sheet of paper:
£
£
£
£
£
Generate 2-3 questions about the text based on the title, type of text, or some other element.
Identify what you understand to be the actual subject of the text.
Predict what you think the text will say about its subject based on its title or other details.
Jot a couple sentences summing up what you know about this subject.
Create a Purpose Question (PQ) based on the title of the article or other text.
5. As you read, take notes, jotting down key ideas, quotations, connections, or details related to the subject of the
article and your actual subject for the Expert Project.
6. After you finish reading, restate and answer your PQ (Purpose Question) for this specific text you read this
week; then list the main idea and three supporting ideas from the article.
7. Media Critique: Evaluate the author’s choice of media (e.g., words, images, audio; written, spoken, mixed
media) and how effective it was in achieving its original purpose. Use these questions to help you:
•
Who created this message or text?
•
Who is the intended audience?
(Note: Just because it’s about kids or parents doesn’t mean the audience is kids or parents. The
real audience might be companies who want to sell to kids or parents, or employers who want
to understand the new generation of employees. Ask who benefits from this information.)
•
What techniques do they use to get my attention?
•
Who is not included or discussed in this message?
•
Why are they creating or sending this message?
•
What values, lifestyles, or points of view does this message represent and/or leave out/ignore?
8. Respond/React: What are your own thoughts about this subject and article? Elaborate on your ideas as the
purpose here is to add new ideas from here and other sources for your paper in the spring.
9. Connect and Reflect: How does your work this week relate to previous weeks and your project in general? What
are the big ideas that are emerging as the weeks pass and you learn more about your subject?
Do all work on a separate sheet of paper
Jim Burke
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The Expert Project: A Year-Long Inquiry into One Subject
Mr. Burke/English 7-8CP
Overview
Requirements
Standards
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows only one big thing” (Isaiah Berlin). Everything
is interesting if you dig deep enough and spend enough time with it. And as we get older we discover
and devote ourselves to what interests us most, often because we have greater abilities or a more
personal connection to that subject or area. This project invites you to pick a topic and explore it in
great depth over the course of the year, examining it through a wide range of media and from different
perspectives. The important thing is to choose a subject about which you want to become a bit of a
“hedgehog” about for the year.
Over the course of the year each of you will:
} Choose a topic that fascinates you and will merit a year-long inquiry
} Write a formal proposal about what you want to study, how, and why
} Read/Watch/Listen to: articles, tweets, blogs, podcasts, broadcasts, books, lectures
} Write and submit Critical Notes on what you read/watch each week
} Choose, read, and write an essay a book related to your subject each grading period
} Keep and update a properly formatted works cited as you go through the year
} Write an interim “lens paper” as part of fall semester final
} Write a major final paper spring semester drawing on all you did and learned
} Present your findings to the class and other guests at end of spring semester
The following come from the Common Core Standards for English:
RS7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media….
RS8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text….
RS9: Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics ….
RS10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts….
WS1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts….
WS7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects….
WS8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources….
WS9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
WS10:Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time
frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
SLS1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations ….
SLS3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.
SLS4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence….
SLS5: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data….
SLS6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks….
Fall Semester
Topics
Environment
Technology/Science
Jim Burke
Fall semester you will gather information, monitor your topic through the media, and develop your
initial ideas about it, which you will then explore in greater depth spring semester through the paper
you will write and the presentation you will give. Each week you will:
} Learn more about your subject by reading, viewing, or listening to one of the following media (all
of which you should, by semester’s end, have sampled): article, blog, twitter feed, Facebook feed, or
other social network source by an established person in that field.
} Take Critical Notes on whatever you read, view, or listen to, discussing not only the message but
the media and its meaning.
} Update your works cited for the project, keeping track of all citation information
} Discuss your subject and ideas about it with others and/or the class when time allows
Finance/Economics
Law/Crime
War/Military
Transportation
Media
Health/Medicine
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Religion/Faith
Politics/Gov
63
POWER NOTES: Types, Sources, and Effects
Name:
Overview The five sources of power outlined here derive from studies done by French and Raven (1959; 1965) about
the nature and sources of power. It is worth noting that informational power was added later and made
distinct from expert power in response to changes in technology. Use this sheet to help you gather examples
and deepen your understanding of power as you read. The culminating performance, whether a paper or a
presentation, will be based on your understanding of French and Raven’s model and how it applies to 1984.
SOURCES OF POWER
LEGITIMATE POWER
EXAMPLES FROM THE TEXT
Legitimate power is that which is invested in a role. Kings,
policemen and managers all have legitimate power. The
legitimacy may come from a higher power, often one with
coercive power. Legitimate power can often thus be the
acceptable face of raw power.
COERCIVE POWER
This is the power to force someone to do something against their
will. It is often physical although other threats may be used. It is
the power of dictators, despots and bullies. Coercion can result
in physical harm, although its principal goal is compliance.
Demonstrations of harm are often used to illustrate what will
happen if compliance is not gained.
REWARD POWER
Reward power is the ability to give other people what they want,
and, as a result, ask them to do things for you in exchange.
Rewards can also be used to punish, such as when they are
withheld. The promise is essentially the same: do this and you
will get that.
REFERENT POWER
This is the power from another person liking you or wanting to
be like you. It is the power of charisma and fame and is wielded
by all celebrities (by definition) as well as more local social
leaders. In wanting to be like these people, we stand near them,
hoping some of the charisma will rub off onto us.
EXPERT POWER
When I have knowledge and skill that someone else requires,
then I have Expert power. This is a very common form of power
and is the basis for a very large proportion of human
collaboration, including most companies where the principle of
specialization allows large and complex enterprises to be
undertaken.
INFORMATIONAL POWER
Informational power is based on the potential to utilize
information. Providing rational arguments, using information to
persuade others, using facts and manipulating information can
create a power base. How information is used - sharing it with
others, limiting it to key people, keeping it secret from key
people, organizing it, increasing it, or even falsifying it - can
create a shift in power within a group.
Jim Burke
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64
RUBRIC: ARGUMENT WRITING (GRADES 9-12)
NAME:
PERIOD:
EMAIL ADDRESS:
Writing Standard 1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid
reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
STATEMENT OF FOCUS & PURPOSE
1. EXCEEDS THE STANDARD
2. MEETS THE STANDARD
3. APPROACHES THE STANDARD
4. MISSES THE STANDARD
INTRODUCE & ESTABLISH PRECISE, KNOWLEDGEABLE CLAIMS THAT ARE DISTINCT FROM ALTERNATE/OPPOSING CLAIMS.
}
Introduce a claim that is precise,
knowledgeable, significant, and
distinct from competing claims.
}
Introduce a claim that is accurate,
informed, substantive, and different
from competing claims.
}
Introduce a claim that is relevant,
speculative, predictable, or difficult to
distinguish from other claims.
}
Introduce no claim or one that is
flawed, incorrect, or not
distinguishable from other claims.
ORGANIZE CLAIMS, COUNTERCLAIMS, REASONS AND EVIDENCE TO ESTABLISH CLEAR RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THEM.
}
Use transitions strategically to clarify
and emphasize key relationships.
}
Use transitions appropriately to clarify
and emphasize key elements.
}
Use transitions inconsistently to
clarify and emphasize key elements.
}
Use transitions ineffectively or
rarely to clarify and emphasize.
}
Include strong claims, reasons,
evidence, and counterclaims.
}
Include reasonable claims, reasons,
evidence, and counterclaims.
}
Include claims, reasons, evidence,
and counterclaims; some summary.
}
Include few claims, reasons,
evidence, counterclaims; summarize
}
Analyze the strengths & limitations
of all claims & counterclaims.
}
Examine the strengths & limitations
of most claims & counterclaims.
}
Discuss the strengths and limitations
of some claims and counterclaims.
}
Discuss no claims/counterclaims at
all; offer only summary of text/ideas
ORGANIZATION & DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOP CLAIMS & COUNTERCLAIMS FAIRLY AND THOROUGHLY; SUPPORT WITH RELEVANT DATA OR EVIDENCE.
}
Support claims with strong evidence
from different quality sources.
}
Support claims with relevant evidence
from different reliable sources.
}
Support claims with weak or minimal
evidence––or from unreliable sources.
}
Provide no evidence to support
claims (perhaps because no claim).
}
Analyze the strengths & limitations
of all evidence for quality & bias.
}
Examine some strengths & limitations
of most evidence for quality & bias.
}
Discuss few strengths & limitations of
some evidence for quality & bias.
}
Ignore the strengths & limitations
of all evidence for quality & bias.
USE WORDS, PHRASES, CLAUSES TO CLARIFY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CLAIMS, REASONS, EVIDENCE, COUNTERCLAIMS.
}
Use language & syntax to clarify &
emphasize ideas & relationships.
}
Use language & syntax to clarify &
indicate ideas & relationships.
}
Use language & syntax to clarify &
consider some relationships.
}
Use neither language or syntax to
clarify or emphasize relationships.
PROVIDE A CONCLUSION THAT FOLLOWS FROM AND SUPPORTS THE ARGUMENT PRESENTED IN YOUR PAPER.
} Provide a conclusion w/ strong logic,
} Provide a conclusion w/ logic,
insight, & support for your argument.
} Provide a conclusion w/ some logic,
insight, & support for your argument.
} Provides no conclusion w/ logic,
insight, or support for your argument.
insight, or support for argument.
REQUIREMENTS
CONVENTIONS & STYLE
ESTABLISH & MAINTAIN A FORMAL STYLE & OBJECTIVE TONE; OBSERVE DISCIPLINARY NORMS & CONVENTIONS.
}
Establish a style and tone specific to
the discipline and topic that
strengthens your argument.
}
Establish a style and tone appropriate
to the discipline and topic that
supports your argument.
}
Use a style and tone relevant to the
discipline and topic that does not
undermine your argument.
}
Use a style or tone not appropriate
to the discipline or topic that
undermines your argument.
}
Observe all conventions that apply
to the text, topic, task, or discipline.
}
Observe most conventions that apply
to the text, topic, task, or discipline.
}
Observe some conventions that apply
to the text, topic, task, or discipline.
}
Observe few/no conventions that
apply to text, topic, task, or discipline.
}
Demonstrate exceptional command
of the conventions of grammar,
usage, punctuation, & spelling.
}
Demonstrate a command of the
conventions of grammar, usage,
punctuation, & spelling.
}
Demonstrate a command of many
conventions of grammar, usage,
punctuation, & spelling.
}
Demonstrate a command of few
conventions of grammar, usage,
punctuation, & spelling.
}
Read or do more than assigned.
}
Read or do what is assigned.
}
Read or do most of what is assigned.
}
Read or do little that is assigned.
}
Follow all directions to the letter.
}
Follow most directions to the letter.
}
Follow most directions to the letter.
}
Follow few directions to the letter.
}
Include MLA-formatted in-text
citations & works cited at the end.
}
Include MLA-formatted in-text
citations & works cited at the end.
}
Include some MLA-formatted in-text
citations & works cited at the end.
}
Include no MLA-formatted in-text
citations & works cited at the end.
Grade
© 2014 Jim Burke. May photocopy for classroom use only.
Jim Burke
What Worked
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What Needs Work
Updated:1/5/14 8:17 PM
65
SENIOR ENGLISH 1984 IN-CLASS ESSAY
Mr. Burke
Overview
NOTES
Over the course of the last month, we have read 1984 as an inquiry into the nature and types of
power as they relate to the novel and the world in which we live. Today you will write an in-class
essay in which you write about the novel and what it says about power, supporting your claims with
examples and evidence from the novel and the other texts we have read.
DIRECTIONS
Begin with what others say about the subject of power.
This would include:
£
£
£
£
£
£
Orwell’s ideas and observations about power
the different articles we have read
what classmates said during discussions we have had
the film we watched (The Lives of Others)
what others have said about power in other contexts
what others might say about power who either agreed
with your perspective (but for different reasons) or
disagreed (for reasons you should discuss)
Identify the central conflict in 1984 as you see it, using
these questions to help guide you:
£ What is the central conflict?
£ Which side—if any—does the text seem to favor?
£ What’s your evidence? How might others interpret the
evidence differently?
£ What’s your opinion of the text?
What’s your evidence for any claims or insights? Such
evidence in a literary work can come in the form of
quotations and examples related to the following:
£ Images
£ Dialogue
£ Plot
£ Tone
£ Stylistic details
£ Language
£ Other elements that can support your claims
When writing your paper, keep in mind the following:
£ Distinguish what you say from what “they say”
£ Respond to what “they say” by:
£ Agreeing with a difference
£ Disagreeing with reasons
£ Agreeing and disagreeing
£ Say why your claims and ideas matter by asking:
£ So what?
£ Who cares?
£ How does this idea relate to what I’ve said?
£ Include ideas and details from throughout the book,
not just the beginning, middle, or end.
Jim Burke
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66
Tools for Thinking
(Created by Jim Burke)
Tony Wagner interviewed leaders from different fields to identify the skills companies look for when hiring people. Among the most
important skills were “critical thinking and problem solving,” “collaborating,” “agility and adaptability,” “effective oral and written
communication,” “accessing and analyzing information,” and “curiosity and imagination.” At the top of nearly everyone’s list? The ability
to ask great questions. Linda Darling Hammond, who conducted a similar inquiry, offered these variations: “frame, investigate, and
solve problems using a wide range of tools and resources,” “communicate effectively in many forms,” “find, analyze, and use information
for many purposes,” and “develop new products and ideas.” Use these tools to improve your abilities in these areas for college and career.
Graphic Tools
Symbols, Signs, Shapes & Lines
In Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam says the
most basic shapes are all we need in order
to represent complex ideas or solve complex
problems. Use these familiar shapes to
examine and convey the relationship(s)
between people, ideas, events, or other
elements in a story, process, or event.
Consider translating your visual explanation
into writing for further clarity.
Figurative Tools
Analogies, Similes, Metaphors & Models
These tools help identify, generate, and
organize key details and their similarities or
differences. These tools (similes, analogies,
metaphors) reveal connections and
distinctions between ideas, people, events,
or processses that allow writers, readers,
and speakers to show greater insight into a
subject; these ideas can be expressed visually
or through writing.
Explanatory Tools
Charts, Diagrams, Graphs, & Maps
These tools provide “visual explanations,”
though some can also analyze and represent
ideas, events, and processes. Use these
tools to identify and explain causes, effects,
relationships, changes, etc. See Andrew
Abela’s “Chart Chooser” on his website
www.extremepresentations.com and
Duarte’s at www.duarteshop.com or www.
diagrammer.com. Examples from both
appear to the right.
Generative Tools
Tools, Tactics, and Tricks
Studies consistently find that the most
effective teachers and instructional
approaches teach and expect students to
generate ideas, alternatives, questions,
connections, categories, and much more.
The tools and techniques listed to the right
come from a range of books about creativity,
critical thinking, and innovation. At the
heart of these tools and techniques is the
idea that the more we play with ideas, try
on perspectives, manipulate and construct
things, the more we will understand the
deeper or bigger ideas we are studying.
Essential Tools
All the ideas above require the
use of the essential literacies:
reading, writing, discussing,
listening, observing, and
representing.
Jim Burke
Observe
to see possibilities,
connections,
causes and effects,
processes, details;
and to get ideas.
Aphorisms
Art/Photography
Butcher Paper
Case Studies
Cell phones
Colored Pens
Computers
Construct
Dictionaries
Equations
Experiments
Idea Boards
Index Cards
Interviews
iPads
Models
Notebooks
Observations
Parables
Places/Spaces
Proverbs
Questions
Quotations
Search engines
Simulations
Sticky Notes
Surveys
TED Talks
Theories
Thought Problems
Whiteboards
YouTube
Questions to Ask
Read
to find new ideas,
alternatives,
reasons, evidence,
and examples.
Write
to deepen, extend,
refine, clarify, or
generate new ideas
or to explain.
Discuss
to understand,
make new
connections,
generate more
ideas.
The Five Whys (Ask and answer Why? five times)
So what? (Why is it important?)
Who cares? (To whom does this matter?)
Who • What • Where • When • How • Why?
What is the question you are asking?
What question(s) are you not asking?
What is the problem for which x is the solution?
What are the necessary conditions to achieve x?
How (and why) is x similar to or different from y?
Intriguing Qs: Why can’t we live on french fries?
Leading Qs: When and where was this story set?
Guiding Qs: How does what we eat affect us?
Essential Qs: What makes us who we are?
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Listen
to what others say
about your topic
to get new ideas or
perspectives on it.
Represent
to see your idea(s)
in different forms
or formats that
reveal new insights.
67
Jim Burke
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68
Responding to Writing and Handling the Paperload
Overview
As Nancy Sommers wonderfully brief but helpful guide Responding to Student Writers (Bedford/St. Martin’s
2013), “Knowing that there is a real, live person––a teacher as reader––at the end of the composing process imbues that process with meaning and significance that would otherwise be absent” (xii). Questions
about teaching, responding to, and grading student writing include:
• What should they write, how should they write––and why these forms and ways?
• How much, how often, and for what reasons should students write?
• Do students improve just by writing more––or must they write in certain ways?
• What criteria informs your feedback and assessment––and what is the criteria’s source?
• What kind of feedback actually helps students become better, more proficient, fluent writers?
• Which is better: writing 10 papers without feedback and revision or 5 with both?
• How much feedback is enough to make a difference?
• Does marking every error in red ink and making them fix each one improve writing?
Responding Here are a some ways to handle student writing that can improve their writing without overwhelming you and displacing
the time you need for other aspects of your work (and life!):
• Comment instead of correct (i.e., focus on deep/gobal vs. surface details)
• Apply specific models such as Lanham’s “Paramedic Method” or Christensen’s approach to the paragraph
• Use scoring guides and rubrics as guides for response/self-evaluation
• Identify and teach specific traits of effective writing without being formulaic
• Anticipate problems based on previous experience and provide a checklist of “things to avoid” or do that will not serve
as a formulaic approach but will increase students’ likelihood of success
• Collaborative or group scoring or composition
• Capture sample pages with iPad then think-aloud while projecting the page
• Teacher-Student Writing Conferences (1:1 or small groups with common needs)
• Cull examples from representative papers and teach (via projector) to these
• Guided feedback on discrete elements of writing (e.g., concision, FODP, cohesion)
• Digital feedback: SmartPhone Recorded Feedback and other digital solutions (e.g., Google)
• Provide targeted feedback (with examples) based on patterns you noted as you read all papers
Voice Recorder
• Create writing groups that use Google Docs (or similar) throughout composing process
• Create an annotated sample using annotation tools in Adobe Acrobat and post online as a guide to prevent some of the
problems you would end up having to address with comments
Feedback that improves writers’ performance and enhances their knowledge of the craft is:
• Addressed to the student not the paper: it is a dialogue not a monologue
• Clear and worded in a way that guides revision (e.g., Improve flow by adding transitions, Nora)
• Based on instruction and qualities of effective writing––not on a teacher’s stylistic preference
• Anchored in specific criteria, lessons taught in class, specific assignment/unit goals
• Useable: Have students respond only with questions which, if answered/addressed, would immediately improve the
paper (e.g., What does this refer to? What evidence do you have?)
• Limited to a few specific items (e.g., verbs, transitions, citations)
• Focused on patterns (of use, structure, error, content, language) or error or usage
• Diagnostic not judgmental: “Read like a doctor not a judge”
• Used to improve the writer’s performance, not to merely explain or justify the grade
• Responsive to the writers themselves: Have them list what they need help on or want you to focus on when you read
through their paper (e.g., Please check the logic of my argument)
• Positive, encouraging (like the way you link your evidence to your thesis throughout or the transitions you use throughout
really improve the flow!)
Jim Burke
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69
Composing as a Process
In Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools (2007), Graham and Perin
encourage teachers to “interweave a number of writing instructional activities in a workshop environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing.” The model
outlined below offers one perspective on such a model; it is one I have developed and refined through the years, teaching
my students to use it for a variety of papers, presentations, and research reports. I refer to it as a “composing process” because it applies to writing documents as well as creating presentations and multimedia productions. The model as I practice
it is not linear or necessarily cyclical; rather it is recursive, moving forward when the writer is ready and cycling back a step
or more as the writing demands or the writer decides.
1.Gather and Generate: During this crucial phase, students engage in activities whose primary purpose is to help them
come up with a viable topic, a strong argument, ideas to explore, claims to make, details to add, examples, quotations,
or evidence to use––or all the above. In many cases, students are gathering not only those elements above, but also ideas
about how they might design their document, notions of style that might be suitable for their own text, or counterarguments they will consider using later when they get to that part of the composing process. Langer (2001) identified
teaching and expecting students to be “generative thinkers” as one of the eight essential qualities of effective literacy
instruction. It is important to note that this stage is not one writers check off; ideas come to us throughout the process of
composing, often forcing us to revise or at least reconsider our initial purpose or argument in light of those new ideas. In
this way, the writing itself becomes a way of gathering and generating as students “write their way into” the real subject
they will examine. Consider using the following methods for gathering and generating ideas, evidence, examples, and
more: reading, searching, discussing, mapping, writing, capturing (e.g., images, ideas, interviews with cell phone), brainstorming, looking up etymologies of key terms, and visually representing. It is often ideal to determine ahead of time the
topic students will write about so they can “G and G” as they read, taking note of or annotating the text for any relevant
content they want to consider using later when they write.
2.Weed and Winnow: Once they have gathered and generated all that content, students then weed out the content they
can use, winnowing their collected content down to the best, most relevant, or otherwise effective ideas, examples, arguments, or evidence for this specific assignment. Students can often use the rubric, assignment, writing prompt or directions to help them decide what to keep or toss.
3.Design and Draft: At this point, students are ready to begin brainstorming, making outlines, chunking or blocking their
ideas into some rough sequence they can explore through their initial drafts. This is also the process during which they
arrive at a structure and style they think will best support or help them achieve their purpose. Students also, at this point,
make initial decisions about inclusion and arrangement of such elements as images, tables, graphs, sub-headers, or, in
some cases, digital content such as slide sets, video, audio, or links. By the end of this phase, writers often to the first
stage to generate and gather additional content as their subject and purpose come into greater focus. Also, for academic
papers, some consideration for the conventions of, say, MLA style, begin to emerge here as students move through the
drafting process.
4.Review and Revise: Arriving at this phase of the process with a working draft, students review what they have in light of
the assignment, their purpose, or any other criteria that apply to this assignment. It is during this phase that they revise
for content, for style, for both form and function as they revise for clarity, concision, cohesion, coherence, and correctness. Also, now is the time to consider adding any content––paragraphs, examples, quotations, images or tables––that
might help them strengthen the paper in any way. Writers typically seek out feedback from other readers at this point,
asking what does and does not work, and how they could improve what they have created in light of their purpose, audience, or occasion.
5.Proofread and Publish: Here, students simply make sure their document satisfies all requirements for the assignment
itself, conforms to all conventions of correct grammar, usage, and mechanics, and follows whichever style guide (MLA in
the case of English typically) applies to this document.
6.Reflect and Refine: Students take time to reflect on what they did well or could do better next time; what techniques or
tools helped and how they did so; and how their performance here compares with previous work. Such reflection should,
ultimately, be used to refine their composing process in the future so that success is not an accident but the result of careful planning and deliberate choices.
7.Return, Revise, and Resubmit: Whenever possible, I return the paper with feedback that is specific to those areas the
students can improve through one more round of revision, after which they resubmit for a final grade. I typically require
students to indicate what they changed (e.g., by using MS Word’s track changes function), then look only at those changes when arriving at the final assessment of their performance on that paper.
Jim Burke
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70
LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE: CHARACTER
Directions
Use the following word lists to improve your sentence fluency through precise, active words specifically related to
writing about and discussing characterization.
Example
Conrad defines Marlowe early on through his observations not his actions, using Marlow as a credible witness to
express Conrad’s own criticisms of the sins of the European powers in Africa.
actions
adjective
adverb
allusion
analysis
antagonist
archetype
argument
aspects
attire
attitude
attribute
behavior
capacity
caricature
characteristic
choice
concern(s)
condition
conflict
consciousness
contradiction
contrast
convention
conversation
conviction
credibility
depiction
depth
description
desire
despair
destiny
development
device
dialogue
diction
emotions
environment
epitome
essence
ethos
expectations
experience
expression
factors
fate
feelings
foil
gestures
hero/heroine
idiosyncrasy
illusion
implication
individual
insight
intention(s)
interaction(s)
interior
Jim Burke
NOUNS
interlocutor
knowledge
limit(ations)
manners
measure
melancholy
mind
monologue
motif
motivation
motive(s)
movement(s)
name
narrator
noun(s)
object
observation
observer
paradox
parody
participant
perceptions
personality
philosophy
plot
position
presence
protagonist
qualities
reason
reference
relationship
reliability
reputation
role
satire
senses
sensibility
skepticism
sketch
soliloquy
source
spectator
speech
stereotype
struggle(s)
study
style
symbol
technique
theme
tone
traits
type
values
verb(s)
verisimilitude
will
animate
argue
attribute
capture
cause
challenges
choose
compare
compose
concern
conclude
confirm
confound
confront
construct
contradict
contrast
contribute
control
converse
convince
declare
define
demonstrate
deny
derive
describe
desire
details
develop
discover
distinguish
distract
elaborate
elevate
empathize
emphasize
epitomize
establishes
evoke
expect
explain
explore
explore
expose
express
extend
face
favor
force
illuminate
illustrate
impose
indicate
infer
influence
inform
infuse
VERBS
inhabit
inhibit
inspire
instill
interest
invent
investigate
measure
move
observe
occupy
offer
poetry
possess
possess
present
prolong
provide
react
reduce
reflects
refuse
remain
render
render
reply
represents
retain
reveal
shape
show
state
struggle
struggle
suggest
suggests
surmise
surprise
sympathize
talk
think
transform
undergo
values
witness
absorbed
absurd
aggressive
aloof
ambitious
amorous
animated
anxious
apathetic
archetypal
argumentative
arrogant
awkward
banal
benign
bitter
bored
capable
carefree
careless
cautious
central
churlish
coherent
comic
compassionate
compatible
compelling
conceited
conniving
conscientious
conscious
consistent
convincing
curious
deceitful
deep
demure
dependent
destined
detached
detailed
developed
devious
devoted
direct
dishonest
distinct
distinctive
dramatic
dynamic
easygoing
elegant
elevated
eloquent
emotional
enigmatic
envious
essential
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ADJECTIVES
ethical
exacting
exaggerated
experienced
external
external
feelings
fictional
flamboyant
flat
formal
frantic
free
fretful
garrulous
gregarious
idiosyncratic
impoverished
independent
indirect
individuated
inherent
inner
intellectual
intelligent
interior
internal
ironic
irrepressible
irritable
listless
loquacious
major
manipulative
mature
memorable
mendacious
minor
moral
mythical
naive
naïve
nervous
noble
obscure
observant
omniscient
opaque
outgoing
patient
pedantic
philosophical
physical
picky
plausible
poignant
predictable
primary
private
prolonged
proper
provincial
provocative
public
real
realistic
reckless
relevant
reliable
round
scrupulous
secondary
self-involved
sincere
sloppy
solid
spiritual
spontaneous
static
stereotypical
stock
style
subordinate
substantial
subtle
surface
suspicious
talkative
testy
thin
transparent
trivial
ubiquitous
understated
uninvolved
unpredictable
upright
verbal
vibrant
vindictive
vivid
welcoming
wise
worried
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Academic Writing: Entering the Conversation at the Sentence and Paragraph Level
In They Say/I Say: The Moves that Make Academic Writing, Graff and Birkenstein (2011) refer to the type of writing and
thinking done in school as “entering the conversation.” (They also refer to it as learning “academicspeak.”) Entering that
conversation of ideas requires “moves” we must learn to make as writers, especially at the sentence and paragraph levels.
This page includes a set of tools and techniques, all of them backed up by established research (e.g., sentence combining
was the only specific technique endorsed by Writing Next for its power to improve writing) or my own research in using
them with my own students.
Sentence Combining
Sentence combing involves, obviously, combining sentences but not with a series of conjunctions; rather, it asks writers to
remove what is redundant or unncessary from one or more sentences and integrate, in some intentional and specific way,
the remaining parts of the dismantled sentences into the base sentence. I use sentence combining in three situations: when
teaching specific aspects of grammar and syntax; in the contextx of teaching general analytical writing within the context of
discussing texts we are studying; and when showing students techniques for revising, especially for concision and clarity. I
typically use presentation software so the slides can reveal the changes as we go along. After a time, it is easy to generate the
sentences on your own, though I typically start by writing the final sentence I want them to create--then breaking it down
into the base and other sentences. I nearly always focus on academic (versus narrative) examples.
Slide 1: #1 is the “base” sentence; have students identify all the redundancies they can cut from others.
1.Gladwell wondered if the “Twitter Revolution”
was the same as the Selma bus boycott.
2.Gladwell is a writer who delights in making
unexpected and often counterintuitive connections.
3.The “Twitter Revolution” was a student-led
movement to overthrow the government in
Iran.
4.The Selma bus boycott was a large-scale effort to bring civil rights to that part of the South.
Slide 3: This slide shows what we will combine––in
this case they are all appositives––with #1.
1.Gladwell wondered if the “Twitter Revolution”
was the same as the Selma bus boycott.
2.a writer who delights in making unexpected
and often counterintuitive connections.
3.a student-led movement to overthrow the
government in Iran.
4.a large-scale effort to bring civil rights to
that part of the South.
Slide 2: Work with students to decide what to cut (and
then what to relocate into the base sentence.
1.Gladwell wondered if the “Twitter Revolution”
was the same as the Selma bus boycott.
2.Gladwell is a writer who delights in making
unexpected and often counterintuitive connections.
3.The “Twitter Revolution” was a student-led
movement to overthrow the government in
Iran.
4.The Selma bus boycott was a large-scale effort to bring civil rights to that part of the South.
Slide 4: The last slide shows the completed sentence
with all additions (in bold to better show them).
Gladwell, a writer who delights in making
unexpected and often counterintuitive con-
nections, wondered if the “Twitter Revolution,”
a student-led movement to overthrow the
government in Iran, was the same as the Selma
Bus Boycott, a large-scale effort to bring civil
rights to that part of the South.
What Next? If we have time and it seems useful, students can then use the example sentence on slide #4 as a model
they can emulate as they write their own sentence about a different aspect of the text or topic; this allows students to
practice, reinforce, and also extend their learning as they move toward greater independence and proficiency.
Sentence Study & Imitation
As artists have, for millennia, begun by studying and then imitating the masters, so should students study the writing of the
masters in the area of writing (or any other field) they hope to learn. While people like Killgallon and Killgallon draw exclusively from great narrative fiction for the models they offer in their book Sentence Composing (1998), my students need
to study exemplary sentences by professionals or other sources of quality academic writing such as these examples from
Francine Prose which come from her review of Junot Diaz’s This Is How You Lose Her:
• Their vocabulary and their cadences, their casual obscenities and reflexive prayers define them.
• Funny, unsentimental, and surprising, “The Pura Principle” portrays the helplessness and the near psychosis
that can alternately paralyze and inflame a household in which a beloved family member is dying.
Jim Burke
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Structured Approaches to Writing Analytical Prose
What follows are, in short, a series of different structures––think of them as columns in a spreadsheet if that helps––specifically created to develop more anaytical writing about the texts or topics you are studying. You can draw them out on
the whiteboard, project them from a computer or tablet, or use paper anywhere from standard size to butcher paper size
for more collaborative composition and discussion of these structures. The principle is fairly straightforward: create the
columns you need to help them write the analysis you want them to learn. Its main function is to walk them through and
help them begin the process of internalizing the analytical moves you want them to develop.
Says
What the author, character, or person
says about the subject.
Marlow, Conrad’s narrator, refers to the
Africans he sees off the coast as “mates”
and “fellows.”
Means
What the author, character, or person
means by saying this.
By using those words, Conrad suggests
that Marlow sees them as equals, as
human beings.
Matters
Why the author’s or character’s
comment(s) matter?
This is crucial to our understanding of
both Conrad and his narrator.
Who
Sonya sacrificed
What
to/for
did
Rewrite them all as one sentence:
Marlow, Conrad’s narrator, refers to the Africans he sees off the coast as “mates” and “fellows,” words that suggest Marlow—and by
extension, Conrad—views these men as peers, a point that is crucial if we are to understand both Conrad and Marlow.
body, soul, pride,
dignity, family
Whom
family
How
by working as a
prostitute
When
Why
So?
when her father
because she could which shows
no longer worked make more
Sonya’s character
Sonja sacrifices her body and pride for her family by taking work as a prostitute when her father is no longer able to provide for the family
and because she can earn more than Katrina Ivanovna ever could. It is this act of selflessless that reveals Sonya’s character
CLAIM
What you say
EVIDENCE
Why you say it
DISCUSSION
What it means
Statement about some truth related Quotations, examples, or data (from
Comments about the meaning and importance
to your subject that supports your credible sources) that illustrate and
of your claim and its supporting evidence.
main idea or argument.
support your claim that something is true.
X is true.
X is true because Y says...
X is true because Y says...which means...
Raskolnikov murdered as a result of his
poverty and subsequent lack of food.
Raskolnikov murdered as a result of his poverty
and subsequent lack of food according to Davis,
who found that diminished access to protein
and other nutrients led to increased errors and
frustration in subjects (34).
Raskolnikov murdered as a result of his poverty and
subsequent lack of food according to Davis, who found
that diminished access to protein and other nutrients
led to increased errors and frustration in subjects
(34). Based on these findings, Davis concludes that
people such as Raskolnikov are not culpable for their
actions, the assumption being that the person was “not
themselves.”
Character/Author
Hemingway
Action
evokes
Detail
the idyllic days of college
By setting the story in such rigid
environments––a Methodist
college, a fraternity, a small town
in Kansas––Hemingway
establishes
early on the atmosphere of
constraint Krebs must endure,
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Result/Purpose
to contrast Krebs’ subsequent
alienation from the community after
the war.
one which includes his parents’ home
where the conservative father will not
even trust his son, a veteran of the
war, to drive his car.
73
Guided Analytical Paragraph
Book 1: Crime and Punishment and Justice Episode 1
1. One overarching question unites most of the key characters—Marmeladov, Sonya, Katerina Ivanovna, Dunya, her mother,
and, of course, Raskolnikov—throughout Book One of Crime and Punishment: ______________.
2. Through Raskolnikov and Sonya, Dostoevsky explores this question in greater depth than the rest, a question Professor
Sandel might sum up by quoting _______________________, who posited_______________________, arguing that…
3. Yet Dostoevsky redeems Raskolnikov throughout the first part of the story, suggesting through his acts of
charity--________________ and _________________--and his moral uncertainty that Raskolnikov remains
fundamentally _____________________, a necessary ingredient in any character if we are to sympathize with them at all.
4. Dostoevsky further complicates our moral assessment of Raskolnikov by alluding to a string of
conditions––______________, _______________, _________________--as if to suggest that Raskolnikov is not culpable,
since any one of these conditions would exonerate his based on the argument that________________.
5. Others would, no doubt, disagree, claiming that Raskolnikov was fully cognizant of his actions and their consequences,
and based his decision to _______________ on Jeremy Bentham’s idea, discussed by Sandel, that__________.
6. Yet how are to understand Raskolnikov’s decision to murder not only _____________________ but, moments later,
____________________, whose murder seems categorically different, for it is based on____________________ instead of
___________________?
7. Of the many different “crimes” committed in Book One, only one is, arguably not, in fact, a crime but is, instead, a
sacrifice:____________________________. Sonya’s willingness to _____________________ sets her apart from the
others, for her motivation is ____________________________, which allows her father to further degrade himself by
______________________, his own justification being that Sonya_________________.
8. Dostoevsky seems almost to function like Professor Sandel, pairing the stories of _____________________
and _____________________ to imply a common ground, but then distinguishing between the two
by_____________________; or comparing ______________________ and _____________________ in order to make
the case that____________________________.
The List Paragraph
Guidelines A list paragraph:
Preparation
• Establishes a clear focus in the opening in the topic sentence.
• Use the opening statement to create an opening for a list of examples or details that are related but distinct.
• Features a list of sentences, each one of which is a specific example of or detail related to the topic sentence.
• Includes appropriate transition words or phrases to make the writing flow from one idea to the next.
• Adds a last sentence that sums up and comments on the main idea of the paragraph.
Use the following organizer to jot down examples and details for your list paragraph.
Transition Word
Early on,
Obstacles
the Lotus Eaters
Explanation/Description
give Odysseus’s men lotus flowers which make them want to stay
there and forget their desire to go home.
Paragraph
Use your notes above to write a list paragraph on a separate sheet (or on your computer). In your paragraph,
please provide examples of all the obstacles Odysseus and his men face in pages 896-925. Include all the
obstacles listed above, as well as descriptions, and transition words. See my example on the other side.
SAMPLE LIST PARAGRAPH
Lincoln faced a series of obstacles, any one of which could have prevented him from achieving his objective of a unified
America. (1) Early on, he struggled to find a suitable general to lead the Army against the South. (2) In addition, he
encountered strong resistance to the idea of abolition, some arguing that slavery was essential to ensuring the low cost of
American goods. (3) Others simply did not have faith in the new president, most believing he lacked the intelligence and
courage needed to unify the country in the wake of the Civil War. (4) As if the war and people’s resistance to emancipation
were not enough, the country’s economy was devastated after four years of merciless war. (5) Finally, he struggled with his own
personal trials, all of which weighed heavily on his conscience: the death of a beloved son, his wife’s depression, as well as his
own. These obstacles, when considered together, make it all the more remarkable that he was able to not only win the war
but, in its wake, unify the country.
Jim Burke
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QUESTIONS: AN OVERVIEW Socratic Method
Scientific Method
2. Probe
assumptions, reasoning, evidence, biases
§ What evidence is your assertion/claim based on?
§ What assumptions are you making about this?
§ Why do you think that?
§ How reliable and valid is your evidence?
2. Gather
information, data, resources
§ How can I find information about this question?
§ What sort of information would be most useful?
§ How can I best collect this data?
§ What have those before found on this subject?
3. Reveal
viewpoints, positions, alternatives, values, differences
§ How else could you explain or view that?
§ Why is that so important or necessary?
§ How or why are they different?
§ What are the opposing views or counterarguments?
3. Construct
hypotheses
§ What do I think causes x?
§ Why does x lead to y?
§ What would happen if you combined x with y?
§ Is y always y or does it ever change into y?
4. Speculate
About implications, causes, effects, consequences
§ What are the implications of x?
§ Why did x cause y (but not z)?
§ What effect did x have on y?
§ What would be the likely or probable consequences?
4. Test and Collect
your hypothesis using reliable methods
§ Are my methods able to be replicated?
§ What variables do I need to control for?
§ How will I collect the data from this experiment?
§ How am I ensuring my data is objective?
1. Clarify
concepts, passages, observations, claims, questions
§Why do you think (or say) that?
§What do you mean by that?
§How does that relate to your earlier point?
§Can you offer an example of that?
5. Reflect
on process, methods, questions, purpose, meaning
§How effective was my method, process, or approach?
§How did my results compare with my expectations?
§What would I do or ask differently next time?
§What is the meaning or importance of my conclusion?
§What was the question I hoped to answer?
§How do my findings relate to my life or the world?
Socratic Big Questions
• What is true?
• What is good?
• What is beauty?
• What is right?
Philosophical Questions
• What do we know and how do we
know it?
• What should we do?
• How should one govern?
• Why are we here?
1. Formulate
a question or a problem
§ Specific: What causes x to become y?
§ Specific: Why does x result in y but not z?
§ Open-ended: Does x travel faster than y?
§ Open-ended: Can you create a drug that does x?
5. Analyze and Interpret
the data from your experiments
• What do I notice in the data I have?
• What patterns or connections do I see?
• What does the data suggest, mean, or reveal?
6. Publish or Present
your results, conclusions, and methods
§ How can I best display or communicate my results?
§ What details are most important to report?
Science Big Questions
• What’s there?
• How does it work? • How did it come to be this way?
• What do/don’t we know about x?
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS
Factual
Verifiable: answers can be found on the
page, observable.
• Who killed Hamlet’s father?
Deductive
Poses a question about a statement
accepted as true; it limits the inquiry by
narrowing the possibilities.
• Claudius killed King Hamlet: How did he
feel about this?
Inductive
Poses a question about a series of facts,
examples, or details—then asks you to
respond.
• Who killed Hamlet’s father?
Jim Burke
Open-Ended
No one answer is correct; it invites a range
of responses that require more thinking by
the student.
• English: How would you describe Hamlet’s
relationship with Ophelia?
• Math: What do you want to know or learn
about these figures?
Closed
Allows for one short, correct answer.
Useful for recall but not analysis.
• English: How did Claudius kill his brother?
• Math: What is 5 x 20?
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Synthesizing
Makes new meaning out of details via
question(s).
• English: What do Hamlet’s different
interactions with his uncle tell us about his
character?
• Math: What do the different pieces of data
tell me this subject?
Use questions to:
Extend
Connect
Evaluate
Organize
Distinguish
Challenge
Generate
Assess
Compare
Contrast
75
Elaborate
•
•
•
•
•
Express
• I think…
• My experience has shown me…
• I tend to believe…
• What I wanted to say is…
• What I find interesting is…
• Interesting! What leads you to
that conclusion?
• Sorry, I’m not sure I understand.
What do you mean?
• Hmmm….Are you sure about
that?
Paraphrase
• As I understand it, you are saying…
• In other words,…
• What I think you mean is….
• You seem to suggest….
• Are you saying…?
• So you are telling us that….?
• “X is y,” is that what you’re
saying?
Comments or questions designed
to elicit more information, other
perspectives, or related ideas.
Comments or questions
used to share one’s own
opinion or perspective
without taking a position
in response to others’
remarks.
Comments and questions that
help the speaker understand
and show they are listening to
others; also that allow speaker to
reiterate his or her own ideas to
a listener.
Report
Comments and questions that
provide insights and an overview of
results, investigations, or discussions
to the larger group in a class
discussion.
I would add that…
Another thing to consider is…
Other explanations exist, such as…
X, however, would disagree, saying…
Your comment raises the question…
•
•
•
•
•
We found that…
During our discussion we realized…
Our main points were…
We concluded that…
Our most important discovery was…
Respond
•
•
•
•
•
Solicit
• Tell us what you think about x…
• You seem to have a different opinion
Comments and questions that
make connections between your
own ideas and experiences, others’
remarks, texts you’ve studied, other
courses, or the world both past and
present.
Comments or questions
designed to learn more about
what others think, why they
think that, and what the
implications might be.
Suggest
Comments and questions used
to help, improve, or otherwise
contribute to a discussion.
Jim Burke
X reminded me of…
This is similar to (or different from)…
The author’s argument reminds me of…
I thought it was interesting that…
X really made me wonder why (how)…
• What other explanations are there?
• Are there other interpretations?
• Could you explain how you arrived at
that idea (or interpretation)?
• How is your idea different from X’s?
• Why do you think that?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
What did you discover?
What surprised you most? Why?
How did you arrive at that result?
What did you realize this time that
you had not before? What did you do
differently this time?
How is x similar to/different from y?
Isn’t that related to what X said in…?
Why do you think that’s so important?
But isn’t it possible that…?
How does that compare/relate to…?
• Why don’t you share more of
• What do you think about x?
• Do you (or we all) agree with
what Y just said about z?
• Is there another way to think
about that?
• Did anyone arrive at a different
interpretation/response?
• We could probably…
• We might try…
• Perhaps we should…
• You might consider trying…
• What if we tried/did x?
• What would happen if we…?
• Do you think it would help if
we…?
about x: tell us about it…
your thoughts about x….
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Integrating Quotations
1. Embedded Within One Sentence
a. Introduction/lead to quotation , the quotation, discussion/explanation of quotation.
Example Stafford argues that we are intimately related to nature, for when he says “I stood there
and thought hard for us all,” he makes the man just another one of the animals, no more
important than any other living thing in the surrounding forest.
b. The quotation, introduction/lead to quotation , discussion/explanation of quotation.
Example When he says “I stood there and thought hard for us all,” Stafford, arguing we are intimately
related to nature, makes the man just another one of the animals, no more important than
any other living thing in the surrounding forest.
2. Broken Into More Than One Sentence
a. Introduction/lead to quotation. The quotation, discussion/explanation of quotation.
Example Stafford argues that we are intimately related to nature. When he says, for example, “I stood
there and thought hard for us all,” he makes the man just another one of the animals, no
more important than any other living thing in the surrounding forest.
b. Introduction/lead to quotation, the quotation. Discussion/explanation of quotation.
Example Stafford argues that we are intimately related to nature when he says “I stood there and
thought hard for us all.” These words make him just another one of the animals, no more
important than any other living thing in the surrounding forest.
INTEGRATING EXAMPLES
1. Animals and nature in general are certainly big business. The San Francisco Zoo, for example, profits
from the tigers, the tragic death and news coverage both advertising how exciting the zoo is and how
dangerous the animals really are.
The Lead/Intro
The quotation or
example
The discussion or
explanation of the
quotation or example
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Type: Fictional Story
Description:
Fictional story includes short stories and
novels, as opposed to creative nonfiction or
other forms of nonfiction that use novelistic
techniques to tell stories about actual events or
people. Fiction falls under what the Common
Core calls “imaginative fiction.”
Sources of Difficulty:
§Ambiguity
§Background Knowledge
§Empathy
§Irony
§Language
§Narrator Reliability
§Structure
§Style
§Subject
§Text Length
§Vocabulary
Key Features/Literary Terms
§Ambiguity
§Antagonist
§Character
§Conflict
§Conventions
§Diction
§Exposition
§Falling Action
§Flashback
§Foreshadow
§Genre
§Imagery
§In media res
§Irony
§Mood
§Plot
§Point of View
§Protagonist
§Resolution
§Rising Action
§Setting
§Structure
§Suspense
§Symbols
§Theme
§Tone
Sentence Frames
§The author uses x to create y in order to
emphasize a and its effect on b.
§By using x, the author creates y, thus
emphasizing how a affects b.
§In order to emphasize how a affects b, the
author uses x, which creates y.
Readings and Resources
§Fresh Takes on Literary Elements (Smith and
Wilhelm 2010)
§The Making of a Story (LaPlante 2007)
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Common Core Standards Domain: Literature
Questions Readers Should Always Ask of Any Text
§
What type of text is this (story, poem, essay, mixed media, etc.)?
§
Why did the author/creator choose this form over another?
§
What is the subject of this text?
§
What is the author saying about this subject?
§
What is the author’s purpose in writing/creating this text?
§
What techniques does the author use to achieve this purpose?
§
What do I need to know to be able to read this critically?
§
How is this text organized/designed?
§
How does that organizational approach support the author’s purpose?
§
To what extent can I trust the author, creator, or narrator of this text?
Before
§
Preview the text, taking time to think about the title, any images, pull quotes, and pre- or
post-questions.
§
Predict what the story will be about based on the previous information.
§
Activate background knowledge about the era, genre, subject, etc.
§
Formulate a “purpose question” (PQ) to help the reader focus on an evaluate the
importance of details; should be able to answer it when finished.
§
Generate questions about the text based on the reader’s purpose.
§
Read or review any assignments to complete while or after reading this text.
§
Determine how to read the text in light of the PQ and any task that would be done after
reading the text (e.g., writing an essay)
§
Choose an appropriate strategy, tool, or notetaking technique based on the PQ or a
subsequent assignment based on the text.
During
§
Read with your PQ in mind, using it to evaluate the meaning or importance of the details,
events, characters, or plot developments you encounter.
§
Ask questions as you read: who, what, when, where, how, why, so?
§
Apply the reading strategy, tool, or notetaking technique you selected.
§
Determine who is telling the story, why are they telling it—and if they reliable?
§
Identify the source or nature of the conflict in the story, and how this conflict shapes the
story through people’s response to it.
§
What words would you use to describe the tone of the story as you read?
§
Look for those crucial moments when something—the tone, characters, relationships, the
mood, or focus—changes: what changed, how, and why?
§
What do the main characters want more than anything? Why? What are they willing to
do to get it? What does this tell us about them?
§
How is the story organized? Why does the author arrange it this way?
§
Where and when does the story begin: in the middle, beginning, or end?
§
What stands out as you read about the author’s style?
§
How de these stylistic elements contribute to the meaning of the story?
After
§
Answer, if you can, your PQ, now that you have finished the story.
§
Decide what is most important about the story to remember for upcoming assignments,
discussions, or exams.
§
Reflect on the shape of the story: where and when did it begin---and end?
§
How did the main character change over the course of the story?
§
What caused these changes to the main characters?
§
Identify the key moments in the story and how they related to the story’s themes,
character development, and plot structure.
§
Return to the title: What new insights come to mind after reading the story?
§
What was the main subject or idea of the story?
§
What did the author say about this subject or idea?
§
What was the author’s attitude toward this subject in the story?
§
What connections can you make between this story and your own life, other readings, or
the world at large?
§
REread the story or portions of it to clarify any lasting confusion or examine other
aspects of the story, such as style, now that you know the basic story.
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Type: Informational Texts
Description:
Informational texts include essays, articles,
websites, or any documents used to inform,
explain, or persuade. The form, function, and
features of the informational text depend on
the author’s purpose and subject. They can be
functional or highly stylized, carefully crafted
documents. Increasingly, they may contain
diagrams, photographs, or video if written for
or read on tablets or computers.
Sources of Difficulty:
§Author’s stance or perspective
§Background knowledge
§Diagrams/Graphics
§Document design or layout
§Language
§Structure
§Style
§Subject
§Textual features
§Vocabulary
Key Features/Literary Terms
§Allusion
§Analogy
§Anecdote
§Appeals
§Argument
§Assertion
§Audience
§Bias
§Connotation
§Context
§Conventions
§Counterargument
§Credible
§Diction
§Ethos
§Evidence
§Figure of speech
§Jargon
§Perspective
§Purpose
§Rhetoric
§Source
§Structure
§Tone
Sentence Frames
§The author adopts a ____ tone throughout
in order to suggest _____.
§Broken into three distinct parts, the essay
illustrates how ___ is created.
§The author shows not only how ____ is
created but why it matters.
Readings and Resources
§Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading,
Kylene Beers and Bob Probst
§Get It Done!: Writing and Analyzing
Informational Texts to Make Things Happen,
Jeffrey Wilhelm and Michael W. Smith
Jim Burke
Common Core Standards Domain: Informational
Questions Readers Should Always Ask of Any Text
§
What type of text is this (story, poem, essay, mixed media, etc.)?
§
Why did the author/creator choose this form over another?
§
What is the subject of this text?
§
What is the author saying about this subject?
§
What is the author’s purpose in writing/creating this text?
§
What techniques does the author use to achieve this purpose?
§
What do I need to know to be able to read this critically?
§
How is this text organized/designed?
§
How does that organizational approach support the author’s purpose?
§
To what extent can I trust the author, creator, or narrator of this text?
Before
§
Scan the entire text, noting the title, any images, subheadings, its length, and general degree of
difficulty, source, author, any information before or after the text that would provide further
context or support.
§
Use all available clues—the title, context, images—to determine the subject.
§
Predict what the text will say about this subject.
§
Activate background knowledge about the era, genre, subject, etc.
§
Formulate a “purpose question” (PQ).
§
Determine how to read the text in light of the PQ and any task that would be done after
reading the text (e.g., writing an essay)
§
If you are reading this text as part of a set of other texts examining the same subject from other
perspectives, what are the arguments or ideas from those others you should keep in mind as
you read this next text?
During
§
Read with your PQ in mind.
§
Ask questions as you read: who, what, when, where, how, why, so?
§
How is this text organized—and to what end?
§
Evaluate the quality of the sources for any evidence or details offered.
§
What strategies does this author use to achieve his or her purpose?
§
Does the author consider other perspectives, particularly those that challenge the author’s
main idea?
§
If the author uses any other features—links, images, video, graphics—what purpose do these
serve?
§
What does this author do to achieve, maintain, or undermine your trust?
§
Are you drawing on your own personal experience or details and information from within the
text to support your interpretation of the text?
§
What is subject of this text––and what does the author say about it?
§
What is the author’s purpose here and what techniques, information, or features does the
author use to achieve that purpose?
After
§
Answer, if you can, your PQ, now that you have finished the story.
§
What do you still not understand?
§
What is the source of that difficulty in understanding it?
§
What is the author’s argument?
§
What details, evidence, or other information did the author offer in support of his or her
argument?
§
What evidence can you draw from the text to support your claim about the text and what you
are saying about its meaning and purpose?
§
Where is the text ambiguous or vague? If this appears to be intentional, to what end is the
author using this ambiguity?
§
What new questions or understandings does this text raise?
§
If you are reading this text in conjunction with others, what are the most important details or
information in this text to use when discussing the others?
§
What might you re-read the text to discover or better understand?
§
Can you retell the article with precision, including the obvious details and those you need to
infer to offer a complete and accurate retelling?
§
How would you describe the author’s tone or attitude toward the subject?
§
What evidence can you provide to support your claim about the tone?
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Type: Poetry
Description
Poetry includes 14-line sonnets, epics like
Homer’s Odyssey, and those passages of
Shakespeare’s plays that incorporate poetry. It
includes traditional poems from John Donne
and modern free and blank verse, and, in some
cases, even song lyrics and advertisements that
make poetic use of language.
Sources of Difficulty
§
Allusion
§Ambiguity
§Attention
§Background Knowledge
§Figurative Language
§Imagery
§Language
§Structure
§Style
§Subject
§Vocabulary
Key Features/Literary Terms
§Alliteration
§Allusion
§Cadence
§Diction
§Elegy
§Enjambment
§Hyperbole
§Imagery
§Lyric
§Metaphor
§Meter
§Occasion
§Onomatopoeia
§Personification
§Pun
§Repetition
§Rhythm
§Simile
§Sonnet
§Speaker
§Symbol
§Theme
§Tone
§Volta
Sentence Frames
§The poet evokes x by linking it, through the
use of y, to z, which then causes the meaning
to shift from a to b instead.
§By using y, the poet links x to z, thus shifting
the meaning from a to b.
§The meaning of the poem shifts from a to b
as a result of the poet’s use of y, which then
evokes x when linked to z.
Readings and Resources
§A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver
§How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with
Poetry, Edward Hirsch
Jim Burke
Common Core Standards Domain: Literature
Questions Readers Should Always Ask of Any Text
§
What type of text is this (story, poem, essay, mixed media, etc.)?
§
Why did the author/creator choose this form over another?
§
What is the subject of this text?
§
What is the author saying about this subject?
§
What is the author’s purpose in writing/creating this text?
§
What techniques does the author use to achieve this purpose?
§
What do I need to know to be able to read this critically?
§
How is this text organized/designed?
§
How does that organizational approach support the author’s purpose?
§
To what extent can I trust the author, creator, or narrator of this text?
Before
§
Preview the text, taking time to think about the title, its format, and any questions before or
after (or on an accompanying assignment from the teacher).
§
Read the poem straight through without stopping to worry about meaning. If possible, read it
aloud to better hear the sounds of the words.
§
Ask any questions that come to mind about this poet, the poem itself, its subject, or the genre
of this poem.
§
Activate your background knowledge about the poem, poet, or poetry, as well as the subject of
this particular poem.
§
Generate a purpose question (PQ) after doing all the above; this is a question you should be
able to answer after reading and studying the poem closely.
§
Determine which, if any, reading strategy your notetaking technique (annotation is helpful
with poems) you should use when reading this poem.
During
§
Read with your PQ in mind, using it to evaluate the meaning or importance of the details,
events, characters, or plot developments you encounter.
§
Ask questions as you read: who, what, when, where, how, why, so?
§
Use these questions in particular:
o Who’s the speaker?
o What’s the occasion?
o Who’s the audience?
o What’s the subject?
o What does the speaker say about the subject?
o What is the poet’s purpose?
o What techniques does the poet use to achieve this purpose?
§
Check for understanding after reading the poem through a couple times.
§
Identify the key moments when the poem shifts (called the volta meaning when the poem
seems to “jump” in some new direction to its real subject).
§
Look at the poem’s organization: How is it structured? To what end?
§
What do you notice about the poet’s use of language? Are some words used in ways that
suggest more than one meaning?
§
How do these different elements—language, imagery, structure—contribute to the meaning of
the poem?
After
§
Answer, if you can, your PQ, now that you have finished the poem.
§
Decide what is most important about the poem to remember.
§
What story does the poem tell?
§
How do the different parts (stanzas, breaks, divisions) relate to each other?
§
Return to the title: What new insights do you have after finishing the poem?
§
What was happening (to the speaker, for example) before the poem?
§
What was the main subject or idea of the poem?
§
What did the poet say about this subject or idea?
§
What was the poet’s attitude (tone) toward this subject in the poem?
§
What connections can you make between this poem and your own life, other readings, or the
world at large?
§
REread the poem or those passage that still confuse you to clarify their meaning; or examine
the poem for other, more subtle elements such as style.
§
What do you notice about the poet’s use of language, imagery, or sound?
§
Are there other interpretations you can imagine for this poem? What are they?
§
Paraphrase the poem’s general outline.
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Type: Image/Art
Description:
Images refer to photographs, paintings,
and, in some cases, other art forms such as
collages and sculptures created or used to
achieve aesthetic, persuasive, or informational
purposes depending on the context. It also
includes more popular graphic forms such as
cartoons.
Sources of Difficulty:
§Ambiguity
§Background knowledge
§Arrangement
§Style
§Subject
§Genre conventions
§Context
§Condition
§Possible digital alterations
Key Features/Terms
§Ambiguity
§Conventions
§Genre
§Irony
§Mood
§Concept
§Tradition
§Angle
§Details
§Arrangement
§Composition
§Color
§Texture
§Background
§Foreground
§Landscape
§Portrait
§Point of View
§Setting
§Structure
§Symbols
§Theme
Sentence Frames
§The artist/photographer uses x to emphasize
y in order to create a sense of __________ in
the viewer.
§In this image, the subject appears to be X
since it is the focal point, but through the
use of y, the artist/photographer hints that
the real subject of this work is, in fact, z.
§Certain details in the photograph/ painting
allude to or evoke ____________, a
technique often used by this artist to ….
§
Readings and Resources
§How to Read a Photograph (Jeffrey 2008)
§How to Look at a Painting (Barbe-Gall 2011)
Jim Burke
Common Core Standards Domain: Literary or Informational
Questions Readers Should Always Ask of Any Text
§
What type of text is this (story, poem, essay, mixed media, etc.)?
§
Why did the author/creator choose this form over another?
§
What is the subject of this text?
§
What is the author saying about this subject?
§
What is the author’s purpose in writing/creating this text?
§
What techniques does the author use to achieve this purpose?
§
What do I need to know to be able to read this critically?
§
How is this text organized/designed?
§
How does that organizational approach support the author’s purpose?
§
To what extent can I trust the author, creator, or narrator of this text?
Before
§
Preview the image, taking time to think about the title and any other such details that might
help to offer some context.
§
Why am I looking at this image?
§
What is the context in which I am viewing this image?
§
How might this context influence my response to or understanding of this image?
§
Is this image part of a larger collection of images in a museum, a book, magazine, or other
curated display?
§
What medium am I viewing this image in: its original form, in a book, on a website, or some
other medium?
§
Why did the artist create this photograph or work of art?
§
When was it created? For whom? Why whom?
§
Is this image original or has it been altered (e.g., with Photoshop)?
During
§
What perspective is this image taken or painted from?
§
How does that perspective contribute to the meaning of the image?
§
How are the elements of the image arranged?
§
Why are they arranged in this way?
§
Where does your eye go first?
§
What features or details draw your eye to that spot?
§
How does the artist use color?
§
What other features stand out in this image and why?
§
What techniques does the artist use in this work?
§
What words would you use to describe the style of this work?
§
What details from the painting or photograph suggest this style?
§
What symbols, allusions, or other such techniques does this artist use?
§
How does this image compare with other work by this artist/photographer?
§
What is the main idea of this image or painting?
§
What does the image say about this idea?
§
What sources of tension, if any, do you notice in this work?
§
How does the focal point of the image interact with the foreground and background of the
image?
§
What was the original purpose for creating this photograph or art work?
§
What evidence of bias or propaganda do you detect in this work?
§
Does this work allude to any familiar stories, works of art, or historical events?
After
§
What is the relationship between this image and other content (words, images, other forms) in
this work?
§
What more can you find out about this image, its creator, or the context in which it was
created?
§
What more can you learn about the people, ideas, or events to which the painting or
photograph alludes?
§
Which school of art or photography does this work belong and where does it stand in relation
to the other works in that area?
§
If this image was used for some other purpose than it was originally intended (e.g., in an
advertisement, propaganda, or other context), why did they choose this work and how is it
used in this other context?
§
Is this image offered as fact or literal—or as a symbol, a metaphor, or allegory of an idea?
§
Do you like it? If so, why? If not, why not?
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Elements: The Academic Essay
Explanation
Created by Jim Burke
The “academic essay,” sometimes called the “analytical essay,” examines a subject from one or more perspective. In
such papers, you typically adopt a position or make a claim about the topic, then offer evidence––typically in the
form of quotations and examples––that will support and illustrate your claim(s). It is entirely possible to write such
papers with a sense of personal ownership and authentic voice; however, the tone is usually more formal given the
topic and purpose. In short, do the following when writing academic papers:
• Establish a position (make a claim) about a text or a topic
• Discover and discuss what others have said about the text or topic
• Respond to what others say or have said: agree, disagree, or do both
• Include evidence (examples, data, quotations) from a variety of reliable sources
• Discuss the meaning and importance of this evidence in relation to your ideas
• Consider alternative or opposing positions to establish, clarify, or strengthen your own ideas
• Integrate your evidence/examples into the text and properly cite them using MLA format
Document Design: Format your paper correctly.
Design matters; it shows you pay
attention to the smallest details. This
format comes from the MLA style guide.
Think: First impressions.
Does your paper include:
 Your name
 Instructor’s name
 Course title/#
 Due date
 Header with page # and last name
in right corner
Monica Patel
Mr. Burke
AP Literature and Composition
3/13/12
 Title, centered: same font as body
font; no formatting
 Margins properly formatted (1” to
1.25” wide)
 Paragraphs indented .25” to .5”
Patel 1
Our True Identities
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
 Font: 12 point, roman, serif this
(Minion) is a serif font; this
(Helvetica) is a sans serif)
courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”
 Do not underline your thesis
Anonymous but its message holds significance for us all. The religious
 Double-spaced lines
 (Optional) Subheadings in
boldface
(“Serenity Prayer”). This prayer serves as a mantra for Alcoholics
aspect isn’t what gives the prayer…
The Title: Give your paper a good title.
Good titles intrigue and inform. They
establish a critical frame that sharpens
the ideas in the essay.
Does your paper’s title:
 Relate to your theme?
 Consider the audience?
 Show wit or insight?
 Capitalize all words properly?
 Use same font (style and size) as
the body of your essay?
Jim Burke
Our True Identities
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”
(“Serenity Prayer”). This prayer serves as a mantra for Alcoholics
Anonymous but its message holds significance for us all.…
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Introduction: Begin by establishing a cogent focus about a topic or a text.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
In your opening you must:
 Frame your argument/main idea
 Establish your credibility
 Intrigue and inform your reader
re: your topic
 Clarify your purpose by making
clear to the reader that you will:
o solve a problem
o answer a question
o take a stand on an issue
o interpret a text or data set
 Use one of these strategies:
o compelling comparisons
o interesting questions
o engaging quotations
o controversial statement(s)
o intriguing definitions
o memorable anecdotes
Does your paper’s beginning:
 Answer the questions:
o Who cares?
o So what?
o What is this really about?
 Establish your own credibility?
 Have a stated or implied thesis?
 Sound like you are interested?
 Convey your purpose so it is
effective but not distracting?
 Create an expectation in the
reader’s mind about how ideas
and information are organized?
 Offer a clear and effective
transition from the introduction
into the body of the paper?
courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”
(“Serenity Prayer”). This prayer serves as a mantra for Alcoholics
Anonymous but its message holds significance for us all. The religious
aspect isn’t what gives the prayer importance––it forces people to
realize that we have neither total control nor lack of control of our lives.
People with more freedom may have more control than others, but
nobody is at either extreme. Although we all have some degree of
control of our lives, we cannot manage everything that happens to us.
Differentiating between what we are responsible for and what is
unchangeable is key in the pursuit of one’s true identity.
Body: Organize and develop each paragraph to support or develop your focus.
In the “body” of your essay you
develop your argument by exploring
different aspects of your argument or
others’. There is no set number of
body paragraphs; each one, however,
should relate to your main idea and
advance your argument.
Does each body paragraph:
 Have a clear focus that adds new
information about your topic and
relates to your argument?
 Organize its contents in a logical
pattern that helps achieve your
purpose in this paragraph and the
paper at large?
 Develop these ideas by providing
examples, data, quotations, or
details that support and/or
Jim Burke
The range of control people experience is directly related to how free we
are. The freer we are the more control we have and the more responsibility we
must claim. In Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, for
instance, Dominican teenager Lola breaks free from her mother’s reign to live
with her boyfriend and now has no choice but to accept responsibility for her
actions. She admits that “it was the stupidest thing [she] ever did” (2008, 34).
Diaz notes that “[she] was miserable” (Díaz 64). In gaining freedom
from her mother, she loses the ability to blame her life’s difficulties on
another person. Lola recognizes that she is responsible for her own
misfortunes, but also recognizes that she is free to change her life. Nietzsche,
in The Gay Science, similarly recognizes that in order for people to realize
their natural freedom, they cannot rely on a supernatural power to solve
their problems (2001, 34). His atheism, or freedom from God, gave him
more responsibility for his life because he couldn’t blame or thank God for
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illustrate your claims?
 Integrate and explain the
meaning or importance of the
examples or evidence you use?
 Format and include proper
information for any in-text citations
(MLA style)?
 Place all citations at the end of
each sentence before the final
period?
 Include all citations in the works
cited at the end?
 Use transitions within and
between each paragraph to
achieve coherence, cohesion,
and clarity?
 Examine alternative or opposing
perspectives or arguments?
 Keep paragraphs reasonably
short to improve readability?
 Place, refer to or discuss figures,
diagrams, or images within the
text?
 Include in your works cited any
images or other visual content
sources?
 Maintain proper formatting:
 Indent each ¶ .25 or .5”?
 Have no extra space between
paragraphs?
 Use double-space for ¶ and
block quotations?
 Make any subheadings
boldface; use same size?
Options to consider:
 Insert images, infographics,
charts, tables, other graphics
 Use subheaders (make them bold
if you do) to improve organization
and clarity
 Integrate multimedia (if submitting
in digital form)
Jim Burke
his state. The varying levels of freedom that we experience create varying
levels of control.
What we do with the control we posses shapes our identities. Our real
identities may be partially hidden due to societal pressures, but we are all, in
some way or another, trying to uncover this true identity. Oscar Wao, Lola’s
brother, navigates through the pressure he feels to embrace the “Higher
Powers of your typical Dominican male” to reach his true identity (19). Unlike
Oscar, who desperately wants to be accepted, humanists ignore nearly all
pressures to succumb to superficiality. They “are unwilling to follow a
doctrine or adopt a set of beliefs or values that doesn’t convince [them]
personally” (Edwards 2011, 142). Oscar eventually adopts a more humanist
approach, which lets him isolate his true identity. Different ways lead to our
true identities; though some paths may be shorter, no one path is best.
Understanding that we can’t control everything is a crucial part of
reaching our true identities. If we claim responsibility for those things that are
uncontrollable, we can lose sight of our identities. Beli, the mother of Oscar
and Lola, does just that. The daughter of a cursed family, Beli is sold as a child
to work for an abusive family and internalizes that pain. As she matures she
craves to be accepted by her classmates, but because of her social status “Beli
quickly found herself exiled beyond the bonewalls of the macroverse itself”
(Díaz 84). Even into adulthood Beli is betrayed by man after man, and once
she is middle-aged she discovers “a knot just beneath her skin, tight and
secretive as a plot” – breast cancer (53). Beli, unable to change these truths,
feels partly responsible for the hardships she faces. Beli’s identity collapses,
restricting her ability to achieve a sustaining happiness or find her true
identity. Accepting responsibility for what we can’t control, as Beli does
throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, muddles our identities.
Beli claimed too much responsibility for the outcomes in her life, but not
claiming enough is equally as obstructive. Oscar does not realize how much
control he possesses and wastes considerable time surrendering his identity to
the societal norm: “The kids of color, upon hearing him speak…shook their
heads. You’re not Dominican. And he said, over and over again, But I am”
(49). When Oscar abandons his attempts to conform, he gains confidence and
falls in love with an older Dominican woman. Her boyfriend, a corrupt cop,
has Oscar severely beaten, but Oscar returns to his love only to be beaten
again, this time to his death. Oscar lives a rather brief time in his true identity,
but to him the time he spends with his love is worth his life. Not recognizing
the control that we do have, as Oscar does for twenty years, prohibits us from
fully exploring the corners of our identities.
As a high school senior preparing for college, I often question the societal
pressures I face. I understand why college is so important, but I wonder why
most students see no other options. I could say that I am not free to make any
other decision because of my parents, but I know that I am deciding to
essentially conform and go to college. In choosing to conform, I might be
leaving some portion of my identity undiscovered as Oscar did.
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Conclusion: End your essay with clarity but also content that challenges or inspires.
Every human has a certain amount of control. This amount is
A strong ending can wipe out any
memory of other weaknesses in the
essay. The beginning and the end:
these are the two points readers pay
most attention to. A strong conclusion
must do much more than merely restate
what you already said in some
formulaic way.
Does your conclusion:
determined by the freedom we are allotted. With freedom come the
power to choose and the responsibility to make wise choices. There are
those things out of our control, and taking responsibility for those
 Drive home the meaning or
importance of your topic?
events can disfigure our identities. Ignoring the control we do have can
 Answer or address fully the
question or topic from the intro?
leave us unaware of aspects of our true identities. To be successful in
 Give the reader something to think
about?
 Include a final line that has wit,
wonder, or some sense of
profundity to it that leaves the
reader thinking, Wow?
 Uses one of the following strategies
for ending the paper:
 Reconnect with intro ¶
 Evoke a vivid image
pursuing our true identities, we must claim responsibility for the
decisions we make as free people, we must recognize that some things
aren’t for us to decide, and we must take full advantage of the control
we have, even if that means going against society.
 End with a quotation
 Reiterate your main ideas
 Ask a challenging question
 Issue a call for action
 Close with a question
Works Cited
It is essential to cite your sources.
Doing so establishes your credibility;
gives others credit for their ideas;
invites important conversations about
ethics.
Does your works cited:
 Follow the MLA style format?
 List the medium (e.g., print)?
 Format in-text citation properly?
 Leave out URLs (as it should)?
 Use “hanging indents”?
Recommended
Resources
Jim Burke
Works Cited
Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead, 2007. Print.
Edwords, Fred. "The Humanist Philosophy in Perspective." Editorial. The Humanist
Jan.-Feb.
1984. American Humanist Association. 2008. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.
"Friedrich Nietzsche." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 30 May 1997. Web. 12 Mar.
2012.
"Serenity Prayer." AA History and Trivia 2012. Aug.-Sept. 1992. Web. 10 Mar. 2012.
O’Brien, Tim. “The Things They Carried.” Literature and Composition. Eds. Carol Jago
et al. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 1371-1385. Print.
Jago, Carol, et al. Literature and Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
• Dartmouth Writing Resources: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/
• Easybib Citation Application: http://easybib.com/
• The Top 20 Errors: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everyday_writer3e/20errors/
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Big Ideas and Essential Questions
27.How do you get the news?
68.Do animals have rights?
28.How should you treat a guest?
69.Do the ends justify the means?
29.What stories will you tell your children?
70.What would you sacrifice for justice?
30.Can a dream change the world?
71.How important is wealth?
31.How do you sell an idea?
72.What is our place in nature?
32.Is privacy an illusion?
73.What if you couldn’t fail?
33.How do you promote a cause?
74.Which memories last?
34.Could we live without television?
75.What makes a good love poem?
35.Who lives in your memory?
76.What breeds terror?
36.Can you think out of the box?
77.What do we learn from experience?
37.What makes a great competitor?
78.How can nature inspire you?
38.What makes your imagination soar?
79.Can you paint a picture with words?
39.What triggers a sense of alarm?
80.What is your role in your household?
40.Do you set your own course?
81. What if you were declared the enemy?
41.Is fear our worst enemy?
82. How can we change society?
1. What does it take to be a survivor?
42.Have you ever felt out of place?
83. Whose life is it, anyway?
2. What is a generation gap?
43.What is a poet’s job?
84. What is cowardice?
3. What are you willing to sacrifice?
44.What would win your heart?
85. How does it feel to start over?
4. What is worth fighting for?
45.What if everyone were the same?
86. What are the signs of the times?
5. What makes a winner?
46.What makes something valuable?
87. What is your ultimate loyalty?
6. Why are we fascinated by the unknown?
47.What do you take for granted?
88. Do heroes get to be human?
7. How important is status?
48.Should you trust your instincts?
89. Can your conscience mislead you?
8. What makes someone remarkable?
49.Is survival a matter of chance?
90. Who owns the land?
9. What is a teacher?
50.How can we achieve the impossible?
91. What makes an explorer?
10.When is strength more than muscle?
51.What makes you feel like an outsider?
92. Are people basically good?
11.What makes a memory?
52.How good are you at judging people?
93. Who has the right to rule?
12.What is dignity?
53.How important is telling the truth?
94. Is the price of progress ever too high?
13.What do you look for in a friend?
54.Who has made you a better person?
95. Is it patriotic to protest one’s government?
14.When is a risk worth taking?
55.Are old ways the best ways?
96. Does everyone have a “dark side”?
15.Is revenge ever justified?
56.Why do people argue over silly things?
97. Where do people look for truth?
16.Where do you find adventure?
57.Does knowledge come at a price?
98. What divides a nation?
17.What are the different faces of nature?
58.Is technology taking over?
99. Why do people break rules?
18.What if life had a reset button?
59.Can you recover from tragedy?
100. What makes a place unique?
19.Why do we hurt the ones we love?
60.Can ordinary people be heroes?
101. How are roles changing?
20.What are you really good at?
61.Can you be from two cultures at once?
102. What is modern?
21.What does a community owe its children?
62.What would you do for a friend?
103. Can ideals survive catastrophe?
22.Where do you go to escape?
63.Is the news always reliable?
104. How can people honor their heritage?
23.How do expectations affect performance?
64.Can reporters always stay objective?
105. What drives human behavior?
24.What place do you call home?
65.What do we owe others?
106. Are we responsible for the whole world?
25.What is the source of inspiration?
66.Why keep what is no longer useful?
107. What makes an American?
26.How far would you go to find freedom?
67.What would make the world safer?
108. What is the American dream?
Directions
Use the following questions to
help you generate ideas for
writing, interviews, research, or
discussion in class or on your
own. As an alternative, consider
what others—historical figures,
fictional characters, or others you
know—would say, why they would
say that, and what their answers
would reveal about their values,
motivations, or personality. Also,
consider revisiting these questions
to see if your response to them
changes over time or in response
to experiences you have or books
you read during the year.
Jim Burke
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Jim Burke
Generating Minds
W
hat is creativity? When someone
says a person is so creative, we tend
to immediately envision colors,
“œÛi“i˜ÌÃ]Ê ÃœÕ˜`Ã]Ê >˜`Ê Ã…>«iÃÆÊ
paintings and dance moves, songs both sung and
played, or insights about human nature shaped and
iÝ«ÀiÃÃi`Ê Ì…ÀœÕ}…Ê ܜœ`]Ê Ã̜˜i]Ê œÀÊ V>Þ°Ê /…ˆÃÊ ˜>Àrow conception of creativity too often perpetuates
the myth of creativity as something received, intuited, and thus available only to the chosen few
born with such dispositions, such sensibilities—in
other words, with talent, a genius for some domain
where they see what others cannot, do what others
dare not.
Certainly there are those—da Vinci, Virginia Woolf, Isadora Duncan, to name a few from
the predictable domains of art, literature, and
`>˜Vip܅œÊ>ÀÀˆÛi`Ê܈̅Êܓi̅ˆ˜}ÊiÝÌÀ>Ê̅iÊÀiÃÌÊ
of us did not receive and cannot cultivate no matter how hard we try. But there are people in other
domains—technology, politics, science, food, economics, and even, yes, education—whose work can
only be described as creative since it led to new ways
for us to see, live in, and otherwise understand the
world. These people created not art but products,
processes, and perspectives. Mike Rose, after studying the work of waitresses, carpenters, mechanics,
and other blue-collar workers, found just as much
creativity in these people who created solutions to
problems that made their work, services, and processes easier, faster, safer, or just better.
Jim Burke
How can teachers awaken
creativity in students, and
what do classrooms that do
so look like?
What We Can Teach
What, then, can we teach students when it comes
to creativity that will serve them well as they move
through school and into their careers? What can we
teach them whether they are in my English class or
a history class, a math or a science, woodshop or an
art class? What can we teach them that they can use
in the future whether they are poets or politicians,
entrepreneurs or engineers, cooks or caterers? While
these skills go by a range of names, we can teach
students a fairly small set of skills and cultivate in
them the disposition and confidence needed to use
them in creative ways regardless of the domain.
We can improve students’ creativity by teaching them new and different ways to
UÊ ÃœÛiÊ«ÀœLi“ÃÆÊ
UÊ ˆ`i˜ÌˆvÞʜ̅iÀʜ«Ìˆœ˜Ã]Ê>ÌiÀ˜>̈ÛiÃ]Ê܏Ṏœ˜ÃÆ
UÊ Vœ˜˜iVÌÊÃii“ˆ˜}ÞÊ՘Ài>Ìi`ʈ`i>Ã]ÊÀiÃՏÌÃ]ʜÀÊ
iÛi˜ÌÃÆ
UÊ Ì…ˆ˜ŽÊ>LœÕÌʈÃÃÕiÃ]Ê«ÀœLi“Ã]ÊiÛi˜ÌÃ]ÊiÝ«iÀˆi˜ViÃ]Ê>˜`ʈ`i>ÃÆ
UÊ ˆ˜ÌiÀ«ÀiÌÊ>ÀÌ]ʏˆÌiÀ>ÀÞÊܜÀŽÃ]ʜÀÊ`>Ì>ÆÊ>˜`
UÊ Vœ““Õ˜ˆV>Ìiʈ˜vœÀ“>̈œ˜]ÊiÝ«>˜>̈œ˜Ã]Ê
arguments, or stories.
The specific skill behind these actions goes
by several names—analyze, evaluate, identify, produce,
represent, imagine, and, of course, create. Instead of
these words, however, I propose here another word,
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En glish Journal 102.6 (2013): 25–30
Copyright © 2013 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.
25
93
Generating Minds
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
one that transcends any one discipline, any one domain: generate. Because creating is always specific to
a domain—writing, science, finance, math, policy—
I would add a second verb we should at least keep in
mind when we ask students to generate—inhabit.
/…ÕÃ]Ê܅i˜Ê>««Þˆ˜}ÊiÝ>“«iÃÊ>˜`ÊÃÕ}}iÃ̈œ˜ÃÊ̅>ÌÊ
follow, have students inhabit the role (politician,
poet, scientist, economist) appropriate to whatever
they are creating so they might draw on the knowledge they have gathered about that domain when
adding to it their own creations.
What Students Must Learn to Generate
What, then, should students actually generate in
our classes to foster their creativity in our discipline? Though not complete, such a list would include having students generate the following:
UÊ questions about
● what x does
● how x works
● what x is made of
● how else x might be used, created, solved
● the problem for which x is the solution
● other possibilities besides x—and why
these were not considered
UÊ alternatives for how to
● solve a problem
● iÝ«>ˆ˜Ê>Ê«ÀœViÃÃ]Ê܏Ṏœ˜]ʜÀÊ>Ê«ÀœLi“
● `iÃVÀˆLiʜÀÊÀi«ÀiÃi˜ÌÊ>˜Êˆ`i>]ÊiÝ«>˜>̈œ˜]Ê
or process
26
Jim Burke
July 2013
communicate using different media to
reveal new insights
● ˆ˜ÌiÀ«ÀiÌÊ>ÊÌiÝÌ]ÊÀiÃՏÌ]Ê`>Ì>]ÊiÛi˜Ì]ʜÀÊ
iÝ«iÀˆi˜Vi
● investigate a subject that would lead to
new insights
UÊ interpretations of
● artworks
● behaviors
● events
● iÝ«iÀˆi˜ViÃ
● images
● information
● patterns
● ÌiÝÌÃ
UÊ solutions to problems in
● math: How else could you solve, repreÃi˜Ì]ÊiÝ«>ˆ˜Ê̅>ÌÊ«ÀœLi“¶
● economics: What are some other arguments, models, causes?
● English: What words, strategies, formats,
or media would be best?
● science: What other elements, methods, or
models should we try?
● history: What other policies, actions, or
approaches might apply?
UÊ representations of patterns, processes, ideas,
or arguments using
● ۈÃÕ>ÊiÝ«>˜>̈œ˜Ã\ʓ>«Ã]Ê`ˆ>}À>“Ã]ʈ˜vœgraphics, images
● stories that use any forms and formats to
good and new effect
●
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94
Jim Burke
equations or other symbol systems to conÛiÞÊVœ“«iÝʈ`i>Ã
● metaphors, similes, and analogies
UÊ observations about
● what changes
● how it changes
● why it changes
● what the changes mean
● what does not change
● how something or someone (or a group)
behaves
●
is only one. While I accept this idea in spirit, I also
ÀiÈÃÌÊ ˆÌÃÊ Õ`}“i˜ÌÊ œvÊ Ì…iÊ iÝ«iÀ̽ÃÊ Ž˜œÜi`}iÊ œvÊ >Ê
subject or mastery of a craft. Even if there were only
œ˜iÊ >˜ÃÜiÀ]Ê ÜiÊ ÜœÕ`Ê ˆŽiÞÊ w˜`Ê Ì…>ÌÊ Ì…iÊ iÝ«iÀÌÃÊ
who arrived at that one truth tried many ways en
route, allowing themselves to play around, tweak,
iÝ«iÀˆ“i˜Ì]Ê>˜`ÊiÝ«œÀiʈ˜ÊÜ>ÞÃÊ̅>Ìʏi`Ê̜Ê̅iʘiÜÊ
form, the new idea. As Thomas Edison is alleged to
have said in response to one of his failed inventions,
“We did not fail! We discovered yet another way
that does not work.”
What All Subjects Have in Common
In one of his books, the physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts a time in graduate school when he
deliberately ate dinner with members of different
disciplines (each department in those days traditionally sitting together to continue the day’s earlier conversations). What Feynman soon realized
was that all his colleagues were, in some essential
way, engaged in a variation on the same convers䜘°Ê7…iÀi>ÃÊ̅iÊÃVˆi˜ÌˆÃÌÃÊÜiÀiÊiÝ>“ˆ˜ˆ˜}Ê܅>ÌÊ
happens when you combine elements or compounds
together under certain circumstances, the historians were studying what happened when different
people or countries came together during a particu>ÀʅˆÃ̜ÀˆV>ÊiÀ>Æʓi>˜Ü…ˆi]Ê>ÌÊ̅iʘiÝÌÊÌ>Li]Ê̅iÊ
literature students were talking about how words
or characters affected each other the way they did
in some poem or novel, and so it went with all the
other subjects (69–76).
At the heart of all these disciplines lie certain
common questions, ideas that echo across subjects
and invite us to make room for creativity in our
own classrooms:
What is true about x?
Why is that true?
Why do we think that is true?
Does everyone think that’s true?
What if it were not true?
7…>Ìʜ̅iÀÊÜ>ÞÃʓˆ}…ÌÊÜiÊiÝ«>ˆ˜Êx?
˜ÊV>ÃÃÀœœ“ÃÊ̅>Ìʏ>VŽÊVÀi>̈ۈÌÞ]ʜ˜Þʜ˜iÊiÝplanation, one version, one story or interpretation,
only one way is validated, offered. We are all familiar with the Zen saying that in the beginner’s mind
̅iÀiÊ>Àiʓ>˜ÞÊ«œÃÈLˆˆÌˆiÃÊLÕÌʈ˜Ê̅iÊiÝ«iÀ̽ÃÊ̅iÀiÊ
Jim Burke
What Are the Necessary
Conditions for Creativity?
ivœÀiÊ Ê Ã…>ÀiÊ iÝ>“«iÃÊ œvÊ Ü…>ÌÊ ÃÕV…Ê }i˜iÀ>̈ÛiÊ
thinking looks like in my classroom, I want to discuss the conditions needed for such work. So many
œvÊ Ì…iÊ }Ài>ÌÊ ˆ˜Ûi˜Ìˆœ˜ÃÊ ÃÌi“Ê vÀœ“Ê ºv>ˆi`»Ê iÝ«iÀˆments that it is difficult to list them all. Yet these
fortunate failures remind us that creativity demands
a forgiving atmosphere, at least in its early stages
when we are trying things out. You need to throw
a lot of spaghetti against the wall before you find
a strand that sticks. Students need time to engage
in the work demanded by a given discipline, geniÀ>̈˜}Ê ˆ`i>ÃÊ >˜`Ê ÃœÛˆ˜}Ê «ÀœLi“ÃÊ ˆ˜Ê ̅iÊ Vœ˜ÌiÝÌÊ
of that domain. They also need the time to work
through those problems. Time is the compost that
generates the richest ideas.
In addition to time, which I realize is always in
short supply (my class periods are 51 minutes long),
and permission to play (with
words, ideas, materials), stu- So many of the great
dents need a rich supply inventions stem from
of models to use as spring- “failed” experiments that
boards and guides, some of it is difficult to list them
which can come from the all. Yet these fortunate
teacher or classmates, while
failures remind us that
others come from the materials provided through creativity demands a
the course or the students’ forgiving atmosphere,
own research. Students also at least in its early stages
need to work with the real when we are trying
thing for real reasons. This things out.
authenticity is essential, for
we only “create” when we have something to say that
no one else has yet said, or a problem that no one
else has solved. Generative learning is fundamentally
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English Journal
27
95
Generating Minds
about doing real work, creating solutions of one sort
or another for ourselves or others.
Finally, creative work demands an audience:
someone to hear the story, song, or speech students
VÀi>ÌiÆÊ Ãœ“iœ˜iÊ ÌœÊ ÜˆÌ˜iÃÃÊ œÀÊ ÕÃiÊ Ì…iÊ «ÀœViÃÃÊ œÀÊ
«Àœ`ÕVÌÊ ÜiÊ `iÈ}˜ÆÊ Ãœ“iœ˜iÊ ÌœÊ Ã>“«iÊ Ì…iÊ ÀiVˆ«iÊ
we invent, the software application we develop.
Even if that audience is merely the other members
of the class, that’s fine. If “an impartial jury” is good
enough to try us in court, the same jury can enjoy
our work in the class.
Classroom Visit: My Classroom
In the end, we always wonder what any set of ideas
or instructional practices actually looks like in action. Yes, yes, we think, but what does it look like?
What do you do?Ê/…iÊvœœÜˆ˜}ÊiÝ>“«iÃÊVœ“iÊvÀœ“Ê
a range of classes, some advanced (AP), others college prep (CP), all of them in a comprehensive public high school in classes that usually have about 32
ÃÌÕ`i˜ÌðÊ7…>ÌÊ՘ˆÌiÃÊ̅iÃiÊiÝ>“«iÃʈÃÊ̅iʘœÌˆœ˜Ê
of generatingpˆ˜Ê ̅iÊ Vœ˜ÌiÝÌÊ œvÊ Ài>`ˆ˜}]Ê ÜÀˆÌˆ˜}]Ê
speaking, and thinking—in an English class.
UÊ Representing: We do a lot of visual thinkˆ˜}Ê>˜`ÊiÝ«>ˆ˜ˆ˜}ʈ˜Ê“ÞÊV>ÃÃiðÊ/…ˆÃÊ
amounts to using color, shapes, patterns,
objects, symbols, and art to help us see or
make new connections, to come up with
ideas, create larger conversations. We do a lot
of this on Idea Boards, large sketchboards I
turned into portable dry-erase whiteboards
with Idea Paint, the other side of which
holds a pad of newsprint. Each Idea Board
comes with a kit that includes dry-erase
markers and crayons, sticky notes, and eraser.
We also use a lot of shapes to help us think
about stories, ideas, and other subjects we are
studying.
UÊ Discussions: Talk is fundamentally generative, so long as it is purposeful and authentic
and has time to deepen into its subject. Discussions might take place through pairs,
small groups, the whole class, or individual
conferences with me to generate ideas for
ÜÀˆÌˆ˜}ʜÀʈ˜ÌiÀ«ÀiÌ>̈œ˜ÃÊ>LœÕÌÊ>ÊÌiÝ̰ʈÃVÕÃȜ˜Ãʓˆ}…ÌÊÌ>ŽiÊ«>Viʈ˜ÊV>ÃÃʜÀʜ˜ˆ˜iÆÊ
ˆ˜ÊÜÀˆÌˆ˜}ʜÀÊLÞÊÌiÝÌʓiÃÃ>}i]ÊÌÜiiÌ]ʜÀÊLœ}°Ê
Students might participate in such discussions as themselves, the author, a character,
28
Jim Burke
July 2013
or some outside persona they have adopted to
help them (and us) see this topic in ways that
open it up, revealing new possibilities and
«iÀëiV̈ÛiðÊ-œ]ÊvœÀÊiÝ>“«i]Ê܅i˜Ê“ÞÊ
senior class reads Oedipus Rex as part of an
inquiry into power or leadership, they each
Ài>`Ê>ÃÈ}˜i`ÊiÝViÀ«ÌÃÊvÀœ“Ê>V…ˆ>Ûiˆ½ÃÊThe
Prince in preparation for a forum where they
discuss it as if they were Machiavelli, representing the arguments and attitude from the
passage they read. Finally, discussions might
be led by me, students, or guest speakers we
invite in to help us discover new possibilities
about a subject.
UÊ Reading: Reading is something we typically
teach students to doÆÊ}i˜iÀ>̈ÛiÊÀi>`ˆ˜}ÊÌÕÀ˜ÃÊ
>ÊÌiÝÌʈ˜ÌœÊܓi̅ˆ˜}ÊÜiÊuse to gather and
grow new ideas, make connections, come up
with new perspectives on a subject. Seniors I
Ìi>V…]ÊvœÀÊiÝ>“«i]ÊÀi>`Ê>Ê܈`iÊÀ>˜}iʜvÊ>À̈cles, essays, and chapters from books about
success to generate ideas for a model of success as part of a major inquiry into that subject. In my AP class, as part of our War and
*i>ViÊ՘ˆÌ]ÊÃÌÕ`i˜ÌÃÊÀi>`Ê>ÊÀ>˜}iʜvÊÌiÝÌÃqq
poems, essays, stories, a play––about war in
order to discover new ideas and perspectives
through the competing views in the different
ÌiÝÌðʘÊ>``ˆÌˆœ˜]ÊÜiʺÀi>`»ÊܜÀŽÃʜvÊ>ÀÌ]Ê
images, and videos all chosen for their ability
to stimulate new perspectives on the subject.
UÊ Writing: We write for one minute, 5 minÕÌiÃ]Ê£x]Ê>˜`ʓœÀiÆÊÜiÊÜÀˆÌiʜ˜ÊÃ̈VŽÞʘœÌiÃ]Ê
ˆ˜`iÝÊV>À`Ã]Ê«œÃÌiÀÊ«>«iÀ]Ê`i>ʜ>À`Ã]Ê܅ˆÌiboards, and in our Idea Books (a more intentional use of a notebook). We write blogs,
notes, lists, brainstorms, freewrites, paragraphs, and one-pagers, all in a serious
attempt to dig down into our own thinking
and come up with our best ideas yet on the
way to writing a great paper, discussing a
ÌiÝÌʜÀʈ`i>]Ê«Ài«>Àˆ˜}Ê>ÊLˆ}Ê«ÀiÃi˜Ì>̈œ˜°Ê
We write in response to quotations, images,
>ÀÌ]Ê>`Ã]Ê«œi“Ã]Ê«>ÃÃ>}iÃÊvÀœ“ʏœ˜}iÀÊÌiÝÌÃ]Ê
and questions. In preparing students to begin
reading Siddhartha,ÊvœÀÊiÝ>“«i]ÊÊÌ>ŽiʓÞÊ
seniors out to the football field where I ask
them to sit on the yard-line that corresponds
with their age. In the novel, Siddhartha feels
he must leave home to learn who he is and
find his own truth. I ask students to sit on
their age-appropriate yard-line and write
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96
Jim Burke
about what they know, what it feels like to
be the age they are. We then build from this
writing an initial understanding of the novel
that leads to possible writing ideas down the
ˆ˜i°Ê˜`Ê܅i˜Ê̅iÞÊÜÀˆÌi]ÊÊÜÀˆÌi]Ê̜œÆʓÞÊ
ideas often serve as levers I can use to help
students with their own, even as I provide for
them a model of using writing to think
things through. If they need guidance, I
sometimes give students prompts or sentence
frames (e.g., I used to think x but now, as a
result of y, I think z).
UÊ Crossing Disciplines: This last category
eludes easy description but is best understood as taking ideas, models, theories, or
anything else of use from one subject and
using it in another as a tool to generate new
ˆ`i>ðʜÀÊiÝ>“«i]ʈ˜ÊiVœ˜œ“ˆVÃ]Ê̅iÀiʈÃÊ>Ê
thing called the Indifference Curve. We
might use that to consider the relationship
between two characters. Or I might come in
܈̅Ê>ÊÃՓ“>ÀÞʜvÊ}>“iÊ̅iœÀÞ]ÊVœ“«i݈ÌÞÊ
̅iœÀÞ]ʜÀÊi˜ÌÀœ«Þ]Ê>“œ˜}ʜ̅iÀÃÆÊ>vÌiÀÊ
iÝ«>ˆ˜ˆ˜}Ê̅iÊ«ÀœViÃÃÊLÀˆiyÞ]ÊÊܜՏ`Ê}ˆÛiÊ
them the list of theories and tell them to
choose the one that makes the most sense to
̅i“ʈ˜Êˆ}…ÌʜvÊ̅iÊÌiÝÌÊÜiÊ>ÀiÊÀi>`ˆ˜}Ê>˜`Ê
>««Þ]ÊvœÀÊiÝ>“«i]Ê}>“iÊ̅iœÀÞÊ̜Ê>ʘœÛiÊœÀÊ
a play such as Hamlet. One time, after finals,
with some time left, I encouraged students to
develop their own or adapt a well-known
principle or theory from math, science, or
economics to all we had studied that semester and use it as a way to connect all the difviÀi˜Ìʈ`i>ÃÊ>˜`ÊÌiÝÌÃ]Ê܅ˆV…Ê̅iÞÊ̅i˜Ê…>`Ê
̜ÊiÝ«>ˆ˜°Ê/…iÞʏœÛi`ʈÌÊ>˜`Êi˜}>}i`ʈ˜Ê
some creative thinking as they generated first
a range of theories and then ideas about how
one of those might somehow provide a uniwi`ÊiÝ«>˜>̈œ˜ÊœvÊ܅>ÌÊÜiʅ>`ÊÃÌÕ`ˆi`°
Creating a Future
Works Cited
Teaching students to be creative inevitably requires
that teachers themselves work in creative ways, alœÜˆ˜}Ê̅i“ÃiÛiÃÊ̜ÊiÝ«iÀˆ“i˜ÌÊ>˜`ÊiÝ«œÀi]ÊLÕÌÊ
also to feel a bit uncomfortable (you know, the way
we usually feel when we are learning something
new). Yet it is a complicated time to issue this call
to creativity: Just as so many demand creativity,
we teachers find ourselves working in an era when
Jim Burke
risk-taking is rarely encouraged, when schools feel
increasingly pressured to generate better scores, not
better minds.
In her study of creativity in the classroom,
Judith A. Langer distinguishes between “creative”
and “critical” thinking, focusing on what she calls
the “cognitive moves that enable the mind to seek
>˜`ÊÜiVœ“iʘœÛiÌˆiÃÊ̅>Ìʓˆ}…Ìʜ̅iÀ܈ÃiÊLiÊiÝcluded from consideration” (67). Instead of emphasizing one over the other, Langer argues that they
are both “essential aspects of a well developed mind
. . . [that] together . . .
It is a complicated
offer individuals different
vectors into the same issues time to issue this call
and thus have the potential to creativity: Just as so
to mutually enrich under- many demand creativity,
standing of material and we teachers find
iÝ«iÀˆi˜ViÃ»Ê ­ÈÇ®°Ê ˜Ê …iÀÊ ourselves working in an
conception of “minds-on
era when risk-taking is
cognitively engaged classrooms that involve students rarely encouraged, when
in both critical and creative schools feel increasingly
thinking,” Langer describes pressured to generate
creative thinking as a way better scores, not better
œvÊ ºiÝ«œÀˆ˜}Ê …œÀˆâœ˜ÃÊ œvÊ minds.
possibilities” (67), an idea
that ties together much of what I have said here
about creating, generating, and inhabiting. For
if we cannot nurture in our students the creativity needed to generate such horizons as dreams are
made of, the future will not be one they are eager
to inhabit.
As the father of three and the teacher of many
more, however, I see the future as a story we are all
writing together, one filled with characters I care
deeply about and for whom I want the happiest of
endings. If we can all work to build the capacities I
…>ÛiÊ`ˆÃVÕÃÃi`ʅiÀi]Ê̅iʘiÝÌÊ܈ÊLiÊ>ʓi“œÀ>LiÊ
and successful generation.
Feynman, Richard P., as told to Ralph Leighton. “Surely
You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious
Character. New York: Norton, 1985. 69–76. Print.
Langer, Judith A. “The Interplay of Creative and Critical
Thinking in Instruction.” Design Research on Learning
and Thinking in Educational Settings: Enhancing Intellectual Growth and Functioning. Ed. David Yun Dai.
New York: Routledge, 2011. 65–82. Print.
Rose, Mike. The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the
American Worker. New York: Viking, 2004. Print.
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