"Leveling Up: Using the Thesis Pyramid to Design an Argument Structure and Discover a Level 3 Conclusion" (Michelle Baptiste and Chisako Cole)
All too often students come to the university with a restrictive and prescriptive formula for organizing and developing arguments in both their text analysis essays and research papers. The vast majority of students rely heavily on the limiting parallel structure of the “five-paragraph essay” model in which the conclusion merely echoes the introduction or puts forth an oversimplified generalization. In this teaching workshop we acknowledge the potential benefits of the “5-paragraph essay” structure and then expand on that knowledge by using a 3-level thesis pyramid we designed to help students visualize how to learn to build a complex layered argument, instead, based on the "Level 3” thesis model:
· Level 1: observation or interpretive summary of a text or body of research
· Level 2: analysis that answers how and why questions to develop the argument
· Level 3: significance (e.g., a larger consequence, different lens, critique, or future implication)
We will share our thesis pyramid diagram with sample content and engage participants in collaborative classroom activities to scaffold developing understanding of how to create a scholarly argument. A 3-level thesis argument develops gradually across paragraphs that cohere in more ways than mere addition. So, in this workshop, we will invite teachers to read an argument and see if they can force the argument into a parallel template and then practice mapping it onto a thesis pyramid.
Since a 3-level thesis argument culminates in an original conclusion that goes beyond merely repeating the body of the essay, we will have workshop participants identify and discuss how the authors in the sample argument conclude–and then share a couple of our own essay prompts and support participants in rethinking an old writing prompt or designing a new one for their own context.
"Reading to Write and Writing to Read: A Metacognitive Interconnection of Reading and Writing Skills (David Skolnick)
This presentation will demonstrate how students can learn, internalize, and metacognitively apply clear and repeatable pre, during, and post reading strategies to any type of text to improve text comprehension and engagement as well as to develop writing skills and confidence. I will show how helping students develop a metacognitive approach to reading translates into a metacognitive approach to their own writing and an increased awareness of their dual role as audience and author.
Applying reading strategies to texts about reading and writing not only provides models of writing for students, but also metacognitive knowledge students can apply to improve their reading and writing. This reflective and recursive process can then be applied to any text and related writing. Students mine texts for the reading and writing strategies the authors are explaining and for the rhetorical strategies the authors themselves are using to engage their audience.
I will provide a simple lesson plan to teach reading strategies and sample texts illustrating their application by students. I will also provide student feedback on how learning and regularly applying reading strategies has helped their reading fluency, comprehension, and confidence.
"Supporting Student Agency" (Amanda Smith, Chelsea Criez, Kristin FitzPatrick Ezell, Alesya Petty, and Anne F. Walker)
Stretch, a six-unit two-semester first year writing class at San Jose State University, supports student agency, creativity, and critical thinking. Since 2014 Stretch students have been ‘agenticized’ through Directed Self-Placement, rather than being assigned to the classes through testing. Students who choose Stretch often do so because they feel less “comfortable” and “confident” with college-level reading and writing. The majority of our students are multilingual and first-gen students, underrepresented minorities, and Pell Grant recipients. Many have federally recognized disabilities.
This “supporting student agency” workshop reflects activities and practices that Stretch faculty use to create inclusive learning communities that help students develop their academic skills. Elements we will touch on include low stakes journaling and grading, process-based grading, literacy map projects, face-to-face dialogue to solve community problems, reflective writing’s link to thoughtful finished pieces, quiet space, and using some media literacy/lateral reading concepts to open up into the exploration of bridging organizations as forums for constructive, respectful, and often more productive public debate than what social media platforms can offer.
This workshop introduces key concepts and practices, with time for audience participation, direction, and contribution.
"Helping Students Prepare Their Personal Essay for College Admissions" (Christina Olivares)
In this workshop, participants will walk through, together, an easily adapted, accessible, and student-centered curriculum that supports high school-aged juniors and seniors approach their writing of the personal essay for college admissions. Many students do not have practice doing the specific kind of personal writing, have limited if any experience writing for public audiences, and have not ever been asked to engage in repeated revisions of their written work. This curriculum, refined over many years, is designed to offer you one way of helping students engage what can feel like an overwhelming or unfamiliar type of writing while encouraging natural expression, joy, and the wonders that can be inherent in self-discovery through personal writing. We will do some myth busting; discuss some ways that we might support students who are inclined to write through their trauma; discuss how adults may support young people in navigating the June 2023 SCOTUS decision that ended race-conscious admissions practices; and develop our understanding of how to name (or not) specific family circumstances that can impact financial aid allocation. Participants will, by the end, have experienced for themselves an abbreviated version of one of the writing exercises designed to prompt an initial draft of a personal statement, and will have familiarity with a toolkit of exercises and options from which they can build a curriculum that is appropriate for their own students’ needs.
The presenter has directed college counseling programs at two schools, one charter and one private, two nonprofit community-based organizations serving families of color, and spent some time helping the Bronx borough office of the Department of Education in New York City set up college-readiness programs.