Analysis
Change Package: Analysis Task
Impact on Teaching
After engaging in comprehension work, a coherent arc of text-based lessons often take students into a deep study of how an author works as a writer to expertly utilize language. Analysis tasks are open-ended questions and tasks that take readers deeply into discussions of and writings about an author’s methods or craft in and across texts. These questions often (but not always) can sustain multiple, varied responses using textual evidence. After answering analytic questions, students are often asked to write like the author—to imitate the author’s style, sentences, grammatical structures, etc.
How do you plan an analysis task?
Planning
Review the text (or pair of texts) that students will be working with. As you review the text, look for patterns of interesting language or grammar usage across the texts. The following questions are helpful in thinking about aspects of a text or set of texts that lend themselves to analysis work:
Do you notice anything unique, interesting, complex, or unconventional about the author’s writing style, use of language, grammar, word choice, structure?
What does this author do that would help students in their own writing? Is there something this published author does that students might try in their own writing?
What does the author do that’s valued by the standards?
Although the question you develop for this reading will be open-ended, it might not generate varied responses, especially if there’s something very specific you want students to understand and then apply based on their analysis. You might also find that not all texts lend themselves to deep analysis work. Texts that tend to be summaries of longer articles or those that have been adjusted to lower the Lexile may not have rich aspects of craft to study.
Once you've decided on your analysis question, create a student-centered task sheets that:
Help students understand the purpose for the work that they will be doing
Lay out the steps in the task
Provide some insight into how to complete new activities or skills, such as providing tips for completing a quick write if that is new for students, or what it means to compose a write-like.