As ELA teachers, one of the things we are tasked to do is to get our students to create clear lines of reasoning in their writing.
But how and the world do we do that?
If only we could crack open the lids of their brains and pour in a healthy dose of logic and a knowledge of how to cogently sequence a clearly articulated argument.
Well, I have created a unit to crack the line of reasoning conundrum.
Over Christmas break, I was reading the classic children’s book – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie – to my grandson …
And I had a ginormous epiphany …
I said to myself … holy cow …
This entire book is written syllogistically.
And as you know, the template I use to get my students to sustain their line of reasoning in their body paragraphs is rooted in the Aristotelian heuristic of the syllogistic method.
Bingo!
So, what I did was host story hour … kind of like what kids do in kindergarten when they gather around the teacher to share stories.
I read the book to my class and went over the basics of deductive reasoning and demonstrated for them that the story is doing the exact same thing as what I’ve been trying to teach them about composition.
And to solidify this learning … I then had students write their own children’s stories whereby they needed to keep an exact line of reasoning.
I modeled it for them …
It was a story about a flat tire that needed a mechanic.
They loved it and we had a blast.
From here, I introduced synthesis to them.
Man oh man … it worked!
They were able to transfer the skills they learned from writing the children’s book to their essays.
What I have done is create a YouTube video of the entire unit – everything from how to craft the kids book to the synthesis essay.
Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpI_5TT_KaI
If you’d like any of the resources featured in the video, just reach out and I’ll send everything your way.
And just to provide an update, because a lot of folks are asking – the textbook that Timm Freitas and I are collaborating on is coming along. We do not have a definitive publication date, but we’re both trucking along.
I also launched my first Teach It “Write” 5-Week Mastermind last week. Since I capped the class to eight teachers, I was asked to run it again toward the end of February or beginning of March. So, why not? While I’m gathering data for the textbook, it just makes sense.
If you’d like more information about the Mastermind, simply reach out and we can go over everything that is involved in the course.
And lastly, I will be hosting a free webinar through Perfection Learning in the beginning of February that will showcase my alternative grading methods. As we solidify the details, I will let you know.
I’m hoping that you’re return to school is going well.
Kristian
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