Fun Analysis Methods

My best ideas are the ones I borrow from someone else:

​Students sometimes struggle to pull out big ideas- or themes- from texts.
1)  Text Rendering Protocol borrowed from huffenglish.com. 
A) Examples from ELA:
​Her class read Margaret Atwood’s poem “Half-Hanged Mary” after a study of The Crucible. First, students share a single line they think is most important to the poem. Then each student chooses one word that she feels captures something essential. As students share the word, the teacher types it into a word cloud app. 

It's quite powerful to reduce a text down to a few sentences or a single word. This could work for many subject areas.  Let's try it today with a poem: Invictus or When I Am Among the Trees.
Then I'll use the word cloud app worditout.com




​B) Cool Live Tool: https://www.polleverywhere.com/

2)Try Found Poetry 
Social Studies historytech.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/tip-of-the-week-found-poetry/
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/found-poems
https://www.creative-writing-now.com/found-poetry.html

​3) Literary 3 x 3's
Students sometimes struggle to get beyond summary and into a deeper analysis of a text. Compression writing is a tool that can help.
A) The Six Word Memoir from Smith Magazine relates the myth that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only 6 words.  His response?
         For sale:  baby shoes. Never worn.
Recently, my students practiced compression writing with a 6-word thesis statement after reading a play, Trifles.

B) 3 X 3's
I first learned of this method in the Best Lesson Series . Again, this could be used in many different subject areas with many different types of texts.  I'll demonstrate with literature and share a handout from Jerry Brown-- AP Lit teacher extraordinaire. 
Again, the assignment forces students to think conceptually. Plus, organization is based on identifying a Beginning, a Middle, and an End.  Analyze texts with this method; then write with this method by using the 
3 X 3 Writing Frame.

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The fun thing with 3 x 3's is that you can use index cards to create decks.  First, have partners or groups work on paper to come up with their best first draft. Then have them revise. Write their best version on 9 index cards, numbering the cards on the back. Then groups can switch decks and see if they can solve the literary 3 x 3 puzzle. Also, decks can be combined-- students then find that there are multiple ways to form 3 word sentences that still make sense for the story.  Some work, some don't, but all foster deep thinking about the text.
We can try it now with some well-known texts. Any ideas? 

3. Vocabulary's CODE
​http://vocabularyscode.weebly.com/
Graphic Organizers for Vocab

Extras: math and science
Math Projects Journal
LDC library 
Gates Foundation Tools
Science Vocabulary See it Say It Blog
Vocabulary: The Language of Science Collection
​Math Giraffe
* Cornell Notes samples for Math/Engage New York


4)  Visible Thinking- Harvard Project Zero
Welcome to the gold mine. Go to the site and find your treasure, no matter your subject area. 

visible_thinking__hpz_favorites.pdf
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