Speak Before You Write Coaching English Learners to Write On-Demand for Standardized Tests

by Lynette Williamson Analy High School, Sebastopol CA [email protected]

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Planned Not Canned Prewriting before the Prompt 1. The Brain Purge The brain purge is a prewriting activity that creates a list of potential examples before the prompt is revealed to the speaker or the writer. WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO THIS? When the topic of a speech or an essay is an unknown variable, students often assume that they can’t prepare in advance. The brain purge activity offers students an opportunity to collect and focus their recent experiences into a palette of examples that they can dip into throughout the creation of a timed speech or essay. WHY SHOULD THEY CARE? Students should care because they will never have to feel the anxiety of a blank canvas when sitting through a timed-write situation. Furthermore the more concrete examples they’re able to infuse from their brain purge into their essay, the greater their odds of achieving the highest score on the rubrics that demand plentiful and meaningful examples. HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? Total Time: 30-45 minutes 10 minutes to explain the lesson and read over the student handout 5 minutes to conduct a brain purge 15 minutes if you plan to model the exercise as explained in HINT 5 minutes to connect the brain purge to a prompt 10 minutes to outline a potential essay WHAT WILL YOU NEED? Sample Brain Purge (copies for each student) Conducting a Brain Purge (copies for each student) If you opt to model this exercise with the students, you will need an overhead projector and a blank transparency. WHAT’S THE PROCEDURE? 1. Explain to the class that you will give them a pre-writing strategy that they can employ before they know what their prompt is so they do not have to feel anxious about on-demand writing. 2. Distribute Sample Brain Purge to help illustrate the activity before you begin. 3. You may want to read the handout aloud, highlighting the fact that this is a replica of a student’s response from a year ago. Reading aloud the steps and asking a student to read aloud the student responses will help distinguish the directions from the written replies. The students may also get a chuckle out of some the student samples, which are truly random.

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4. Distribute Conducting a Brain Purge and give the students 5 minutes to purge their brains by listing what’s on the top of their heads. Have them consider current events, recent films, books studied in class, personal experiences, and recent decisions. They may list as many items as they want; the only limiting factor is the time. You may want to help students generate their list by prompting them with questions. Consider asking students the following questions: • What was the last movie you saw? • Which book are you reading in English class? • What was the last news story you heard about? • What are you studying in history class? • What are you studying in science class? • What’s at the top of your worry list? • What’s at the top of your to-do list? HINT: Consider modeling the exercise for your students on an overhead projector. When I do so, I scribble my brain purge on an overhead transparency while they are working on theirs. Then, I read over my list with them, noting that if I’ve forgotten the author of the book I’m reading or can’t remember which Shakespearean sonnet we read yesterday, I would fact-check my information, so that my list is accurate and complete before I use it to prepare for a test or an unknown prompt. I then demonstrate how I would connect my random list to a particular prompt and even scratch out a rough outline for an essay. The teacher demo is particularly effective in illustrating that additions and changes can be made as the process unfolds, and that the initial brain purge list is not a rigid template of examples, but merely a launch pad of potential examples.

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Speak Before You Write

Student Handout

Sample Brain Purge STEP 1: Purge your brain; list what’s on your mind Consider current events, recent films, books being studied in class, personal experiences and decisions. For example: lack of sleep The film 300 To Kill a Mockingbird the prom car payment/insurance lunch war in Iraq Twighlight school violence Chris Rock Michael Jackson cell phone bill unfair curfew the Vietnam War entropy grades baseball playoffs mom’s birthday The Simpsons STEP 2: Prompt (given by the teacher when the list is complete): Citing examples from your reading, personal experiences and observations, agree or disagree with the premise that “Justice for all” applies to teenagers. STEP 3: Comb your list for connections to the prompt. Michael Jackson To Kill a Mockingbird car payment/insurance school violence unfair curfew grades STEP 4: Formulate a controlling idea or thesis. Teenagers are often denied justice on issues ranging from grades to violence.

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2. Speed Prompting—almost as fun as speed dating! Students love a contest, especially one that mimics a dating game! This exercise helps to build their confidence in both beating the clock and in having something specific to say in response to a prompt.

WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO THIS? When the topic of a speech or essay catches students off guard, they will often spend the bulk of their precious prep time mulling over their position, or striving to conjure a single specific example. WHY SHOULD THEY CARE? Scoring rubrics reward speakers and writers for “appropriate and adequate supporting examples.” In other words—they insist on plural examples. HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? Total Time: 20-30 minutes 10 minutes to explain the lesson and to rearrange the chairs 5 minutes to conduct a brain purge if they haven’t saved one from previous exercise 15 minutes to conduct the exercise WHAT WILL YOU NEED? Brain Purges from previous lesson (copies for each student) Ample sample prompts or quotations with which students can agree or disagree WHAT’S THE PROCEDURE? 1. Ask students to draft a new brain purge, or ask them to have at the ready the one they wrote for the previous exercise. 2. Ask students to clear their desks of all materials except their brain purge list. 3. Arrange the students in evenly double-paired rows. For example in a class of 32, you might have one double-row of 6 students, and two double row of 5 students. Each student should be facing another across from his desk in the same row. 4. Designate half of the double row to be speakers and the other half to be listeners. 5. Tell them that you will read off a quotation and they will have 30 seconds to tell their partner whether they agree or disagree with the statement and then, using their brain purge list if they choose, they should rattle off as may examples as possible in support of their position. 6. The students doing the listening should keep a tally of how many examples each student has used. 7. After 30 seconds, tell the students to stop and move to the next seat. Then announce a new prompt and have the students repeat the drill until all students in the speaking row have had a chance to speak. 8. Then ask each of the listeners who their top “ vote-getter.” was, and award extra points to the speaker who used the most examples. 9. Ask the students to switch roles—the listeners now become the speakers. And the cycle repeats—with new “winners” being announced. NOTES...

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Prompts for Practice For practice in crafting qualified thesis statements, road mapping or writing essays, here is a list of notable quotations with which you can agree, disagree, or qualify. “Don’t offer me advice, give me money.” - Spanish proverb “Many receive advice, only the wise profit by it.” - Syrus “Success for the striver washes away the effort of striving.” - Pindar “Riches are for spending.” – Francis Bacon “What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your tongue.” Jewish proverb “Laws go where dollars please.” - Portuguese proverb “One sword keeps another in the sheath.” - George Herbert “No one is more profoundly sad that he who laughs too much.” – Jean Paul Richter “Failure changes us for the better, success for the worse.” - Seneca “The language of friendship is not words, but meanings.” – Henry David Thoreau “The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end.” – Disraeli "A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words." - Russian Proverb "Talent is most likely to be found among dissenters and rebels." - David Ogilvy "Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein "If you live in the river, you should make friends with the crocodile." - Indian Proverb “If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun” - Katharine Hepburn “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect” - Ben Franklin “You can't shake hands with a closed fist” - Golda Meier “The past is the best prophet of the future” - Lord Byron “A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Cicero

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3. Constructing Roadmaps on Demand: Quickly Mapping Out Responses to Prompts Being dealt a prompt and told to “plan and write an essay” in as little as 25 minutes, students may be tempted to start sprinting to the finish line, failing to realize that the secret to success is the 5 minutes spent mapping out the essay, not the 20 minutes spent writing it. WHY SHOULD THEY CARE? Many of my students have admitted to writing a spectacular, compelling introduction only to look at the clock and discover that only 5 minutes remain to complete the essay. Nothing is worse. When students take the time to map out an essay, however, they ensure that their essays will have a destination, and they have a plan for arriving on time. WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO THIS? Constructing the roadmap should only take 1/5th of the total time allocated to the ondemand writing prompt. For a 25-minute SAT I prompt, that’s 5 minutes; for a 45-minute placement test, that’s 7 minutes. Then STICK TO THE MAP! Students will need to be reminded that if they’re halfway through writing an essay, and they get a bigger, better idea that doesn’t fit their map—they should save it! In much the same way that we don’t explore alternative routes to a job when we’re late for work, ondemand writing insists that arriving on time be our top priority. HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? Total Time: 20-30 minutes 5 minutes to explain the lesson 5 minutes to conduct a brain purge if they haven’t saved one from previous exercise 5-10 minutes to review the Sample Roadmap on Teenage Justice 5-10 minutes to conduct the exercise WHAT WILL YOU NEED? Brain Purges from previous lesson Sample Brain Purge and Sample Roadmap ( copies for each student) A writing prompt or a quotation with which students can agree or disagree WHAT’S THE PROCEDURE? 1. Once the students have created a brain purge, give the students a prompt. Tell them that their essay or oral presentation will be organized around this prompt and their list. 2. Give the students 5 minutes to comb their list for connections to the prompt. You can ask them to highlight or circle the suitable items on their list. 3. After the students have made connections between their list and the prompt, ask them to formulate a controlling idea. This is where a return to the Sample Brain Purge is most helpful. The sample demonstrates how the initial random list was shortened to reflect just those items that the writer could connect to justice, and then the list was

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distilled into a controlling idea that focused on how teenagers are denied justice. See the Sample Roadmap On Justice For Teenagers 4. Give the students 10 minutes to outline their potential essay or presentation. Ideally students will have more than one example for each of their main points in the outline as the sample demonstrates. They may or may not have ample examples to draw from on their brain purge list. Encourage them to add examples as they work through their outline. The brain purge is a starting point, not a definitive list. 5. The exercise can stop here or be repeated with the same brain purge list and a different prompt. Hint: You can ask the students to save their brain purges for the following lesson “Talking to the Wall,” if you are conducting the lesson on the same day. However, I’ve found it best if each day’s lesson begins with a ‘fresh’ brain purge since these lists are subject to frequent change.

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Roadmap for a potential essay or presentation.

Sample Roadmap On Justice For Teenagers using the sample brain purge Introduction: Personal example describing an argument with parents about Saturday’s curfew Controlling idea or thesis: Teenagers are often denied justice on issues ranging from grades to violence. Main points and supporting examples (taken from the purge!): I. High-school students are often unfairly graded A. grades in many subjects, such as English and art, are subjective B. teachers’ grading policies are often unclear and inconsistent II. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Mayella has no recourse against her father’s abuse A. she was too young to be taken seriously B. she was too poor to garner respect III. Many acts of school violence go unpunished A. hazing and harassment often go unreported B. punishment for reported incidents is often inconsistent Conclusion (answers the questions, “ Therefore what?” or “Now what?”): Justice is not for all since teenagers often have no recourse when faced with unfair situations.

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Student Handout

Conducting a Brain Purge STEP 1: Purge your brain; list what’s on your mind (consider current events, recent films, books being studied in class, personal experiences and decisions).

STEP 2: Prompt (given by the teacher when the list is complete):

STEP 3: Comb your list for connections to the prompt.

STEP 4: Formulate a controlling idea or thesis.

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STEP 5: Outline your potential essay or presentation. BRAIN PURGE OUTLINE: ______________________________________ Introduction: Controlling idea or thesis Main points and supporting examples (taken from the purge!) I. A. B. II. A. B. III. A. B. Conclusion (answers the questions, “ Therefore what?” or “Now what?”):

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4. Talking to the Wall: Verbalizing Ideas before Writing Attend any speech or debate tournament and you will see students talking to the walls before the event begins. It’s sometimes best if bumpy syntax and clumsy logic fall on deaf ears. As students experiment with outlining their responses to prompts, it makes sense to provide them with a method to test-drive their ideas in a way that builds fluency and confidence. Impromptu speaking is the most direct way to provide both efficiently. Acknowledging the fear-factor of including an audience, this exercise allows students to stand and deliver to a wall. You may want to lock your classroom door and close the blinds before beginning this exercise. With 35 students taking to the wall, an administrator dropping by for a visit or a student aide delivering a message may be more than a little confused! WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO THIS? Talking to the wall allows students to air ideas and ready them for feedback as if they were drafting an essay. This practice builds fluency and, in turn, confidence. WHY SHOULD THEY CARE? Ask students to recall the first paragraph written on the first day following summer vacation and to compare it with an assignment written in October. They’ll be reminded of how stilted and choppy their initial ideas and sentences were. By the second month of school, they could dash off the same paragraph with little concern. That was due to the comfort level and fluency borne of practice. We want them to feel equally at ease with words in a timed-essay situation. HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? Total Time: 10–35 minutes Allow 10 minutes for each round of the activity. This exercise works best immediately following The Brain Purge. 15 minutes if you are asking students to generate a fresh brain purge and outline 10 minutes for students to stand and deliver their outlines to the wall WHAT WILL YOU NEED? Outlined response to a prompt generated during The Brain Purge, or you will need to conduct a new brain purge (see Hint below). stopwatch and time cards or an LCD projector with Internet access. WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE? 1. Explain to the class that this activity will allow them to verbalize the outlines generated by the brain purge.

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HINT: If you are conducting this lesson on the same day as The Brain Purge, simply have your students grab a recently generated outline and go. If you are beginning this lesson on a new day, take the 15 minutes necessary for students to generate a fresh brain purge and outline to a prompt. Since what’s on their mind changes daily, so should their brain purge list. Working with a stale list is likely to stymie the writers. 2.

Following the brain purge activity, ask students to grab one of their outlines and to stand facing a wall. 3. Let the class know they will be simultaneously delivering speeches based on their outlines. Another way to explain it is to suggest that they will be talking themselves through an essay. No conversation should be taking place—except between them and the wall. 4. It takes approximately 5 minutes to deliver a speech the length of a 2-page essay, so you can let students know that you will be timing them. You can offer a prize or points to anyone who’s still talking from their outline after 2 minutes—I usually stand in the middle of the room holding time cards, so as students finish talking they can turn around and check the length of their speech and record it on their outline. If you are fortunate enough to have an LCD projector that has access to the Internet, you can project a giant stopwatch on the screen by visiting: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/ 5. Reassure students that with everyone talking at once, no one but the wall is listening. Insist that once students are finished they remain standing but silently record the number of minutes their speech lasted. The cacophony should drown out the individual voices until the last couple of speakers are left standing. Those who have finished early will benefit from hearing their more loquacious classmates air their ideas. 6. The exercise can stop here or you can ask the students to repeat the exercise, attempting to beat their previous time. I prefer repeating the exercise since some of the initial awkwardness will have worn off, and they’re more likely to fully-develop their ideas the second time around. Peter Prickly: How is talking to a wall going to help me write better? Mrs. Snippy: It won’t, but it sure is funny to watch! No, seriously, it will help you internalize the structure of an essay as it helps you build fluency and expand your ideas.

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5. Taking It to Their Seats: Listening and Offering Feedback to an Oral Essay During the previous exercise, you may have noticed students straining to hear what others had to say. Let them know they now have to listen—attentively—to a partner’s speech. WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO THIS? Hearing another student’s approach to the same topic can offer reassurance that there is no single right answer to any of these prompts—answers should and do vary. Furthermore, talking through an outline with a partner will garner feedback for their ideas—even if that feedback is nonverbal. A smile or nod may encourage expansion of an idea while a puzzled look may illicit much-needed clarification. WHY SHOULD THEY CARE? Nearly all writing prompts invite the writer to use personal observations as well as experiences. The examples they will hear from a classmate can become their “personal observations” for this essay or others that follow. HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? Total Time: 30–45 minutes 15 minutes if you are asking students to generate a fresh Brain Purge and outline 15 minutes for the activity 15 minutes for the debriefing questions in step 6 If you plan to ask students to deliver their speeches in front of the entire class, you’ll need 7 minutes per student speaker—5 minutes for speaking and 2 minutes for applause and shuffling back and forth from their seats. If you plan to have them write an essay at the end, allow at least 30 more minutes. WHAT WILL YOU NEED? stopwatch and time cards or an LCD projector with access to the Internet. seating chart or class roster will also come in handy for calling on students randomly and recording participation and/or listening points. What is the procedure? 1. Explain to the class that since answers to writing prompts do and should vary, you will be asking them to listen to how other students approached the same prompt. 2. If you are not conducting this lesson on the same day as The Brain Purge, you will want to begin with a fresh brain purge and outline to a new prompt. 3. Ask students to take the outline generated during the brain purge and sit facing a partner. 4. Let them know that they will be alternately delivering a speech—or an oral essay— based on their outlines. 5. Limit speakers to five minutes by offering them time signals. I usually stand in the middle of the room holding time cards, so as students finish talking they can turn

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around and check the length of their speech and record it on their outline. If you are fortunate enough to have an LCD projector that has access to the internet, you can project a giant stopwatch on the screen by visiting: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/ 6. After 5 minutes, ask the listener to offer oral feedback to the speaker. (You may want to write the following questions on the board) • What was the speaker’s position on the topic? • What was the speaker’s most effective example? Why? • What example or idea do you think could’ve been expanded or explored further? Does this sound like peer-editing feedback? It should! The same principles that govern the expansion of oral expression apply to writing. 7. Repeat steps 3–4 for the partner. 8. Debrief with the class as a whole. Spending a few minutes addressing the following questions with students will help them realize they were actually fine-tuning the structure and content of a future essay. • Ask the speakers what sort of adjustments they would make before writing an essay on the same subject. • Ask the listeners what examples they heard that would be worth “borrowing” if they had to write an essay on the same subject. Pause to remind them that nearly all writing prompts invite the writer to use personal observations as well as experiences. The examples they just heard from a classmate can now become their “personal observations.” Peter Prickly: Wouldn’t that be lying to use someone else’s example or story in my essay? Mrs. Snippy: Yes it would be lying to pretend that the incident happened to you, so don’t. Instead, do what the prompt asks and acknowledge the example as a personal observation. For example, “ I have a friend who once…” LESSON EXTENSIONS • The oral component of the exercise can end here, or you can invite students to perform in front of a small group or even the entire class. If and when I do this, I always give the speakers credit/no credit for standing and delivering. I also assess the audience members on their listening skills by randomly calling on them and asking them how the speaker broke down the topic or what his or her most effective example was. • Now that students have vocalized their ideas and received feedback from a partner, you can have them pen the essay. If you do have them write an essay— resist the urge to grade it. Instead, save it for a peer evaluation exercise in a alter lesson. • Gradually, you can eliminate the speaking—both to walls and partners—and cut to the chase of the essay. By then, students should not only have a means for extracting examples before they begin, but plenty of practice in scratching out an outline.

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As you impose more time restrictions and remove the training wheels of talking through the prompts, emphasize that the one exercise that should always be practiced before an on-demand writing session is the brain purge. Granted students can’t bring a crib sheet of notes into an SAT exam, but they can use the time spent in line outside the testing site scribbling a brain purge on a receipt or napkin. Not only is this a better use of time than biting their nails, but it also will help to calm their anxieties and give them the confidence that when they see the essay prompt, they’ll have something they know and understand to write about.

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6. Oral Exercises That Build the Confidence to Take a Stance in Persuasive Writing “YES, BUT...YES, AND” This exercise is an efficient way to get all students discussing controversial topics. MATERIALS None PROCEDURE “Yes, BUT...” 1. Appoint or ask for a volunteer to present a controversial topic. The subject is the speaker’s choice. The speaker goes to the front of the room and says, for example: “ An abortion doctor was shot in front of a clinic last night. All protesters should be banned from picketing clinics.” The speaker then calls on the people who want to oppose this view. 2. A respondent raises his/her hand and, after being called upon, replies...”Yes, but…” and presents his/her opposing view. The person usually stands by his/her desk. 3.The speaker then calls on the next student to respond to the previous student, and so on until all opposing points are brought out. 4. Once an issue is exhausted, the speaker reclaims his/her seat, and another student takes over the activity by introducing another subject. “Yes, AND...” 5. Eventually, students will realize that all of the opposing arguments have been given, and they want to add something to emphasize one side or the other. When they ask how to do this, suggest that they say: “yes, and...” and then continue to give information that will reinforce the argument. (“Yes, and...” is also a good tool to use when the topic is informational.) 6. The discussion can go on for as long as you wish. It usually works best, however, if you limit the time to 15–20 minutes. It works well either on Mondays to get the week going, or on Fridays for a wrap up. 7. You might want to require students to bring in newspapers or magazine articles so they can introduce more current, viable information into the discussion. TEACHER TIPS 1. This exercise works best if you first explain it to the class and then carefully model the first example. 2. You may have to regulate how many times a person can respond to a statement to avoid having one person monopolize the activity. EVALUATION 1. You can assign as many participation points as you like for each speaker’s efforts.

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2. You may want to consider the following criteria for awarding credit: • contributed a pertinent comment • added something new to the discussion • clashed with opponent(s) in “Yes, but...”

FOUR-STEP REFUTATION: the position-strengthening

blend of concession and refutation Any good debate round has its share of feisty cross-examination. And while it‘s fun to observe the fur fly, the purpose of cross-examination is not simply destruction of an opponent’s argument, it’s strengthening of one’s own. Kate Schuster, director of Claremont Colleges National Debate Outreach at Claremont McKenna College, has devoted a large portion of her career to bringing debate to middle schoolers. She devised the following 4-step method of refutation to give beginning debaters something to say in their rebuttal speeches. I use it regularly when teaching persuasive writing to build concessions and refutations. My students have dubbed it: “ The Debater 4-Step” For instance, if given the topic: To what extent can good leaders remain true to themselves? Someone might state: Good leaders should never compromise their friends. Someone else might refute: STEP 1: “Some may argue….” It is important to reference the argument being refuted so that the audience can easily follow the line of thought. In a debate, there’s a risk of reinforcing an opponent’s argument by better explaining it; it’s best to rephrase the argument being refuted in just a few words: e.g. “Some may contend that leaders shouldn’t compromise their friends, but…” STEP 2: “But I disagree…” In this part of the refutation, state the basics of the counter-argument. This can be simply the opposite of an opponent’s claim. It can also be an attack on the opponent’s reasoning or evidence: e.g.“...but I disagree that leaders should privilege their friends...” STEP 3: “Because…” Having advanced the counter-argument, it’s time to offer reasoning: e.g. “…because leaders should treat everyone fairly…” STEP 4: “Therefore…” Finally, draw a conclusion that connects the refutation to the central argument of the thesis: e.g. “Therefore, treating subjects fairly is a quality that leaders should never compromise since they should be obligated to providing justice for all.” Compiled together, these four steps form a cohesive argument that acknowledges an opposition. I encourage my writing students to remove the sign-posts (e.g. “Some may argue”, “I disagree”, etc) that can aide a speaker but bog down a writer: “Some may contend that leaders shouldn’t compromise their friends, but (I disagree) that leaders should privilege their friends (because); effective leaders should treat everyone

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fairly. (Therefore,) Treating subjects fairly and is a quality that leaders should never compromise since they should be obligated to providing justice for all.” MATERIALS Four-Step Refutation Summary Hat or other receptacle (optional) PROCEDURE 1. Teach students the Four-Step Refutation, using the Four-Step Refutation Summary. 2. Have the students form two single-file lines, facing the front of the classroom. The student at the front of the left line should begin the game by making a claim—any claim, such as “Schools should not serve junk food,” or “Jazz is the best kind of music.” 3. The student at the front of the right line must refute the argument, using the four-step method. 4. When finished, these two students go to the back of the opposite line. The exercise repeats, until all students have made a claim and refuted a claim. TEACHER TIPS Variations: 1. You can vary this game by passing around the “argument hat,” a receptacle filled with small slips of paper on which you or the students have written simple claims about a variety of topics. Students draw an argument, read it aloud, and then refute it, using the four-step method. 2. Have students write a separate response for each of the “therefore examples” described under step 4 of Four-Step Refutation Summary. EVALUATION Ask all students to write a self-evaluation of the exercise and determine goals for future argumentation. NOTES...

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7. The Prompt Generator: Student-Generated Prompts The best way to dispel an unwarranted fear is to participate in the experience. Afraid of haunted houses? Don a gory mask and jump out from behind a curtain at the next Halloween party. Afraid of the types of questions that might appear on a tough biology final? Try writing a few sample questions. Emulating the prompts that appear on standardized tests can dispel their mystique and make them more familiar and therefore more accessible to student writers. WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO THIS? The language of the standardized test prompts becomes less mysterious, and the actual topics become more relevant as students emulate prompts in their own words. After imitating a series of prompts that begin with the stem “Confirm, challenge, or qualify the following assertion…” students begin to recognize an invitation to write a persuasive essay. After the third or fourth attempt at writing a prompt that begins with the stem “Describe a time when…” students are able to identify the opportunity to respond with a narrative essay. A chart like the following may help students decipher what an essay prompt is asking them to do. If the prompt stem verbs are… Agree or disagree Confirm (defend) or challenge: Take a position on this question Qualify Develop your position on this issue Describe (discuss) a Describe a time when Evaluate

Your essay should… take a stance and write a persuasive essay take a stance and write a persuasive essay answer the question and support your response in a persuasive essay acknowledge the opposition, but still take a stance and write a persuasive essay acknowledge the opposition, but still take a stance and write a persuasive essay identify and detail an object that supports an assertion narrate a detailed story that supports an assertion weigh the pros and cons or the harms and benefits, but ultimately conclude by determining to what degree the subject is good or beneficial.

WHY SHOULD THEY CARE? When an essay fails to address a prompt, it is subject to the lowest score on the rubric. Often well-written, creative essays dip to the low end of the scoring scale because they failed to address all parts of a prompt or because they told a story when they were expected to construct an argument. Writing prompts allows students to understand the test-maker’s intent from the inside out.

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HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE? Total Time: 55 minutes 20 minutes to generate prompts 20 minutes for peer-assessing the prompts’ viability 15 minutes for step 8—an all-important debriefing session. WHAT WILL YOU NEED? The Prompt Generator (copy for each student) Prompts for Practice handout ( found on p. 6) WHAT’S THE PROCEDURE? 1. Announce to students that today they will NOT be writing essays, and when the applause dies down, let them know they will be writing essay prompts instead. 2. Pull some quoted words from a poster in the room, or a recently studied work of literature, essay, or speech. ( or better yet, use some of the quotations from the Prompts for Practice handout). 3. Distribute The Prompt Generator and review. Ask each student to generate three prompts—each on a separate scrap of paper. Depending on which tests are looming on the horizon, you can ask students to generate all three types of prompts or just the one that applies to their pending on-demand writing experience. 4. Tell the students to write their names on the back of their papers to preserve anonymity as the prompts are later passed around the room for peer review. If you anticipate problems with peeking, ask students to use their student identification number or the last four digits of their home phone number. 5. You can then conduct a brief read-around as students pass their papers around a group or up and down a row, with the readers indicating one of the following marks on the front of the prompt: “+” for an outstanding creative and clearly worded prompt “√” for a serviceable clear prompt “-” for a prompt that is not clearly worded. 6. You will have to enforce the “no peeking at the back of the paper” rule so the prompts are judged on their quality not their authorship. 7. Debrief with students about the common qualities shared among the top-ranked prompts. This discussion is an invaluable part of the lesson and will get them even closer to understanding a prompt from the inside out. LESSON EXTENSIONS • You can give extra credit to the prompts receiving the greatest number of “+” marks. • You can add the prompts with the greater number of “+” marks to a classroom’s cache of prompts that can be accessed for future on-demand writing practice. Student Handout

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Speak Before You Write

The Prompt Generator I. TO GENERATE A PROMPT WORTHY OF THE SAT 1… 1. On a half sheet of paper, copy an aphorism from your aphorism journal or copy a quotation from something we’ve read in class or even from an inspirational poster in the classroom. 2. Choose one of the following set of directions and copy it below your quotation: • Plan and write an essay in which you confirm, challenge, or qualify the above assertion. Support your position with reasons and examples from your reading, studies, experiences, or observations. • Citing examples from your reading, observations and experiences, agree or disagree with the ideas expressed in the above quotation. Sample SAT Prompt (from www.collegeboard.com) Quotation: “A society composed of men and women who are not bound by convention— in other words, they do not act according to what others say or do—is far more lively than one in which all people behave alike. When each person's character is developed individually and differences of opinion are acceptable, it is beneficial to interact with new people because they are not mere replicas of those whom one has already met.” Adapted from Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness Prompt: Is it better for a society when people act as individuals rather than copying the ideas and opinions of others? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. Congratulations! You have just generated an SAT prompt. Write your name on the back of the paper only. 2. TO GENERATE A PROMPT WORTHY OF THE ACT WRITING EXAM… 1. On a separate piece of paper, describe an issue relevant to high school students (e.g. drivers’ licenses, work permits, curfew, etc) 2. Briefly provide two different perspectives on the issue. 3. Conclude the prompt by asking, “In your opinion, should…?” 4. Include these directions after your question: • In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

Sample ACT Prompt (from www. actstudent.org)

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Issue: Educators debate extending high school to five years because of increasing demands on students from employers and colleges to participate in extracurricular activities and community service in addition to having high grades. Some educators support extending high school to five years because they think students need more time to achieve all that is expected of them. Other educators do not support extending high school to five years because they think students would lose interest in school and attendance would drop in the fifth year. In your opinion, should high school be extended to five years? Prompt: In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position. Congratulations! You have just generated an ACT prompt. Write the entire prompt on a separate piece of scrap paper. Place your name on the back of the paper only.

Think About It… Which is easier to construct, an SAT 1 prompt or an ACT prompt? Why? Which seems easier to respond to as a writer? Why?

3. TO GENERATE A PROMPT WORTHY OF A COLLEGE PLACEMENT EXAM… Many junior colleges and state universities insist that incoming freshmen sit for a placement exam that usually consists of a series of multiple-choice questions on grammar and mechanics and an essay prompt that mirrors that of the SAT1 or which invites students to write an autobiographical narrative. The subject of the prompt must be nondiscriminatory and cannot pre-suppose knowledge. For instance, the prompts are not permitted to ask the writer to reveal his or her religious beliefs nor are they able to expect them to have knowledge of a particular issue like current gas prices. 1. Begin by making a list of experiences that most human encounter. (e.g. making a wish that doesn’t come true, encountering a roadblock to success, misunderstanding a friend, worrying unnecessarily, etc) 2. Choose one of the experiences and plug it into the formula: Describe a time when you_____________________________________. Vividly re-create the incident with detailed description and conclude by addressing what did you learn from the experience?

Sample college-placement prompt from a local junior college (www.santarosa.edu/app/placement): Before you begin writing, consider the topic carefully and plan what you will say. Your essay should be as well organized and as carefully written as you can make it. Be sure to use specific examples to support your ideas. Most people have read a book or seen a play, movie, or television program that

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affected their feelings or behavior in some important way. Discuss such an experience of your own. Describe the book, play, movie, or television program and explain why you regard its effect on you as important.

Congratulations! You have just generated a college-placement prompt. Write the entire prompt on a separate piece of scrap paper. Place your name on the back of the paper only.

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Insults and Compliments “ real word oral application” of vocabulary After introducing 5-10 new vocabulary words per week, I’ll ask students to craft insults or compliments using their new words. I select some the best to read aloud. Students receive 1pt if they can tell me whether the sentence is an insult or a compliment, and they receive two points if they can explain why. If I’m working with seniors who are familiar and friendly with each other, I’ll use the pronoun “ you.” If it’s a younger, or less mature crowd, then I’ll substitute a nonsense name or cartoon character so as not to offend any one in the class—or their brother! ( e.g. “Mickey Mouse made a cogent argument in the debate. Was he just complimented or insulted?” “Complimented!”) What follows is a sample multiple choice quiz that I would give at the end of a unit. Are you being…

Insulted or Complimented? the real reason you should study LATIN/GREEK roots On your scantron form mark: A = COMPLIMENT 0r B= INSULT 1. You are a nascent scientist if I ever saw one. 2. You were voted most salubrious senior! 3. You made the most cogent arguments in the debate. 4. Your concern for your mother’s misfortune was clearly feigned. 5. Your speeches in rhetoric are the product of a turbid mind. 6. Your school spirit is exanimate. 7. You possess an innate talent for logic and reason. 8. No one in the class could refrain from giving an obloquy about you. 9. You’re emblematic of an “A+” student. 10. Your methodical note taking got you recognized by the teacher. 11. Your egregious behavior at the rally has never been imitated. 12. Your aunt said that you were very disingenuous at your uncle’s birthday party. 13. You are known by the vice principal for your peregrinations. 14. You should get an “A” in elocution. 15. Your grades have been episodic throughout your high school career. 16. I get the sense that your love for your friend is temporal. 17. Your teachers have never seen you diurnal. 18. Your hairstyle is very anachronistic. 19. The librarian said that you were the most loquacious student—ever!. 20. Your pusillanimous behavior on the battlefield will win you a special medal. 21. Your teacher said that you aspire to mediocrity. 22. Your presentation was in concordance of the grading rubric. 23. You would never intentionally deny anyone succor. 24. You find a way to be obsequious to every teacher. 25. Your essays contained numerous segues between ideas.

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26. I’ll bet that you will sojourn to a university. 27. Impious behavior like yours rarely goes unnoticed. 28. Your grandmother declared that she had never seen such execrable manners! 29. Your reputation on campus is said to be sacrosanct. 30. Your professors voted you most likely to be employed in a sinecure. 31. You made the most innocuous points in the debate round. 32. When it comes to dating, you sure are capricious. 33. You have an avocation for criminal behavior. 34. Your coach traduced your performance in the newspaper. 35. You have never had a problem being solicitous. 36. Your achievements at Analy are diachronic! 37. The cult leaders found that you have a very fictile mind. 38. Your boss capitulated when you ask him for a raise! 39. You were extremely reticent during the job interview. 40. When a teacher asks a tough question, she can always procure an answer from you.