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We’re going to take a deep look at 4 powerful results from using a clear writing framework with your students.
I’m going to paint a picture for you, and I want you to raise your hand if this is you or has been you at some point in your teaching career …
You assign your students an essay, so you give them the prompt, tell them the number of pages and paragraphs to aim for, a rubric to help guide them, and then kind of send them off on their way.
If you’re shyly raising your hand, it’s okay. You’re not alone. I’ve done this, too.
And I’d be willing to bet if you’ve done this, you’ve been super disappointed with the results you got back. Yes, maybe one or two or even a handful of students just killed it, but the majority of your kids likely totally missed the mark.
And when this happens, it’s obvious that our students are struggling with the writing process. And as a result, we, as teachers, struggle BIG TIME with the grading process – leaving comments all over their papers. Comments that will likely go in one ear and out the other and not stick for our students. And it takes us FOREVER to grade when we’re in this situation.
But, really, if we’re being totally honest, why should we expect anything differently?
Would we expect food-network worthy desserts if we told ameteur bakers to make a crazy complicated cake for 100 people, but then didn’t provide them with a recipe, or guidelines, or instructions? Of course not!
It’s the same with our students.
There is so much power in providing them with a clear writing framework for their essays.
And once I started doing this, the results really spoke for themselves!
Before we get into the 4 powerful results of using a writing framework, let’s discuss exactly what I mean by a framework.
Every year, with every new group of students, I always start out our writing year together the same way. We spend about a month learning all of the in’s and out’s of the specific framework that we’re going to follow all year for all of our literary analysis essays, all of our short answers, all of our responses, all of our discussion, everything!
And when I say we spend a month, we honestly spend a month. We go in-depth with every aspect of the introduction, the body paragraphs, the conclusion – all of it.
Now, of course I’m not going to leave you hanging. I’m not going to make you figure out the introduction, the body paragraphs, the conclusion, all by yourself. Nope. I’ve got you.
I am going to tell you exactly how you can learn the same framework that I use, and even better, I’m going to teach it to you for free. Absolutely free, no strings attached. So make sure to stay until the end, so you can grab that info!
Okay, so let’s get into the 4 powerful results you’re going to see if you implement a clear writing framework for your students.
- Providing students with a writing framework and built-in structure, results in freedom. So that sounds super counterintuitive, right? It sounds weird that a structure would result in freedom, but when students learn the basic evidence-based writing framework of claim, premise, intro to evidence, evidence, and justification, they can get down to the meat of their writing and explore tons of different pieces of evidence and justify their thinking. Once they get proficient at following the format, they can go deeper, they can go further, they can really get into that writing flow and make connections that would not have been possible before had they not had this clear framework to follow. So a clear writing framework, as crazy as it sounds, really results in freedom for our students.
- Providing students with a writing framework results in confidence. And what more could we ask for for our students? We want them to be confident writers and walk out of our classrooms feeling fantastic about their ability to share their thoughts and ideas on paper. So confidence is a HUGE result that kind of just inherently comes along with teaching a specific writing framework. And seriously, my students have told me time and again that they no longer feel intimidated when they sit down to write an essay for me. That writer’s block that they used to have that affected their confidence is nearly eliminated when my kids use what we can a TAG (title, author, and genre of the text being analyzed), summary, and claim to start their paper. So, when students know exactly how to begin composing their analysis, they are going to be more confident in their writing abilities. They are no longer so worried about “what comes next,” which allows them to focus more on higher-level analysis … which leads to powerful result #3:
- Providing students with a writing framework results in more in-depth analysis. When students are continuously and this is the key word here, when they are continuously exposed to the same writing framework for literary analysis, it becomes ingrained in them. And what happens is because they are SO familiar with the structure of an essay, we’re able to go into extreme depth with mini lessons that focus on all kinds of skills that help improve their overall writing. Lessons like finding the right evidence, transitions, stronger vocabulary, sentence structure, etc., And so their writing at the end of the year will be much more critical and much more advanced than it was at the beginning of the year. Literary analysis becomes not just a “one-and-done” unit but an integral part of your curriculum. It is always happening.
- Providing students with a writing framework results in easier grading for you! Can I get an amen?! Right? Who doesn’t want easier grading?? By teaching your students a specific framework, you are going to save an insane amount of time assessing students work because their writing is automatically going flow better with the use of a framework. They will be required to include a premise, intro to evidence, evidence, justification, etc. so you won’t be searching all over for textual evidence. It’s going to follow a logical order, and you can easily see if a student included all the requirements and then you can see if your student has begun to master analytical writing.
I’d say those are some pretty powerful results from simply using a specific framework for literary analysis! Right?
But of course, like I said at the beginning. This is all well and good, right? But what exactly is included in this literary analysis framework?
Well, what I’m doing, is I’m actually hosting a live webinar that will walk you through step by step exactly the same framework that I use. And I mean, we are going to break it down, with examples and everything, so you can see just how this would realistically look for you in your classroom.
Don’t forget to join me in our FREE Live Webinar all about Writing Instruction: A Proven Approach. Click here to secure your spot! *Please note this live event has passed
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