They need to know that there is a thinking process involved, one that starts with, If you had to sit down and write an analytical essay right now, you would know how to attack it — but even, One of my favourite ways to do this is with learning stations. Students had always considered craft as they considered Heaney’s purpose and meaning — the writing study was simply a matter of weighing them against their own original work. After we concluded our reading and discussion of a collection of Heaney’s poems, students were charged with studying Heaney as a writing mentor and crafting an original poem that bears his marks. His poetry is accessible enough that I use some of them with my ninth graders, but rich enough that my IB seniors can also dig deeply into his world. Your first step is to determine the reading level of your ESL students. The context and need here are clear enough to jump right into the strategies. We’ve all read those papers that are nothing but plot summary when what we really wanted was analysis. 12 Strategies For Teaching Literature In The 21st Century. Critical Thinking Activities for Any Text. Literary analysis skills require practice like the sport skills found in softball or basketball. In the traditional high school English classroom, literary analysis has looked one way — like an essay, sometimes in five paragraphs, beginning with a generic introduction, thesis statement, body paragraphs (following a strict topic-sentence-followed-by-evidence-and-explanation format), and a conclusion that regurgitates all the was said before. If you need ideas to start teaching symbolism, here are a few methods for teaching symbolism for literary analysis. My cousins, sister and I would spend the days exploring and roaming around the beach, our neighbor’s houses and “the point”. Many congratulations on the creative approach to what’s too often a real turn-off for students. A fantastic poem about Floyd the dog; that’s a talented student! I used more dark and negative word choices after the tonal shift in order to mimic some of Heaney’s styles which I think helps personify what it’s like to grow up. How could you envision your students enacting the skills of deep analysis while writing creatively, inspired by author-mentors? In this way, another theme is rebirth. ... There’s a problem: your professors assign you the books and they ask you to write the paper, but they don’t teach you how to write a literary essay step by step. Students write just two statements (maybe even just two Copy or project a section of a text on the screen and let them see the process you go through when you do a close read. Also, I used ellipses in order to omit information as well as leave a sense of the new experiences to come (in the last stanza). Authors purposely place colors in literature for a deeper understanding of characters, setting, etc. Sonnets from Hester- Analysis of characters. So, I did not teach any additional lessons specifically for this writing study. But look at the definition of analysis again. Change ). We then discuss the rubric that I will use to assess their literary analysis work for the entire school year. In the last stanza I talked about how the lighthouse will probably still be there when I take my children to the beach house and they in turn have that sense of wonder and enchantment. It has been hard for my whole family especially when we are all together at the beach house and he isn’t with us anymore. I ask:Â.  We write the facts and events on the board and decide, together, which ones are the most important.  I transfer them to either a piece of chart paper or a digital file that we can add to and reference later.  These key facts and events, then, begin to make up the evidence they will use later for analysis. Perhaps it lives in the closed kitchen cupboard, Along with the stories that are hard to tell now. When I was younger we went there a lot every summer with my family and extended family. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Teaching Literary Analysis to Middle School students can be challenging. Story Stew- To begin, the teacher dons an apron and produces the cook pot and spoon and tells the students they are going to make story stew. Teaching the Process for Literary Analysis. They dodge invisible crabs and talk about everything and nothing. I vividly remember my Uncle’s sailboat which was a Hobie cat, and the stories the adults would tell about going out on it. In faculty lounges and departmental mailrooms, one can regularly hear versions of this complaint: I tell my students to read something so we can discuss it in our next class meeting.  My students report that this is way harder than they thought it would be. Students need to see examples of end products before they ever attempt to do any writing. Begin by focusing on meaning. Today the waves creep closer to the dunes. ( Log Out /  Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Because, as Middle School ELA teachers, we’re often asked, “What are the main areas teachers should focus […] When I was young this lighthouse always intrigued me and I would wonder what it looked like on the inside, and always imagined going inside it. How to Teach Literature to College Students. Improves analysis: The topics covered in these lessons are essential to better analyzing literature and poetry. How can you teach Shakespeare to students accustomed to tiny screens with brief flashes of communication that instantly fade away (both in meaning endurance and visible text)? Take time to teach citing and referencing. Or, perhaps, you teach young adult literature or pair YA novels with classics. Characters 2. Rounding the corner to get a glimpse of me. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay: An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on. You saw two different technique-based analysis workshops as they lived in my classroom:  an analysis of two texts side-by-side and a character analysis study. A literary analysis essay is a type of essay which includes an argumentative analysis of a piece of literature. For this reason, literature-based analysis studies tend to be a bit shorter than technique-based analysis studies. While I still love going there, it has changed a lot as I think all things do as you grow up, which is what I wanted to express through this poem.