Читать книгу Academic Moves for College and Career Readiness, Grades 6-12 - Jim Burke - Страница 18

By the end of his tenth grade year, Spencer was one of the top writers in his class. Naturally insightful about literature and abstract ideas to begin with, Spencer acquired skills during tenth grade that improved his ability to construct an essay—the ability to incorporate quotes more smoothly, for instance, and the ability to construct more complex sentences.

Nonetheless, the assignment to analyze a nonfiction text, William Faulkner’s short but thorny Nobel Prize acceptance speech, proved challenging. After grappling with some of the complicated ideas in the speech and discussing the historical context with his teacher, however, Spencer wrote a typically strong essay.

A key step in Spencer’s approach to the text was his annotation of the speech. Spencer’s teacher helped him move beyond simple highlighting to careful zooming in by suggesting he mark the following and then conferencing with him about his notes on the speech:

 Words and phrases that convey more than a literal meaning

 Shifts and transition words

 Phrases that seem to sum up a big idea

 Examples of unusual syntax, such as fragments or rhetorical questions