WS
Writing
Skills
Supporting Analysis
New Visions for Public Schools​ ELA Website
The following document can be used for multiple mini-lessons throughout the unit, in addition to the entire school
year. This document is ​teacher-facing,​ but can be used to create student-facing documents for the classroom.
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In this series of mini-lessons, students will explore:
● Tips for Integrating Writing Instruction into Your Class
● The Importance of Analysis
● Exploding Topics for the Central Idea
● Three Reads Protocol
● Exploding Analysis
● Half-Writes
Connecting to Content-​ Instruction around sentence construction does not have to
replace content instruction; in fact, they should go hand in hand. Teachers are
encouraged to adapt the exercises in this resource and replace them with phrases
and sentences from the texts they are teaching in class.
Additional Resources! ​Check out the​ ​Skills-Based Writing​ ​section of the New Visions ELA Curriculum
to find additional strategies to support writing in the classroom.
Tips for Integrating Writing Instruction into Your Class
Directions: Keep these quick tips in the back of your mind when integrating writing into your classroom.
Creating Routine
Routinizing strategies in the classroom is the first
step towards making a plan to scaffold off support.
By creating routines, students can eventually work
their way to engaging with a strategy without the
support of a teacher. By creating routines for
students, you are creating an eventual pathway
towards independence.
Make a Plan to Scaffold Off Support
Support is an important part of providing access
for all learners. It is just as important, however, to
gradually remove the support you provide. Adapt
the activities in this resource to support all learners
and then create a plan that reduces, and eventually
removes structured writing supports.
The Importance of Analysis
1
Analysis is one of the most difficult parts of writing for most students. Likewise, it is also one of the
most difficult aspects to teach. By being as specific as possible regarding exactly what analysis
means in the context of writing, however, teachers can support students in composing more
thorough analysis. Notice the skill columns for analysis below.
Explains​ the writer’s
purpose for developing
the literary device
4
Makes​ a claim in
response to the prompt
3
Describes​ the literary
device in context
3
Explains​ connection
between evidence and
thesis/claim/main idea
3
Explains​ the scientific,
historical, or literary
context
3
​States​ the topic of the
text
2
​Identifies​ t​ he literary
device
2
​Connects​ evidence to
the
thesis/claim/ main idea
2
​Identifies​ the
scientific, historical, or
literary context
2
Needs to state the topic
of the text
1
Needs to identify the
literary device
1
Needs to connect
evidence with
thesis/claim/main idea
1
Needs to identify the
scientific, historical, or
literary context
1
Response to the Prompt
Analysis of Literary
Device
Analysis of Evidence
Analysis of Context
* Depending on the prompt and type of writing, these columns may look slightly different. Notice the red columns on the ​Skills-Based Literary
Analysis rubric​ and the ​Skills-Based Writing from Sources/Argument rubric​ for examples of this.
Exploding
Topics for the Central Idea
Directions: Use the steps below to support your thinking in identifying the central idea of a text.
​
Topic + Argument = Central Idea
Read and annotate a
text.
Identify one-word topics
that the text is about.
Explode topics.
Prioritize Central Ideas
What is happening
in the text?
In one word, what is the
text about?
What is the text saying
about this topic?
(Argument)
Which central idea is most
relevant to the text?
Harlem
Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten #1
meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet? #2
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
#3
Or does it explode?
One-Word Topics
Explode
Topics
What is the poem saying about this topic? (Argument)
Prioritize
Circle the central idea that is most relevant to the text.
Student
Example #1
Directions: Use the steps below to support your thinking in identifying the central idea of a text.
​
Topic + Argument = Central Idea
Read​ and ​annotate​ a Identify one-word topics
text.
that the text is about.
What is happening
in the text?
Harlem
Langston Hughes
In one word, what is the
text about?
Explode​ topics.
Prioritize​ Central Ideas
What is the text saying
about this topic?
(Argument)
Which central idea is most
relevant to the text?
One-Word Topics
Dreams Delay
Harlem, New York
Sad
Hope
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Does it dry up
Explode
Topics
like a raisin in the sun?
What
is
the
poem
saying
about
this topic? (Argument)
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten #1- ​Dreams change over time.
meat?
Or crust and sugar over— #2 ​Dreams that are ignored will never come true.
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Prioritize
Circle the central idea that is most relevant to the text.
Three
Reads Protocol
Directions: Use the template below to catch notes as you conduct a close-reading of the excerpt. Use the guiding
​
questions to help generate notes for each of the three reads.​ ​Remember​, even though you’re reading the same
excerpt three times, you’re reading it each time with a different purpose. You may notice different ideas each time.
The following excerpt comes from Rudolph Fisher’s short story “​The City of Refuge​”.
Out Loud Reading:
Comprehension
What is happening in the
passage?
Partnered Reading:
Confronted suddenly by daylight, King
Solomon Gillis stood dazed and blinking. The
railroad station, the long, white-walled
corridor, the impassable slot machine, the
terrifying subway train ⎯ he felt as if he had
been caught up in the jaws of a steam-shovel,
jammed together with other helpless lumps of
dirt, swept blindly along for a time, and at last
abruptly dumped. There had been strange
and terrible sounds: “New York! Penn
Terminal ⎯ all change!” “Pohter, hyer, pohter,
suh?” Shuffle of a thousand soles, clatter of a
thousand heels, innumerable echoes.
Cracking rifle-shots — no, snapping
turnstiles. “Put a nickel in!” “Harlem? Sure.
This side — next train.” Distant thunder,
nearing. The screeching onslaught of the
fiery hosts of hell, headlong, breathtaking.
Car doors rattling, sliding, banging open.
“Say, wha’ d’ye think this is, a baggage car?”
Heat, oppression, suffocation — eternity—
“Hundred ’n turdy-fif’ next!” More turnstiles.
Jonah emerging from the whale. Clean air,
blue sky, bright sunlight.
Silent & Independent Reading:
Analysis
Which literary devices
are being developed?
Connecting to Context
What is this telling us about the story’s setting and the larger world at this time?
Exploding
Analysis for Literary Analysis
Directions: Exploding analysis is a writing strategy that identifies the levels of literary analysis and their placement in
​
a paragraph. In order to analyze fully in literary analysis, you must explain the significance of a piece of evidence on
four levels. Notice those levels below and observe their placement in the example paragraph at the bottom of the
page.
Identify the specific literary device
Device Level
- What literary device is developed here? Name it.
How is the literary device developed in the text?
Text Level
Explain the writer’s purpose for using the device
Writer’s
Purpose Level
- How is the literary device specific to this text? If you are using conflict, what
is the conflict? If you are using symbolism, explain the symbol in the text.
- What is the writer’s purpose for including this literary device? What is the
writer doing to the text by including this device?
Explain how evidence/device/text develops an overall theme or what Thematic/
is it saying about the world
World Level
- How does it develop the theme of the text?
- How does it connect with your thesis statement or topic sentence?
- What does this part of the text teach us about humans?
- Is there a historical or literary connection that I should identify here?
Example of Exploding Analysis for a Literary Abstract
on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116
Throughout the sonnet, the speaker uses figurative
imagery to describe his love as something that is not altered or
does not waver over time. For the speaker, his love is everlasting,
existing even to the “edge of doom,” and never altering “upon
[him] proved.” The speaker uses the rhyming couplet in the
sonnet in order to confirm the truth to the love he is declaring in
the poem. He writes that “if this be error….[he] never write, no Device Level
man ever loved.” ​The speaker uses hyperbole ​in order to
Text Level
emphasize the magnitude of the emotions he feels for his loved
one. ​He uses the hyperbole in the rhyming couplet to convince his Writer’s
audience that he is speaking the truth by swearing on his work as Purpose Level
a testament to his unwavering emotions.​ ​Sonnet 116 develops the
universal theme that true love is unrelenting and presents to its
Thematic/
World Level
audience the most ideal form of romantic love.
Half-Writes
PURPOSE: ​There is never enough time in a class period to fully teach targeted writing instruction.By
using the Half-Writes, teachers are able to focus writing instruction on a specific section of a paragraph
within a class period. Follow or adapt the instructional plans below as suggested ways to use the
Half-Write in a classroom.
Day 1
DIRECT INSTRUCTION USING A THINK-ALOUD
❏
❏
Day 2
❏
❏
❏
Day 1
❏
❏
❏
Day 3
1
Provide all students with a Half-Write of a literary analysis paragraph that leaves the
appropriate “paragraph chunk” blank for direct instruction.
Using a “think aloud,” guide student thinking through the composition of the
paragraph.
When it’s time to compose the blank part of the paragraph, call on students to help you
compose. Mirror the writing at the board as students complete their Half-Write at their
desks.
STUDENT-LED WRITING WORKSHOP
❏
Day 2
Lead the class in a close-reading of a text or an excerpt of a text1 with the purpose of
identifying literary devices that develop the text’s central idea​ .
Try using the​ ​Three Reads Protocol ​as the close-reading strategy.
❏
Lead the class in a close-reading of a text or an excerpt of a text with the purpose of
identifying literary devices that develop the text’s central idea.
Try using the​ ​Three Reads Protocol ​as the close-reading strategy.
If students are familiar with this routine, teachers can implement student-led writing
workshops in a small group (less than 4 students) or with partners in order to complete
their Half-Writes.
Collect Half-Write paragraphs and provide each group with feedback. Ideally,
students should receive feedback by the following day.
Once students have received feedback, they can return to their group or partner in
order to talk through the feedback and rewrite the paragraph to improve their writing.
This routine can be adapted for other types of writing; however, this resources outlines the plan for literary analysis
writing.
HALF-WRITES ROUTINE
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Half-Writes for a Literary Abstract
Prompt:​ ​After reading the poem “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare, finish the Half-Writes in
order to construct a literary analysis paragraph that explains how the speaker uses a literary
device in order to develop the central idea​.
Finish the paragraph by explaining the “Analysis of Writer’s Purpose” and the “Analysis on the
Thematic Level”.
Paragraph
Chunks
Paragraph
Throughout the sonnet, the speaker uses figurative imagery to
describe his love as something that is not altered or does not waver
over time. For the speaker, his love is everlasting, existing even to the
“edge of doom,” and never altering “upon [him] proved.” The
speaker uses the rhyming couplet in the sonnet in order to confirm the
to the love he is declaring in the poem. He writes that “if this be
Analysis on the truth
error….[he] never write, no man ever loved.” ​The speaker uses
Device
hyperbole​ ​in order to emphasize the magnitude of the emotions he
Analysis on the feels for his loved one.
Text Level
Topic Sentence
Context
Evidence
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Analysis on ______________________________________________________________________
Writer’s ______________________________________________________________________
Purpose Level ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Analysis on the ______________________________________________________________________
Thematic Level ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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