Ways Parents Can Support Analytical Thinking at Home: From MS 104 Teachers
Mr. Melnick - House 60 Social Studies - Many 8th Graders tend to procrastinate. As a result they
rush for completion in order to meet deadlines. The evidence of this is in the quality of their
writing. The writing process is meant to be just that - a process. Many students write beautiful
essays in the correct format. They tend to fall short in Analysis and Details. Every assignment is a
chance to show-off what they know. This is especially true with the Benchmark Assignments. So
demand to see revisions. Ask for evidence of planning. We know they are smart, skilled and
knowledgeable - but that needs to come across on paper. When in doubt reach-out to the teacher
via Engrade.com.
Ms. Collins- House 30 ELA- Asking their kids to make inferences and explain how they know would be
helpful. Backing inferences up with evidence is important, but I’d like to see students dig deeper and explain
why an idea/topic/inference matters in the long run, call to action (text to self, text to society, text to text).
In addition, especially for real-world connections, analyzing marketing strategies parents/kids see on a daily
basis (text features, voice, connotation, persuasive, etc.)
Ms. Shepard- House 70 ELA- I think good questions for parents to ask students is, “What
does this remind you of?” or “What would you do?” Ideally, parents should be reading a
book alongside their child. It’s important to have conversations that are low stakes.
Ms. Fiskio- House 80- ELA- I think the first place to start is making sure students are actively and critically reading a text and
annotating with critical notes. When taking notes on a text or doing post-its, as many students are required to complete during fiction
units, they should be creating critical post-its instead of observational post its. Understanding the difference is key.
Observational Post It: Expresses what the reader notices
Critical Post It: Expresses the writer's opinion or evaluation of a text. Critical analysis means to break down and study the parts.
While reading To Kill A Mockingbird students could ask questions of the text in order to get their minds thinking in a more critical or
analytical way.
Critical Questions to ask of the text:
Who wins?
Who loses?
Who is excluded?
Who is included?
What is hidden?
What is shown?
Often students lack critical thinking skills because they don’t know what questions to ask. Giving students these questions and/or
others will lead to think critically about the texts they are reading and when they answer the questions with explanation it forces them
to write analytically beyond their general observations.
Check out Doing Critical Literacy by Hilary Janks
Ms. Sugrue- House 20 Social Studies- Read the same book or article. Talk about
it over dinner!
Mr. Donaldson- ESL- Engage your children in thinking critically about everything in the media--they
interact with it so much, after all. It’s all about questioning. For ads: What does this company want us to buy?
What are they saying we will achieve if we buy this product? Will we get what we really want by buying this
product? In what ways are we being persuaded or manipulated by advertising?
Ms. Rank- ESL- Parents can ask students about what they are reading and focus conversations on
the author’s purpose. Why did the author write this? What does s/he hope to accomplish? What
would you do in this situation? It’s important for parents to realize that text analysis skills can be
practiced in the home language as well. Text literacy is transferrable across languages.
Ms. Dugan- 6th Grade Special Education- For students who are below grade level in reading,
label objects around the house, so students are familiar with words. Also, while they are
watching TV, place the CC( closed captioning) button on- They will be exposed to more words
this way!
Ms. Mosz- House 40 ELA- Check to see if students are reading actively. Are they actually thinking about what
they are reading, making connections, asking questions, making predictions? Parents can find out by having
conversations with their children about reading or encouraging students to annotate (either in the margins or
with post-its).
Ms. D’Andrea- House 70 Social Studies- Ask your child what he or she is learning in Social Studies. If you
don’t remember the particular topic, that helps your child to explain. Ask questions for clarification. Maybe it
is a time period you have lived through and can share first-hand knowledge. Students are always excited to
come in and tell a history teacher what their family member shared with them about real life events that we
are learning in class.