Is “My Papa’s Waltz” about an abusive or a loving relationship?
Name _______________________________________
CEI is not just another clever acronym. It reminds writers of the specific organizational structure they should take
when writing a body paragraph. That pattern is claim, evidence, and interpretation.
Your pattern: CEIEICL. CL stands for concluding sentence, where you simply restate the main idea of the paragraph
in different words. A standard CEI paragraph is 8 sentences long.
CLAIM: Do I have a statement of my controlling idea?
EVIDENCE: Do I have specific examples or details that support the claim?
INTERPRETATION: Based on all the evidence, what can I infer and what is my thinking on this topic?
The claim is the very first sentence of your body paragraph. It is a debatable claim that answers the question (in
this case) is “My Papa’s Waltz” about an abusive or a loving relationship? __________________________
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Immediately after making the claim, the writer must provide evidence. Evidence
helps to make an essay stronger and is used to back up an assertion. The simple point
is that writers must back up their claims. Additionally, every piece of evidence
requires a lead-in and is followed by interpretation. ______________________
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With evidence on the table, the writer must now
move on to interpretation. That is, writers must
explain how the evidence they used supports
their claim. This is perhaps the most important
part of the paragraph, but too often, writers think
they can pile evidence on top of evidence and
their job is done. That is simply not true. Because
evidence cannot speak, it cannot prove anything
by itself. Someone must interpret or comment
or explain why the evidence supports the claim.
Some types of interpretations are inferences
(what you think the author's meaning is, what the
author implies), reflections (feelings, emotions,
what you've learned as a reader, why this
happened), and explanations (tell the meaning
of the concrete detail). The simple point is that
writers must explain how the evidence backs up
their claims.
Ideas to develop
the evidence in CEI:
1. literal description of the
situation
2. tone
3. shift
4. tone after the shift
5. mood (emotion under the
surface meaning)
6. your view of the father as
based on the description
and the speaker’s memories
(using the word “speaker”)
7. complexity of the
speaker’s feelings as
brought about by the waltz
8. the idea of the simple
three-step dance which is
often set to easily
accessible music
9. meter and rhyme
10. imagery, imagery,
imagery
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Concluding sentence ____________________________
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Have you written at least 8 sentences? Use present tense!
Over for rubric and poem
Is “My Papa’s Waltz” about an abusive or a loving relationship?
_____/50 points, a Reading grade
____ Claim is written in a complete sentence. (5 points)
____ Claim uses name of poem in quotation marks. (2 points)
____ Claim uses author’s name, spelled correctly. (3 points)
____ Paragraph written in present tense. (5 points)
____ Paragraph is a minimum of eight sentences.
____ Evidence includes at least two specific details that
support the claim, using cited lines (in quotation marks).
____ Evidence includes reference to specific poetic elements
(as listed on the right side of the page).
(15 points)
____ Every quote has a lead-in.
____ Interpretation shows student writer’s
inferences, reflections, and/or explanations (as listed
on the left side of page).
____ Does NOT paraphrase the evidence, but offers
actual commentary from the student writer.
(15 points)
____ CEI ends with a concluding sentence. (5 points)
“My Papa's Waltz” by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
The hand that held my wrist
Could make a small boy dizzy;
Was battered on one knuckle;
But I hung on like death:
At every step you missed
Such waltzing was not easy.
My right ear scraped a buckle.
We romped until the pans
You beat time on my head
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
My mother's countenance
Then waltzed me off to bed
Could not unfrown itself.
Still clinging to your shirt.
Common Core Standards addressed: ELARL9.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from the text. ELARL9.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course
of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.