Pass the PEAs: A Collaborative Approach to Responding to Texts

In today’s blog, I will consider a technique for breaking down the writing of analytical paragraphs.

In my last couple of blogs, I have been focussing on techniques for improving my students’ ability to respond to language with the use of inference. The use of ICE (04.12.13) and creative writing have helped my students to improve their ability to engage with texts, however, it can still be a struggle for them to write cohesive analytical paragraphs. PEA (Point, Evidence, Analyse) is a great help (I find PEE rather limiting, especially as the assessment criteria for level 6 upwards demands ‘analysis’ rather than ‘explanation’) but the thought of having to write a whole paragraph on their own can be rather daunting for students.

So, here steps in an old favourite of mine:  Pass It On. I have written about this before (17.09.12), with the focus on building up students’ ability to annotate and consider alternative interpretations. In this guise, I use it to apportion PEA into bite size chunks.

The method: each student is given a piece of paper. We all then write a ‘Point’ on the piece of paper. The paper is then passed on to the next student, who writes the ‘Evidence’ down.   After this, the paper is passed on to a third student, who writes the ‘Analysis’. Simple but deceptively helpful.

I find it helpful to students for several reasons.

  1. When students write down the ‘Evidence’, they have to be careful to match their quotation to the previous point. This enables the teacher to draw the issue of relevance to students’ attention.
  2. The ‘Analysis’ section, again, needs to be relevant to the previous two sections. This forces students to engage with another students’ ideas and selection of evidence. A great way to stretch students’ thinking.
  3. The ‘Analysis’ section can be split up into further chunks, e.g. One student writes about Implicit meaning, the next about Connotations, then the next about Effect on the reader.

 

I have also used this process to develop students’ consideration of alternative interpretations, by making them write Add, Build or Challenge comments to the ‘Analysis’. I have found this particularly effective with KS5 students.

This is an incredibly simple idea. But I love it because it is a hassle-free process that enables all of my students from KS3 to KS5 to build up their confidence in writing about texts in a structured way.

 

Naomi Hursthouse

Related Articles

Other Articles

Practical approaches to teaching KS3 Shakespeare

By Hannah Appleton Reframing or reimagining how we tackle Shakespeare in schools begins with our perception of it being boring, irrelevant or too difficult, especially if we teach in schools with high numbers of SEND, EAL or FSM. It is, however, precisely those complexities and layers Shakespearean texts provide, which… Read More

Academic writing for GCSE

Academic writing just means that our students need to write in a formal manner that reflects their level of educational and is distinct from how they would converse orally or via text.  A good approach is to gradually introduce students to a range of ways in which they can ensure their writing is more academic.  I find it helpful to divide these into three aims: being concise, being precise, and being sophisticated. Read More

Avoiding empty analysis in GCSE English

It’s important that we encourage students to explore structure and form when they are analysing a literary text.  However, this can sometimes lead to empty analysis.  I’ve regularly read comments on exam papers like, ‘The writer uses a comma to convey how the two people are separate’ or ‘By writing in rhyming couplets, the poet demonstrates the speaker’s love for her partner’.  Responses like these are often based on good ideas but, unfortunately, the analysis is tenuous: a comma doesn’t actually mean anything; a rhyming couplet doesn’t instantly represent love. Read More