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- In Part One, we really want to open up your thinking
about what analytical writing looks like in the real world
and what it can also look like in your classroom.
- And also create an understanding for why
literary analysis only diet just doesn't cut it anymore.
- You might be wondering, if the teacher's no longer
teaching the content knowledge of analysis,
what are they teaching?
So we teach you the four essential tools of analysis
that teachers can show students so that they can analyze
any text they ever wish to using these skills.
They are passion, ideas, structure and authority.
The awesome thing about these tools
is that they're completely transferable.
So, whether your analyzing the theme of a video game
or your analyzing George and Lennie's friendship
in "Of Mice and Men" or if your student goes
to history class and needs to analyze
the causes of the Cold War, passion, ideas,
structure and authority will help them get there
and craft meaningful writing.
- We structured Part Two in the hopes
that you could leave this book
on the corner of your desk and quickly find
what you need to help a student on the spot.
So, we begin each chapter in Part Two
with a chart that matches the strategies
we're going to present with the strategies
students might commonly encounter
in this kind of writing.
That way, you can find exactly
what you need at a moment's notice.
And then in each Part Two chapter
we start by sharing some activities
that you could engage the whole class in
or a small group of students that will help them
make discoveries about the way
that that tool can impact their own writing.
For each activity, we give you instructions
for setting up that activity.
We show you examples of work
that our students have created in that activity
and then we also give you some things to consider,
which are really just options for different ways
you could mold this activity
to fit the needs of your students.
And then after the activities,
we move into crafting techniques
that are actually going to help kids
put words onto the page in sophisticated
and nuanced and interesting ways.
Part Three is truly meant to be a mini reference book
that you pull out when you need to know
what a student should be writing about
in a given subgenre of analytical writing,
where you might find mentor text to help them,
what mentor authors you could direct
your students toward for inspiration,
and then what ideas they might explore
in their own analytical writing.
- Part Three is a really fun, super user-friendly part.
Kind of a primer on all these different types of analysis,
from sports analysis to TV and film analysis,
literary analysis.
What else do we have in there?
- Music.
- Music analysis.
- Video games.
- Video game analysis.
And then a really fun chapter,
which is choose your own analysis.
Which is when your student says,
"I wanna write a fashion analysis piece"
and you have no idea what that looks like
and so we equip you in that little mini chapter
with the resources to go and find fashion analysis
in the wild, bring it back into the classroom,
study it with your student,
but it's a really fun section
that you can really flip through
to find exactly what you need
and some of the things we give you include,
- Where to find this kind of analysis.
- Where it lives, great mentor writers to follow.
The people who are really doing this thing really well.
- Some common kinds of analysis within that subgenre.
Because you know whenever you make a leap
in your classroom, there's fear, right?
It's a big risk to throw away
the way you were taught and the way you've been teaching
and to do something totally new
and we felt that fear, too.
We feel that fear.
And so in Section Three what we wanna do
is sort of be your best friend
and hold your hand a little bit while you take that leap
because we know nothing, well very little, about sports.
Before we wrote this book we knew
absolutely nothing about video games
but we have kids that want to do that writing
and so in Section Three what we're trying to give you,
and it's most Section Three's mostly for the teacher,
is a series of sort of, just touchstones.
Like I have a kid writing video game analysis.
I don't what he should be doing.
I don't know what good writing would look like.
I don't know topics he should be covering.
That's what we give you in that section
so that you can help that student
and come along beside him
and feel a little bit of confidence
that you know what to expect.
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