Make a list of all the people in your life you consider wise or knowledgeable.Below are a few of the quickwrite prompts I’ve come up with for each signpost, any of which could be broken down and expanded upon into multiple quickwrites. These “writing territories,” as Nancie Atwell calls them, also serve as an important resource for students, as they later draw upon these initial notes and wondering to write longer pieces.So if I want my students to write personal pieces of writing that explore how the signposts apply to their own lives, I need to get students thinking and writing about those personal connections in their notebooks. Regular, preferably daily, opportunities to explore ideas in their writer’s notebooks, quickwrites build fluency and confidence. After all, art imitates life.Īs I started thinking about a model for how to use the signposts as invitations for writing, I went back to what I know is an essential element in the workshop model-quickwrites. (74)Īs Beers and Probst point out, the reason that the signposts are so ubiquitous in the texts we read is because they are ubiquitous in our lives. When a friend asks you what your teen thought of the party that weekend, you suddenly realize- aha-that your teen’s sad face over the weekend tells you she hadn’t been invited. If you’re now a parent, you can look back on those long talks with your own parents not as “another boring lecture” but as your parent’s attempt to spare you some pain, to impart words of someone wiser. When your significant other mentions again and again that the garbage needs to go out, there’s a subtext to that message-and it has to do with rising anger! When the friend who always checks on you suddenly begins to ignore you, then the contrast with what expect, the contradiction of an established pattern, makes you wonder what is wrong. In Notice and Note, Beers and Probst make this important observation:Īs you think about each of these signposts, you’ll see that they appear not only in texts but also in our lives. Find out their exact meaning and use them wisely.* This is Part 3 in a series on how to use the signposts from Kylene Beers and Robert Probst’s Notice and Note to inspire student writing. Additionally, be careful with words like 'portrays' and 'conveys'. Never use a verb like 'proves' if that person did not actually prove something. Verbs like 'shows' or 'demonstrates' give the impression that you are endorsing a scholar's viewpoint, whereas verbs like 'asserts' or 'claims' indicate that you might be about to challenge their perspective. These can act as signposts to the reader in terms of how you feel about the theories or ideas you are discussing. When introducing quotes or referring to other people's work, think about the verbs you can use. The conclusion should remind your reader of the line of reasoning you have guided them through, and how your essay has answered the original question. In your conclusion, you could use the same verbs but in the past tense. In your introduction, these will probably have been used in the future tense. Look at the verbs you have used in your introduction (eg, suggest, discuss, argue). Small scale signposts are individual words or short phrases which help to signal direction, such as: 'Having discussed the arguments in favour of the Third Way, it is also necessary to consider its limitations'.Ģ. Large Scale signposting tells the reader specifics about what is to come or what has gone before, for example: Throughout an essay you will probably use two types of signposting: small and large scale.ġ. Quantify your aims or the content of your essay ('This essay will discuss three approaches to the issue of.').Justify why you have chosen to focus on certain aspects of a topic ('For this reason.
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