A common struggle for students when incorporating text evidence into their arguments is they choose quotes that are too long.  Then the piece becomes dominated by a voice other than the author’s.  It’s important to strike a balance between one’s own voice and that or the article quoted.  In argument writing, the author should highlight his or her opinions and reasoning.  A good rule of thumb is that the evidence should only be about 5-10% of the piece.

To help students strike this balance, I put together a small group titled, “Allowing Your Writing to Shine”

At the start of the small group, I began by sharing the teaching point:

Then I showed students my first try with the original text evidence/ quote highlighted.  This allowed students to see just how quote heavy my original work was.  Next I modeled how I reread to pull out and focus on only the key portions of the quote.  Right in front of students, I used a sharpie to strike out the extraneous parts of the quote– all the while demonstrating my thinking process.  Finally, I unveiled my newly revised second try, which portrays a much better balance between my voice and the quote.

After my demo, I had students point to a paragraph in their own writing piece where they felt text evidence outweighed their voice; and right in front of me, they began the work that I just modeled. While they did this, I coached into their work. Finally releasing the students when they seemed to get the hang of it.

I shared a teaching chart to help students visualize this strategy:

So in my kit, I house all pieces of the lesson in a sheet protector, which I then keep in a binder that I carry with me around the room.  The writing samples always stay the same.  I pull  out “clean” versions each time I need to teach the lesson, and I make the same teaching moves.

Try this out in your room.  Let me know how it goes! 🙂

Like what you see? More tools to come- Follow along!

Let’s keep the conversation going-

Lindsay