Sometimes in student writing you will see a string of quotes, where students move from one quote to the next to the next without a break in between.  These students are usually struggling with how to create variety in their inclusion of text evidence or how to evaluate and choose the most effective piece of text evidence.  So this tool is actually two strategies that would be taught separately.  Students could use either strategy to eradicate a string of quotes.

In this post, I’ll share the first strategy to create variety (you can see the second strategy to rank and evaluate evidence here).

To begin, the teaching point is:

I demonstrated this strategy by modeling the process with my own writing.  First, I shared a piece that portrayed the problem.  My first try has 5 quotes back to back, which all essentially say the same thing– that competitive sports cause injuries.

Next, I referred to the String of Quotes teaching chart (the first image from above) to show some of the ways that students can create variety when including text evidence into their piece.  I modeled how to change each of the quotes using ellipses, paraphrasing, listing/citing sources, etc.  My new paragraph looked like this:

I used small sticky flags to point out the different techniques used to create variety.   I also shared a teaching chart with the students that exemplifies those same techniques.

Finally, students worked on adding variety in their own piece by finding a paragraph that had a string of quotes, choosing a technique to try, and revising their piece while I coached in.

What do you think? Try this out in your room.  Let me know how it goes! 🙂

Next time, I’ll share how you can help students avoid a string of quotes by evaluating and using the most effective piece of evidence.

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

Let’s keep the conversation going-

Lindsay