It’s not just about analysis – it’s about students putting their learning into action and creating their own works
First, I want to call your attention to the knowledge and skills statement: “The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the author’s choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author’s craft purposely in order to develop his or her own products and performances.”
What I want you to notice is “analyzes and applies.” This strand isn’t just about looking at someone else’s work. This is about students using what they learn. It is not enough for students to break apart an argumentative essay. They must do that, then use what they learned to write their own. Reading and writing are clearly connected, and this begs for the use of mentor texts. It is not enough to annotate that text and do a close reading. Students must put their learning into action and create.
But what do they have to use in their creation? This strand first focuses on purpose and message – the foundation for all writing. From there, they have to look at text structures, print and graphic features, figurative language, literary devices and point-of-view, mood and voice, and finally rhetorical devices – including knowledge of logical fallacies.
Whatever students are asked to analyze, they are then asked to use in their own writing. This is the perfect set up for a workshop classroom. Students will read like a reader (to analyze) and read like a writer to prep them for application and creation. As an educator who believes that the workshop model is the best model for a language arts classroom, I am excited to see teachers using these TEKS!
I’d love to hear your ideas about how you plan on implementing any of those TEKS! Please feel free to share!
