7.+High+School+Basics

High School Basics
toc This represents the intermediate to advanced level of the AGSD Writing Program. Students have now had much experience with the structures and organization of the method, as well as evaluating the enthymeme, funneling, and implied questioning. Throughout their junior high years, they have had much practice in improving enthymemes, and working independently from the organic outline. Although, much of the method should now be internalized, each year should begin with a review of the basic concepts. Students will be improving and refining their style during these years, and moving toward creating good enthymemes, independently of their teacher.

During the high school years, the amount of fiction writing (creative writing) and writing about personal experiences that the students do will decrease significantly. The bulk of their writing will be writing in relation to their content courses such as science, social studies, and literature. This is also the time when the purposes for their writing become much more focused for things like the HSGQE, and college or trade school applications.

WHERE TO BEGIN
If students have been attending school in the Alaska Gateway School District, you can assume some familiarity with the structure and organization used in this method. If the students are new to the district, it is imperative that they get on board with the process immediately. If you have a new student in your room, work with them right away to familiarize them with the basic structure of the enthymeme and the organic outline. Students at this age level will likely be able to do fine with a crash course in the basics. Their understanding of how the enthymeme makes effective communication will come later, after practicing the method. Be patient with these students through at least the first couple of papers, and work with them individually whenever possible so they can catch up with their class mates.

Grammar
It is imperative that students can understand, identify, and use nouns, pronouns, verbs, and describing words (adjectives and adverbs) correctly. It is not all that important that they understand the difference between adjectives and adverbs, only that they understand their function in speech. Use a grammar program that you like to stress and reveiw these concepts and practice them often. Although you will probably be teaching other grammar concepts as well, be sure to emphasize and review these as often as possible.

= What plus what because why = Also know as "W + W -> Y"

Students should now understand this structure. However, begin the year by reviewing it right away. Continue to give them practice identifying and creating this structure often.

__ Relationships (the What + What) __

Review the parts of the “what plus what” statement early in the year, and continue to have students practice making and identifying relationships to create “what plus what” statements often.

This can be reviewed and practiced in a number of different ways. You can write simple statements on the board, (“Smoking can cause high blood pressure”) and have students identify the parts. Have them identify these in terms of the “first what” and the “second what”. Always make sure students understand that the “what’s” must be nouns (or the pronoun “I” in the case of a personal narrative).

Do different drills so that they can practice making their own relationships. For example, show them a picture from a book or a magazine and have them identify all of the relationships they see, or that are implied, (“The dog is by the door”, “The man loves the woman”). Be sure to analyze these relationships to make sure they are correct. At this level they need to be encouraged to look for implied relationships more than the obvious relationships (“The man resents the woman” is more interesting than “The dog is by the door”). Are both “what’s” nouns or pronouns? For example if they say, “The house is big,” it is important for them to identify that “big” is not a noun or a pronoun, therefore, it cannot be a “what”. There is no relationship between two things being described.

Writing with a content enthymeme
A content enthymeme differs from an "I" enthymeme in that both of the "what" variables are nouns. Content enthymemes are usually used in expository writing, response to literature, and research writing. It lends itself very well to all subject areas across the curriculum. Here is an example of a content enthymeme; "Orcas migrate to Alaska in the summers because the sea mammals they eat are there at that time of year."

Following is an example of how a content enthymeme might be developed and used in the classroom. = = =Content Enthymeme Process Example=
 * Step One: The material**

A content enthymeme is one in which something is described. For the purpose of talking about this type of paper, we will use the literature/history subject of satirical literature in Britain during the18th century (this would be for juniors or seniors in high school). You know that during this unit, you will be covering some British political history during this time. In connection, you have also planned to read some pieces of literature of the time such as __Gulliver’s Travels__ by Jonathan Swift, and __The Rape of the Lock__ by Alexander Pope. You want your students to make the connection between the satire and the politics of the time, and understand that literature, even fiction has the power to influence the way people think about things. In order to do this, you will use the enthymeme, “Some18th century writers satirized the British ruling class because they thought they were too flamboyantly trivial and removed from the problems of the majority.” Understand that at this grade level, the enthymemes your students eventually develop may be slightly different from the one you used in your planning, but theirs should encompass most of the basic ideas you planned for. Teach your units as you like, keeping in mind that you are keeping your material and studies focused to guide them toward the enthymeme.


 * Steps Two through Six: Brainstorm, Grade Ideas, Prioritize Ideas, Identify Relationships, Wrtie the Enthymeme.**

At the high school level, many or all of these steps, which previously have been done separately, will often blend together, or be implied or assumed. This is because so much of the process has been internalized at this point that even as you are studying your unit, students are making connections – they know they will be required to organize and make some sense of the material you are giving them in the form of the enthymeme. Even as early as ninth grade, most will easily be able to get to some lists to get ideas from before you ever have to guide questioning.

When you are looking for your students to make specific connections, it will be an easy matter to guide the questioning. It should be obvious from the studies you have done that you are making a link between literature and politics of the time. In fact you will probably have said this many times during the unit. Using the literature as a guide, have students list off what you have read, and review what the authors’ positions were. Then have them make a list of some of the political events or situations of the time you have studied. They can make lists about the social/political problems of the time. The point of the satire was to point out how ludicrous the social systems were, so ask them what some of the specific problems were – what exactly was so ridiculous? Given these three types of lists, you should be able to set a group of experienced seniors to work on their own or in student groups to come up with an enthymeme that encompasses a statement about these studies. These students will have had enough experience to know what to do, and chances are high they will come up with an approximation of what you were looking for. In younger grades, such as 9th and 10th, you can have them at least try to come up with a “what” statement or a “why” statement on their own.


 * Step seven:**

**Assess the enthymeme**
As with the above steps, even by the 9th grade, most students will have internalized the ideas having to do with evaluating the enthymeme. They should still be reviewed, but as they are brainstorming ideas, they will probably be self-evaluating ideas as they go along, discarding some connections as being incorrect, too vague, or redundant. The obvious mistakes made in earlier grades will have lessened considerably. In at least 9th and 10th grades, however, this evaluation step should still be taken as a class after an enthymeme is developed. If there is a mistake, you can always direct some funneling or implied questioning.


 * Step eight: The organic outline**

Once you have arrived at and assessed your enthymeme, clear your board and write your enthymeme at the top. Students should orally be able to set up this outline and guide you to filling it in. With 9th, and 10th grade students, you can begin the year by going through the outline with them. Gradually move away from this “hand holding”, and begin limiting your discussions about it to a general idea about what will be discussed for each element. Remember, by now they are familiar with this process. They have studied the material and are old enough and experienced enough to know how this process works and where their information is coming from. You should require younger students to go through the process of filling in their own outline on paper, just to keep their thoughts organized. This is also helpful when they will be needing several periods to write the paper – it helps them remember where they were and what they intended to say.


 * Step nine: Organize the elements.**

Organization should be stressed as a separate step, because its importance needs to be stressed continually. Students should be reminded that the paper must be organized for impact and audience. They need to reconsider the message they are trying to convey, and decide what organizational structure will help them deliver that message most effectively.


 * Step ten: Organize the paragraphs**

When finishing their organic outlines, help younger students make the determination of whether to use big to small, first to last, or spatial. Many older students will be able to do this on their own. Often in literature analysis and in papers such as the example described here where you may be linking ideas across content areas, using the method of introducing, defining, and proving to organize paragraph information works well and also helps them focus on what kind of information they really need to look for (since they may be filling in their own organic outline).

Since many students will be writing some or all of their organic outlines during these years, they will be using a more natural method of writing in which they are often doing much of the composing as they write. By this point, they have had so much practice with organization and ideas that they should be able to do this with much ease. In fact, it should feel completely natural to them at this stage. In the traditional instruction of writing, students were expected to write in this way even at very young ages. Using the AGSD Writing Program, students have the luxury of spending time on the parts of writing separately and learn them well. By the time they are in high school, they have internalized the method to the degree that they are able to write “naturally” with the confidence that they are doing it well. They know their writing is focused and directed at a specific audience.

Moving from an Enthymeme to a Thesis Statement
An enthymeme is an organization tool that helps develop a structured paper. An enthymeme is a very specific form of thesis and is the heart of the AGSD writing system. Some instructors, throughout various education institutions, teach using thesis statements. At the high school level, we begin to move away from the word "enthymeme" to "thesis statement", but the author will still develop and organize their paper using the organizational tools of the AGSD writing system.

A thesis is a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text by means of examples and evidence.

Building an introductory paragraph around an enthymeme/thesis statement
In high school, students will learn and practice building an introductory paragraph around an enthymeme/thesis statement. A standard essay requirement is now a minimum of four paragraphs. Up through 8th grade, the enthymeme sentence has usually been a stand-alone sentence/paragraph, and has served as an introduction (since it contains the complete idea), with more emphasis put on developing the body of the writing. By high school, we need to be teaching students to develop a full introductory paragraph around their enthymeme/thesis statement. There are basically three parts to an introduction: the opening statement, the supporting sentences, and the introductory topic sentence.