Argument source
Strategies for Engaging with Critics
In this exercise, students practice engaging with critics (argument and theory sources in the BEAM/BEAT framework). The templates provided scaffold students’ responses to the critics before students need to engage more deeply with critics in an essay. This exercise can be done individually or in pairs. Objective To use templates to practice different strategies for […]
Reading for Research
This handout prepares students for the different purposes and ways that they’ll use reading as they research their topic. You might start with a general discussion about reading practices and strategies before turning to this handout. For a greater focus on reading and analysis of exhibit sources, see this close-reading exercise. Objective To familiarize students […]
Acknowledgment and Response
Each Flipped Learning Module (FLM) is a set of short videos and online activities that can be used (in whole or in part) to free up class time from content delivery for greater student interaction. At the end of the module, students are asked to fill out a brief survey, in which we adopt the […]
BEAM/BEAT: Rhetorical Ways of Thinking About Sources
Our Essential Lessons are a sequence of lessons that form the backbone of the Writing Program curriculum, illustrating what we want all students to learn across our program’s diverse course topics. This lesson helps students consider four different ways they might use a source: they might rely on it for information, analyze it as evidence, […]
Summary & Analysis
Our Essential Lessons are a sequence of lessons that form the backbone of the Writing Program curriculum, illustrating what we want all students to learn across our program’s diverse course topics. Students develop the closely related skills of reading and writing through sustained instruction in summary and analysis, where these skills meet. This lesson outlines […]
Using Different Kinds of Sources to Analyze an Exhibit
In this exercise, students first interpret an exhibit source without any supplementary sources and then reinterpret it in light of background and/or theory sources. Assembling a set of short, relatively accessible sources is key to this exercise’s success. The result is that students come to appreciate how background and theory sources can deepen their interpretation […]