Background source
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 […]