Teaching Secondary English Learners to

Understand, Analyze, and Write Interpretive Essays

about Theme

Dekriati Ate (0602268159020)Andriani Widi Astuti (0602268159001)Ratih Puspa Sari (0602268159009)Vidi Al Imami (0602268159010)Apriya Maryati (0602268159015)

Teaching Writing One common way to assses a student”s ability to

interpret and infer the writer’s intentions and messages is to ask him or her to identify, analyze, and interpret theme.

Project between the UC Irvine site and the Santa Ana Unified school Discrit.

The aim is to help the students develop the academi literacy to succeed in school and to continue their education in college

PROJECTUCIWP AND

SAUSD

GOAL ACTION

RESULT

REPAIR

HOPE

A cognitive strategies approach to reading and writing instruction

According to Tierney & Pearson (1983), researchers have increasingly noted the connections between reading and writing, identifying them as essentially similiar processes of meaning construction.

Experienced readers and writers purposefully select and orchestrate cognitive strategies that are appropriate for the literacy task at hand (Flower & Hayes, 1981).

Research suggest that teachers need to provide systematic and explicit instruction in strategies used by mature readers and writers, such as :1. tapping prior knowledge2. asking question3. Visualizing4. forming interpretations5. Monitoring6. Revising7. Meaning8. Reflecting & Relating

Meltzer and Hamann (2005) pointed out that “research strongly indicates positive correlations between adolescent literacy and frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies when reading and modeling text”

SCAFFOLDING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION ON THEME The cognitive strategies focused on by each

of the lesson activities are noted in italics in the titles in the following section.

1. Teachers read the text about “The Horned Toad” loud as students followed along

2. After the oral reading of the texts, students reread the text silently, used the cognitive strategies sentence starters to record their thoughtsand feelings, and shared and discussed responses in small groups.

3. Teachers provided a detailed explanation about differention between a topic and a theme

Responding to The Text Using Cognitive Strategies Sentence Starters (All Strategies)

Differentiating Betweena Topic and a Theme

The topic is simply what it’s about.

The theme is the author’s point about a topic.

A theme statement must be a complete sentence (with a least a subject and a verb)

Responding to The Text Using Cognitive Strategies Sentence Starters (All Strategies)

4. Students were then asked to reread the text and note any topic words that they felt captured the big ideas of the story.

5. Collaborating with a partner, students selected three topic words that they felt were most relevant to the text and developed three theme statements.

6. The teachers then asked for volunteers and recorded the sample theme statements alongside the topic word.

Responding to The Text Using Cognitive Strategies Sentence Starters (All Strategies)

6. Students filled out a chart focussed on what the characters do, what the characters say, and what the characters think and feel at the beginning, middle and end of the story.

7. We taught students to add a “because” to these kinds of statements and to give a reason.

8. Students analyzed students essay on “The Horned Toad” to explore how to construct an effective essay with a well-articulated theme statement.

THE SOFTBALL ANALOGI REVISITED - Students are given a pretest and

posttest in analyzing a reading theme- Students are led to write in sentences

analytical essay on a theme that has been given

Creating a do / what chart (analyzing authors craft and visualizing)

Assessing and color-coding student essays (evaluating, visualizing, and analyzing author’s craft)

We presented students with a prompt on “ the Horned Toad” , “The Scarlet Iblis” and The medicine Bag” Demonstrated how to underline verb and describe “do” and “what”

Think that the point of writing a literary response-base essay is to prove that they understood what they read by retelling the story.

Color-coding students own essays and revising essays (revising meaning).

Working with a partner, students color-coded their own present and revised them into a multiple-draft essay as practice for the posttest.

- helped students in analyzing a reading theme

- Increase the ability of students in essay writing in sentences analytically

Implications for Practice

Thank You