Alice Walker Everyday Use Analysis

Using Webb’s Depth of Knowledge Questioning Techniques in Writing Instruction
A substantial part of English 10 asks students to begin to develop well organized literary analyses of fiction and non-fiction text. In order to do that they must be familiar with the writing process and confident in responding to writing prompts. Writing prompts are often a set of questions expressed in a set of directions that asks students to do some pretty heavy cognitive work. For the second quarter my students have been working with Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” to explore the relationship between culture and identity. As students worked with the text they engaged in several tasks to gain a deep understanding of the story's characters’, their motivations
and relationships with each other to explore the way the characters’ identities are shaped by the community around them. They developed graphic organizers, participated in class discussions, developed working definitions of new vocabulary and constructed several quick write compositions to arrive at an interpretation of the text. Their next task was to begin to organize their interpretation into a formal essay. Before I introduce the writing prompt, I used a series of Web’s Depth of Knowledge questions to deepen my students understanding of the elements of a 5 paragraph essay and how to craft a thesis statement.
The first question in this lesson was a simple recall question: “What are the basic elements of a 5 paragraph essay?” This was used as an opportunity to build on students’ prior knowledge and refresh students’ understanding of the ways thoughts can be organized in a piece of writing. The class was able to identify the individual components of a 5 paragraph essay. Next I asked them, “What goes into each element?” Again this was a simple recall question designed to reinforce students’ familiarity with the 5 paragraph essay format.
As the class identified each element they were asked to define them and explain the difference between each. This particular class likes to define a thesis statement as a summary sentence. So to encourage nuance and precision in their definitions I asked questions like, “If a thesis statement is a summary and a concluding statement is a summary too, what’s the difference? Why do we have two different words for the same thing?” This is a question that requires students to compare and contrast two similar concepts and then make a distinction between the two. They must recall their understanding of each concept, build on new ideas about each concept and synthesize their understanding in order to see that each type of sentence serves a different purpose. When students are able to begin to understand that there are different types of sentences they can write for an essay they can more effectively express and elaborate on their ideas and focus less on simply answering a question with the “right answer”.
Once we had the basic elements to a five paragraph essay listed, I introduced the writing prompt.
The writing prompt was:
Everyday Use by Alice Walker is a short story exploring one particular culture’s historical traditions. The two sisters, although raised in the same family, have very different ideas of how to best preserve their heritage. In a multi-paragraph essay, compare and contrast Maggie and Dee based on their points of view and personalities with respect to preserving their heritage. Make sure to include specific details and examples from the story in your analysis.
The prompt is a level 3 depth of knowledge question because it asks students to compare and contrast their understanding of two central characters in the story. They must use evidence to make an interpretation of a complex idea – how and why two different characters express their appreciation for their culture. In order to respond to the prompt fully, students must analyze the way the author develops both characters, describe how word choice might reflect the author’s bias and synthesize their interpretation to express alternative methods of preserving one’s cultural heritage. The prompt uses academic language to deliver the question as a set of directions. Students must actively engage with the text and pull out academic language like “compare and contrast” in order to begin to understand the
prompt.
To show students how to attack a writing prompt I used a series of level 1 depth of knowledge questions to decode the prompt in a whole group discussion. I asked questions like, “What is the prompt asking us to focus on?” If students have difficulty identifying academic language, I asked them, “What are some verbs or action words we think are important enough to underline or circle?” “What is the prompt asking us to do?” These questions are designed to bring students attention to the academic language and position them as writers with an assignment.
The challenging part about this technique is that you are unable to assess individual students’ understanding of some pretty basic concepts. While the information is delivered through discussion and supported with a visual aid, there were still students who submitted essays without an introductory hook or clear thesis statements. That lets me know that there are still some who struggled with the lesson. During the writing workshop students were formally assessed on their understanding of the elements of a thesis statement but they still struggle constructing original statements of their own. Before drafting they were given the opportunity to look at model essays and identify its elements individually and in small groups. Some really struggled with identifying the thesis statement and when it came time to write their essays those same students also lacked key elements. Because time is always difficult to manage I don’t think that assessment was prioritized the way it should have been. The next time I deliver a similar lesson, I think it will be useful to chunk the lesson into smaller parts and spend more time with sample essays and thesis statements.