Happy day after Election Day to you all. In typical craziest-year-in-the-history-of-ever fashion, the anxiety, or the "nail biting" as New York Times calls it, of not knowing who our next president will be is set to last days and days. Let's buckle in y'all, and think about a not unrelated topic, critical thinking. Also, the Blind Assassin and analysis. Here we GO! This blog post will cover:
On Critical ThinkingIn 2017, the Scientific American published an article on the difference between intelligence and critical thinking entitled, "Why Smart People Do Dumb Things." The author, Heather A. Butler, begins by defining critical thinking: Critical thinking is a collection of cognitive skills that allow us to think rationally in a goal-orientated fashion and a disposition to use those skills when appropriate. Critical thinkers are amiable skeptics. They are flexible thinkers who require evidence to support their beliefs and recognize fallacious attempts to persuade them. According to Butler, intelligence offers many benefits to those who possess it, but general wellness is not one of those benefits. Greater critical thinking skills, on the other hand, comes with greater wellness and longevity. Critical thinking is a skill that helps us live better, healthier, and longer lives. And, this is very important, Butler says: Critical thinking skills can be improved. In this class, we learn critical thinking. We are flexible thinkers who require evidence (text evidence, that is) to support our beliefs (claims, thesis statements, you know: abstractions.) Literature is the medium through which we strengthen our abilities to think critically. English isn't the only class where you can improve your critical thinking skills, but it is perhaps the easiest class to do so. Language is the currency of thought, and in this class we spend our time looking closely at language, and how and why it affects us. From this vantage point, doing well on the AP test is just the top of the iceberg, just the short term almost superficial goal. What we're really in the business of doing is strengthening our critical thinking abilities so that we can live better lives. Thesis StatementsGod bless the AP board for giving us the structure to learn critical thinking. That being said, this last round of AP classroom videos leave much to be desired IMHO. These videos discuss new, urgent, and complex writing concepts such as "thesis" and "line of reasoning." The teacher defines "thesis" as "the cherry on top" of the introductory paragraph. Ummmm... this is a bit too abstract, am I right? Words with no concrete to ground them in reality. Let me try to do better, building on our previous knowledge: the claim. Here's what we know already:
Here's what's new:
Instead of using cherries as a visual metaphor for thesis statements, let's think of a tree. The branch is a thesis, and the twigs are the claims. Each twig/claim naturally grows out of and feeds back into each branch/thesis. Lines of ReasoningY'all, just like authors of novels need to choose a plot structure, authors of analytical papers need to decide on a line of reasoning. Line of reasoning is the thing that dictates what paragraphs and claims come in what order for your reader in the paper as a whole. The most common line of reasoning follows the structure of the work being analyzed; in other words, the evidence is laid out in the the order that a reader would read the poem, short story, or novel. Another line of reasoning could be contrast of characters, setting, language, etc.
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AuthorI'm a Houston high school teacher. Welcome to my adapted, socially-distanced, quarantined AP English Literature and Composition classroom. Archives
May 2021
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