youtube kernel essay

Synthesizing

Synthesis pre-writing strategy: the kernel essay.

Synthesis Essay Pre-Writing Strategy:  The Kernel Essay

What is a kernel essay?  A kernel essay is a shortened form of a broader essay (usually a few paragraphs long) that emphasizes understanding how to format a claim (also known as thesis statement) and provide evidence for that claim.  The goal is that a kernel essay could then be extended into a full essay.  So how do I organize this?

Key Takeaways

Synthesis Kernel Essay Format:

•  Introduce both texts (authors, titles, and common themes/traits.
•  Based on these texts, I believe… (this is your claim)
•  An analysis of Author 1’s argument (claim, evidence, limitations)
•  An analysis of Author 2’s argument (claim, evidence, limitations)
•  What these authors would say to one another (what they would agree with?  How they would challenge one another?
•  What you think…
•  Why any of this is important (also known as a final evaluation or commentary)

Based on your own sources, consider the questions above to brainstorm synthesis notes.  Then, use the sample below to model your own kernel essay.

Example Synthesis Kernel Essay:

In Charlie Beck and Connie Rice’s “How Community Policing Can Work” and Charles M. Blow’s “Romanticizing ‘Broken Windows’ Policing,” all three authors discuss the need for programs that bring attention to wrongful use of force among police.  However, each source focuses on a different program: Beck and Rice highlight the positive aspects of “guardian policing” while Blow criticizes the negative aspects of “broken windows policing.” Though different programs have advantages and disadvantages, I think all authors could agree that exploring programs to help reduce violent crime as well as police use-of-force is necessary in combating many tragedies we see in America today; however, the authors make interesting points about the importance of considering the causes of crime within individual communities.

Beck and Rice, one the “chief of the Los Angeles Police Department” and one a “civil rights lawyer,” provide evidence that guardian policing, which consists of having police officers establish trust with residents in high crime neighborhoods in Los Angeles, has been found to reduce the number of murders as well as the number of police shootings.  In fact, since it began in one particular neighborhood named Watts, there have been “no shootings by the partnership officers in over five years” (Beck and Rice). However, within this piece, Beck & Rice fail to discuss other potential solutions other than guardian policing, making this program seem the one-stop solution.

Charles M. Blow, though clearly an advocate for programs that would train officers in ways that may reduce their use-of-force in unnecessary situations, asks us to be wary before simply accepting any program as the savior for today’s problems.  He highlights a misguided program called “broken windows policing” for targeting certain racial groups, primarily African American communities, as violent, when that’s not necessarily the case. He writes, “How you view “broken windows” policing completely depends on your vantage point, which is heavily influenced by racial realities and socio-economics,” (Blow) and emphasizes the need for police officers to view effects of poverty before tying violence to race.

Both texts make valid points for the need for more programs to help reduce unnecessary use-of-force among police.  Though Blow’s piece is focused more on racial discrimination, he highlights strong points about the role poverty plays in a lot of these situations.  Beck & Rice consider community trust at the heart of the problem of some of the crime we see in neighborhoods. I believe Blow’s points challenge Beck & Rice in a positive way, encouraging readers to consider the many facets that contribute to crime in communities and consider ways to combat this issue that is specific to the community members the program works to target.

• Adapted from Gretchen Bernabei's Trail of Breadcrumbs. Authored by : Amber Nichols-Buckley . Located at : http://trailofbreadcrumbs.net/writing-strategies/kernel-essays/ . Project : Trail of Breadcrumbs. License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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“Fantastic training to help create great writers within your classroom!”

The purpose of this course is to provide you with innovative, concrete tools to use for both reading and writing, tools which work with any style of teaching, from all-digital to paper-pencil. Guided by the foundation beliefs of the National Writing Project and informed by the work of literacy leaders and research in best practices, the course designer, Gretchen Bernabei, offers you tried-and-true methods that take the mystery out of powerful writing and in-depth reading.

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Kernel Essays for Writing and Reading is a self-paced, online program. Participants can begin anytime and go at their own speed throughout the program.

Upon enrollment, you will receive a program invitation email from TCEA’s learning management system that will give you access to the self-paced course. Within the course, you will find modules that must be moved through in sequential order.

Step One: Getting Started Writing about Topics that Matter

Let’s start at the beginning! The writing exercises in this section – “What Do I Do?,” “Kernel Essay,” “Search History Writing” –  will help you identify the issues that are important to you, as well as those where you can use your resources to make a meaningful contribution.  Home in on a topic and start to explore the words and ideas that move you.

What Do I Do?

Activity : This is a simple activity that leads to complicated ideas. Each circle asks you a question to help you focus your interests and skills toward writing action. What do you love? What needs to be done? What are your gifts? What should you do? Write, draw, sketch, and doodle to find out.

Supplies : A copy of this document . Markers, crayons, colored pencils are welcome extras.

Time Needed : Up to you.

• What brings you joy? (What gets you up in the morning?)
• What is the work that needs doing? (Schools, health care, park services, food scarcity…)
• What are your gifts? (Your mojo, special skills, resources.)
• What should you do? The intersections of what you love, your gifts, and what needs to be done will organize your writing toward focus and clarity.

Kernel Essay

Activity : This exercise is taken from The Story of My Thinking by Gretchen Bernabei, Dorothy N Hall. Kernel Essays are popular with adult and young learners, and help us all feel like “good writers!” This exercise also shifts easily to a group exercise, with each writer responsible for one box. See if you can complete Kernel Essays around the topic you discovered in the previous exercise. For example, if you discovered that issues of censorship are where you will focus your writing, you could begin with “I will never ban a book.”

Search History Writing

Activity : This writing exercise will help you dig even deeper into the issues you care about (or, at least, the issues you’ve recently searched). This silly exercise reminds us that writing can be fun, playful, and random, but also revealing and deeply embedded in our daily habits and practices. History Writing is easily adaptable for students and a wonderful way to mix low stakes writing, silliness, and student interests into the classroom.

Here’s how it works : Search your browser history and collect the names of 10-15 sites you’ve visited. Write an explanation behind why you were searching these sites; Write a story using available information from sites you visited.

Supplies : A computer you use regularly and a Google doc. See the Search History Writing example on the final page of this document .

Topics/tags:

Also recommended, bringing young gamers together: a digital writing camp, cultivating 21st century school leaders, digital peer conferring.

The Kernel Essay: Making Your Words Pop Out!

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10 of the Most Niche YouTube Video Essays You Absolutely Need to Watch

YouTube’s algorithm is designed to keep your eyeballs glued to video after video (after video, after video...). The dangers of this rabbit hole are well-documented . However, for every ideological radicalization enabled by YouTube, I like to think there’s at least one innocent, newfound pop culture obsession discovered at 3 a.m. via the greatest medium of our time: the Video Essay.

The genre of YouTube video essays is more interesting than it sounds. Sure, any piece of video content that advances a central thesis could be considered a “video essay.” But there are key components of video essays that elevate the genre into so much more than simply a YouTube version of a written article. Over the past few years, the term “YouTube video essay” has grown to evoke connotations of niche fascination and discovery. For creators, the field is highly competitive with strong personalities trying to get eyes on extremely in-depth analysis of a wide range of topics. The “niche” factor is especially important here. Ultimately, the hallmark of a good video essay is its ability to captivate you into watching hours of content about a subject matter you would have never expected to care about in the first place. Scary? Maybe. Fun? Definitely.

Whether you’re skeptical about the power of video essays, or you’re an existing fan looking for your next niche obsession, I’ve rounded up some of my personal favorite YouTube video essays for you to lean in and watch. This is not a comprehensive list by any means, and it largely reflects what the algorithm thinks (knows) I personally want to watch.

Other factors that influenced my selection process: The video essays needed to have a strong, surprising thesis—something other than a creator saying “ this thing good ” or “ this thing bad. ” These videos also stood out to me due to their sheer amount of thorough, hard-hitting evidence, as well as the dedication on the behalf of the YouTubers who chose to share with us hours upon hours of research into these topics.

And yes, I have watched all the hours of content featured here. I’m a professional.

Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History

Let’s start strong with a documentary so premium, I can’t believe it’s free. Multiple articles and reviews have been dedicated to Defunctland’s video series about, well, waiting in line. I know what you’re thinking—the only thing that sounds more boring than waiting in line is watching a video about waiting in line. But Defunctland’s investigation into the history of Disneyland’s FastPass system has so much more to offer.

Class warfare. Human behavior. The perils of capitalism. One commenter under the video captures it well by writing “oddly informative and vaguely terrifying.” Since its launch in 2017, Kevin Perjurer’s entire Defunctland YouTube channel has become a leading voice in extremely thorough video essays. The FastPass analysis is one of the most rewarding of all of Defunctland’s in-depth amusement park coverage.

I won’t spoil it here, but the best part of the video is hands-down when Perjurer reveals an animated simulation of the theme park experience to test out how various line-reservation systems work. Again, no spoilers, but get ready for a wildly satisfying “gotcha” moment.

Personally, I’ve never had any interest one way or another about Disney-affiliated theme parks. I’ve never been, and I never planned on going. That’s the main reason I’m selling you on this video essay right off the bat. Defunctland is a perfect example of how the genre of video essays has such a high bar for investigative reporting, shocking analysis, and an ability to suck you in to a topic you never thought you’d care about.

Watch time : 1:42:59 (like a proper feature documentary)

THE Vampire Diaries Video

No list of video essays can get very far without including Jenny Nicholson , a true titan of the genre. Or, as one commenter puts it, “The power of Jenny Nicholson: getting me to watch an almost three hour long video about something I don’t care about.” I struggled to pick which of her videos to feature here, but at over seven million views, “THE Vampire Diaries Video” might just be Nicholson’s magnum opus. Once you break out the red string on a cork board, it’s safe to say that you’re in magnum opus territory.

I haven’t ever seen an episode of CW’s The Vampire Diaries , but since this video essay captivated me, I can safely say that I’m an expert on the show. Nicholson’s reputation as a knowledgeable, passionate, funny YouTuber is well-earned. She’s a proper geek, and watching her cultural analyses feel like I’m nerding out with one of my smartest friends. If you really don’t think The Vampire Diaries investigation is for you (and I argue that it’s for everyone), I recommend “ A needlessly thorough roast of Dear Evan Hansen ” instead.

Watch time : 2:33:19

In Search Of A Flat Earth

Did you think you could get through a YouTube video round-up without single mention of Flat Earthers? Wishful thinking.

“In Search of Flat Earth” is a beautiful, thoughtful video essay slash feature-length documentary. Don’t go into this video if you’re looking to bash and ridicule flat earth conspiracy theorists. Instead, Olson’s core argument takes a somewhat sympathetic gaze to the fact that Flat Earthers cannot be “reasoned” out of their beliefs with “science” or “evidence.” Plus, this video has a satisfying second-act plot twist. As Olson points out, “In Search of Flat Earth” could have an alternative clickbait title of “The Twist at 37 Minutes Will Make You Believe We Live In Hell.” Over the years,  Dan Olson of Folding Ideas has helped to popularize the entire video essay genre, and this one just might be his masterpiece.

Watch time : 1:16:16

The Rise and Fall of Teen Dystopias

Sarah Z is your go-to Gen Z cultural critic and explainer. The YouTuber brings her knack for loving-yet-shrewd analysis to dig into fandom culture, the YA book industry, and why the teen dystopia got beaten into the ground.

I’ve found that one of the most reliable video essay formulas is some version of “what went wrong with [incredibly popular cultural moment].” In the case of teen dystopias, it’s a fascinating take on how a generation of teen girls were drawn to bad ass, anti-establishment heroines, only to watch those types of characters get mass produced and diluted into mockery. But maybe I’m biased here; as the exact demographic targeted by the peak of The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Divergent, this cultural debrief speaks to my soul.

Watch time : 1:22:41

A Buffet of Black Food History

Food is an effective way to combine economic, cultural, and social histories–and Black American food history is an especially rich one. Food resonates with people, allowing us to connect with the past in a much more real way than if we were memorizing dates and locations from a textbook. Historian Elexius Jionde of Intelexual Media is a pro at taking what could be a standard history lesson and turning it into an interesting journey full of crazy characters and tidbits.

Most of the comments beneath the video are complaints that the video deserves to be so much longer. It’s jam-packed with surprising facts, fun asides, and, of course, tantalizing descriptions of the food at hand. Jionde even warns you right at the top: “Turn this video off right now if you’re hungry.”

Watch time : 22:39

The reign of the Slim-Thick Influencer

At this point, I’m assuming you know what a BBL is. Even if you aren’t familiar with the term (Brazilian butt lifts, FYI), then you’ve still probably observed the trend. Before big butts, it was thigh gaps. The pendulum swing of trending body types is nothing new. Curves are in, curves are out, thick thighs save lives, “skinny fat” is bad, and now, “slim thick” looms large. How do different body types fall in and out of fashion, and what effect does this have on the people living in those bodies?

Creator Khadija Mbowe identifies and analyzes a lot of the issues with how women’s bodies (especially Black women’s) are commodified, without ever blaming the bodies that are under fire. Mbowe handles the topic with grace and humor, even when discussing how deeply personal it is to them. If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a photo of an Instagram influencer, please do yourself a favor and watch this video essay.

Watch time : 54:18

Flight of the Navigator

Once again: I have been sucked into a video about a film that I have never seen and probably never will. Captain Disillusion, whose real name is Alan Melikdjanian, is another giant of the video essay genre, posting videos to a not-too-shabby audience of 2.29 million subscribers. Most of Captain Dissilision’s videos that I’d seen before this were of the creator debunking viral videos, exposing how certain visual effects were “obviously” faked. In this video, he turns his eye for debunking special effects not to viral videos, but to the 1986 Disney sci-fi adventure Flight of the Navigator.

This behind-the-scenes analysis of the Disney film is incredibly informative, tackling every instance when someone might ask, “ Hey, how did they manage to film that? ” It also touches upon the history of the special effects industry, something that deserves a little extra appreciation as CGI takes over every corner of movie-making.

Watch time : 41:28

The Failure of Victorious

YouTuber Quinton Reviews is dedicated to his craft, and I thank him for it. As you’ve certainly caught on to by now, you truly do not need to know anything about the show Victorious to enjoy an hours-long video essay that digs into it. What makes this video stand out is the sheer amount of content that this YouTuber both consumed and then created for us. Part of the video length—a whopping five hours—is due to the fact that every single episode of the Nickelodeon show is dissected. Another reason for the length is all the care that Quinton Reviews puts into providing context. And the context is what made me stick around: the failures of TV networks, the psychological dangers of working as child stars, and the questionable adult jokes that were broadcast to young audiences…if you’re at all interested in tainting your memory of hit Nickelodeon shows, this video is for you.

Watch time : 5:34:58 ( And that’s just part one. Strap in! )

Why Anime is for Black People

In this video Travis goes through the history of the “hip hop x anime” phenomenon, in which East Asian media permeates Black culture (and vice versa, as he hints at near the end). Although I am (1) not Black and (2) not an avid anime fan, I first clicked on this video because I’m a fan of comedian and writer Yedoye Travis. And yet—big shocker—I was immediately engrossed with the subject matter, despite having no context heading into it. Once you finish watching this video, be sure to check out Megan Thee Stallion’s interview about her connection to anime .

I haven’t run this part by my editor yet, but now would be a prime time to plug Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Jordan Calhoun’s book, Piccolo Is Black: A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Pop Culture . Just saying.

Watch time : 18:34 (basically nothing in the world of video essays, especially compared to the five hours of Victorious content I binged earlier)

Efficiency in Comedy: The Office vs. Friends

I’m rounding out this list on a note of personal sentimentality. This is one of the first video essays that got me hooked on the format, mostly because I had followed creator Drew Gooden to YouTube after his stardom on Vine (RIP). This video is one of his most popular, combining comedy and math to pit two of the most popular sitcoms of all time in a joke-for-joke battle.

Gooden in particular stands out as someone who excels as both an earnest comic and a thoughtful critic of comedy. I appreciate his perspective as someone who knows what it’s like to work for a laugh and wants to get to the bottom of why something is or isn’t funny. This isn’t even one of Gooden’s best videos (I actually think his take on the parallels between Community and Arrested Development has a much stronger argument), but it’s a great example of the sort of perspective best situated to make video essays in the first place. Because what makes all these video essays so compelling is often the personality behind the argument. These aren’t investigative journalists or professional critics. They’re YouTubers. Really smart YouTubers, but still: These videos are born out of everyday people who simply have something to say.

I believe the modern YouTube video essay is uniquely situated to put cultural critique back into the hands of the average consumer—but only if that consumer is willing to put in the work to become a creator themselves.

Watch time : 17:36

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Response: Strategies for Using Writing ‘Frames’ and ‘Structures’

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(This is the first post in a three-part series)

The new question-of-the-week is:

How can we use “writing frames” and “writing structures” without students feeling like they always have to do formulaic writing?

Different contributors to this series view them differently, but I would describe “writing frames” as extended “fill-in-the-blank” scaffolds, while “writing structures” provide slightly less guidance. You can find numerous downloadable examples of both at The Best Scaffolded Writing Frames for Students (you might also be interested in past columns appearing here on Writing Instruction ).

Whatever your definition of them might be, however, contributors to these two columns will explore the “dos and don’ts” of using writing frames and structures in the classroom.

Today, Beth Rimer, Linda Denstaedt, Gretchen Bernabei, Nancy Boyles, Mary Shea, Nancy Roberts, and Eileen Depka contribute their responses. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Beth, Linda, and Gretchen on my BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

Response From Beth Rimer

Beth Rimer is the co-director of The Ohio Writing Project at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She began her career as a secondary English teacher and now works with K-12 teachers in staff development to support literacy instruction in all disciplines. She is on the Leadership Team of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) with the National Writing Project (NWP):

The structure vs. voice debate has long been argued in English classrooms. On one side, teachers value the way structure provides a roadmap for students to move ahead. Guided outlines and formulas seem to help readers and writers make sense of the way ideas are organized and connected. For teachers, they provide a direct approach with clear rules and guidelines. But, the shortcomings are all too familiar. Students get stuck in the structure, rarely moving beyond the numbered paragraphs as they struggle to find ways to fit a complex idea into a one-size-fits-all frame. Too often, it’s the structures themselves, rather than the ideas and reasoning, that become the focus.

So, how do we leverage the power of structures and not fall into the trap of letting the frames eliminate student choice and voice? One answer is found in creating a bank of possible outlines.

Central to the answer are the companion ideas that structure is everywhere and structure is a choice student writers can make. All writing, from essays to PSA’s, from manga to fairytales, have form and rules. Structure is not the enemy of voice. Instead, it is one of the choices writers make when thinking about task, purpose and audience. This then means teachers can teach students how to make that choice by creating a bank of possible structures from which students can choose.

In this process, students deconstruct mentor texts from real-world texts to create a bank of possible outlines for their writing. Younger students might do this as a whole class, while older students can do this in small groups or independently. To create the bank of possibilities, students read mentor texts representative of the writing they are doing and deconstruct its structure. Students make notes in the margin, naming the moves the writer makes in each section of the piece. When read down the paper, these moves reflect a sketch, or the outline, of the essay.

These outlines might be as simple as this one from an elementary classroom:

• Introduce issue with fact
• First thoughts
• New learning
• Revised thoughts

Or as complex as this example of an argument text:

• Opening with a story
• Setting the context
• Presenting the issue
• Identifying the Importance
• Naming the opposing position
• Presenting the claim
• Providing a reason plus support

With each model text, the class builds a new possible outline to hang in the room or collect in a notebook. Writers then have a bank of outlines that are authentic, follow a line of reasoning, and go beyond formula. Students choose one that best fits their idea and the construction of their own essays begins - construction with structure and choice.

This strategy works on many levels. Not only does it provide structures to govern writing, but it also supports students in making decisions about complex organization and recognizing that there are many ways to structure an essay. Even better, once an outline exists in the classroom, students can use it for any of their writing (including test writing) and the bank of possibilities becomes a choice writers can make without a formula.

For too long, two different kinds of writing existed in my own classroom - one with structure and one with choice. However, when students have a bank of possibilities, they can have both.

Response From Linda Denstaedt

Linda Denstaedt currently serves on the National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program Leadership Team. Linda, Laura Roop and Stephen Best co-authored Doing and Making Authentic Literacies published by National Council Teachers of English:

Ask first: What do “real” writers do? Real writers don’t craft based on a pre-determined number of sentences or paragraphs, restrict themselves to one point of view, separate argumentative from narrative or informative. And it is also true, formula writing exists in any genre. Filmmakers embrace the Cinderella story. Poets gain skills writing sestinas, villanelles, pantoums and other forms. Novelists know the power of opening and last lines, the hero’s journey, or phrases like “it was as if” that turn the narrative. But these formulas serve as launching points that inspire invention, creativity, and ownership.

In school writing, formulaic writing defines expectations making it easier to see what is there and what is missing. What if teachers invited students to become “real” writers in any genre? What if teachers started by changing test-prep school-argument into civically engaged argument”? Possibly both students and teachers could re-see scaffolds that look like formulas as launching points for student voices.

Invention comes when students use their knowledge of a genre to give voice to their ideas. For example, civically engaged argument calls students to enter a public conversation as a writer. They read to analyze the ideas of others and to learn moves used by these writers—the same moves they will make to inform and influence their readers. They read the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, NewsELA, or local newspaper to identify and admire the moves writers make. They create knowledge by listing and experimenting with “writing structures” with similar intentions: provide background, shock and hook a reader, illustrate multiple perspectives, authorize the credibility of evidence, respectfully counter positions of others engaged in the conversation. Invention appears on the page when writers translate their knowledge to choices and decisions while crafting arguments.

Creativity comes when students stop formulaic thinking. In civically engaged argument, they stop the simplistic formulas that look for two sides in the argument. Stop immediately forming a claim and finding evidence that agrees with it. Stop adding one opposing view to raise a grade. Instead dig into informational and argumentative texts from multiple perspectives and stakeholders. This is the time for scaffolds like “writing frames” to freewrite and make sense of the ideas and voices writers encounter. Phrases to support and push beyond first-thoughts. Phrases that prompt what Gerald Graff and Cathey Birkenstein call “metacommentary.” Phrases like, “Recent studies shed light ...” or “According to (an authority), these findings challenge the ideas of ...” or “But who cares? What is at stake? Who will be impacted?” or “My point was not ___ but ___.” Possibly these phrases appear in the students’ final arguments demonstrating early reliance on “writing frames.” If students only wrote one argument, it might stay in this highly scaffolded and suspiciously “formulaic” spot. Students might lose the power of frames that urged new thinking to emerge and developed their awareness of a reader. With repeated and conscious use, writers create new writing frames that emerge as they also create thinking habits.

Living this way, some students, teachers included, might pause before labeling “writing frames” and “writing structures” as formulaic writing. Instead they might see them as authentic tools offering choices and decisions; they might distinguish them from the rigid frameworks controlling numbers and orders.

Response From Gretchen Bernabei

Gretchen Bernabei has been teaching kids to write in middle school and high school classrooms for more than 30 years. She has published several books with Corwin including Text Structures from Nursery Rhymes and Text Structures from the Masters . She is the winner of NCTE’s James Moffett Award:

* Picture the flow. Whenever adults are speaking to a group, we plan out what points we are going to cover. If it’s a meeting, we call this an agenda. If it’s a speech, we make note cards or bullet points. We move from point to point as we talk, covering them all. These are the same as frames, or text structures.

And when we are writing, we lay out what points we want to cover so a reader can follow the writer’s train of thought. Laid out horizontally like a footpath, even young writers have an almost physical understanding of how to move through the steps. Consider the structure below and ask yourself how your thinking has changed during your life.

* Take out the drudgery. Could you read the structure above and write one sentence for each box? Anyone could. This yields what we call a “kernel essay,” or a skeleton essay. If students read their kernel essays to each other, they hear for themselves whether they have something worth developing with details. Thus in very few sentences, writers see that they are on the right track. If they don’t like the kernel essay, it’s easy to change. But if they do like it, they can add details to expand each sentence into at least one paragraph.

Many teachers begin the year with a narrative, so that’s a natural place to try out this practice.

* Give them the design control. Once students have written and shared several kernel essays, they’re ready to add additional structures to their repertoire. After a class discussion about some current event, ask them to write a kernel essay using this structure.

* Use student ideas. As soon as one student asks to change the words in the boxes, you’re off and running!

“Could I change some of the words in the boxes?”

“Could I just make my own structure?”

As soon as that happens, make sure to use the student’s name somewhere on the structure you add to your classroom collection, like this one.

*Stay balanced. Teacher-assigned writing is a necessity for developing writers, but daily writing should be balanced. Let them also write for themselves sometimes. without any organization. Stream-of-consciousness writing is healthy, fills up a journal with thoughts, wishes, and rants, and provides a great balance. (It’s also an effective/sneaky place to teach grammar unobtrusively.)

Writing will never be simple, but writing instruction can be. Simplifying students’ processes can result in rich, authentic writing that the students design, for any purpose, on any occasion.

Response From Nancy Boyles

Nancy Boyles, Ed.D. is professor emerita at Southern Connecticut State University and the author of 10 books related to reading comprehension. She is the author of Reading, Writing, and Rigor: Helping Students Achieve Greater Depth of Knowledge in Literacy (ASCD 2018) and That’s a Great Answer: Teaching Literature Response Strategies to Elementary, ELL, and Struggling Readers (Maupin House, Second edition) which features answer frames for 50 standards-based comprehension tasks :

Some teachers hold that providing students with answer frames to guide their writing does more to inhibit good writing than enhance it. I disagree. Used appropriately, answer frames can guide both students and teachers. Suppose the question for written response posed to a group of fifth graders was this: After reading the poem “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield, draw a conclusion about what motivated Harriet to risk her life to help slaves gain their freedom. Using textual evidence, show how the author developed this idea throughout the poem. Extend your answer by explaining why these details are important.

If students didn’t understand the question or the poem, that’s a reading issue; an answer frame will not solve a reading comprehension or academic vocabulary problem. But there are lots of students who understand what they read, but who are nonetheless completely befuddled when it’s time to put their thinking into writing. This is where an answer frame can be oh-so-helpful. Here is the frame I would give students who needed support with their answer to this question:

My conclusion is _________________________________________

The author developed this idea in the text through these details:

________________________________________________________

These details show that _____________________________________

________________________________________________________.

Recognize how this frame can help students:

It is an at-a-glance view of what the job entails. Students quickly see there are three parts to this response: statement of the inference or conclusion, details that support the conclusion, and an extension or explanation showing why the details are significant. This structures the response for students who aren’t sure how to organize their thoughts. Moreover, the lines give students a sense of which components of the response should be short (the inference and the extension), and which should be more elaborated (the supporting details).

It offers syntactic guidance for students who need support with sentence construction. English learners and students with low language skills sometimes stare blankly at a question because they don’t know how to start their answer, or transition to the next part: How can I say this so it makes sense? An answer frame models this language for students.

Recognize how this frame can help teachers:

It makes assessment easier . Because the frame is segmented into three parts, teachers know exactly where to look for each component. Without the guidance from a frame, students’ lack of organization can make it difficult for teachers to pull out the critical pieces of information for valid evaluation.

It clarifies next instructional steps . Too often, students receive a composite score for a written answer: Full credit, partial credit, or no credit. This does little to guide either teachers or students. Instead, evaluate each part of the response separately: How accurate is the inference? How thorough is the elaboration? How insightful is the extension? Now, it’s easy to differentiate instruction to meet specific learning needs.

Recognize the limitations of answer frames as well as their potential benefits . Answer frames should be used with just the right students, at just the right time. Frames provide very explicit guidance—which some students simply don’t need. Even more important, students who do benefit from answer frames should be weaned from them as soon as possible. At the point of need (typically when a skill is new), frames can be a lifeline. But indefinite use of these scaffolds will lead to dependence, not independence.

Answer frames are well suited to analytic writing, but they are less effective for narrative. Analytic writing follows a logical sequence which makes frames perfect for writing about reading. Narrative writing, however, is more about weaving structural elements together in unique, often surprising ways. A frame will stifle that creativity.

• The best thing about answer frames? They’re easy to design. Think about the parts you would include to answer a particular question. Convert these components to sentence starters. Then add the approximate number of lines needed for each part. Done!

Response From Mary Shea & Nancy Roberts

Mary Shea is professor emerita at SUNY Buffalo State and Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. She teaches courses in the graduate literacy MS programs. Previously, she worked for many years in western New York schools as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, and language arts coordinator.

Nancy Roberts is a high-school literacy specialist in the Lockport City School District in New York and works with grades 9-12 in various content areas, weaving literacy skills and strategies into all curricular areas. Shea and Roberts are co-authors of Using FIVES for Writing :

Writing as composition is a process of communicating ideas, feelings, information, opinions, and more. Just as rules of civility for behavior, speeches, and conversations guide oral expressions in a society, genre structures for written expressions provide a model for organization and inclusion of content to ensure an author’s intent has been well met. Writing structures such as those for narratives, poetry and exposition are expected by readers.

For students, “writing frames” and “writing structures” are not meant to restrict; rather, they establish format that facilitates communication and comprehension. In fact, creativity within formats enhances the message delivered as well as listener/readers’ willingness to attend, consider, and be persuaded or informed. Right from the start, English/language arts instruction should teach from a stance of authenticity. That involves teaching language processes as they are expected to be used in the world and provide instruction, modeling, and guided practice that enhances meaningful ELA development.

I (Nancy Roberts) had a new student, Bobby, who struggled terribly with writing and reading. While he was very personable and had a good vocabulary, his teacher came to me with real concerns that he was not able to read or write anywhere near grade level. He soon joined one of my RTI Tier 2 groups along with four other students. His peers demonstrated/modeled decoding and the FIVES comprehension strategies. Soon realizing his struggle, his group members eagerly took it upon themselves to teach him the ABBBC strategy for writing . The next day, Bobby had written his first structured paragraph (about Friday lunch choices!) and was asking if he could write about his favorite football team the Philadelphia Eagles using ABBBC. He did this and was very proud to read it aloud just prior to their Super Bowl win. Bobby did not see the ABBBC writing structure as formulaic or restrictive. Rather, it allowed him to clearly express his ideas and thoughts.

Writing (and genre) structures are simply tools of the writing craft—one of many. The right tool for the intended outcome used interactively and efficiently with other tools increases the quality of the composition and comprehension by readers. Effective ELA teachers provide students with all the tools they need and the knowledge of when and how to use them as successful language learners and users in school and in the world.

Response From Eileen Depka

Eileen Depka, PhD is an educational consultant and an author of several books, the most recent being Raising the Rigor. Eileen has taught in both private and public school systems and has supervised and coordinated curriculum, instruction, assessment, special education, educational technology, and continuous improvement efforts. Her goal is to work with teachers and administrators to collectively increase expertise and add to strategy banks used in educational settings in an effort to positively impact student achievement:

Instead of frames, let’s concentrate on the language of the standards. The standards provide guidelines on that which is important to quality writing. The structure of the writing is tied to the purpose and audience, not a formula. For example, one of the Common Core standards for English Language Arts in grades 9-10 provides this guidance. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

• Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
• Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
• Use appropriate and varied transitions and syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
• Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary, and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic.
• Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

This guidance is not formulaic, yet by following these points, students are able to concentrate on that which is crucial to their ability to create a well-written work with flexibility in design and structure.

Thanks to Beth, Linda, Gretchen, Nancy Mary, Nancy and Eileen for their contributions.

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• Essay Contest Call for Submissions: Solving the Military Recruiting Crisis

MWI Staff | 07.19.23

Update: We’re thrilled to announce that the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has joined the Modern War Institute in organizing this essay contest and evaluating submissions. In addition to the top essays being published by the Modern War Institute, authors of the best submissions will have an opportunity to discuss their ideas with TRADOC senior leaders. TRADOC will also review all essays to evaluate their contributions to resolving the military recruiting crisis.

Essay requirements and the submission deadline remain the same, and authors who have already submitted their entries should not resubmit.

“Credible defense begins with our ability to steadily attract and retain the men and women who would assume the initial burden of a fast breaking war.” More than forty years ago, Vice Admiral Robert B. Pirie, Jr. eloquently described why recruiting was a national security issue.

This year, the Army will again fail to meet recruiting goals after falling fifteen thousand short last year. Likewise, the Navy anticipates falling six thousand sailors short of its target. The Air Force has issues too , with Secretary Frank Kendall acknowledging in March that his service would fall 10 percent short this year. Except for the two smallest services—the Marine Corps and Space Force—the United States’ armed forces continue to face recruiting woes.

With this serious issue as a backdrop, the Modern War Institute and the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) are launching an essay contest that seeks to explore the problem and identify solutions that could help the services address it.

Essay Prompt

Essays must answer the following prompt: What novel approaches can the United States military employ to solve the recruiting crisis?

This topic is broad. Essays might address new incentives, lessons from other countries or uniformed services, the impact of telework, messaging and marketing, how to resolve tensions created by years of recruiting shortfalls, ideas from labor economics or other academic fields, historical perspectives on recruiting challenges and solutions, or other ideas related to recruiting. Essays can take any form, to include speculative fiction. However, because of length limits, we strongly encourage authors to clearly articulate one idea or concept in their responses to the prompt.

Your ideas will inform internal conversations and workshops in support of the Modern War Institute’s human resources research theme. Based on the ideas presented in their essays, authors may be invited to contribute to future MWI publications or events on this topic.

Eligibility

• Essays will be accepted from any person in any field, and submissions from non-US participants are welcomed.
• Up to two people may coauthor an essay entry.
• Participants may submit only one entry to the competition.
• Essays must be original, unpublished, and not subject to publication elsewhere.
• Essays will not exceed 1,500 words.
• Use the standard submission guidelines for the Modern War Institute.
• Email your entry to [email protected] with “ Recruiting Essay Competition ” in the subject line. Once submitted, no edits, corrections, or changes are allowed.
• Submission deadline: essays will be accepted until 11:59 PM EDT on September 3, 2023.

Selection Process

Submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by a team from the Modern War Institute and TRADOC. Submissions will be assessed based on how well and creatively they address the topic of the contest and provoke further thought and conversation, as well as their suitability for publication by the Modern War Institute (e.g., style, sources, accessibility, etc.). Evaluation criteria include:

• Does the essay clearly define a problem and present a solution?
• Does the essay show thoughtful analysis?
• Does the essay inject new provocative thinking or address areas where there needs to be more discussion?
• Does the essay demonstrate a unique approach or improve current initiatives?
• Does the essay take lessons from history and apply them to today’s challenges?
• Is the essay logically organized, well written, and persuasive?

Winning Submissions

The top three essays will be announced publicly and will be published by the Modern War Institute. Depending on the evaluation of the Modern War Institute editorial team, revisions may be required before publication.

Additionally, the authors of the top submissions with senior leaders from TRADOC and the US Army’s Recruiting Command. Furthermore, TRADOC will review all essays to support the Army’s recruiting efforts.

Image credit: Spc. Kelsea Cook, Indiana National Guard

Although I am not much of an essay writer, perhaps the thesis, etc.. that I provide below will allow someone — who is a decent essay writer — to develop and provide a good essay for this competition. Here goes:

First, the essay prompt/question: "What novel approaches can the United States military employ to solve the recruiting crisis?"

Next, the proposed answer to this such essay prompt/question:

In order for the United States military to solve its current recruiting problems, the United States military must become able — in some way, shape or form — to better assure potential military recruits — and their families and friends — that they (these potential military recruits) will now (a) be less likely to be used to prosecute unnecessary, improper, ill-advised and/or ill-conceived and executed engagements and wars and, thus, will now (b) be less likely to find themselves in a position to be badly injured and/or killed in such unnecessary, improper, ill-advised, etc., engagements and wars.

(Herein to note that this such thesis and approach takes direct aim at the our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan of late and, thus, potentially gets directly to the/a true "root cause" of our current recruiting problems?)

It is not so much the fact that potential military recruits — and their families and friends — are unlikely to join/want their children and friends to join because they understand that these children and/or friends might get seriously injured and/or kill while engaged in our military profession.

Rather it is the fact that these such potential military recruits — and their families and friends — are unlikely to join/want their children and friends to join because they see the trend (think Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.) wherein these such injuries and deaths were/are incurred in what now is considered to be unnecessary, improper, ill-advised and/or ill-conceived and executed engagements and wars.

(Herein, it will be important to address the "common nature" of these such unnecessary, improper, Ill-advised, etc., engagements and wars — this being — that they were ultimately undertaken to achieve "revolutionary" political, economic, social and value "change" in the states and societies of the world — that is — states and societies in the world who are most different from ultra-modern "us.")

Bottom Line Thought — Based on the Above:

Today's recruiting problems, thus I believe, can be traced to the fact that our potential military recruits — and their families and friends — :

a. Do not agree with the "transformative" political objective of the United States post-the Old Cold War and/or:

b. Do not agree with the manner (war; military engagement) in which the U.S. has chosen to pursue this such — "transformative" — post-Cold War political objective.

B.C I believe after reading this long-winded comment. That you have a problem with Americas terrible policy and foreign policy decisions. You of course would be correct. For the same reasons they can't figure out foreign policy, our leaders can't figure out Retention and Recruitment problems. In both cases the American people are becoming aware that little of the decisions being made are done to benefit the country as a whole. Instead, they are to line the pockets of certain individuals and companies. For example, the Ukraine conflict, Billions of taxpayer dollars for no strategic goal or benefit. This coming off the back side of 20 years of Iraq and Afghanistan which obviously served little purpose at this point. Where is Kurdistan? Was Dick Chaney ever charged? There are many more such examples. But to your original point, I would believe that contest submissions would need to limit the material to only what the military itself could do to correct the recruitment shortfalls.

Don't worry. I wrote a very direct but elligent version of thus. You're welcome. Shoot me an email if you want it, [email protected]

Bring back the 6 month active duty with 4 years active reserve and free college education.

So, when it is time to combat, they will retreat with the excuse that I got in to get the college, not to go to war. My father (RIP) lived this cluster, and it was ridiculous seen young men and women played the Army. My son and I did active duty, did the required services, and every time that we hear the national anthem "of the land of the brave", we meant it. We never embrace college free benefits to defend our nation. and money

If you would like access to at least 250 papers on this topic get with the Sergeants Major Academy. Class 73 wrote a lot on this topic between white paper, capstone papers, and possibly a focus papers.

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The articles and other content which appear on the Modern War Institute website are unofficial expressions of opinion. The views expressed are those of the authors, and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.

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Aaron Bushnell’s Act of Political Despair

By Masha Gessen

On Sunday afternoon, Aaron Bushnell, wearing a mustard-colored sweater under his combat fatigues, walked up to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. As he approached the building, he filmed himself saying, “I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” He set his phone down, propping it up to continue filming, poured a flammable liquid from a water bottle over his head, then put on his camouflage hat and used a lighter to set himself on fire. He died in the hospital from his injuries later that day. He was twenty-five years old.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org .

Self-immolation is not a new form of political protest, but it is by no means a common one. Dozens of Buddhist monks have committed self-immolation, to protest the suppression of Buddhist leaders in Vietnam in the middle of the last century and, more recently, to draw attention to Chinese rule over Tibet, and the exile of the Dalai Lama . In the nineteen-sixties, dozens of people in the United States and Asia died after setting themselves on fire to protest the war in Vietnam. Then the practice spread to the Soviet bloc. It began when hope died. In 1968, students in Warsaw and Prague protested, much like students elsewhere in the West that year. In Czechoslovakia, the leadership of the Communist Party instituted liberal reforms, relaxing censorship and promising to build a “socialism with a human face.” It was known as the Prague Spring. But, in August, Warsaw Pact troops, commanded by Moscow, entered Czechoslovakia. The country’s leadership was placed under arrest and airlifted to Moscow. The Prague Spring was crushed . In September, Ryszard Siwiec, a fifty-nine-year-old Polish war veteran, set himself on fire during a harvest festival, insuring that his protest against his country’s complicity in the invasion was witnessed by thousands of people. A more widely remembered act of self-immolation was committed several months later by a twenty-year-old Czech student named Jan Palach, who ran down a street in Prague after setting himself on fire.

Under conditions of democracy, people act politically because they think that their actions can lead to change. They cannot effect change alone, and change is never immediate, but their experience tells them that change is possible and that it is brought about by the actions of citizens. When people do not believe that change is possible, most do not act. Authoritarian regimes rely on a passive citizenry. Totalitarian regimes mobilize their subjects to imitate political action, but in a way that never brings about change. The vast majority comply. But a small minority can’t stand it. Dissidents are people who would rather pay the psychic cost of becoming outcasts because what Václav Havel called “living within the lie” is even worse. Within this minority, there seems to be an even smaller group of people who find their individual helplessness so unbearable that they are willing to do something as desperate as self-immolate. Jan Palach’s protest suicide was followed by several more in Czechoslovakia, then in Lithuania and Ukraine. In the past few years, self-immolation has reëmerged as a form of protest in Putin’s Russia.

What does it mean for an American to self-immolate? Since the Vietnam War, Americans have died by this form of suicide to draw attention to climate change, as the lawyer and conservationist David Buckel did, in Brooklyn in 2018, and the climate activist Wynn Bruce did, on Earth Day, 2022, on the steps of the Supreme Court . Like all of us, these men lived in a world that knows about the catastrophic threat of climate change, pays lip service to the need to protect the human population of the planet, yet fails to act. “Many who drive their own lives to help others often realize that they do not change what causes the need for their help,” Buckel wrote in an e-mail that he sent to several media outlets before setting himself on fire in Prospect Park. Buckel had been a lifelong activist, a lawyer who had helped to advance L.G.B.T. rights. But, on the issue of climate, despite being surrounded with like-minded people and being able to act with them, he felt helpless.

We know very little about Aaron Bushnell. His Facebook page shows that he had been following the war in Gaza and admired Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan, who is Palestinian American. We know that Bushnell belonged to a generation of Americans—adults under the age of thirty—who express more sympathy with Palestinians than with Israelis in the current conflict. Perhaps, like Buckel, he was surrounded by people who thought as he did yet was constantly reminded of his helplessness. He probably watched as, in November, twenty-two Democrats joined House Republicans in censuring Tlaib for alleged antisemitic remarks, though Tlaib herself, who has family in the occupied West Bank, had taken pains to stress that her issues are with Israel’s government, not its people. He had been watching a Presidential race between two elderly men who seem to differ little on what for Bushnell was the most pressing issue in the world today: the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. What did it matter that Bushnell had the right to vote if he had no real choice? That he was a member of the military surely made matters worse. His final message on Facebook read, “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” (The message, which contained a link to the page on Twitch where Bushnell was planning to live-stream his final act of protest, is no longer visible.)

Bushnell wrote a will in which he left his savings to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Perhaps he had watched the hearing of a case in federal court in California, brought by Defense for Children International-Palestine in an attempt to stop the Biden Administration from continuing to aid the Israeli attacks on Gaza . Perhaps he saw the U.S. government argue that there is no legal pathway for citizens to stop the government from providing military aid, even if it can be shown that the aid is used to genocidal ends. A few days later, the judge in the case, Jeffrey White, said that the legal system could indeed do nothing. “This Court implores Defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza,” he wrote in his decision. Even the federal judge felt helpless.

Maybe Bushnell watched or read about the proceedings of South Africa’s case against Israel in the International Court of Justice. Perhaps he listened to the litany of atrocities that grew familiar as fast as it became outdated: the exact thousands of women and children killed, the precise majority of Gazans who are experiencing extreme hunger. That court ordered Israel to take immediate measures to protect Palestinian civilians. Israel has ignored the ruling, and the United States has vetoed resolutions calling for a ceasefire and argued, in another I.C.J. case, that the court should not order Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This was a government that Bushnell had sworn to protect with his life, subverting mechanisms created to enforce international law, including law—such as the Genocide Convention—that the United States had played a key role in drafting.

We know that Bushnell planned his self-immolation carefully. He made final arrangements. He contacted the media. On the day of the action, he carried himself with purpose. His movements appeared rehearsed. Perhaps he dreamed that his protest would awaken a country that had descended into a moral stupor. Like Jan Palach, who ran down a street, and Ryszard Siwiec, who set himself aflame at a dance, Bushnell wanted us to see him burn.

In 2013, the Dalai Lama, long under pressure to call for an end to the practice of self-immolation, called it a form of nonviolence. Nonviolence should not be confused with passivity: as a form of protest, nonviolence is a practice that exposes violence. The philosopher Judith Butler has argued that nonviolence cannot be undertaken by a person acting alone. That would be true for nonviolence as a political act—an act aimed at effecting change, an act founded in hope. Self-immolation is a nonviolent act of despair. ♦

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