Share+Your+Perspective

Share Your Perspective
Section 7.3, (Instructional Strategy 11)

Rationale: The Support Your Position strategy helps students to bridge the gap between the text and their experiences to defend an interpretation they develop. By formally charting a position statement and evidences from personal experience and the text, students will build confidence in presenting their perspective.

Instructions: 1. Remind students of the importance of forming a position during their reading of a text. Emphasize that positions are based on evidence from both the text and personal experience. 2. Provide students with a copy of the reproducible. 3. Choose a text from which students can argue a position. 4. Tell students to read the text and formulate a position statement. 5. Remind students of the importance of evidence. Tell students to write the evidence from personal experience on the sheet. 6. Tell students to reread the text and identify internal evidence supporting their position. Ask students to record this on their chart. 7. Emphasize that if students cannot find both forms of evidence, they may need to revise their position.

Application to Language Arts: Have students read Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." Ask students to formulate an position on whether or not someone like the antagonist in the story deserves to suffer. Remind students to form a position statement after reading the story. Next, students should list evidence based on personal experience. Then, students should reread the story, gathering textual evidence. Emphasize that if the students cannot find adequate evidence of both types, they will need to reformulate their position statement.