Teacher tip: Break down essay assignments with this 4-step process

Kids with writing issues often feel frustrated and may even shut down when asked to write an essay. Imagine your child receives this assignment:

Teacher: Class, your homework tonight is to read this short story, then write an essay about it. Please write your response based on the following three-part question: What conflict exists between the two characters? How is the conflict different from what you would have expected? What’s the effect of those differences?

Later at home, you notice your child is staring at the homework and hasn’t started. You approach and read over the essay question.

You: Hey there! Why haven’t you started the essay? Child: I don’t understand it. You: OK… specifically, which part? Child: [shrugs shoulders] I don’t know… All of it.

This often happens because students don’t know how to explain what they don’t know. They can get overwhelmed by a big task and aren’t sure how to ask for help.

The solution is to help them break down the essay question until they can explain which part of it is giving them trouble.

That’s why in my class, I use a four-step process to break down essay assignments. This method is not only efficient, but gives students more ownership over the situation so they don’t feel helpless.

Maybe your child isn’t struggling with the question, but with the text the assignment is based on. (Or it may be both.)

Encourage your child to re-read the story. Sometimes even the best readers need to go back and read things a second time. Also, have your child jot down quick details about the main elements like characters and plot to give an overall understanding of the story.

You can also talk together about the story details. This helps to make sure your child is focusing on information that’s crucial to answering the question.

With a multi-part question, just focus on one part at a time. Using the example above, the first question asks about the conflict in the story. As your child re-reads the story, have them underline any examples of conflict. They should take down notes about the conflict too.

Your child can continue like this with each part of the essay question. The point is to tackle one part at a time and break down the information. This method will also help reveal which part is the most confusing or problematic for her.

This step takes the most time, but it’s a critical one to do. It gets faster with practice and eventually your child will start doing it automatically.

Using the above example, part one of the question requires knowing which conflict exists. Once your child jots down notes about this, they can move on to part two: How is the conflict different from what they expected? To answer this part, your child must write down what they thought the conflict would be focused on.

This means they have to look at what actually happened and explain how it’s unexpected. With the notes they jotted down about the conflict (part one of the question), they already have some of the answer ready.

Your child can build on information similarly while moving from part two to part three of the question. You might need to help your organize ideas the first few times while learning the process.

After your child has broken down the questions like this, they will likely be able to tell you which part is tripping them up. They might say, “The last part of the question is confusing because I don’t know exactly what it means.” Or they might say, “What if I wasn’t surprised by what the conflict was about? How can I answer the second part of the question?”

Getting to this stage is great. Your child has identified the specific part that doesn’t make sense. Talk through the confusion and possible solutions. And remind your child that the notes they took can be a road map to the quickest and best way to find answers to most of their questions.

The key to each of these steps is to get your child to think about an essay question in parts. With practice, this skill can become automatic for your child.

—Kimberly Eckert

Kimberly Eckert is a high school teacher in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and has years of experience teaching and mentoring students with learning and thinking differences. She was named 2018 Louisiana Teacher of the Year.

Learn more about how to help your child break a writing assignment into chunks. And find out what could be causing your child’s trouble with writing.

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