I’ve recently begun to try some quick writes with my students using an activity I learned from Kelly Young called “PQC” (Point, Quote, Connect or Comment). It’s a simple exercise that students can use after reading a text that means:
1) Make a point
2) Quote from the text supporting your point
3) Make a connection to your personal experience, another text, or some other knowledge
Lots of you might already know this acronym, but it was new to me. After briefly modeling it for my students (if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that modeling is absolutely critical — the quality of learning is dramatically improved if I model activities and exercises first), students have really been successful. And they especially like that they’ve learned an easy process and acronym that they can use in their other classes when they’re asked to write something.
I’ve posted in the past about a similar acronym I learned from Kelly — “ABC.” It stands for:
1) Answer the Question
2) Back up your answer with evidence or facts.
3) Comment from a more personal opinion or perspective
If you have any other similarly useful acronyms, please share them in the comments section.
Larry,
Thanks for the tip. I’m a history teacher hoping to do more with primary sources next semester, and I’ll try this as one technique. I think it will integrate well with the techniques that Sam Wineburg has about particular techniques used in reading historical documents.
David
I didn’t come up with this, but at my school we use IRAFT, especially for standardized test prompts:
I=indent your paragraph
R=restate the question
A=answer the question
F=find support
T=tie the support to your answer
Also not mine, but PEE is always remembered by students especially when you ask them “Did you PEE in your paragraph?”
P = point
E = example
E = explanation
Not a teacher, but very interesting site. Thanks
In England we have a similar acronym – PEE or PEA:
Point
Evidence
Analysis/Explanation/Exploration (how/ why has the author done this? & personal response)
This is usually taught as an essay paragraph structure. For top sets or more confident students, I think it’s worth extending, as it can become quite simplistic:
Point
Evidence
Analysis (why? – eg: what is the character’s or the writer’s motivation?/ what is the purpose of the article?)
Analysis (how? – eg: what are the linguistic/structural techniques that the writer has used, and how does it relate to the ‘point’ and ‘why’ strands)
Further quotation (make links with other parts of the writing – either in the same passage, or in different parts of the text, or even between different texts).