2. – Students navigate the difficult process of
creating a thesis statement write a draft
(prototype) of their essay.
– Students design good thesis statements
quickly avoid the academic and
psychological pressures of a slow writing process.
3. A concise summary of an argument that has
– Focus
– Risk
– Detail
– Compelling significance
Pitfalls/potholes:
– Too broad or vague
– Too observational, summative
– Too preachy
4.
5.
6. • Students tried this out first as a
worksheet for a new essay.
Students filled out multiple copies—one for
each thesis idea.
• They also used it as a worksheet on an
old essay they needed to revise for their
portfolios.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Student feedback
– Roughly 85% said it was useful
– Roughly 10 % = unsure
– Roughly 5 % percent said it was not useful
Teacher feedback
– 100% effective. All theses improved after using this tool.
Going forward
– New design that has them try multiple versions of a thesis statement (larger
center box)
– Digitize the tool
– Form a DTH student and teacher interest group at Nueva and beyond to share
ideas and prototypes. Email me at jwhite@nuevaschool.org
Editor's Notes
Here I give out a thesis statement and blank box worksheet to see if they can dismantle the thesis statement into its component parts
