Materials from MRA #4: Verbs Writers Do

Hello, all.  Waiting at Logan Airport for my plane to the AP Reading in Louisville, Kentucky.  This is the second time I've been an AP Reader for AP Language and Composition.  Friends think I'm crazy to travel to grade essays for seven straight days, but I enjoy it.  I get to read student work from all over the country and learn what works and what doesn't.  Plus it's fun to be in a city of English teachers for one week!

I am well on my way to reading my first book of the summer: Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle.  I promised myself I'd blog about it in a few weeks.

One activity I shared at MRA in April was the list of "Verbs Writers Do."  I try to teach all of these verbs: what they look like and what they accomplish in a paper.  Students read a model text and label what the writer is "doing" in each paragraph.  It's a kind of simplified "says/does analysis" or "says/does/because" analysis.

I hope to do this classroom routine with more regularity this new school year.  My kids need me to explicitly model the verb and examples of it.

describes

explains

develops

states a proposition

supports

narrates

contrasts

compares

provides history

introduces

conveys

lists

categorizes

notes

refers

itemizes

predicts

reflects

elaborates

reasons

focuses

asserts

traces

illustrates

posits

defends

provides an example

attacks

argues

evaluates

cites

proposes

comments

synthesizes

elaborates

demonstrates

exemplifies

deepens

expresses

offers a hypothesis

characterizes

presents

assumes

reveals an opinion

states a fact

reveals a bias

evokes

rebuts

Enjoy!  Let me know if you come up with any good lessons on this idea.