Essay: Lists of Examples for Body Paragraph for Various Prompts

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>As a preface to this thread, I do not want to offend anybody who disagrees with the following pedagogical approach. I imagine there may be some people who are fundamentally opposed to this approach and I respect our differences. </p>

<p>I've seen the threads here that compile the list of recently used prompts, and I am wondering if anybody has compiled a list of examples or reasons that could go with them. I've seen discussions that there are some favorite examples--or shall I say over-used, as a result--but I am curious which prompts match with which examples. </p>

<p>In particular, some of the prompts seem particularly challenging to come up with good examples and multiple reasons while others do not seem hard at all. For example, some of the prompts that I've found to be a bit more challenging include those on value of studying history or the creative arts, on the environment, or anything about heroes, celebrities or the media.</p>

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<p>I dont get it. You can pick either side of the prompt and you have all the time in the world to think up examples. If you learned anything at all in school how could this be that hard? Us giving lists of examples that the student didnt know in the first place cant be helpful. </p>

<p>Is there a particular prompt that is an issue?</p>

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<p>He or she briefly alluded to this one:</p>

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<p>People need to get used to the idea that they can’t always use a prememorized set of examples because—trust me—this is the direction they’re going with regard to creating the essay prompts.</p>

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<p>Are we really saying that a high school junior or senior is incapable of coming up with two examples of when studying history was helpful? Or maybe where it was unhelpful.</p>

<p>Ok my examples are Fabius the Delayer and Ferdinand Foch. Now what?</p>

<p>jeremy: any idea what that crazy common core dude is up to on the redesign yet?</p>

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<p>As I said at the onset, I knew this thread might not be particularly welcomed, and as I also said I respect our differences. </p>

<p>I guess the answer is no, there is not been any collection of essays or at least body paragraphs of examples and reasons. </p>

<p>If I highlight a few specific prompts would folks be willing to contribute a few ideas? While I appreciate the suggestions of Fabius the Delayer and Ferdinand Foch I’m sure that you can know that those names by themselves don’t make their relevance to a prompt clear. That was my fault in asking only for an example and nothing more; I thought a few additional words might have been implied. </p>

<p>argbargy: Are you referring to the redesign of the essay?</p>

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<p>Sure it’s nice to have a list of examples but I think you should let your students do some research - give them all the essay prompts and allow a month or so for them to work on the examples. Finding examples can be very tough, but the point is that students must do it themselves. Imposing a list of “great figures” on them will only frustrate them and lead to potential issues with their parents too (“My son is not studying history, why does he have to memorize these guys?”)</p>

<p>But you can give your students a few versalite examples that will greatly ease the work. Galileo, Martin Luther King, Siddhartha Gautama, … Preferably those who have … controversial lifestyle.</p>

<p>An interesting correlation is that the more you prepare beforehand the less you have to brainstorm during the test. argbargy is absolutely correct in saying that knowledge from school textbook is sufficient. However some students may have difficulty recalling what they have learnt and elaborating on them in 25 minutes. But writing down what you have memorized in the writing section, which is supposed to promote creativity, is no fun at all. Planning interferes with creativity, I guess (this is an essay prompt!). So if your student doesn’t want to learn examples just let him (her) be.</p>

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<p>Coleman?</p>

<p>Nothing specific, but I suspect that a lot of “tutors” (at least the ones who get paid for watching kids take practice tests) will be losing business and that scores will rise (however slightly). The “good” news is that there will be about a million new test prep books available to kids. Yay!</p>

<p>These poor kids will be retaking this test even more than they already are. </p>

<p>I’ve been warning kids that CB is trying to defeat the “memorizers.” They might get away with it for a while, but changes will likely occur even before the “redesign.” To ignore my admonition is to do so at their own risk.</p>

<p>The whole “Common Core” thing is bound to fail for lots of reasons. (I suspect you’d agree.)</p>

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<p>I’ll do my best to help you.</p>

<p>However, I have a question that will appear insensitive but that must be asked anyway…</p>

<p>As a teacher, you have presumably had enough education and life experience to generate hundreds of these on your own.</p>

<p>Are you a credentialed high school teacher or degreed college professor just beginning your career, or are you a student who needs general guidance as to how to help others succeed on this test? I ask because calling oneself a “teacher” under false pretenses is disingenuous at best. (This is personal I know; you can ignore these questions or shoot me a personal message.) </p>

<p>Either way, as I said, I’m willing to help in any way I can.</p>

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<p>ursawarrior: Thank you so much for your patience. I completely agree with you in that I wish my students would find their own examples, but in effect, they want me to spoon-food them. They have a very hard time seeing the connection that say oh this aspect of the Civil War that I know would fit nicely with this reason underlying this prompt. I’d thus like to stick with U.S. history examples when possible because I know they’ve studied that and more or less remember the major themes; I don’t know what they’ve read, but it seems like most of them don’t quite know either. </p>

<p>I’m a bit surprised that nobody else experiences students who are reasonably ambitious in that they’d like to get an essay of an 8-9 because they have reasonable raw talent as far as writing is concerned but just don’t have the experience synthesizing history or literature in this way because they are not in AP classes. Yes I am aware that writing ability should be correlated with the ability to do such synthesis, but I do NOT want to dwell on this or digress from the initial discussion if that is OK. </p>

<p>With that said, I do know a reasonable amount of U.S. history–in fact quite a lot about certain aspects–but for some of these prompts absolutely little to nothing comes to mind. I know, you don’t have to write about history ever, let alone literature. I just wanted to create this thread for folks to help brainstorm potential examples that could work for past prompts. </p>

<p>Some example prompts in which examples from U.S. history are more of a struggle:
“Should people know the source of information before using it?” (From June 2013; not terribly long ago)
“Is popular culture the strongest influence on a young person’s identity?” (From January 2013; not terribly long ago)
“Is it best to determine how wise people are by how happy they are?” (From May 2013; not terribly long ago)
“Is it absolutely necessary to study the creative arts?”</p>

<p>For example, on lots of the technology prompts, I would write about the Industrial Revolution in the U.S, perhaps as hackneyed as that example may be. Depending on the prompt and position taken, naturally it can be used to show that it increased the standard of living. Per capita GDPs increased; for example, more Americans become homeowners. On the other hand, it initially increased child labor and the process of industrialization increasingly spurred environmental harm, namely pollution.</p>

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<p>jkjeremy: May I ask what you are talking about with the “Common Core”, “Coleman”, and the “redesign” ?</p>

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<p>I’ll be as succinct as I can…</p>

<p>“Common Core” is a term for the attempt to nationalize basic skills curricula. Some people want every state in the country to cover the same skills.</p>

<p>Coleman (David) is the guy running the College Board. He wants to make the SAT more “relevant.” Usually, the term “redesign” means “dumb down.” We’ll see what it means this time.</p>

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<p>Wow, thats a lot. </p>

<p>First off here is some background on Coleman, who is going to reconstruct all of the SAT. The old SAT was correlated with g which is correlated with academic success so in reality things were fine. I suspect that a major goal of the rewrite will be to “close gaps” between groups, which means the tool will probably be rendered useless.
<a href=“David Coleman, the Most Influential Education Figure You've Never Heard Of – The Forward”>David Coleman, the Most Influential Education Figure You've Never Heard Of – The Forward;

<p>Which brings us to

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<p>If we could wave a magic wand and give any eager student a 2400, would that really help them? If we defeat the sorting mechanism, wont they find themselves in a school that moves way too fast and is way too in depth or them? They’d be miserable. If they have to fake their way through a 25 minute essay what are they going to do when they have to turn out well-reasoned 10 page papers every week?</p>

<p>If a student is willing to spend 3 months of their own time preparing with the blue book, and Chungs and taking multiple practice tests, we’ll that is studying for the test. But it is also the type of goal-setting and industriousness that will be very beneficial in college. </p>

<p>On the other hand if the student’s plan is to just use a template, then they have learned nothing, and probably arent fooling anyone. “The panoply of history has repeatedly demonstrated <position on=”" prompt=“”>. Ann Frank, Mahatma Gandhi, and Russian General Bob Walsh are unequivocal exemplars of this paradigm". Is that going to be a good essay- of course not. Is that kid going to be ready for college writing?</position></p>

<p>The worst essays we see are ones where a student takes a canned template, sprinkles in SAT vocabulary, and shoe horns in cliched examples from a list of usual suspects. The reasoning is usually lousy, and I’d like to believe that left to their own devices a college bound study could have turned out a much better product. </p>

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<p>“Should people know the source of information before using it?”</p>

<ul>
<li>Ian Flemming came up with a plan where false documents were planted on a dead body that washed up on shore. The Germans assumed the information was plans carried by an officer on a ship sunk y their u-boats</li>
<li>General Patton, who the Germans considered our most formidable general, actually sat out d-day. He was involved in moving inflatable tanks far to the North to disguise where the attack was going actually be. </li>
<li>After the Allies cracked the enigma code machine they were careful to never act on intelligence in a way that would reveal the compromise. Many times they did things that would convince an observer they didnt know what Germany was planning, even though they did. </li>
</ul>

<p>“Is popular culture the strongest influence on a young person’s identity?”

  • James Holmes - the Batman killer
  • Seung Cho - the Virgina Tech killer obsessed with ‘Old Boy’</p>

<p>“Is it best to determine how wise people are by how happy they are?”

  • Stephen Jobs- lived in a nearly empty house because he could never be satisfied with how furniture looked
  • Artie Lang, Ray Combs, Sam Kinneson - miserable self-destructive comedians.</p>

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<p>I question the whole approach of just having a list of examples you dont really know well. </p>

<p>Have you seen the list of SAT prompts by archetype?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/764514-sat-essay-prompt-archetypes-5.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/764514-sat-essay-prompt-archetypes-5.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It beneficial in that you know at least have a thematic approach to the type of prompts they might encounter. From the work they have done in highschool, I’d bet the students can think of examples for those themes. </p>

<p>I’d suggest that they way to respond to the essay is

  1. Which position on the prompt? (you can try both out)
  2. What Reasons might that position be true? (brainstorm more than 3)
  3. What Examples support those Reasons
  4. Construct your Thesis with the Reasons you will use
  5. Use the position you think will producer a stronger/quicker essay</p>

<p>A lot of people seem to pick their examples based on the prompt and then the reasoning is an afterthought. Or they struggle to generate examples because they arent clear about what type of theme they are trying to support. If you know you are looking for examples of ‘intentional disinformation’ then it isnt hard to generate some examples for a prompt like "should people know the source of information ".</p>

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<p>I’m not a true “insider.” However, I’m “inside” enough to know that these prompts were created with the express purpose of preventing kids from using stock examples.</p>

<p>Another Steve Jobs Wikipedia entry will make me wanna strangle someone.</p>

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<p>Bingo. They don’t get that, ideally, the reasoning is the MAIN thing. One problem is this notion that somehow a kid can follow “x” number of directions and score a 10 or better on the essay. I can see why kids get so frustrated.</p>

<p>Many (MANY) “essays” read as though the kid walked in determined to write about, say, 1984 and dammit they’re gonna make it work no matter how the prompt reads.</p>

<p>Bravo on your post above. Hopefully it will be of help to the person who started this thread.</p>

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<p>argbargy I do not know how to thank you enough for that post! I’ll be honest and say that I did not know many of the examples you had listed, but now it helps me see possible ways to approach these prompts. </p>

<p>Incidentally, I teach my students to reason through the essay exactly in the 5-step approach that you listed in that order. However, we then get to the point of an example, and it’s just complete silence unless I let them talk about their mothers and fathers. </p>

<p>And to be fair, I cannot do much better in a few prompts. As I said before, I try not to use literature only because I’m not sure what books they’ve read, and I’m apparently not as familiar with European history as you are but I do know enough about U.S. history and other academic or scholarly topics. </p>

<p>If I were to list a few other prompts, would you mind?</p>

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<p>jkjeremy I think either you missed the point of my posting or I did not explain it adequately. I feel like I’ve struck a chord with you because you think I’m asking my students to memorize wikipedia articles on Steve Jobs and 1984 and that’s far from the case. As I tried to imply from the onset, I was always aware that this thread might strike a chord. </p>

<p>I have the list of all of the essay questions asked since March 2005 to which argbargy has alluded, and I go through a few of them with my students each time we meet using the approach and outline that argbargy suggested. </p>

<p>However, what are you to do if you cannot come up with an example? That is often the case when we do this exercise. And in fact, sometimes I cannot do much better so how can I fault them. I’m a mathematician and received a 12/12 when I took the essay part of the SAT so I don’t see myself as having an issue with being college-ready. In fact, I know a lot of U.S. history still so I do not have trouble coming up with examples that my students would have seen in school for a large number of them. </p>

<p>Moreover, there are some prompts that have been asked as recently as November 2013 (yes 2-3 weeks ago) to which some of these same students have provided beautiful responses that would should surely award them at least a 10. </p>

<p>I would never make a student feel like he has to write about 1984 or Steve Jobs for any prompt. In fact, I’m not even sure any of them ever read 1984 or know that much about Steve Jobs. If someone is struggling with a prompt from a past exam, it probably does not bode particularly well for a future prompt. Yet when this same student is not at all struggling on other recent prompts, it is not obvious what to infer from that then otherwise some prompts just click with certain people. </p>

<p>My hope in this thread was simply to see the types of directions people might take with their essays on some of these prompts that I find challenging. If that would result a student thinking oh ok an essay about the source of information or expertise, maybe I can write about Ian Fleming and maybe now do an essay that is not particularly original resulting in at best a 10, you know what, I think the student would gladly take a 10 than a 4 or a 6 because there are no examples. And I don’t agree that if a student would score a 4 or a 6 on one essay but not another he/she is not college ready.</p>

<p>PLEASE let us NOT have the debate on whether my students are college-ready because they can do all aspects of the test reasonably but struggle on a few random essay prompts here or there. I’d rather just move forward, be productive, and consider how these types of essay prompts could have been tackled.</p>

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<p>My thought on the way to prepare is not to memorize a template and vocab word to use, but to classify the information you already know. </p>

<p>Telling someone that Fabius Maximus verses Hannibal is the “perfect” example for a prompt doesn’t do them much good if they dont know how to use it. </p>

<p>They must have been doing something in high school. If they dont know Hamlet, maybe they know Shirley Jackson. If they didnt read Crime and Punishment maybe they saw Crimes and Misdemeanor. If they just made a list of the works they already knew, biologists, historical figures, inventors, politicians they be a pretty far way long to covering the majority of prompts. </p>

<p>I’d be happy to try any others you want, but there is nothing to say the examples would be know to the kids.</p>

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<p>argbargy Thank you for your willingness to assist me. </p>

<p>I’m not encouraging them to memorize a template and I’m not trying to search for a “perfect” example but in some cases just any example. As I wrote to jkjeremy, I think, there are some prompts where they cannot come up with an example that is not about their mother or father; and in a few of those cases, I cannot do much better.</p>

<p>I actually really like your suggestion to make a list of everything that’s been read in school. We tried that in effect, but what happens in many cases is that the students can barely remember the plots for over half of them to write something intelligible. They think they know something about say Catcher in the Rye or the Civil War, and then we find out they know much less than they realize. </p>

<p>At some level, I am surprised that nobody has encountered this situation as an instructor. Of course I find it frustrating and disappointing and I think we should do better as a society, but I DIGRESS. If you get by in English class with Cliff’s Notes and the like and don’t love to read and the facts you memorize for history go in one ear and out the other, is it surprising? To be fair, it’s not much different for math, but somehow it does not seem wrong to memorize some formulas that students forgot from school for that section. Sure, the essay is not a mathematical formula that can be memorized, but that’s not my point. My point is that I don’t see the problem to discuss history or literature with them if that’s what is needed. I know you wrote earlier something like that parents might see such lessons as nonsense, but I can assure you that the parents I deal with will not if that’s what get’s the score up. </p>

<p>If you wouldn’t mind staying clear of literary references and non-U.S. history – in contrast to U.S. history, current events, inventors, U.S. politicians, and the like – I think that would be most helpful at least for me. I’ll list some additional prompts.</p>

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<p>No, I didn’t mean to imply that this is YOUR goal. I did mean to STATE that this seems to be the goal of many kids on this site (and the cancer is spreading, hence the tweaking of prompts over the last couple years with HUGE changes to come).</p>

<p>As for your question in bold above, the answer is to totally reexamine what an “example” is. I understand that this might not be helpful. Further, my teaching approach differs from others’. It’s based on the premise that most popular ideas are wrong.</p>

<p>It’s probably best to stick with argbargy’s advice here as it’s more suited to what you’re seeking (and within that context, I’d say it’s very sound advice).</p>

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<p>These are prompts in which I cannot think of as many “academic”, “non-personal” examples, particularly in the realms of U.S. history, U.S. current events, and so forth:</p>

<p>Should books portray the world as it is or as it should be? (January 2010)
Do people put too much emphasis on winning? (May 2008)
Is there value in celebrating certain individuals as heroes? (June 2007)
Are photographs straightforward representations of real life, or are they artistic creations reflecting the photographer’s point of view? (March 2011)
[The Dust Bowl comes to mind potentially for this one . . . but I myself would probably flip out if I got this prompt even knowing about Dorothea Lange ]</p>

<p>…and if I could repeat the prompt about information for more U.S.-based examples:
Should people know the source of information before using it? (June 2013)</p>