* Created by Matthew Streit

Rationale

This strategy helps students to formulate their understanding of a text by having students construct their own meaning.  Specifically, this strategy lends well to analyzing texts post-reading and using higher-level thinking skills to illustrate their understanding.  This strategy would work well in many content areas, but Social Studies seems like the best fit.

Source:  Alvermann, Donna E. et. al.  Content Area Reading and Literacy.  Pearson Education, Inc.  Fifth edition.  2007.

Procedure

I have an example of Explain-Elaborate-Defend that would work in a high-school Economics or Social Studies classroom.

Students would:

1. read a New York Times article about the housing market decline (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/11/business/11mortgage.html)
2. analyze the Wikipedia selection on the subprime housing market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis) and follow links from the selection for more information
3. listen to selections of the This American Life housing market podcast (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242)

These next few steps of Explain-Elaborate-Defend can be done with student groups, but I think this activity lends itself well to individual writing.

Explain:

• Students would explain what happened in the housing market decline.
  • What different elements combined to create the crisis?
  • Explain key concepts: mortgage, sub-prime, “credit crunch”, etc.

Elaborate:

• Students would take their explanations and elaborate why these things happened.
  • What economic decisions led to sub-prime mortgages being offered?
  • What factors contributed to the escalating problems in this crisis?
  • What are some possible solutions being offered by policymakers?

Defend:

• Students would defend their reasoning and their possible solutions.
  • What factors did the student feel was important and which ones were disregarded or treated with less importance?
  • Why is one possible solution better than another?
    • Are there political undertones in your solution?

This "housing market" activity would likely work well with a junior or senior class, but to work in 9^th and 10^th grade, an honors section may be necessary without a lot of modeling and teaching of concepts.  With other age-appropriate texts, Explain-Elaborate-Defend can work at all secondary levels.

Other Procedures

I think with the correct scaffolding and modeling the explain-elaborate-defend strategy would work at the middle school level.  For instance 8th graders are constantly seeing the same concepts used in different contexts.  For instance Communism is a form of government rule but many times it is used to explain an economic system as well.  I think the use of a strategy like explain-elaborate-defend would force the kids to understand these concepts at a higher level....by Rick Spinner

In a Language Arts classroom

Students in a language arts classroom could use Explain-Elaborate-Defend to explore the development of characters or themes throughout a piece of literature. Students could explain how a character has changed, elaborate on why the character changed, and defend their position to other students or the teacher.

A brief example using The Crucible by Arthur Miller:

• Explain how Rev. Hale has changed.
•      How does he feel about the afflicted girls?
•      What is his connection to the court?
•      How does he feel about himself?
• Elaborate on why he changed.
•      What causes this change?
•      Why might the author have developed this character in this way?
• Defend your position.
•      Why do you believe what you believe?
•      Provide evidence to support your opinion.

--contributed by Jennifer Farrell

One way that I plan to work structured choice into my classroom this fall will be with my historical fiction unit. After we have finished our class text and have analyzed the elements of historical fiction, students will be presented with a list of 10-15 different historical fiction texts to read of which they will select one. The list is long because they cover so many time periods and types of people. Some examples will include selections from the My Name is America series, No Promises in the Wind and others like Surviving Hitler.  Students will then have the opportunity to read and learn about a period in history that is interesting to them. Outside research on the period as well as the historical elements of the story will be expected. This versions of structured choice will be even better if I pair it with another strategy such as critical response protocol or explain-elaborate-defend.

Contributed by Lisa Holton