Years 9–10 · English · Advanced craft laboratory

Lesson 7: Analytical and Discursive Reasoning

Make evidence do explanatory work, represent a competing view fairly, and synthesise rather than repeat.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga | Learning intentions

We are learning to: develop a line of reasoning that tests evidence and moves between defensible viewpoints.

Success evidence: I can formulate the central tension, integrate a short quotation, explain its significance, and write a synthesising conclusion.

Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show

  1. Notice — locate the genuine tension 6 min
  2. Model — explain what evidence changes 10 min
  3. Guided test — build and contrast paragraphs 13 min
  4. Independent writing — write a short discursive response 20 min
  5. Reader evidence and revision — trace the reasoning 8 min
  6. Exit — the sentence that advances thought 3 min

Total: 60 minutes.

Tirohanga whānui | Teaching focus

PEEL can support early paragraphing, but the acronym is not the intellectual work. This workshop asks what the evidence changes in the argument and how a paragraph advances the whole-text inquiry.

You’ll need

  • Workshop 7 learner page, printed or open digitally.
  • Display the two supplied phone-free study-room positions.
  • Use three colours for quotation, explanation, and synthesis.

Original mentor material

Text A: “Quiet study rooms should be phone-free because a shared rule protects everyone’s concentration.” Text B: “A blanket ban mistakes the tool for the behaviour; phones also hold timers, dictionaries, and accessibility supports.”

Notice — locate the genuine tension 6 min

Run it

  1. Summarise each position in terms its writer would accept.
  2. List the shared concern—effective study—before the disagreement about means.
  3. Reject straw versions such as “one side hates technology” or “the other side hates rules”.

Model — explain what evidence changes 10 min

Run it

  1. Integrate a four-to-eight-word quotation from Text B in a sentence of your own.
  2. Follow it with an explanation of why accessibility supports complicate a blanket rule.
  3. Use a transition that signals testing, not automatic opposition.

Guided test — build and contrast paragraphs 13 min

Run it

  1. Pairs draft a topic sentence that makes a contestable claim about the policy.
  2. Add one quoted phrase and two explanation sentences that move beyond paraphrase.
  3. Write a competing paragraph, then identify what a synthesis must retain from both.

Independent writing — write a short discursive response 20 min

Run it

  1. Answer: “What kind of rule would protect concentration without removing legitimate tools?”
  2. Draft 250–320 words that presents, tests, and connects both positions.
  3. End with a synthesis that names a principle or condition, not “both sides have points”.

Reader evidence and revision — trace the reasoning 8 min

Run it

  1. A reader draws arrows from claim to evidence to explanation; any broken arrow becomes a revision target.
  2. The writer adds, removes, or reorders one sentence to repair the reasoning.
  3. Highlight the change and name its whole-text purpose.

Exit — the sentence that advances thought 3 min

Run it

  1. Copy the sentence that moves beyond summary and explain what new relationship it establishes.

Ngā huarahi ako | Differentiation

Tautoko / Support

  • Use the supplied paragraph frame but require the explanation slot to begin “This matters because …”.
  • Permit a spoken two-viewpoint rehearsal before independent writing.

Toitoi / Extension

  • Vary modality to calibrate certainty across the two positions.
  • Write a conclusion that establishes conditions under which each view should prevail.

Mana, safety, and writer choice

The topic is fictional school-policy practice. Learners may discuss the supplied texts without disclosing disability, phone ownership, home rules, or personal study circumstances.

Hononga marautanga | Curriculum

"Language features (e.g. rhetorical questions, modality, comparisons, cohesive devices), structural features (e.g. thesis or opening statement, topic sentences, paragraphing that builds or contrasts ideas, transitions between viewpoints, a reflective or synthesising conclusion), and stylistic features (e.g. balanced tone, precise vocabulary, varied sentence structures) shape how ideas are conveyed and how readers engage with discursive texts."

"Clarifying purpose means recognising the communicative intention of a text (e.g. to argue a position, analyse a literary text, narrate an experience) and making deliberate choices about structure, language, and style that suit the form and disciplinary context."

Learners clarify a discursive purpose and control thesis, paragraphing, transitions, evidence explanation, balanced tone, and synthesis.

Sources and authority