I did a quick thinking exercise with my students today. In an effort to explain analysis in a different context, I put a picture of some kind of chili mac casserole up on the screen and posed the question, Would you eat this? Whether the answer was yes or no, I knew that when asked why, they would point to ingredients they recognized in the picture.
"That's analysis!" I explained. "You are breaking something down into its parts to see what it's made of!"
My follow up question was, What would you add or take out to make it a better meal?
More cheese! Less tomato! No peppers! More peppers! Gluten-free macaroni!
"That's evaluation and synthesis!" I told them. "Writers do that, too!"
Perhaps the analogy was a bit abstract, but I'll keep working on it. Oh, and anecdotally? All the classes before lunch loved the picture! After lunch? They were quite a bit more critical.
"That's analysis!" I explained. "You are breaking something down into its parts to see what it's made of!"
My follow up question was, What would you add or take out to make it a better meal?
More cheese! Less tomato! No peppers! More peppers! Gluten-free macaroni!
"That's evaluation and synthesis!" I told them. "Writers do that, too!"
Perhaps the analogy was a bit abstract, but I'll keep working on it. Oh, and anecdotally? All the classes before lunch loved the picture! After lunch? They were quite a bit more critical.
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