Learn to Analyze Choice
Writing Skills: voice, idea, organisation
Clarity and coherence.
They are important aspects of good writing. They are also skills which ESL students can learn in the writing class.
By clarity, I mean the reader can understand the writer’s meaning. By coherent, I mean the text is well organized so it’s easy to understand, focused because it’s about one main idea and complete because it digs down to explore assumptions. Helping ESL students learn to write with clarity and coherence is the purpose of the writing assignment.
The backdrop of this exercise is a story about moral choices. It is a thinking exercise with layers.
The gist: students will read a story that involves choices and try to uncover the underlying assumptions. Students will also evaluate those choices and assumptions.
There is no right or wrong answer, one might suppose, when it comes to moral questions. The key point is that students push hard to understand the implications of decisions. What lies at the bottom of their choice?
Flow
Step 1 Explain Concept
Introduce writing task by explaining moral choice. The choice is often based on a principle or belief. Often the principle or belief is not stated. In this writing assignment, the challenge is to uncover those hidden principles or beliefs and articulate them in the text.
Step 2 Provide Examples
Examples help students understand the meaning of a choice:
You and four other people are in a boat on the ocean. You are far from land or help. The boat is sinking. One person must leave the boat and go into the water. That person will probably die because the ocean is cold. Who should be removed from the boat? Why?
You are sitting on a bus. There are no empty seats. Lots of passengers are standing. Three people get on the bus: an old woman, a pregnant woman with a 6 month old baby and a teenager with a cast and crutches. What do you do?
Step 3 Describe the Task
The writing task is to analyze the choices made by two characters in a short story. Both boys had to make a choice, but handled the situation differently.
The story is called The Empty Pot. It’s a story about children and flowers.
The analysis should probably include four parts:
1 Summarize the story (e.g. characters, setting, plot).
2 Describe the choice made by the honest boy. That’s the easy part. The hard part is discovering and describing the underlying principles or beliefs which support that choice. This is the thinking part of the exercise.
3 Describe the choice made by the dishonest boy. Also describe the underlying principles or beliefs which support that choice.
4 Make an assessment. Present an argument about which choice was morally better. This means the student must compare and evaluate – not the choices – but the underlying assumptions.
That is a challenge.
Bonus consideration: if a student decides that it is not possible to say one set of principles is better than another, encourage the student to think a little deeper about the consequences of that conclusion.
Does that mean there is no universal moral code?
Ouch, that is a question which might lead to some interesting ideas.
Step 4 Write
Students should be able to produce an 1 to 2 page draft. Teacher feedback might focus on helping students uncover weak areas in their analysis. This will probably include helping them uncover unspoken assumptions.
Step 5 Optional Pair Work Activity
Before students begin the task of writing and analysis, it might be a good idea to break students into pairs or small groups. Working through the task with a partner might help students explore the issues more deeply, clarify uncertainties about the task and brainstorm ideas.
Extra Resources
Here is a terrific video that can be used as an alternate activity prompt. It’s about a man facing a moral dilemma. It’s suitable for students with high intermediate+ listening skills. Through the dialogue, he tries to rationalize a bad choice and address objections (i.e. the arguments against one choice).
If your class is talented and creative, they could write a moral dilemma story based on the same format: two people working through the problems of a moral dilemma through dialogue.
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