Templates and imitative writing has been used since classical times to empower students and may be more useful now than ever as we enter the age of the Common Core State Standards.

1. Exploring the Use of Templates in
Creative and Academic Writing
Dr. Gerald Graff
Dr. Cathy Birkenstein Graff
Cecilia Pinto
Eileen Murphy

2. The Problem
• Students need to understand and express complex ideas.
• Students from English Language Learners (ELLs) to Academic
Language Learners (ALLs,) are often unnecessarily bewildered
by academic literacy.
• Current methods to address this bewilderment are often
inadequate.

3. Templates as Tools
• Students need to understand and express complex ideas.
Templates help students read and write more powerfully.
• Students from English Language Learners (ELLs) to Academic
Language Learners (ALLs,) are often unnecessarily bewildered
by academic literacy.
• Current methods to address this bewilderment are often
inadequate.

4. Templates as Tools
• Students need to understand and express complex ideas.
Templates help students read and write more powerfully.
• Students from English Language Learners (ELLs) to Academic
Language Learners (ALLs,) are often unnecessarily bewildered
by academic literacy.
Templates help demystify texts and text structures.
• Current methods to address this bewilderment are often
inadequate.

5. Templates as Tools
• Students need to understand and express complex ideas.
Templates help students read and write more powerfully.
• Students from English Language Learners (ELLs) to Academic
Language Learners (ALLs,) are often unnecessarily bewildered
by academic literacy.
Templates help demystify texts and text structures.
• Current methods to address this bewilderment are often
inadequate.
Templates help teachers provide the scaffolding students
need to understand and express complexities.

6. The Panelists
• Dr. Gerald Graff
• Dr. Cathy Birkenstein Graff
• Cecilia Pinto
• Eileen Murphy

7. Reading the Past, Writing the Future
Although fierce debates have raged over
____templates that promote formulaic
writing_, the opponents all share a
commitment to templates which are
inherent to creativity and critical thinking
that they may not recognize.
3 Artifacts

8. Classical and Renaissance Imitation
• “collections of
commonplaces, figures, proverbs, and all the
rest served as a source of approved material
which could be inserted directly or altered to
fit individual needs.“
Abbott, Don Paul. "Rhetoric and Writing in the Renaissance." A Short History of Writing
Instruction: from Ancient Greece to Modern America. Ed. James J. Murphy. Mahwah, NJ:
Hermagoras, 2001. 160. Print.

9. Arguments, History, and Literary
Templates
• “Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers from which
they dare not dismount.’”
–Churchill
• “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the
back of the tiger ended up inside.”
—Kennedy

10. McKay’s Sonnet and Churchill
“If We Must Die” by Claude McKay
If we must die—let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

11. Return to Old School?: Of Course Not
“Write the murder scene. When you have
written it, turn to Oliver Twist, Chapter
47, and see where and why Dickens’ account
is more thrilling than yours” (6)
--Primer of Literary Criticism (1924)

12. Used Well, Templates Can Be An
Excellent Tool
Demystifying Genres across Disciplines
English Language Learners (ELLs)
Academic Language Learners (ALLs)
Building student resources for responding to rigorous
reading and writing tasks in CCSS

13. CCSS Not All New
“Discuss the ways in which O’Brien uses a
particular character, image, or storytelling
technique in The Things They Carried in order
to comment on the nature of storytelling.”
--Murphy’s A. P. English Assignment

14. Elements in Claims for Describing Text
• Choice-maker-Who (Author, Speaker)
• Element-What (Detail, Character, Image, etc.)
• Choice-How (How the element is manipulated by the
author)
• Verbs for Describing Text
• Interpreted Meanings-Why/So What (Ideas and
Themes Readers Construct)

15. Describing Text Template
“_______ , the author of _______ uses _____________
(choice-maker) (title) (literary element)
to show (or another verb) _______________.”
(Interpreted meaning)

16. Where My Template Went Terribly
Wrong
“I’m confused…is that what you asked for?
Toni Morrison uses dialogue, characterization
and internal conflict in the context of Beloved
to explore the differences between men and
women.
-sara”

17. Training Wheels for Complexity:
Student Writing as Data
“In The Things They Carried actions aren’t taken for the sake
of actions, but for the sake of anticipated reactions. Using the
character Tim O’Brien, O’Brien shows how reality-changing
decisions are executed based almost exclusively on fiction. In
“On the Rainy River” he demonstrates the mind’s fabrication
of an audience on which to test out potential courses of
action; this audience’s reaction takes priority to staying true to
oneself. “
--Kristen G.

18. Templates: Old Practices Rendered
New
• Exploring templates and “the moves” in
mentor texts (Literary and Discipline-Specific
/Informational texts)
• Practice expressing complex ideas aloud and
informally (imaginative and academic claims)

19. Scaffolding Accountable Discourse:
Think-Aloud
“Read and discuss imagery in small groups.”
--“This makes me picture …”
(Visualizing Imagery)
--“I imagine the speaker’s voice sounding
like…”
(Exploring Tone)

20. Scaffolding Accountable Discourse:
Workshop Templates
“Peer Workshop your paper/poems”
Writing or speaking about each other’s
work as authors instills the habit of
thinking about author’s purpose and
author’s craft, of seeing readings as
writings.

21. “Approved Sources?” Not in the 21st
Century!
We will not impart most of the most
important knowledge our students will gain in
this century; therefore, it is imperative to
equip them to be both critical consumers of
text and skillful communicators.

22. Connecting the Past to Our Future
• Instilling desire and skill to communicate
powerfully in our democracy is the core of our
common work.

23. The Special Place of Argument in the Standards
From Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects
Appendix A: Research Supporting Key Elements of the Standards
• …the Standards put particular emphasis on students’ ability to write
sound arguments on substantive topics and issues, as this ability is
critical to college and career readiness. English and education professor
Gerald Graff (2003) writes that “argument literacy” is fundamental to
being educated. The university is largely an “argument culture,” Graff
contends….He claims that because argument is not standard in most
school curricula, only 20 percent of those who enter college are prepared
in this respect….When teachers ask students to consider two or more
perspectives on a topic or issue, something far beyond surface
knowledge is required: students must think critically and deeply, assess
the validity of their own thinking, and anticipate counterclaims in
opposition to their own assertions.

24. In recent discussions of___________, a controversial issue has been
whether _____________. On the one hand, some argue that____________.
From this perspective,____________________. On the other
hand, however, others argue that________________. In the words of one of this
view’s main proponents, “______________________.” According to this
view,_________.
In sum, then, the issue is whether____________or_____________________.
My own view is that______________________. Though I concede
that_____________, I still maintain that_________________. For
example,_________________________. Though some might object that__
_________________________________, I reply that______________. The issue is
important because___________________________________.

25. Debate Templates
1. Although it is often said________, I argue ____________________. [DISAGREE]
2. X argues __________________, and I agree because _______________. [AGREE]
3. On the surface, this text suggests _________. But a closer analysis shows _____.
[COUNTERINTERPRETATION]
4. I used to think that _____. Having read___, however, I now see ____________.
*I WAS LOST BUT NOW I’M FOUND+
5. X argues ____, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, ____. On
the other hand, ____. *I’M OF TWO MINDS+
6. X can’t have it both ways. At the same time she says _____, she also says_____.
[CONTRADICTION SPOTTER]
7. Researchers have long wondered why____. My research suggests an explanation,
namely, that _____. [PROBLEM SOLVING]

26. Debate Templates Continued
8. Debates over ___ have long obscured the far more important issue of _____.
[DISPLACE THE DEBATE]
9. Seemingly esoteric theory X actually sheds light on the practical matter of _____.
*IT’S CLEARER/MORE RELEVANT THAN YOU THINK+
10. Although fierce debates have raged over _____, the opponents all share a
commitment to ____that they may not recognize. [OPPOSITES CONVERGE]
11. Until now I’ve been suggesting/it’s been believed that ____. But it’s more
complicated. For one thing, _____. For another, ____. And complicating
matters even further, _____. *IT’S MORE COMPLEX+
12. Of course it might be objected that _____. And I concede that ___________.
Nevertheless, I would still maintain that _____. [NAYSAYER]
13. We all agree nowadays that___________________. Where the agreement ends,
however, is on_________ [WHERE CONTROVERSY BEGINS]

27. Questions