Fieldwork Day 3: The PEA Method

Today I'm going to talk about peas.  Peas are small, round, green vegetables... and that was also a pretty bad joke.  After all, this blog exists to share all I know about teaching English Language Arts,  all the aspects of the subject, and how to do so with minimal to no technology.  My last intention is to throw readers a crazy vegetable plot twist. 

The students in my fieldwork class are still working on their essays, and many of them were continually asking Mr. B and myself how to write their body paragraphs.  The PEA method is a cool way to help your students remember how to structure the body of their essays.

I learned the PEA method from one of my high school English teachers, and I've written so many papers since that it's now a subconscious process.  The acronym PEA stands for point, example, and analysis.

Point

Like the thesis statement summarizes what will be discussed in an essay, the topic sentence of each paragraph highlights which argument in the thesis it will specifically address.  The topic sentence is the point of each body paragraph.  Topic sentences and thesis statements have many similarities: each of them are typically one sentence, concise, and are arguable, as opposed to general statements of fact.

Example

The topic sentence of any body paragraph should be followed with an example.  Examples could be considered as outside ideas that can be cited and used to back up what the topic sentence states.  Mr. B told his class that their papers should have a citation every five to seven sentences.

Analysis

The tail end of each body paragraph should be filled with analysis.  In the analysis, students should be able to explain how the citation they included supports their argument, and show how the claim made in the body paragraph ties back into their thesis statement.  As a rule of thumb, the length of analysis should be twice the length of the citation to be sure the analysis is adequate.  So, if the example used is two lines long, the analysis should be four.  

My hope is that teachers, as well as students still working toward a credential, will use this idea and encourage students to PEA all over their papers!