As mentioned in our last post, TEEL stands for: Topic Sentence, Evidence, Explain, Link.
Explain what?
The Explanation section is where students analyse the Evidence and show off their mastery of the text. Our favourite way to frame it for our students is to ask:
How does the Evidence prove the Topic Sentence is true or correct?
~TSE Tuition
By asking this question, we help our students engage with the Evidence offered in the prior sentence in light of what their body paragraph is supposed to be arguing. The question forces the student to connect the Evidence with their argument, sidestepping the trap of storytelling.
Often, weaker students will go on to explain the context behind their Evidence if we don’t prompt them with this question, and explain like this:
Rooke himself is able to realise that even though he is not the one performing the acts of “cruelty”, he is just “as much a part of it”.
Here, there is very little analysis. It is just a summary of what Rooke comes to understand in Kate Grenville’s The Lieutenant. If we were to ask the student ‘how does the Evidence prove the Topic Sentence is true’, then our student might write:
Rooke’s realisation that he is ‘a part of’ the ‘cruelty’ of the British Empire is due to the growing complexity of his moral compass.
Which brings me to our next piece of advice: the Explanation should be 2 sentences long, or twice as long as the Evidence. Since this is where the bulk of the student’s analysis happens, it only makes sense that there should be more bulk in this section!
In the example sentence above, we can see that there is room for further analysis:
Rooke’s realisation that he is ‘a part of’ the ‘cruelty’ of the British Empire is due to the growing complexity of his moral compass. His acknowledgement of his guilt through belonging to the colonising party represent his growing understanding that colonialism is abhorrent and inexcusable.
In the last example, there is more engagement with the themes as well as the Evidence. Rather than summarising what Rooke realises, there is now interpretation of what Rooke understands and how it affects his perspective of himself.
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