T3XT for reading analysis and written response
Rigor
What Is T3XT? A 3-step process for writing a collegeready analysis of any textual sample.
The Concept The key to comprehension and then synthesizing of knowledge lies in being able to understand and express the relationship among these three elements: Te xt Context Subtext
Te xt Keyword(s)...they are the cited evidence used in a response.
Context What happened to inspire this...what is going on around this prompt?
Subtext Author s purpose, theme, tone...reading between the lines for meaning. This is the synthesis part - the most important part.
Example: Background excerpt from Buffalo Tales: The Near-Extermination of the American Bison by Shepard Krech III, Brown University; National Humanities Center The decline of the buffalo is largely a nineteenth-century story. The size of the herds was affected by predation (by humans and wolves), disease, fires, climate, competition from horses, the market, and other factors. Fires often swept the grasslands, sometimes maiming and killing buffaloes. Millions of horses in Indian herds competed for grasses. Drought was perhaps most significant; severe prior to the fifteenth century, and episodic in the eighteenth, it might have been worst at the very moment when other pressures converged in the early years of the decades from 1840 to 1880. Yet no matter the impact from drought, horses, or fires, what doomed the buffalo most were (1) the commodities markets for buffalo tongues, skins, meat, and robes; and (2) the railroads, which provided the means of transportation to rapidly expanding European-American populations. Again largely a nineteenth-century tale, the final stage from 1867 to 1884 was notable for the fury of the slaughter for hides and other products. In 1867 the first of five railroads split the herd in the heart of buffalo range, a process repeated again and again. Provisioners like Buffalo Bill Cody, sportsmen, farmers, and ranchers who craved the prairies for crops and cattle all placed new pressure on bison. The railroads made transportation of buffalo hides easy and cheap, so market hunters flooded in, wasting three to five times the numbers they killed. The carnage from herds already depleted by other factors defied description: 4-5 million killed in three years alone. The commercial hunt was finished by the fall of 1883. Indians, confined to reservations and distressed from hunger, took part until the bitter end.
Example: Poem Without Title: for my father who lived without ceremony by Diane Glancy Textbook, pg. 39 It s hard you know without the buffalo, the shaman, the arrow, but my father went out each day to hunt as though he had them. He worked in the stockyards. All his life he brought us meat. No one marked his first kill, no one sang his buffalo song. Without a vision he had migrated to the city and went to work in the packing house. When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. I remember the animal tracks of his car backing out the drive in snow and mud, the aerial on his old car waving like a bow string. I remember the silence of his lost power, the red buffalo painted on his chest. Oh, I couldn t see it but it was there, and in the night I heard his buffalo grunt like a snore.
Example Example Prompt: Explain how the text, context, and subtext connect in Without Title: for my father who lived without ceremony by Diane Glancy to produce meaning.
Te xt Context Subtext
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt stockyards kill
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. hunt This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. stockyards When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. kill The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in.
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. No one marked his first kill... I remember the silence of his lost power... stockyards When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. There is a history the father remembers and seems lonely that he can t experience it. kill The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in. The wife doesn t understand him so there is a disconnect. But the daughter - the narrator - seems interested.
From here, the goal is to make 3 connections between boxes, ensuring that each column is represented at least once.
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. No one marked his first kill... I remember the silence of his lost power... stockyards When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. There is a history the father remembers and seems lonely that he can t experience it. kill The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in. The wife doesn t understand him so there is a disconnect. But the daughter - the narrator - seems interested.
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. No one marked his first kill... I remember the silence of his lost power... stockyards When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. There is a history the father remembers and seems lonely that he can t experience it. kill The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in. The wife doesn t understand him so there is a disconnect. But the daughter - the narrator - seems interested.
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. No one marked his first kill... I remember the silence of his lost power... stockyards When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. There is a history the father remembers and seems lonely that he can t experience it. kill The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in. The wife doesn t understand him so there is a disconnect. But the daughter - the narrator - seems interested.
For your paragraph, you will need to write your own introduction and conclusion sentences, but the body is already written for you from the graphic organizer.
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt stockyards kill The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in. No one marked his first kill... I remember the silence of his lost power... There is a history the father remembers and seems lonely that he can t experience it. The wife doesn t understand him so there is a disconnect. But the daughter - the narrator - seems interested. The poem, Without Title: for my father who lived without ceremony by Diane Glancy, is about a Native American who feels trapped in a different time from his ancestors which brings about a sense of cultural loneliness. In the poem, Glancy shows a sense of separation between the father and his ancestors in that the father s ancestors went on the hunt for buffalo while the father works in the stockyards. Glancy also mentions, When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. This shows that the wife doesn t understand the father which further emphasizes this loneliness. Another line of the poem reads, No one marked his first kill... which reminds the reader that long ago a Native American s first kill would have been something important to celebrate, but it never happened for the father. This further highlights how the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present he s living in. Upon reading Glancy s poem with focus, the reader can truly grasp the sense of a loss of cultural identity within the modern Native American society.
From Paragraph to Essay Instead of each of the 3 pairings being sentences, make them paragraphs.
Te xt Context Subtext buffalo hunt stockyards kill The father s ancestors hunted buffalo. The father works at the stockyards. This seems to be taking place in present time, after the Native Americans were removed from their lands. When he brought home his horns and hides my mother said get rid of them. The culture of the father s past doesn t seem to fit into the present scenario he is living in. No one marked his first kill... I remember the silence of his lost power... There is a history the father remembers and seems lonely that he can t experience it. The wife doesn t understand him so there is a disconnect. But the daughter - the narrator - seems interested. Paragraph 1: Intro Paragraph 2 Paragraph 3 Paragraph 4 Paragraph 5: Conclusion
Argumentative Essay Claim Best Evidence Counter-Argument Refute with Evidence Call to Action
Te xt Context Subtext Counter-Argument Perspective
Te xt Context Subtext Counter-Argument Perspective Once the students know the argumentative format, they can just plug the counter-argument connection into the third paragraph. The connections above and below are the Best Evidence and Refute with Evidence paragraphs.
Te xt Context Subtext A A B B C C Counter-Argument Perspective Paragraph 1: Claim Paragraph 2: Best Evidence Paragraph 3: Counter-Argument Paragraph 4: Refute with Evidence Paragraph 5: Call to Action
Te xt Context Subtext A A B B C C Counter-Argument Perspective Paragraph 1: Claim Paragraph 2: Best Evidence Paragraph 3: Counter-Argument Paragraph 4: Refute with Evidence Paragraph 5: Call to Action A-A C-C B-B