Student Samples: Contrasts & Contradictions and Again & Again in "The Tell-Tale Heart"

The close reading section of my lesson on TTH is coming to an end. I am sharing some student samples of the work we have been doing. 

This student is an immigrant. She worked her butt off on this assignment, asking lots of questions, determined to identify her CCs and AAs - and explain them correctly. Although her writing might not make the most sense to an outside viewer, she really did a fantastic job explaining her thinking (which she still does in Spanish). 

We had to work repeatedly on clarification of thoughts for the assignment. Most of the kids would explain about half their thinking, expecting me to guess the rest. This is one of the better papers for explanation. 

This paper is from one of my special education students. He worked incredibly hard, but there was a great deal of frustration when he didn't get things quite right. I took his first answer because I understood that he was connecting the mid 1800s to his own life as being different (contrast). 

This student does not speak much in class, so I am never quite sure if he is understanding. He was one of the first to finish his individual work. 

This is my favorite assignment. The student recently came to my class from resource English. Since being in my class, she has been absorbing information like a sponge. 

This student is another who doesn't speak much. This is some of the best work I have seen from him all year.