The truth of the matter is, not all kids make intuitive leaps. Some need explicit, step-by-step instruction.

Super bright, academically gifted children often don’t need to be taught. All you do with those kids is present them with a new concept and materials with which they can practice it on their own. They take off running with exploration of the new learning, while you simply serve as their guide.

It’s easy to work with those sorts of kids! They teach themselves for the most part.

Non-intuitive learners, who make up is the majority of kids out there, need to be taught new concepts and skills. That requires a strong, structured curriculum and hard work on the part of both teacher and student.

But once they do connect to the concept and begin to understand and learn how to apply it, it’s an intensely rewarding experience for both of you.

You get to see their hard-won confidence soar, and you know you had a lot to do with that.

How to Teach Your Kids When a Curricular Unit Isn’t Working 

You’ve purchased a year-long curriculum, and it works for your kids pretty well, but it’s not a perfect fit. Eventually, you run into a learning unit that your kids just don’t get.

They can’t connect to it for reasons that they don’t know how to articulate, because they’re still too young. This is normal, and it happens all the time.

But you still have to figure it out!

That’s when you pull up your sleeves and do a task analysis on that troublesome learning unit. Do this before you spend more money on a different curriculum.

A task analysis is a problem-solving technique that teacher training programs require their student teachers to learn. You’ve probably done this in your homeschool to some degree already.

In a task analysis, you take a close look the skill or concept with which your kids are having difficulty, and you break it down into smaller parts. Then you do a few practice exercises to teach each part to your kids. When your kids get comfortable with each piece, you bring the pieces together again to successfully teach the original concept.

For example, think about taking a class on a subject that’s completely foreign to you. My most recent experience in this was when I took a pottery lesson -- with a potter’s wheel. I’d taken a class like that in the past, and it was an disaster, with the clay going all over the place as soon as I’d start making the wheel turn.

But with the pottery class I took recently, I did the best in my group! That was because the teacher broke the entire process down into tiny little steps, from how to attach the clay to the wheel, to how to put your foot on the pedal to get the wheel turning, to how to hold and use every single tool in the process. He also had laminated copies of his all instructions carefully written out, with pictures of each step at every station.

I was so proud of myself after that experience. I was no longer the pottery misfit I thought I was!

Clearly, the second instructor had done a thorough task analysis of the process for beginner students.

A Task Analysis on The Thesis Statement 

As a writing teacher, I’ve prepared many task analyses in my Writing Rockstars courses. One key area where my students often need a task analysis is in developing a thesis statement for their essays and research papers.

Read through my task analysis on the thesis statement to see a structure you can use for yours -- on any concept or skill your kids are struggling to understand. And if your kids are struggling with their thesis statements, take them through the exercises below!

Thesis Statement Task Analysis

I. What is a thesis statement, what does it do, and why is it important to learn?

The thesis statement is the main idea of an essay or research paper. It’s a single sentence stating what you are going to explain, defend, or prove about your topic and is usually placed at the end of the introduction. The thesis statement gives focus to your essay or research paper. All of your content serves to prove your thesis statement.

II. What are the parts of a thesis statement?

A thesis statement has three parts:

1. A topic that isn’t too broad, or a qualified topic. Unless you’re writing an entire book, it’s important to limit the scope of your topic.

Example of a topic that’s too broad: Swimming.

Example of a qualified topic or a topic that’s not too broad: Learning to float.

2. A controlling idea that you can defend. The controlling idea is what you want to prove about your topic.

Example of a qualified topic with a controlling idea:

Learning to float is important to your safety when swimming.

3. A hint at how you’re going to prove your controlling idea.

These three items combined make a thesis statement!

Note the qualified (not too broad) topic, the controlling idea (what you’re going to prove about your topic), and the indication on how it’s going to be proved in the example below.

Learning to float is important to your safety when swimming, because it helps you conserve energy, reduces fear and panic, and is an important live-saving skill.

III. Design practice exercises so kids can recognize the parts of a thesis statement.

Identify the qualified topic, controlling idea, and hint at how will the thesis statement below will be proved.

Social media has many pros, like its ability to connect people and its unique ability to foster creativity, however, social media also has many cons, unknown to the average parent and teen.

Qualified topic: the pros and cons of social media
Controlling Idea: the unknown cons of social media to parents and teens
How the controlling idea will be proved: A comparison of the pros and cons of social media.

IV. Design practice exercises so kids can distinguish a thesis statement from other types of statements, such as facts and opinions.

Directions: Identify the thesis statement and explain why it's a thesis statement. Then identify which sentences are facts and which are opinions.

1. ____ It is estimated that approximately 200 grizzly bears live in Yellowstone National Park.
2. ____ The survival of grizzly bears in our country should be a top priority.
3. ____ When bears are young cubs, there are twice as many males as females.
4. ____ Only about sixty percent of bear cubs survive the first few years of life.
5. ____ The average life span of a bear today is only five or six years.
6. ____ Five actions need to be taken to save the grizzly bear from extinction.
7. ____ To save the grizzly bear, we need laws from Congress, the cooperation of hunters and campers, and an educated general public.
8. ___ A decision to save the grizzly bear is needed.

Answer key: 1,3,4, and 5 are facts. 2 and 8 are opinions. 6 is also an opinion because it lacks an indication of how the controlling idea will be proved. 7 is a thesis statement.

V. Write your own thesis statement!

Lily Iatridis is the founder of Writing Rockstars, an online writing program that prepares teens for college level writing.