Hexagonal Thinking Activities for AP Lang

Let’s face it. Sometimes it can be difficult to incorporate hands-on activities in high school English classes. Hexagonal thinking activities can be a great way to reinforce concepts and engage students.

 

What is hexagonal thinking?

Hexagonal thinking, developed by curriculum director Betsy Potash, encourages students to think critically about a topic or text.

 

For AP® Lang specifically, hexagonal thinking activities can be an excellent way to reinforce claims, evidence, and commentary for each of the FRQs. It can also be an excellent way to make connections between multiple texts or sources.

 

Hexagonal Thinking Activities for Rhetorical Analysis

I recently introduced my 10th graders to the fundamental concepts of rhetorical analysis and used hexagonal thinking to reinforce the concepts of claims, evidence, and commentary.

 

How it Worked

We read and discuss the choices and message of three related nonfiction texts in previous periods: “What’s in a Name?” by Henry Gates Jr., “My Name is Margaret” by Maya Angelou, and “The F Word” by Firoozeh Dumas.

 

We used magnetic dry erase hexagons, and they were amazing! However, you can also use paper hexagons and have groups complete .

 

If using the dry erase hexagons, you’ll want dry erase markers (fine tip ones worked best) and an eraser if students mess up (tissues work just fine.)

 

If using paper, using colored pens helps.

 

Step 1: Determine a theme or central claim.

For our activity, the central idea was “names are an integral component of one’s identity.” This thematic statement applied to all texts.

 

Write your central claim or theme on a hexagon. This hexagon will become you “base.” (I was short one magnet, so I traced one on the board.)

 

Step 2: Determine rhetorical choices within the text.

We brainstormed a list of possible choices to write about from the text. Then student groups selected the choice they wanted to focus on.

 

Step 3: Write a claim.

Students worked as a group to write a claim about the author’s use of that choice on their hexagon. When finished, they put their hexagon magnet on the board.

 

Step 4: Select evidence.

Students worked in groups to select two quotes that proved their claim. For the purposes of this activity, I told them they could write the quotes on the hexagon; they didn’t need to embed the quote. I also reminded students to try to select shorter quotes whenever possible, as we will be working on embedding evidence in upcoming lessons.

 

Once students wrote their evidence, they attached that hexagon to their claim.

 

At this point, there was a bit of conversation between the groups about the arrangement of the magnets. Having students justify the positioning of the hexagons can be a possible component of the activity. I find this to be true when using hexagonal thinking for synthesis essays. (More info on that to come later in this post.)

 

Step 5: Write commentary.

Commentary is typically the most difficult component of a rhetorical analysis essay, and since my 10th graders are just starting out with this style of writing, allowing them to work as a team to generate 1-2 commentary sentences helped students learn from each other.

 

One quick tip for helping novice writers is to encourage them to use a verb other than shows, such as “highlights,” “illustrates,” “implies,” or “emphasizes.”

 

Once done, have students add their hexagon to the board.

 

When doing this activity, I read the hexagons to the class after the claims, evidence, and commentary round that way groups could hear what each other had written.

 

Overall, my students seemed to really liked this activity, and I think this could be adapted in so many ways.

 

Synthesis Hexagonal Thinking Activities

Hexagonal thinking can be a great way to have students identify relationships between sources. It can also be a hands-on way to have students “outline” an essay.

 

If you’re worried students might feel overwhelmed with hexagonal thinking, you might try the synthesis dinner party activity first and then try hexagonal thinking with a subsequent prompt

 

For more information about the synthesis dinner party, check out this post. 

 

Argument Hexagonal Thinking Activities

Students can use hexagonal thinking to plan brainstorm a line of reasoning for an argument essay.

 

For an evidence brainstorming activity, have students brainstorm evidence by writing the evidence on a hexagonal. If you use an acronym such as CHORES or REHUGO, have students color code their paper hexagons based on the type of evidence.

 

Additionally you can do an argument activity similar to the rhetorical analysis activity above by having students create a thesis, claims, evidence, and commentary to demonstrate their line of reasoning. While a traditional outline might be simpler, having students be able to move the hexagons adds a hands-on component.

 

As with the other variations of hexagonal thinking, you can have students explain their rationale for placing the hexagons where they did either by discussing it with a partner, group, or whole class or by writing a short explanation.

 

Have you used hexagonal thinking in your high school English classes? If so, how did it go?

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: The links to the hexagonal dry erase magnets and flair pens listed above are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.