They won't plan their essay (but they should)

Teaching is a great profession for throwing around the phrase, “If I had a dollar for every time I’d told them…” As teachers, we apply it to many things. As an Economics teacher, I apply it to essay planning.

Economics essays are challenging. In my experience, there are no magic formulas or winning scaffolds. Students have to fully engage with the unique question and provide a solid mix of economic theory and current stats to support their discussion. 

And it really is more of a discussion. That’s how I view it. In the NSW Economics HSC, you’re not really creating a thesis statement and rattling it off at every opportunity. Instead, you’ve got to engage with the question...as messy as it might be (I see you 2018 Eco HSC Q26). 

Well, this escalated quickly. From the 2018 Eco HSC.

But this is hard. Students, understandably, want scaffolds and structures and guaranteed ways to land Band 6s. And lots of people promise this. So, as a teacher, how do you get students to think differently about essays?

My ongoing challenge is to have students make meaningful attempts to plan their extended responses. With 20 marks on offer, I don’t want them to simply start writing and see where it leads. I want them to have a roadmap and follow this closely as the clocks ticks. 

In working with students, I’m not fussed about how their essay plans look. I prefer them to be messy with lots of evidence of exploration and thinking. Practice plans can be long; in an exam, they’d probably need to be shorter and tighter. If I had to sum up my ideal process, I’d like students to throw all their ideas out there (in response to the question), and then rearrange them in a way that makes sense.

Perhaps the best way to demonstrate this is to show you. The video below is my process of engaging with a tricky but common Balance of Payments essay question. You can see how I go about addressing the question, in a comprehensive way, before I’d even write a formal word.

How important is essay planning in your practice? How do you get students to undertake planning in exam situations?