Mrs. Lacey Sexton’s 8th Grade English classes at McNabb Middle School used the “Says, Means, Matters” graphic organizer and sentence starters to support their extended response writing. Students analyzed excerpts from Frederick Douglass’s narrative to determine how his intentional word choice and use of figurative language helped create tone. Using the organizer, students first identified what the text says, then explained what each quote means, and finally discussed why their selected evidence matters to the overall message and tone of the narrative excerpt. This structure helped students clearly develop their analysis and support their ideas with evidence from the text.
Lacey Sexton
McNabb Middle School
Montgomery County Schools
8th Grade
