Both the SAT and ACT essays now heavily stress analyzing presented arguments or perspectives. Your student will struggle to produce a good essay if she cannot rapidly spin out relevant discussion points – strengths and weaknesses, and evidence.

We find that many teenagers are not adept at this and don’t come up with enough ideas. This is where you can help. When you and your student have 10 free minutes, say, while driving to a dental appointment, practice “spinning” by briefly presenting a current argument or perspective, and then challenging your student to come up quickly with relevant analytical ideas.

Here’s an example. Try bringing this up with your student: Technological advances, such as the smartphone, have had a strong impact on our modes of communication. One point of view is that these advances actually impair communication because they tend to reduce our face-to-face contact. What strengths and weaknesses of this perspective can you think of? What supporting evidence can you supply?

Look for your student to generate points like the following:
– face-to-face indeed vital for some communication, but often not necessary
– video allows much of face-to-face benefit; this is only going to get better
– new communications methods are here to stay; we have no choice but to adapt (as we did to telephone!)
– new communications tech offers huge benefits (a record of interaction; easy to bridge time/distance; asynchronous – respond when convenient) – worth giving up some face-to-face
– we are in novelty phase and may currently overdo some things (e.g., texting); this will sort itself out over time – reaching wise balance between this and face-to-face
– by making us more efficient, new communications tech can free us up for more face-to-face with those most important to us
– new communications tech greatly eases staying in touch, which ultimately could lead to more face-to-face at opportune times (e.g., maintain long-distance friendships – then those people visit and we get face-to-face).

Keep conducting practice sessions until your student can easily crank out potential discussion points. Writing a compelling essay will then be much easier.