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#1  In groups of four or fewer, you'll decide which five you want to read. Open up each and skim to see which appeal to you. Annotate as you read.  Look for significant strategies.  Pay attention to the obvious--repetition, rhetorical questions, analogies, etc.--but also look for strategies that might not be as easily evident.  Use the strategies you've identified and the themes to help you determine what each essay is really ABOUT.  Try to develop an argument for the essay being about something other than its topic.  Your argument might begin, "The topic of the essay is _____, but what the author is REALLY saying is ______."  Or "Embedded in the author's essay on _____ are larger themes of ______."  Develop your argument with evidence from the text.  You should be putting yourself on a rhetorical limb, so sell your ideas hard.  

#2  Write your own short essay (a page or two) in which you try to use a specific and narrow topic to communicate a general and broader idea or theme.