In this lesson, students will identify and practice using active verbs and strong, descriptive language as they work to show rather than tell their reader about the important conflicts of their narrative. Students will then begin working on a first draft.
In this lesson, students will work on their final revision. This is the last class period that they will have to work on this narrative. If they finish early, a variety of extension opportunities will be available to enhance their narrative.
In this lesson, students will work with their writing groups to revise the first draft of their narrative, looking closely at descriptive language, as well as introductions and conclusions.
A reader’s first impression of a writer is his or her language use. In this lesson, students and their groups will work to make sure that their final drafts make the best impression possible: they’ll edit each other’s work for language use, spelling, and punctuation.
The purpose of this first informational Benchmark Assessment (Cold Write) is to determine what students already know about informational writing. Students will respond to a writing prompt, and you will score results as a measure of early work. Then they’ll finish their first revision of Your Character Narrative. They’ll write, confer with you, and perhaps get some help from group members.
What has “fallen apart” in this novel, and who’s to blame for this destruction? Could Okonkwo’s fate have been avoided? Could Umuofian society have held together better? How? In this lesson, students will participate in a discussion to reflect on and attempt to answer these questions and others.
How do we decide what’s “fair”? In this lesson, students will think about what they’ve learned so far about Umuofian justice, and about whether they (and their characters) agree with the systems that exist. They’ll also prepare for the next lesson’s in-class discussion.
Students explore the concepts of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial.
In Module 11.3, students engage in an inquiry-based, iterative process for research. Building on work with evidence-based analysis in Modules 11.1 and 12.2, students explore topics that have multiple positions and perspectives by gathering and analyzing research based on vetted sources to establish a position of their own. Students first generate a written evidence-based perspective, which will serve as the early foundation of what will ultimately become a written research-based argument paper. The research-based argument paper synthesizes and articulates several claims using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence to support the claims. Students read and analyze sources to surface potential problem-based questions for research, and develop and strengthen their writing by revising and editing.
Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .
Module 12.1 includes a shared focus on text analysis and narrative writing. Students read, discuss, and analyze two nonfiction personal narratives, focusing on how the authors use structure, style, and content to craft narratives that develop complex experiences, ideas, and descriptions of individuals. Throughout the module, students learn, practice, and apply narrative writing skills to produce a complete personal essay suitable for use in the college application process.
Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .
What are “rules to live by”? How do people formulate and use “rules” to improve their lives? How do people communicate these “rules” to others? In this module, students consider these questions as they read the novel Bud, Not Buddy, Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, President Barack Obama’s Back-to-School Speech, “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and informational research texts. At the start of Unit 1, students launch their study of Bud, Not Buddy, establishing a set of routines for thinking, writing, and talking about Bud’s rules to live by. They read the novel closely for its figurative language and word choice, analyzing how these affect the tone and meaning of the text. In the second half of the unit, students engage in a close reading of the Steve Jobs speech, focusing on how Jobs develops his ideas at the paragraph, sentence, and word level. Students use details from the speech to develop claims about a larger theme. During Unit 2, students continue to explore the theme of “rules to live by” in the novel as well as through close reading of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Students analyze how the structure of a poem contributes to its meaning and theme. In a mid-unit assessment, students compare and contrast how Bud, Not Buddy and “If” address a similar theme. Unit 2 culminates with students writing a literary argument essay in which they establish a claim about how Bud uses his “rules”: to survive or to thrive. Students substantiate their claim using specific text-based evidence including relevant details and direct quotations from the novel. In Unit 3, students shift their focus to their own rules to live by and conduct a short research project. Students work in expert groups (research teams) to use multiple informational sources to research that topic. As a final performance task, students use their research to write an essay to inform about one important “rule to live by” supported with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, and examples.
Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .
In this module, students read, analyze and evaluate informational and argument writing and build, through focused instruction, the skills required to craft strong and well-supported argument writing of their own. Through the study of a variety of texts, students learn to think of the products they use and consume everyday as part of a complex web of global production and trade that extends not only to distant lands but to the past as well.
Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .
Students will create a beginning resume that represents their current work experience and demonstrates their knowledge of rhetorical situations for professional writing.
The INFOhio Citation Guide includes a variety of websites, tutorials, documents, and videos for grades 6-12 to support students as they cite sources and provide attribution for resources and images used during the research process.
Learn how to write an expository essay with opinion, reason and evidence while creating your very own comic strip!
With superhero Captain Opinion and her sidekicks, Reason and Evidence, the viewer goes on a fun adventure into the world of opinions and the importance of supporting them with lots of reasons and evidence.
Learning Objective:
Have students write an expository essay that establishes a central idea in a topic sentence; includes supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations; and contains a concluding statement.