4th - 6th Writing, January 9

Our first class back from our Christmas break was exuberant and delightful. I was happily surprised that quite a few students had done the optional extra credit writing.

Lesson:
We began again with our brief Brainwarmer exercise, which the students seem to enjoy. Many of the students read their stories aloud to the class afterwards.

For the main part of the lesson, I showed the class an easy formula for answering simple essay questions such as those which may be found in textbook chapter reviews or quizzes.
Subject: Turn the question around to make it a statement beginning with what or who is the subject.
Sort: What sort (category, classification) of person/place/thing is the subject?
Specifics: What specifically is important about this subject in this context?

For example, suppose the question asks Who was Louisa May Alcott?
Subject: Louisa May Alcott was
Sort: a nineteenth-century American author
Specifics: who wrote Little Women and other novels.

In another example, if the question asks What is photosynthesis?
Subject: Photosynthesis is
Sort: a biochemical process
Specifics: whereby plants use produce food energy from sunlight.

This basic pattern provides easy answers which are appropriate for simple questions that can be answered in one sentence. In addition, these answers can serve handily as topic sentences when paragraph-length responses are needed.(With a slight expansion of specifics, these answers become thesis statements for longer essay answers.)

Students will face many essay questions from now through college, so this practice should help them tremendously.

Assignment:
Write a strong paragraph in response to the essay question, "Who is [historical person of choice]?"

Use the pattern above (Subject, sort, specifics) to form a topic sentence.

Write the rest of the paragraph as usual, with solid information arranged in sensible order, with a variety of sentence openers, and lively, vivid word choices. Be sure to finish with a concluding sentence. Add an interesting title.

Since so many students were happy to discuss Davy Crockett when we used him as one of our class examples, I suggested him as our homework topic. In that case, students would write a paragraph answering the question, "Who is Davy Crockett?"

Other students asked to write a paragraph answer to "Who is Louisa May Alcott?" or "Who is Laura Ingalls Wilder?" That is fine. In fact, students may choose any historical figure for this assignment.

NOTE: This is not meant to be a big research project. I do not want the students to start from scratch reading and writing about someone with whom they are unfamiliar. I prefer they write about someone they have already studied, ideally someone who interests them.

Students this age tend to begin these assignments in minute detail like they might have read in a book-length biography. Partway through the process, when they have written three-fourths of a page just about their subject's birth and early childhood, they suddenly realize they are rewriting a book, so they hastily sum up their person's adulthood, accomplishments in a few scant sentences. The result is comically imbalanced. Therefore, I cautioned the students against starting their paragraphs with overly detailed information. Instead, they will need to choose the pertinent details that tell the essential story of their subject in a balanced way.