Lesson:
We first went around the room asking the children what countries they had chosen and if they had begun their research. I recommended that they consult several sources, not all online. We talked about how to group related into together, and how to add more sentence variety and interest to their writing.
Then I asked the students to pull out the papers with the 3-words-per-sentence notes from last week, and we tried to recreate the original paragraph from their notes, which they did quite nicely.
When I asked what they thought of the paragraph we recreated, they correctly said it was boring, and even accurately identified some problems with it. We talked about how to improve it, and spent some time revising it to be more interesting and effective. The three biggest problems with the paragraph are things I also want the class to improve in this paper.
Organization --- Group related information together.
Lively Language --- Add vivid action verbs and descriptive modifiers to add interest.
Sentence Variety --- Rather than beginning all sentences with subjects, mix it up with different kinds if opening expressions. Try some adverbs, phrases, and clauses followed by a comma, before getting to the subject.
(I distributed handouts for this earlier in the year, and will be reviewing those often.)
Assignment:
Students will complete their expository reports on their chosen foreign countries. They may not report on the United States, nor write about ancient cultures.
See last week's blog post for more information about what to include. Remember to include a map and a Works Cited page. For help with formatting the Works Cited page, check out http://citationmachine.net/.
This week, we are emphasizing sentence variety.
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