Students: 15-20 Advanced ELLs in a college writing class. The class is approx. 100 min. long and contains students from all over the world with a variety of native languages and backgrounds. The class also includes both undergraduates just starting their education, students who have graduated once already and are working on a second BS or BA and graduate students. The primary focus of the class is on academic writing.
Topic: Progressive writing
Time Frame: About 100 minutes.
Materials: Persuasive writing outlines, chalkboard, chalk, persuasive articles from the newspaper.
National TESOL Goals and Standards:
Goal 2: To use English to achieve academically in all content areas
Standard 1: use English to interact in the classroom
Standard 2: use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide subject matter information in spoken and written form
Standard 3: use appropriate learning strategies to construct and apply academic knowledge
Minnesota English Language Proficiency Standards for English Language Learners
Standard 3.2: the student will understand written English to participate in formal (academic contexts).
Standard 4.2: the student will produce written English to appropriately participate in formal (academic) contexts.
Objective: The student will be able to brainstorm and create a general outline with a thesis statement for a persuasive essay.
Procedures:
Step One Warm-up/Review
Review brainstorming techniques by dividing the students up into groups of 3 to 4 (make sure that the groups are made up of students from different countries, so that they must use English for their interaction). Assign each group a writing style (narrative, process, compare/contrast, cause/effect or definition). The groups are then to come up with a topic and use a brainstorming technique studied in class (writing web, outlines, etc…)(5 min.).
When the groups are finished they must come to the board to present their topic and technique (20 min.).
Step Two Present Persuasive Essay outline
The teacher should write the persuasive essay outline on the board and ask the students for a topic. The teacher should then ask the students to assist in filling in the outline (10 min.)
Topic:_____________________________________________________________
Pro Con
1._________________________ 1.________________________
2._________________________ 2.________________________
3._________________________ 3.________________________
4._________________________ 4.________________________
5._________________________ 5.________________________
Step Three Thesis statement
Using the outline the teacher should ask students to assist in creating a thesis statement for the Pros and a thesis statement of the Cons. The teacher should write the thesis statement on the board (the thesis statement should contain language familiar to the persuasive essay with words like must, must not, should, should not, is, is not, etc…) (5 min.).
Step Four Persuasive writing activity:
Divide the students into groups of two or three (again, make sure that students within each group are from different countries, so that they must use English to interact) and assign each group a topic. The topics may include:
- Working while in college
- Men and women training together in the military
- Allowing controversial organizations to advertise in campus publications
- Requiring students to study a foreign language in high school
- Drinking age of 18 years old
- Legally designating English as the official language of the U.S.
- Allowing single adults to adopt children
- Allowing prayer in public schools
- A one world government
Allow the students to choose their topic, but each group must have a different topic and the teacher should briefly explain each topic to the students (10 min.).
Step Five Persuasive writing activity continued
In their groups the students should fill out the persuasive writing outline in its entirety and present it to the rest of the class using an overhead or document cam. The presentations should be brief (no more than 5 min. per group) and only explain the points on the outline (approx. 50 min.).
Topic:_____________________________________________________________
Pro Con
1._________________________1.__________________________
2._________________________2.__________________________
3._________________________3.__________________________
4._________________________4.__________________________
5._________________________ 5.__________________________
Topic Sentence:________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Thesis Sentence/Essay Map:________________________________
_____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence:___________________________
___________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 2 Topic Sentence:__________________________
_________________________________________________
Body Paragraph 3 Topic Sentence:_________________________
____________________________________________
Extra time/Persuasive articles: Divide the students up into groups of 2 or 3 and let them choose a persuasive article to read and summarize. After the students are finished reading and summarizing the article they should read their summary to the rest of the class and explain what the author is trying to persuade them to do, think, buy, etc… They should also state whether they agree with the author or not and why (this activity could be started one day and then continued the next day).
Assessment:
1. The presentation that students give in the writing activity could show the students’ understanding about Persuasive Writing. It helps the teacher have an idea if the objective of the class is achieved or not.
2. By comparing the persuasive articles the students read, the students should be able to find out if they really understand this kind of writing and what they still need to know about it.
