Examining a Character Analysis Paper for Organizing Structure

Objectives

Students will be able to ...

• Examine a piece of writing and explain the organizing structure of the piece
• Write a plan for organizing their character analysis papers

Procedure

1. Do Now: In their Writing Workshop section of their notebooks, students will freewrite on whatever is on their mind.

2. I will tell them that after they have gathered their evidence and thought about how they are going to explain the connection between their evidence and their assertion, it is time to organize the essay.

3. I will pass out a sample essay which I wrote about a text we read in common. I will tell them that they are to read and annotate my essay looking for the following: (1) where do I state my assertion? (2) where do I state my controlling idea? (3) where are my pieces of evidence? (4) where do I explain my pieces of evidence?

4. After they have read, we will look at my essay on the transparency and code it together. I will be sure to tell them that this is only ONE way to organize the essay and it is possible to do both. I will talk about different ways I was considering organizing it.

5. If there is time, students will work on their essays.

Assessment

By observing the debrief after their annotations, were students able to identify the different tasks I was doing in my essay?

By looking at their essays, did students consider how to structure their own essays? How closely did they stick with the way I organized mine?