|
||
 |
||
Sofia Hibbs, 8th Grade English Taking a Stand Essay |
Topic of the Week
Who is responsible for children's health? Target Words |
|||||||
|
||||||||
|
Sample Lesson Clip 1 of 4 |
-Clip shows a detailed introduction and discussion of a rubric for Taking a Stand essay-writing assignments. -Areas of emphasis include the following.
[clip length—10:20] TEACHER: This is the rubric that I have created specifically for this writing assignment. And it’s one that we’ll use now from now on, when we write our essay each Friday. Okay? Now, this essay, Paul, we’ve been taking a little bit of extra time with, specifically so we can start really focusing on the process of writing a really strong essay. A really strong paragraph, rather. Okay? So far, that’s what we’ve been doing, generally, is a really strong paragraph. Eventually, we’ll get to even longer, maybe more than one, a couple paragraphs for an essay. But this one is focused on just the paragraph. And you’ll see it’s titled “Persuasive Paragraph Rubric.” Again, a rubric is kind of like a grading sheet or a scoring sheet. It’s the way we’re gonna determine whether or not you’ve successfully completed your assignment. Okay? Now, we’ve got how many categories here? STUDENT: Five. TEACHER: Five categories. There’s five different things that I’m gonna count when I’m looking at your paragraph. Joel, what— STUDENT: Yeah. TEACHER: Are there any questions on that first category? Number two. Or category two, I should say. What’s a thesis sentence, you guys? STUDENT: Huh? TEACHER: Thesis sentence. What is a thesis sentence? STUDENT: A sentence TEACHER: Hm? STUDENT: It’s a special kind of sentence TEACHER: It is a special kind of sentence. STUDENT: Like, it makes sense? TEACHER: Uh-huh, a thesis sentence does need to make sense. That’s a good— that’s a good point. Karina, what’s a thesis sentence? STUDENT: When you make your beginning sentence, it explains what the whole paragraph is gonna be about. TEACHER: Absolutely. Thank you, Karina, I knew you would know the answer to that question. A thesis sentence is kinda like your introduction sentence. And it tells what you’re paragraph’s gonna be about. It’s where you state your… What did we pick? We picked what? The four… STUDENTS: Positions. TEACHER: Positions. It’s where you state the position that you’ve chosen, right? STUDENT: Yes TEACHER: Okay? So a number four on the thesis or the introduction sentence would be it’s a really clear thesis; I understand exactly what position you support. Now, one of the questions that we had a lot last period and with other students is, Can I just write, I support position one, and that be my thesis sentence? What do you guys think about that? STUDENT: Like, no because other people might not know what that position was. TEACHER: Right, exactly. If I don’t know what the different positions are, and I’m the reader reading your paper, and you say, Oh, I support position one, I might think, Well, what is position one? That doesn’t make any sense to me. But if you specifically state, Position one says parents have the most control over kids’ health; they are the ones who decide what food to buy and what kinds, what kids eat—excuse me—outside of school… TEACHER: That is a clear statement [inaudible] of your position. Okay? A three would be you’ve kind of tried to state your position, and maybe it wasn’t 100% clear, but it’s there. A two would be that you have a thesis, some sort of an introduction, like, Health is really important. But you haven’t really told us which position you’re taking. Okay? And then number— a number one would be you don’t have a thesis. You don’t really have an introduction, you just start talking about your opinion. STUDENT: Mm-hm TEACHER: Mm-hm. A body paragraph is basically— How many arguments do I say you have to write to support your position? STUDENTS: Three. TEACHER: Three. Exactly. So three sentences that say why you chose the position you chose. If you say it’s the school’s responsibility, I want three reasons why it’s the school’s responsibility, Joel. If you say that it’s parents’ responsibility, I want three reasons why it’s the parents’ responsibility. And if you say the kids should decide for themselves, I want three reasons why you believe that kids should decide for themselves. That’s the body paragraph. And the body paragraph part is really easy. If you look at it, you have three arguments supporting your position, you have a four. You only have two arguments, you get a three. If you only have one argument, you get a two. And if you have no arguments, you get a one. That one, I think, is pretty self-explanatory, yes? STUDENT: Mm-hm. TEACHER: Okay? BJ, what is the fourth category we’re gonna be lookin’ at? STUDENT: Our conclusion sentence. TEACHER: Conclusion sentence. Your conclusion sentence is the last sentence of your paragraph, and it should restate what? TEACHER: It should restate— Oh, here’s the bottom. It should restate the… STUDENT: Thesis. TEACHER: The thesis, exactly, Sam. It should restate your position in different words. You don’t wanna say the sentence over again, but you’re gonna restate it: In conclusion, these are the reasons why I believe… Or: To summarize, it is really important that… Okay? Now, for this one, you get a four if your conclusion sentence does restate your thesis. You get a three if you included a conclusion sentence that partially—which means kinda, sorta—refers back to your TEACHER (Cont.): thesis. You get a two if you have a conclusion like: These are my ideas. But it doesn’t restate your thesis. You still have a conclusion sentence, but it’s not doing the job of a conclusion sentence, by restating your thesis. That would be a two. And then again, a one is what? STUDENT: No conclusion. TEACHER: No conclusion. Okay? Paul, can you please tell me what the last category is? STUDENT: Conventions of writing. TEACHER: Conventions of writing. That includes spelling, capitalization, punctuation. Did you capitalize the beginning of each sentence? It’s a basic thing, but it’s something that we sometimes forget. Do you have periods and commas where they need to be? You know what another big one is, and even though I said it twice last period, people still forgot? What do you need to do with every new paragraph? STUDENTS: Indent. TEACHER: Indent. Which is the tab button on your computer. Okay? No mistakes is a four. Fewer than three mistakes, which would be two or one mistake, is a three. Three or four mistakes is a… STUDENT: Two. TEACHER: Two. And five or more mistakes is a… STUDENT: One. TEACHER: One. That one’s really simple, as well. If I have to circle spelling because you didn’t spell check. Okay? It’s as simple as, you guys, if you do a period and you don’t hit space-space and you’re not spacing your words correctly. I do wanna tell you how this works. A couple said, “Okay, well, what if I get a couple of fours, a couple of threes, and a two?” What is the total number of points that you can get if you do 100% right? STUDENT: 24 TEACHER: This category is four. Four plus four, plus four, plus four, plus four. BJ? STUDENT: 20 TEACHER: Twenty points. STUDENT: I think its 20 points TEACHER: So let’s say I grade Sam’s paper. Can I use you for an example, Sam? Thank you. And Sam has used all of the vocabulary correctly. Sam has got a pretty good thesis. It’s not 100% clear, but it’s pretty solid. He’s got two arguments that support his thesis. He has a brilliant conclusion sentence that completely restates what he said as his thesis. And he’s got three to four mistakes in spelling and punctuation. Okay? What I would do is I’d put a check in each one of these boxes. This rubric would be on top of his paper as I check it. Okay? And then I’d do the math here. Two plus four is… STUDENT: Oh! STUDENT: Six. TEACHER: Six plus three is… STUDENTS: Nine. TEACHER: Nine plus three? STUDENTS: Twelve. TEACHER: Twelve. Plus four? STUDENTS: Sixteen. TEACHER: Sixteen. So he’s got a sixteen outta twenty. And then you guys know how to find out what percentage that is? STUDENT: Yeah. TEACHER: How— what do you do? STUDENT: Divide. TEACHER: Divide what by what? STUDENT: Sixteen divided by twenty. TEACHER: Sixteen divided by twenty? Which would be? STUDENT: Six. TEACHER: 80%, which is a… STUDENTS: B. TEACHER: B-minus. Okay? And that’s how your score is calculated. It’s really cut and dry, you guys. I’m trying to make it as precise as possible, so you have no questions what I expect to see in your paper. And this is what I want you to use today. The reason you each have a copy of this rubric, as you’re doing the final edit, the final draft for your paper, I want you to go down this list. Do I have these things? Okay? Mrs. Hibbs, did I do this correctly? Would you consider my thesis a strong, clear thesis? Or do I maybe have some more work to do? Okay? And we can conference about it. I’m gonna have two lists on the board. One is gonna be a print list and one is gonna be a conferencing list. And the conferencing list is, Hey, I just need to sit with you for a minute and check my stuff. A print list is, I think that I’m to the point where I’m ready to print and take it through my rubric. Okay? I don’t expect things to be perfect right off the bat, you guys. This is the first time that we’re using this specifically for these papers. Please feel free to sign up to meet with me. Okay? And you will have from now until we break to work. STUDENT: OK TEACHER: Alright, two middle—
|
