The Writing Process - Campbell County High School

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Transcript The Writing Process - Campbell County High School

Standards Based Writing

Teaching writers, not pieces….

Activities to help you get there.

Presented by Myssi Turner using information learned from Sylvia Abel

The Writing Process

Review

Prewriting

• Talking (sharing ideas, discussion of topic and their views, role-playing, persuasion, etc.) • Reading and analyzing models (backmapping, analysis of format and development, etc.) • Brainstorming – Mapping – Planning – Webbing – Story boarding, etc.

• Creating a writer’s plan, which considers audience, purpose, format, and ideas • Researching

Drafting

• Modeling – Use • Other students’ writing • Professional writing • Your writing • Provide ample time and space to write • Provide tools to make drafting more fun and easier (post it notes, gel pens, tape, scissors, etc.) • Conference with students throughout • Remind students of the importance of treating drafting as a step separate from editing

Revising

• Help students to learn to try a new approach if the one they’ve tried isn’t working.

• Make sure all the anticipated needs of the audience are met for the particular purpose/ text.

• Model each revision strategy using your own work; then send students back to revise their own.

• Have revision conferences in which students come to you with a question • Use sentence combining to build complex sentences • Use ARMS to help writers understand what “revision” means

ARMS

• Add – (details, snapshots, dialogue, examples, etc.) • Remove – (distractors, unnecessary dialogue, details that don’t fit, weak ideas) • Move – (words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs) • Substitute – (more powerful words, stronger verbs for adverbs)

Editing

• Model and practice editing together • Use students’ own work as good models or as drill for sentence error correction • Teach editing skills throughout the year • Give students self-editing checklists • Set up editing groups, with an “expert” in charge of each main focus (Capitalization, punctuation, etc.) • Use sentence combining exercises for editing as well as revising skills. • Have editing conferences, focusing on only one correctness issue at a time • Use CUPS

CUPS

• Capitalization • Usage • Punctuation • Spelling

Publishing

“If you give writers only one thing, give them an audience.” Peter Elbow

• Technology and the internet etc.) • Exchange writing with other classes and students • Read to principal • Display on community or school bulletin board • Author’s chair • Mail or e-mail • Newsletters • Media center • Pop-up or blank books for the school library • Pen pals • Gifts

Activity

• Compare writing process to something else. • Metaphor or Analogy Example:

brainstorming.

editing.

The writing process is like a house….

Planning what the house will look like and the amount of rooms is like Pouring the foundation and putting up the walls is like drafting.

Deciding if you prefer more rooms or need to take away a closet space is like revising.

Having the inspector walkthrough checking for mistakes is like Having a housewarming party after you have decorated is like publishing…you are ready to show everyone your good work!

Cline Teacher Examples made during our training

My teachers’ examples

Teacher example

Three Purposes for Writing

Informative

Standard 2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through text selection, organization and analysis of relevant concept.

a. Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definitions, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting, graphics.

b. Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information, and examples.

c. Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.

d. Use precise language and domain specific vocabulary to inform about or explain about the topic.

e. Establish and maintain a formal style.

f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation

Narrative

Standard

Argument/ Opinion

Standard: Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

a. Introduce claims, and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.

b. Support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claims and reasons.

d. Establish and maintain a formal style.

e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.

Look at progression of writing standards

• •

Inform/Explanatory

Informational/explanatory writing conveys information accurately. This kind of writing serves one or more closely related purposes: to increase readers’ knowledge of a subject, to help readers better understand a procedure or process, or to provide readers with an enhanced comprehension of a concept. Informational/explanatory writing addresses matters such as types (What are the different types of poetry?) and components (What are the parts of a motor?); size, function, or behavior (How big is the United States? What is an X-ray used for? How do penguins find food?); how things work (How does the legislative branch of government function?); and why things happen (Why do some authors blend genres?). To produce this kind of writing, students draw from what they already know and from primary and secondary sources. With practice, students become better able to develop a controlling idea and a coherent focus on a topic and more skilled at selecting and incorporating relevant examples, facts, and details into their writing. They are also able to use a variety of techniques to convey information, such as naming, defining, describing, or differentiating different types or parts; comparing or contrasting ideas or concepts; and citing an anecdote or a scenario to illustrate a point. Informational/explanatory writing includes a wide array of genres, including academic genres such as literary analyses, scientific and historical reports, summaries, and precise writing as well as forms of workplace and functional writing such as instructions, manuals, memos, reports, applications, and resumes. As students advance through the grades, they expand their repertoire of informational/explanatory genres and use them effectively in a variety of disciplines and domains.

Informative/ Explanatory

• Although information is provided in both arguments and explanations, the two types of writing have different aims. Arguments seek to make people believe that something is true or to persuade people to change their beliefs or behavior. Explanations, on the other hand, start with the assumption of truthfulness and answer questions about why or how. Their aim is to make the reader understand rather than to persuade him or her to accept a certain point of view. In short, arguments are used for persuasion and explanations for clarification.

• Like arguments, explanations provide information about causes, contexts, and consequences of processes, phenomena, states of affairs, objects, terminology, and so on. However, in an argument, the writer not only gives information but also presents a case with the “pros” (supporting ideas) and “cons” (opposing ideas) on a debatable issue. Because an argument deals with whether the main claim is true, it demands empirical descriptive evidence, statistics, or definitions for support. When writing an argument, the writer supports his or her claim(s) with sound reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

Example: W.CCR.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

W.K.2

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic W.1.2

Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.

W.2.2

W.3.

2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. a.

Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.

Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.

Provide a concluding statement or section.

W.4.

2 W.5.

2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. a.

Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., b.

headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples c.

Model Topic: Tattoos

• Ask questions that you what to know about this topic for me to write on poster board. Pick one question to research- this is your umbrella question.

Think of three smaller questions that would help answer the bigger question.

Activity to teach (Expository) Informational Writing

• Topic: Black Bears

1. Your team needs to come up with four questions that you want to know about black bears.

2. Your team needs to pick one of the questions as your broad/umbrella question.

3. Your team then decides what three smaller questions can help answer the bigger umbrella question.

4. Write your umbrella question on all three of your envelopes and write your smaller questions (one per strip of paper) to put inside each of the envelopes.

5. You cannot add anything in the envelope that isn’t part of the question.

6. Read the article then place it upside down before writing your answer.

Informative Writing

Start broadly to engage your reader. End with the point, the focused purpose of your informative piece. This is the big question you’re going to answer in the piece. Break the piece down into subheadings that help to answer your big question. Include facts, definitions, contrasts, concrete details, and other relevant development to examine your topic and convey necessary information Beginning with the point of the piece and the question you have answered, broaden out and conclude your piece of writing. Be sure to give credit to your sources, if necessary.

Writing Plan: Informative

What topic am I writing about? What is my focus, the big question I’m going to answer? What is my format? To whom am I writing? Audience What my audience already knows What are some reasons, parts, points, divisions, or sub-topics that I’m going to cover? Sub-heading Idea Development: What my audience needs to know

After reading through the narrative copies I passed out, you are to answer the questions: What is a narrative? What does it look like? What commonalities did you see among the pieces?

Primary: After reading a narrative trade book, use a BME (beginning, middle, ending) template to explain the BME of your trade book to hang in your room.

NARRATIVE Narrative writing conveys experience, either real or imaginary, and uses time as its deep structure. It can be used for many purposes, such as to inform, instruct, persuade, or entertain. In English language arts, students produce narratives that take the form of creative fictional stories, memoirs, anecdotes, and autobiographies. Over time, they learn to provide visual details of scenes, objects, or people; to depict specific actions (for example, movements, gestures, postures, and expressions); to use dialogue and interior monologue that provide insight into the narrator’s and characters’ personalities and motives; and to manipulate pace to highlight the significance of events and create tension and suspense. In history/social studies, students write narrative accounts about individuals. They also construct event models of what happened, selecting from their sources only the most relevant information. In science, students write narrative descriptions of the step-by step procedures they follow in their investigations so that others can replicate their procedures and (perhaps) reach the same res results. With practice, students expand their repertoire and control of different narrative strategies.

BUILD IT WRITE B B

ring your reader in by beginning with  a question  an interesting fact or number  a story, etc.

e sure you have included the point you want to make!

M E M

essages are very important, and here’s where you get your message to your reader.

ake your reader understand what you want to say by including  facts  descriptions  quotes  examples and stories

very piece needs a good ending so your reader will know you have finished.

nd with your point, then  a challenge or question  a summary  a final story or quote, etc .

Sometimes we need to stand in a pair of oversize shoes and tug on our highwaters

By Mike Allen, columnist, Hardin County Independent

Somebody once said: “Certain things among the shadows of a man’s life do not have to be remembered – they remember themselves.” Georgie Hartman was an outcast. He was an obese fourth-grader with greasy hair and dirty fingernails. He had already failed two grades and according to my grandmother, he got his clothes from the Salvation Army. Georgie’s mother had never been married. She’d raised him in a little two-room shack just beyond the old shoe factory. Her education was slim, so she took in washing and got a check every month from Aid to Dependent Children. Sometimes during recess, the boys in our class would play freeze-tag or red rover. Once in a blue moon, we’d even ask the girls to join us, but never Georgie. He was the butt of our jokes. Like I said, Georgie was an outcast. He stood alone, watching from a distance, shuffling his oversized shoes and tugging on his highwaters, pretending not to care. He was the fat kid who sat in the back of the room. The one who could barely read and got so nervous when the teacher called his name, he’d sometimes wet his pants. In all the years I’d been in school with Georgie, I bet he hadn’t uttered more than two words to anybody. Each spring our school would take a field trip to a place called Serpent Mound. We’d carry sack lunches and visit this park where archaeologists long ago discovered an ancient Indian burial ground formed in the shape of a mounded serpent – a serpent whose length is 1,330 feet long. Of course, the only way you can properly appreciate this serpent, is to scale a high, winding tower that sits at the base of the serpent’s mouth. Every year children in fourth-grade or higher were expected to climb this tower. That way they could become appreciators and go back home telling of the wonderful thing they saw. For that reason, I had dreaded this field trip all year long. I hated heights. I even got dizzy in the top of tobacco barns. The closer we came to the tower, the tighter my chest became. Already, students were being escorted to the top of the winding tower by their teachers. As they trudged upward toward the sky, they looked smaller and smaller. Any minute I expected them to disappear behind a bank of clouds. My palms began to sweat and my pulse pounded against my temples. I could almost feel the serpent’s venom shooting through my body. My knees weakened and my legs felt like jelly. Finally, at the base of the steps, I balked. I could absolutely go no farther. My hand tightened against the rail and I froze. My breathing grew short and choppy, and someone near the back of the line shouted, “Hey! What’s the holdup?” My teacher, Mrs. Cox, urged me to go on, but I couldn’t. I just stood there, trembling. “What’s wrong, Allen?” Kids were passing me. “You gone chicken?” I didn’t answer. Instead, I stared at the ground. Finally, Mrs. Cox asked me to go stand by a tree until the class returned. “Look at the big baby!” Another kid shouted, from the tower. There were pointing at me and giggling, even the girls. I stood there, shuffling my feet and pretending not to hear. I was a coward, an outcast. It was then I heard a voice behind me. “Don’t pay any attention to them,” it said softly. “Nothing wrong with liking solid ground.” I turned and there beside me stood Georgie Hartman. He laid his puffy hand on my shoulder and smiled. “Some people just don’t like heights, that’s all.” “I…I suppose you’re right,” I stammered. “Are you scared of the tower too?” Georgie smiled. “Not really. I even went up it last year.” He took his hand from my shoulder. “I just figured you might need some help. You do look kind of green, you know?” “Thanks,” I whispered. “You been to the gift shop yet?” he asked, taking out a sack from his pocket. “Not yet,” I answered. He pulled a tiny pen knife from the sack. Across the knife in bold silver letters were emblazoned the words: “Serpent Mound.” Georgie’s grin spread from ear to ear. “Saved my lunch money for this thing. Didn’t have enough last year, but this year, she’s the first one sold.” “Looks really nice,” I told him. He opened the tiny blade and ran his finger down it. “Sharp as a tack. Better close her up before I cut myself. I smiled. The class was descending the tower now, and their giggling and catcalls became louder and louder. Georgie touched my shoulder again. “They don’t mean nothing by it,” he whispered. “Most folks wouldn’t do it, if they knowed it hurt your feelings. At least that’s what my mama says.” I nodded, and wondered how many times over, Georgie’s mama had to tell him that. Unthinking and unfeeling, we’d been cruel. And, yet, he’d done nothing to us. For the first time in my life, I knew how he felt. I’d had my chance to stand in his oversize shoes and hitch up my highwaters. The only difference is us was that I didn’t have to stand alone at that tower, and from that day on, I made sure Georgie would never stand alone on the playground, either.

You’ll Grow Soon, Alex

By Andrea Shavick and Russell Ayto Alex was a small boy. He was so small the other children at school called him “Shorty.” He was so small his big sister’s friends were always patting him on the head and saying, “Aaahh, isn’t he sweet?” Alex didn’t like being small. It made him very unhappy. How he wished he was tall. I wish I was tall. I wish I was tall. I wish I was tall. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. He even dreamed about it. “Mom, how can I grow taller?” asked Alex. “Protein,” said Mom. “It’s about time you had a healthy meal. Then you’ll grow soon, Alex.” So for three whole weeks Alex ate fish and eggs and chicken and cheese and baked beans. And he drank eight glasses of milk per day with Mom’s added Protein Mixture in it. But it didn’t work. He wasn’t any taller. “Dad, how can I grow taller?” asked Alex. “Exercise, “ said Dad. “Lots of exercise and stretching. That should do it. Then you’ll grow soon, Alex.” So for three whole weeks Alex ran around the garden every day, and skipped and jumped. And Dad made him a special stretching machine and Alex used it every morning before he went to school. But it didn’t work. He wasn’t any taller. “Emma, how can I grow taller?” Alex asked his big sister. “Sleep,” she said. “Lots and lots of sleep. Then you’ll grow soon, Alex.” So for three whole weeks, whenever it was time for bed, Alex went right away without complaining at all. But it didn’t work. He wasn’t any taller.

Writing Plan: Narrative The one event I want to write about is The most important way that I or the main character changed during this event was The minor event(s), details, characters, or descriptions I need to show the change is/ are How was the situation before the change? What are some details I need to include to show this? What happened to change the character (or me)? (This will be the event, the big story you’re telling!) What are some details I need to include to show the reader what happened? How did the character (or I) think/ behave differently after the event? What are some details I need to include to evidence the change?

Argument/Persuade

• Arguments are used for many purposes—to change the reader’s point of view, to bring about some action on the reader’s part, or to ask the reader to accept the writer’s explanation or evaluation of a concept, issue, or problem. An argument is a reasoned, logical way of demonstrating that the writer’s position, belief, or conclusion is valid. In English language arts, students make claims about the worth or meaning of a literary work or works. They defend their interpretations or judgments with evidence from the text(s) they are writing about. In history/social studies, students analyze evidence from multiple primary and secondary sources to advance a claim that is best supported by the evidence, and they argue for a historically or empirically situated interpretation. In science, students make claims in the form of statements or conclusions that answer questions or address problems. Using data in a scientifically acceptable form, students marshal evidence and draw on their understanding of scientific concepts to argue in support of their claims. Although young children are not able to produce fully developed logical arguments, they develop a variety of methods to extend and elaborate their work by providing examples, offering reasons for their assertions, and explaining cause and effect. These kinds of expository structures are steps on the road to argument. In grades K–5, the term “opinion” is used to refer to this developing form of argument.

www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/documents/06-argument_and_persuasion.pdf - 2010-10-07 Persuasion:  Emotion and morals with a bit of reason  Try to convince the reader to take action Argument:  Logic and Reasoning with a bit of emotion  Try to convince the reader that your position on the issue is the most reasonable  Most academic writing is Argument rather than Persuasion www.

sci.edu

/faculty/amylakin_files/Argumentation_lecture.ppt

Opinion Line: Where do you stand on school uniforms? Make a line with pro on one end and con on the other end. The first two people in the line discuss their reasons to persuade others for & the last two people plan reasons to persuade their side. You have two minutes to plan and 45 seconds to see if you can shift the middle ground people to your side.

Writing Plan: Argument What am I writing about? What do I believe? To whom am I writing? Why would they be interested in this right now? What specifically do I want my audience to know, feel, do, or understand? Why do I really believe this or why should they? Reason Support or evidence Support or evidence Reason Antithesis My counter argument

Example of opinion/argument line

My Writing Plan: Opinion

What do I want or what do I believe? Whom am I writing to? Why do I really want/ believe this? Reason Support or evidence Support or evidence Reason Reason Support or evidence Why my audience might say, “No.” Why my audience might say, “No.” Why my audience might say, “No.”

It’s Over, Debbie

(an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1988) The call came in the middle of the night. As a gynecology resident rotating through a large, private hospital, I had come to detest telephone calls, because invariably, I would be up for several hours and would not feel good the next day. However, duty called, so I answered the phone. A nurse informed me that a patient was having difficulty getting rest, could I please see her. She was on 3 North. That was the gynecologic-oncology unit, not my usual duty station. As I trudged along, bumping sleepily against walls and corners and not believing I was up again, I tried to imagine what I might find at the end of my walk. Maybe an elderly woman with an anxiety reaction, or perhaps something particularly horrible.

I grabbed the chart from the nurses’ station on my way to the patient’s room, and the nurse gave me some hurried details: a 20-year-old girl named Debbie was dying of ovarian cancer. She was having unrelenting vomiting apparently as the result of an alcohol drip administered for sedation. Hmmm, I thought. Very sad. As I approached the room, I could hear loud, labored breathing. I entered and saw an emaciated, dark-haired woman who appeared much older than 20. She was receiving nasal oxygen, had an IV, and was sitting in bed suffering from what was obviously severe air hunger. The chart noted her weight at 80 pounds. A second woman, also dark-haired but of middle age, stood at her right, holding her hand. Both looked up as I entered. The room seemed filled with the patient’s desperate effort to survive. Her eyes were hollow, and she had suprasternal and intercostals retractions with her rapid inspirations. She had not eaten or slept in two days. She had not responded to chemotherapy and was being given supportive care only. It was a gallows scene, a cruel mockery of her youth and unfulfilled potential. Her only words to me were, “Let’s get this over with.” I retreated with my thoughts to the nurses’ station. The patient was tired and needed rest. I could not give her health, but I could give her rest. I asked the nurse to draw 20 mg of morphine sulfate into a syringe. Enough, I thought, to give Debbie something that would let her rest and to say good-bye. Debbie looked at the syringe, then laid her head on the pillow with her eyes open, watching what was left of the world. I injected the morphine intravenously and watched to see if my calculations on its effects would be correct. Within seconds her breathing slowed to a normal rate, her eyes closed, and her features softened as she seemed restful at last. The older woman stroked the hair of the new-sleeping patient. I waited for the inevitable next effect of depressing the respiratory drive. With clocklike certainty, within four minutes, the breathing rate slowed even more, then became irregular, then ceased. The dark-haired woman stood erect and seemed relieved.

It’s over, Debbie.

Read the response…

Reading and Writing Effective Arguments- Model and Teach Students the FAVES. In your class, you would teach one at a time- F, A, V, E, S on different days.

Use FAVES for the next article which is in response to Debbie

When writing arguments, opinions, or persuasion, good writers have their favorite techniques – their FAVES: F – Facts (definitions, statistics, laws, real event, etc.) A – Analogies and comparisons (comparison, contrasts, similes, metaphors, etc.) V – Voices (expert opinions, quotes) E – Examples S – Stories (factual anecdotes or extended true examples)

Facts Analogies/ Comparisons Voices Examples Stories

Response to It’s Over, Debbie

(JAMA, 1988) To the Editor, The story entitled “It’s Over, Debbie” raised profoundly troubling ethical issues – the more so because its sentimental surface masks a dark and worrisome underside.

On the surface of the story, a hassled but resolutely caring resident physician ends the hollow-eyed suffering of a young woman named Debbie by putting a stop to the cruel, “gallows”-like technology that mocks her youth and former vitality.

Just beneath the surface of these heartwarming themes lies the real point of the story – that in cases like this, it is ethical for physicians to kill patients. Unfortunately, “It’s Over, Debbie” only disguises and distorts the debate and clarification that are necessary for a moral assessment of mercy killing. First, the story’s rhetoric (which is equated with the way the physician thinks) masks the act of killing Debbie with such euphemisms as doing one’s “job,” giving Debbie the “rest” she needs, and enabling her “to say goodbye.” Second, the physician’s premeditated manslaughter is associated only with such positive themes as heroically resisting a blind technological imperative within medicine or displaying unique empathy for this cancer patient’s plight. Debbie’s physician never struggles with opposing moral issues, such as whether this action could be generalized or whether killing constitutes a betrayal of ones’ promises to self and peers or what would happen if the term “physician” is also associated with putting persons to death. In fact, the resident kills Debbie with no moral qualms whatsoever.

Even more problematic than the morality of premeditated manslaughter per se, however, are the terribly murky grounds for killing in this instance. The physician’s database on this new patient was gathered entirely while walking toward the patient’s room (when the chart was scanned and as the nurse was talking), followed by a single visit to the patient. The one sentence uttered by the patient at the time, “Let’s get this over with,” was taken to be a firm request for a painless death from a fully competent adult. There are no consultations, no further conversations with anyone, no sophistication regarding pain relief as a beginning point, and no worries that Debbie’s intentions may well have been misread and that the physician may be committing murder in the second degree. The story ends with the physician observing that the “older woman” standing next to the patient the whole time “seemed relieved” when the morphine overdose (quickly supplied by the nurse) ended Debbie’s life. Anything but relieved. I believe “It’s Over, Debbie” needs a sequel entitled “It’s Not Over, Doctor.

Harold Y. Vanderpool, PhD University of Texas Medical Branch

Bringing it all together with: The Perfect Paragraph

3.8 Paragraph is a paragraph that breaks a topic down into three points that illustrate exactly what the topic means. It gets its name from the three points and eight sentences that become its framework.

*One clear idea, expressed in a topic sentence.

*Three reasons, points, or details which support that one idea *An example for EACH reason, point, or detail *A conclusion which summarizes or somehow ends the paragraph

Look at the difference:

Some students like wearing uniforms to school. But it’s also not air to make everyone dress the same. It would be boring to wear the same thing to school every day. I don’t think kids at our school should have to wear a uniform to school, I like my own clothes. I don’t like uniforms. Everyone shouldn’t have to wear the same thing to school because we would all look the same and people might get mixed up. Some uniforms are ugly, others look okay.

The main reason students need uniforms is that uniforms make life easier for everyone. First of all, if children and teens wore uniforms, they would be on time for school. Picking out clothes for school would be a snap since they wouldn’t have to make decisions about what to wear. Uniforms would make things easier for parents too. If all kids wore khakis and button down shirts, parents wouldn’t have to buy them so many different kinds of clothes, Finally, uniforms would make things easier for teachers. IF students wore uniforms to school, there wouldn’t be so many fights on the playground because everyone would have the same clothes and no one would get teased because of what he or she wore. So you see, if students wore uniforms to school, it would be easier on everyone.

2.6 Paragraph

Has two points, six sentences. The two points are reasons or ideas focused on the main idea of the topic sentence. It will have: • A topic sentence that tells what the paragraph is about, • A sentence that tells a reason why or a point about the topic sentence, • A sentence that gives a specific example of the reason or point, • A sentence that gives another reason or point • A sentence that gives an example of the second reason • A conclusion One reason a dog is a great pet for a kid is that taking care of it will teach me to be responsible. Dogs need to be fed on a regular schedule. Making sure I put food and water in his bowls will help me learn to be responsible because I know he will get hungry or thirsty if I neglect my duties. Dogs also need to be exercised. I will have to learn responsibility because I’ll have to set a regular time to take him out every day to play catch with him, to walk him, or to run with him in the park. Dogs are great for many reason, but one of the biggest ones is that they teach responsibility.

1.4 has one point, four sentences. It will have…

• A topic sentence that tells what the paragraph is about, • A sentence that tells a reason why or a point about the topic sentence, • A sentence that gives a specific example of the reason or point, • And a conclusion A rabbit would be the best classroom pet to have. One reason is that rabbits are so easy to take care of. We would have to feed them rabbit food or green vegetables only once a day and they never make the messes a dog or a cat would. So, if you want a classroom pet, pick a rabbit.