Lesson Plan #4: Expository Essay Writing and Editing

UTL 640E
Chrissy Hinkle
Andrea Khawaja/Anderson HS
English I (Inclusion) / 9th Grade
Date: October 7, 2015
Teach(es) #6
st
Class Period / Time: 1 Period (A-day)/8:55-10:25

Enduring Understanding(s) & Essential Question(s):

Reading/Writing Craft EU:

o Effective expository essays include a clearly stated thesis and valid evidence
to support and solidify that thesis for the writers audience.
o Only through the process of revision can a writer verify that he has met his
audiences needs, thereby making his piece effective.
Reading/Writing Craft Essential Questions:
o What does it mean to revise? What is necessary to do during the revision
process?
o What is a thesis statement? What purpose does it serve? What are the
components we look for in a strong thesis?
Do you have a clearly stated thesis? Where does it appear in your
essay?
Does your essay an explicitly address and answer the assigned
prompt?
o What role does evidence play in an essay? What is good evidence? What are
different kinds of evidence?
Is your evidence relevant to your thesis?
Have you explained how your evidence relates back to your thesis?
o What is the purpose of an essays conclusion?
Do you have a conclusion that wraps up your essay?
o Why is it helpful or important to ask others for feedback during the writing
process?
o How can we give our peers constructive feedback without making them feel
criticized?
Have you made comments that will help your peer improve their
essay? Can they understand what you mean?
Have you provided tactful, constructive feedback to your peers?

Lesson Objective(s):

Following instruction of the teacher, individual students will write a short expository
essay, and after looking at sample STAAR essays and rubrics, they will identify their
weaknesses and strengths (especially as they pertain to thesis writing) in these
practice essays in order inform and improve students input when peer-editing their
first timed essays.

Resources/Materials:
A. TO DO before the day of the lesson:
Scan example essays as a PDF/make
Print Warm-Up instructions for me to read aloud
Create Agenda
Make copies of Peer Editing WS
Place Failure essay first drafts in students journals so that they can be picked up
together before class
B. For the lesson itself:
Peer editing work sheets go on book shelf for pick up
Sample essays and rubrics on bookshelf for pick up
Warm up PP/Agenda pulled up

TEKS/SEs Addressed in the Lesson:

(13)Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning,
drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:
a) structure ideas in a sustained and persuasive way (e.g., using outlines, note taking,
graphic organizers, lists) and develop drafts in timed and open-ended situations
that include transitions and rhetorical devices used to convey meaning;
b) revise drafts to improve style, word choice, figurative language, sentence variety,
and subtlety of meaning after rethinking how well questions of purpose, audience,
and genre have been addressed;
c) edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling; and
d) revise final draft in response to feedback from peers and teacher and publish
written work for appropriate audiences
(15) Writing/Expository and Procedural Texts. Students write expository and procedural
or work-related texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for
specific purposes. Students are expected to:
a) write an analytical essay of sufficient length that includes:
i) effective introductory and concluding paragraphs and a variety of sentence
structures;
ii) rhetorical devices, and transitions between paragraphs;
iii) a controlling idea or thesis;
iv) an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context; and
v) relevant information and valid inferences;

Steps in Lesson:
*Remember to include an estimated time for each step/action in the lesson cycle.
ENGAGEMENT (20 minutes)

Students will complete the Visual Essay Prompt Assignment while looking at the
image on slide 24 of the corresponding PowerPoint.

STATED OBJECTIVE (2 minutes)

Today we will look at some sample STAAR essays and their corresponding rubrics
and talk about them, then yall will look at the essays youve just written in your
journals and make some notes of things that you think you need to work on that
would bring up the quality of your essay to your desired scorehopefully a 4, right?
After we make this list, yall are going to take your failure essays (they were in your
journals when your picked them up) and trade with a partner with whom you trust to
do a peer edit so that you can get that classmates opinion on your work.
If we have time youll begin your revised version on the back of the sheet, but if not,
youll finish it as homework.
ACTIVE LEARNING
Introduction/Explain (51 minutes)
(1 minute) stretch/talk/jumping jack/walking break
(50 minutes) Review the rubrics/guidelines for each of the scores as a class and then
look at one of each of the samples for that corresponding scores, as well as the end
comment for that essay. (10min per score, 1-3, 20 min for score 4)
o Ask the students to explain to me the strengths and weaknesses of each essay and
whether or not they think that score was justified.
If not, why? If so, why?
Does that score reflect the guidelines/rubric that the TEA has given us?
While looking at the rubric and sample for the Score 4 essay, spend extra 10
minutes focusing on the thesis of the essay.
o How is it a strong subject sentence that helped get the high score?
o How does it compare to the other scores thesis?
o Do the other samples have a thesis? If so, is it clear and strong?
Application (46 minutes- 16min Wed 30min Fri)
(1 minute) stretch/talk/jumping jack/walking break
(5 minutes) Students will read their visual prompt essays and identify their strengths
and weaknesses
Where is your thesis? Does it set a topic for the rest of your paper?
Did you include relevant evidence? Did you contextualize it to the topic?
(10 minutes) With a partner, students will workshop their thesis statements from their
Visual Prompt essays to change them so that they are up to the standard that we
discussed from the score 4 essay.
**We will get this far on Wednesday. We will end by having one or two students share
their revised thesis with the class. CT will finish lesson on Friday or following week.

(30 minutes) Keeping those aspects they identified in mind as well as the rubrics we
talked about, they will trade their failure essays with a partner and complete the

Peer Editing Worksheet for their classmates essay.

o Something I want yall to keep in mind when writing these peer edits is that
writing is a very personal thing for most people. It is really hard to trust someone
to not only read what we have written, but to critique it as well. So while I want
yall to help each other improve your writing skills, keep the other persons
feelings in mindespecially if your peer was brave enough to share a personal
anecdote in their essay.
o If they are done before the 30 minutes is up, they will be able to begin the revised
version of their essay on the back of their own worksheet.
Evaluation
Students will conduct a self-evaluation before they begin the peer editing
process.
CLOSURE (2 minutes)

Parking lot
While students are doing the peer edit, pass out post it notes. Before class is over,
they will write their names on the back of the sticky note and draw either
o a on the note if they feel more confident about essay writing;
o a :/ if they feel better but still arent confident; or
o a if they feel like they dont have any confidence in the writing process and
want to talk about their concerns one-on-one.
Students will leave the post it notes on my poster board on the door on their way out.

TOTAL TEACH TIME: 89 MINUTES WEDNESDAY+32 MINTUES FRIDAY=

121 MINUTES

Modifications/Differentiation Strategies:

Elijah will be able to use his device for all writing components.
Luis will have additional time to complete the assigments.
This lesson mostly benefits the visual learners because of the nature of the Visual
Prompt activity and writing.
The discussion section of the lesson benefits the auditory learners, the instructions
will also be delivered verbally for all of the different activities.
Writing is also beneficial to the kinesthetic learners.
This kind of lesson is best for Concrete Sequential Thinkers and Convergers
because they are given guidelines for what the scorers are looking for in a good
essay and they can follow those guidelines.

Evaluation Strategies:

Participation in the writing activities and engaging in the discussion of rubrics

Turning in the Peer Editing Worksheet for completion

Notes/Recommendations for next time:

After talking to Pat after my observation, I adjusted this lesson for my A day class
to include small groups that reviewed the essays on their own instead of me, or
one of the students, reading each out loud. I lost the kids attention when we did it
this way, so I really appreciated Pats suggestion.