Unit 1, Day 14: Wednesday, September 19

What you’ll do today in class:

- Have students outline their evidence to support their claim

- Workshop evidence

- Discuss integrating textual evidence

- Critique Essay 2 sample

Connection to course goals: Today’s class re-emphasizes the need for students to consider the expectations their claim produces for support. We also show students how to integrate the textual evidence they are finding into the context of their paper. Finally, critiquing the Essay 2 sample asks students to reconsider the context for this assignment.

INTRODUCTION:

1. Have students begin to outline their evidence for their overall claim (10 minutes):

- Ask students to look back at the sheets of paper that list their group members’ feedback and suggestions from last class.

- Have students write responses to the following questions for their own essay to begin to “outline” their support on a clean sheet of paper.

· How well does your current thesis work for our context, audience and purpose in Essay 2?

· What sub-claims will you need to prove in order to support your evaluation of the text?

· What types of evidence will you need to support your thesis and sub-claims? Could personal experience be useful in helping your evaluation?

· What textual evidence can you think of from the essay you’re evaluating that would substantiate your thesis? Make a list of at least three specific examples you'll be able to use as support for your evaluation. Under each example, write a brief explanation of how this example supports your judgment(s) about the essay and/or a reason for that judgment.

2. Workshop evidence in small groups (10 minutes): Have students get into groups of 3 and respond to the following questions:

· Which sub-claims will the writer definitely need to support, based on her/his overall claim?

· Which textual examples the writer has identified will work best to support each sub-claim? Why?

· What other things should the writer consider that would help her/him support the recommendation of this text?

3. Incorporating textual evidence (quoting and paraphrasing) (10 minutes): The goal of this activity is to show students the need to integrate textual evidence in their essay and how to do so. Emphasize to students the need to introduce quotes from the text (rather than letting them stand alone) and the use of proper punctuation.

- Ask students to articulate why writers need to incorporate textual examples into their own language in their essay.

· Why is it important to introduce or provide a lead-in for textual examples you use?

- to give credit to the author for his/her ideas

- to make textual examples flow with your own language in the essay

- to point readers back specific places or aspects of the text

- Get students to discuss how paraphrasing and quoting can be used to introduce textual examples in their paper.

· Based on the PHG reading, when should you quote and when should you paraphrase?

· What are some different ways you can introduce a quote from the text? What punctuation should you use?

- Ask students to consider how they can integrate textual examples from the text they’ve chosen into their essay. Have students look back at the list of textual examples they identified in #1 and consider how they’ll integrate each into their essay.

· Which textual examples that you’re thinking of using should you quote? Which should you paraphrase?

Transition: “Now that we’ve started to outline your support and consider how you can incorporate textual examples into your paper, let’s look at the Essay 2 sample in terms of how well it meets the assignment context.”

4. Assign WTL on Essay 2 sample (5-7 minutes): Ask students to take a couple minutes to skim over the sample essay again and then respond to these questions:

· How well does this essay meet the context for Essay 2?

· What aspects of the essay work well in meeting that context and why? What parts of the essay don't meet the context as well and why?

5. Discuss Essay 2 sample (10-15 minutes): In this activity we're trying to get students thinking of the sample essay in terms of the context of the assignment rather than as a "model" for them to follow or avoid. Hopefully students will raise issues of focus and development, but if not make sure you ask them to consider these aspects of the sample essay. These are the two most important parts of writing we're trying to teach them with the Essay 2 assignment, so try to focus on them as much as possible. Other concerns such as style, grammar, tone, etc., can certainly be brought up and discussed, but emphasize that these are less important in the overall scheme of this essay than focus and development.

A. Discuss WTLs:

· Which parts of the sample essay worked well for our context? Why?

· Which parts didn't work as well? Why?

B. Generate a list of these CONTEXTUAL strengths and weaknesses on the board. Have students copy these down since they will be used in Friday’s class.

C. Discuss the sample in terms of Essay 2 evaluation criteria:

· Is the overall claim clear and appropriate to the context?

· Are the modes of development appropriate to explaining the reasons behind the overall claim?

· Are there any parts of the essay that don't seem to connect to the overall claim?

· What are some examples of effective evidence in the essay?

· Are there areas where the audience might want more examples or development? If so, where and why?

CONCLUSION:

Assignment for Day 15:

- Read “Introductions and Lead-ins” in PHG (299-301).

- Write an introduction for your Essay 2 that includes a lead-in, states your overall claim, and indicates your purpose for the reader.

- Bring the Essay 2 sample back to class on Friday.