Return to Unit One:MWF

Class Plan -- Unit One, Day 15

• Practice identifying and explaining process, classification, definition, and cause-effect relationships
• Learn to focus by refining questions

Activities:
Daily - Form a group of 3-4. Groups on the left side of the room, list all the causes for a familiar phenomenon (e.g. excess drinking in college students) while the groups on the right side of the room list all the effects of the same phenomenon.

You can pass out copies of the sample essay while students are working on the Daily.

Discuss cause-effect relationships - The goals of this discussion include showing students that they need to narrow their focus when they are explaining cause-effect relationships. You also want them to see how they can categorize various causes and effects and/or focus mainly on causes or effects.

This would be a good time to show them how to use C-E diagrams as collecting devices.

Use the example also to discuss how to explain the cause-effect relationship. For instance, we can't just say that college students are stressed and that causes them to drink heavily. We need to explain how stress can lead to anxiety and depression and how these can lead to a desire for relaxation and escape. Since alcohol relaxes the body and provides euphoric effects, it can provide that relaxation and escape quickly, and so forth. It is important that we help students see the difference between asserting that a cause-effect relationship exists and explaining how it works.

Connect to the paper - Have students work on identifying which of the essay questions are asking them to discuss cause-effect relationships and which ask for other strategies such as definition, classification, or process analysis.

If time, discuss writing a thesis statement and essay map to focus a response to a question.

You may want to wrap up with a brief discussion of the Web Forum.