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Class Plan -- Unit One, Day 11
Goals Assignment for Day 12
Draft of Public Literacy essay (2-3 pages typed) for peer review workshop.

Activities:
Daily - Re-read the first paragraph of the sample essay. Underline the thesis. Based on the first paragraph, what do you think the main points of the essay will be? How does the writer lead into the thesis?

Shaping - Begin discussion by looking at their answers to the Daily. How does the sample essay use the first paragraph to provide a focus and help the reader predict content and organization?

Using the basic format of intro-body-conclusion, we will analyze the essay to see how the writer accomplishes his/her goals.

Regardless of what essay you use (whether it is a student sample, your Public Literacy essay or a choice from Exploring Language or the PHG), this discussion and/or activity should emphasize organizing the essay based on what the writer wants to accomplish and particularly on meeting the reader's needs. Use the sample and the backwards outlines students did for homework to discuss what the main points are and how the writer organizes using them. Talk about what goes in a good thesis statement, how the thesis and essay map need to respond directly to the question the essay is responding to, and how to decide how to divide up the body of the essay.

One way to accomplish these goals is to have students identify what the writer is doing and to discuss why the writer made the choices s/he did. You can go on to evaluate the effectiveness of the writer's decisions as well as the outcome of those decisions.

Point to how the writer synthesizes or integrates information from multiple sources.

Be sure to allow for a connection to students' essays. One way to do that is to ask for volunteers to put their working thesis on the board and then have the class suggest possible organizing strategies.