Tarzan: Opinion Writing
Objective
Big Idea
Narrative
Which Tarzan is Best?
In the previous lesson, I had the students fill in a Four Square graphic organizer for the opinion piece we will be creating in this lesson. We have done quite a few five paragraph essays using the four square method. The quality of writing has increased dramatically for my students. There are, however, things the students can still improve on. I would like to discuss some of these things with the students before they begin to compose their piece.
One of the big things that several students are still having a hard time with, is dividing the writing up into five separate paragraphs. They still want to clump the whole essay into one big piece. I will demonstrate on the board how to start a new paragraph and show them how the graphic organizer they completed in the previous lesson makes it easy to know when to begin a new paragraph. The other thing I want to point out to the students is that the use of transition words makes the reading flow from one paragraph to the next.
After our discussion on creating a five paragraph essay, I will let the students have the remainder of the class time to work on their essays.
Student Sharing
If time permits, to close the lesson, I will have a few students share their writing with the class. It is always fun to have the students share with each other. The more they share, the more comfortable they get in doing it.
