We will start class with ten minutes of reading. I will read with students during this time.
To help students turn yesterday's work and brainstorming of polemics into useful support and structure for an essay, I will do a mini-lesson on constructing a thesis statement, which I think is an essential first step to crafting argument. If students don't know what they want to prove, it is much harder to gather evidence and support.
This is not the first time that we have worked through thesis statements, so I will mainly use this time to remind them of three key things:
I will give them a few examples or what not to do, such a "Oppressive government is bad" and ask them to help me revise (W.9-10.5). This thesis statement, for example, is way too vague and doesn't show specific information about a book or what makes the oppressive government "bad."
Any remaining time will be spent working on thesis statements. I will do my best to circulate the room to help students as I can. I will ask them to write their thesis statements on a 3x5 card as an exit slip just in case I can't see everyone. This will let me read all of their thesis statements and provide feedback prior to their essay writing tomorrow.
To get them started, will share a simple formula for their thesis statement (In (my novel's title) the author argues (polemic) through the strategy of (dystopian theme/literary device/structural choice/etc.).) I will not require them to use this, but I hope that having a fill in the blank formula will help those who are totally stuck.
This work time will bring up right up the bell during this short class period. Hopefully the students will use it well.