1-21-08: Essay Brainstorming (A Days)

Today we turned in: The Organization Investigation and Revision Sheets

Today we began our punctual piece with a writing prompt: In Europe the driving age is 18 because those governments feel that teens are not mature enough to handle the responsibility and the rules of driving in order to avoid accidents. In most states in America, the driving age is still 16. Some people would like to raise the driving age in America to 18. What do you think? Should the driving age be raised to 18? Write an essay to convince the legislature of your position in the matter of raising the driving age to 18.

Using the prompt above brainstorm 3 specific classes this topic could fit under. Then describe the topic in terms of one of the classes you listed.

After we completed the punctual piece we quickly reviewed essay structure and organization.

Then we talked through the punctual piece. As a class, we made a list of classes that the topic of teenage driving could fit under. From there we talked about the different kinds of essays that would result from the different classes that relate to teenage driving.

Next we used two or three classes to build our thesis statement. We talked through the details of teenage driving in connection to the class we chose and then stated the relevance:

Topic + Description (three supports) + Relevance = Thesis

From there we brainstormed catchy sentences that could draw the reader into our essays and shared them with the class.

I modeled the thinking process of writing an introductory paragraph with you and then you wrote one of your own.

Finally we started outlining our essay using the Organization Outline sheet. This is what is due next time. Remember you need to make sure your introductory paragraph has a thesis statement and three supporting details!

For Friday:
1. Finish the Organization Outline
2. Writer's Notebook #3
3. Don't forget your book!