Argument Essay
The persuasive/argument essay is otherwise known as the Writing from Sources Task (Part 2) on the new Common Core Regents Exam. It consists of four nonfiction texts. Students are given a topic question and must create a claim statement and use the texts as support. In order to write this essay, it is important to help students organize their thoughts. First, I have the students read the texts and highlight and annotate each one. Once the students have completed that task, they have had the opportunity to form an opinion and create a claim statement. The second step is to fill out the "Argument Essay Graphic Organizer." To ensure that students use at least three of the four texts, this worksheet organizes the ideas so students pin-point at least two examples of textual evidence that supports their claim from each text, followed by an explanation of how the text supports their thesis. Students have to complete a similar form with their counterclaim evidence. After the students completed their graphic organizer, I checked each over and wrote feedback/constructive criticism. Students who did not have a completed claim statement had to go back and add to it. Next, students wrote a rough draft, which was followed by peer editing. Peer editors completed a "Peer Edit" sheet that had to be handed to their partner and discussed together. Finally, students took their rough drafts and the feedback from their peer partners and typed a final copy of this essay. Below is a sample of student work, including the graphic organizer, rough draft, peer editing sheet, and final essay.
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Text-Based Analysis
The text-based analysis essay is Part 3 on the new Common Core Regents exam. Students are given a passage to read and then must identify the author's central idea and a writing strategy that the author uses in order to convey that idea. Students must write two to three paragraphs about the use of one writing technique, which causes students to have to dig deeply into the text and find numerous meaningful examples. In order to practice this written piece, I created an outline for students to gather and organize their thoughts. The outline below asks students questions and helps them organize each portion of the written assignment. After completing this outline, students use it to write their rough draft and then their final draft. The first time I had the students write the text-based analysis response, I had previously asked them to record quotes from each chapter that supported what they believed to be the central idea of Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Next, students formed groups depending on what they believed the central idea was of the first nine chapters. Students then shared quotes they had gathered and chose the writing strategy that the author used best to convey the central idea. Along with the writing strategy, as a group they chose the strongest quotes as support to write in their outlines. Then students individually wrote their text-based analysis response. The second time around, students completed this assignment individually by choosing a central idea of the entire text, a writing strategy, powerful quotes as support, and with the help of the outline, they ended up writing very well-organized and thorough responses. At this point in the year, students have practiced writing many text-based analysis responses, and the outline is no longer a necessity. Below is a student sample.
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After every single written assignment, I always photocopy several exemplar pieces to hand out to the class. Once students read my comments on their papers, they notice what they do well and which areas need improvement. By distributing exemplar student pieces, students of all ability levels are able to notice specific techniques their classmates use. I often point out specific areas that I noticed students needed to improve upon. For example, if I notice that students are often placing in dropped quotes, in one exemplar piece I may have the students highlight every single lead-in before a quote so they know exactly what is expected and the variety of language that could be used. If I notice that students are citing incorrectly, in another piece I will have the students highlight the citations so when they fix their own work they know exactly what it should look like. I've noticed that exemplar student samples are always helpful for students to turn back to as mentor texts during their writing experience, and it is also exciting for the students when their paper gets chosen!