Week Four
Level: Students are expected to possess a B1 (Intermediate) level of English
Time: Two Academic Hours (1 Hour & 50 minutes)
Objectives: Students will be able to....
- Clarify expectations for the descriptive essay assignment by asking questions in class
- Define key vocabulary related to academic writing
- Explain the importance of using an outline when organizing writing
- Explain the purpose of reverse outlining
- Reverse outline an example essay
- Create an outline for their own essays
- Pen
- Paper
- Whiteboard
- "Create a Character Backstory" PPT
- Picture of a skeleton
- Example Descriptive Essay (Milwaukee)
- Learning to Create an Outline Worksheet
- Blank Outline Organizer
- Focused Brainstorming (from previous class)
Procedure
I. Class Introduction
The first few minutes of class can be used to ask students if they have any questions about the class or the essay assignment.
II. Warm-Up - "Create a Character Backstory"
To get students thinking in a descriptive mindset, use the following activity. The goal of this activity is to have students think creatively and to practice descriptive writing in a free and fun way!
Instructions (also found on the PPT)
- With a partner, choose one of the pictures from the PPT and invent a biography (life story) about the person in the picture or explain what the person is doing to look the way he does.
- Here are some questions to get you started: Who is the person in your picture? What does he do for a living? What is name? What has his life been like? What is the person doing in the picture? Why? How does he look? Why does he look this way?
- You will have five minutes. Try and write 6-10 sentences. Include FIVE adjectives.
- When you finish, share you story with a different group and see if you can guess which person is being described.
An outline can be thought of as the "skeleton" of an essay. It provides the necessary internal structure to support the main ideas and supporting points.
Now, students will have a chance to practice using an outline. Before they create their own outlines, they will "reverse engineer" an outline for an essay that has already been written. Ask them to work through the following steps:
- Read the sample descriptive essay, "Milwaukee: The Greatest Place on Earth"
- After they have read the essay, give them the example essay outline.
- Once they have the example essay outline, go over the information on the top and review the directions. Some of the information on the outline has already been filled out. Some has not. It is the students job to fill out the missing information.
- Give students some time to fill out the missing information.
- Once they finish, have them compare their answers with a partner.
- After filling out the outline and comparing their answers with a partner, have the pairs answer the comprehension questions.
- Finally, discuss the answers (here) as a group. Feel free to use this graphic organizer to help explain some of the answers to the comprehension questions.
Now, give students time to create outlines for their descriptive essays. Use the following procedure:
- Return their focused brainstorming work from last week (with any comments)
- Provide each student with a blank outline organizer
- Ask them to create an outline like the one they made for the example essay, but using their own ideas.
- Tell them to use the focused brainstorming work to create the thesis statement and topic sentences
- Ask them to only write down the key ideas
- Monitor their progress and answer any questions they may have
Depending on how much time is left in class, you can ask your students to beginning writing the first draft of their essays. Ask them to use the following sequence:
- Start by writing the body paragraphs
- Then write the introduction and conclusion
Attributions
*All pictures from pixabay.com*
Skeleton Image: http://pixabay.com/en/bones-color-anatomy-skeleton-307297/
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