Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Sophomore Research Essay
After students have selected topics, we start with research. As part of the argumentation unit, students assessed the sources used by speakers for validity, reliability and bias using the CRAAP test. Now it is their turn to avoid the mistakes the speakers they examined made and find reliable sources for their writing. I have them use a CRAAP rubric in order to determine whether a source is worthy of inclusion or not. Here is the version of the rubric that we use in class:
We have worked with thesis statements half a dozen times by this point in the year, but because they are so essential to the quality of an essay, we review them again and strategies/sentence structures for writing them. I have students work in pairs to define what the term thesis statement means, to pull out and find synonyms for buzz words, to write three versions of a thesis and then to peer edit their statements. They use all of this work in order to craft a final thesis statement for their essay.
Students pair up again as they work on determining a basic outline for the essay. They brainstorm, determine and craft sub-topics with a partner. Next, they use Noodletools to cite the sources they are planning to use, write an outline and create notecards with information they are planning to integrate into their essay.
Because citations can be tricky for students, but are essential for avoiding issues of plagarism, we spend a day reviewing how to cite evidence according to MLA format rules. We review basic MLA format for citations and students are given time to correctly cite all of the evidence they are planning to integrate into their essay.
We review, as a class, specifics for writing a concession and rebuttal and then the kids are ready to edit/revise and publish.
Finally students add transitions, topic sentences, and the pieces of the introduction and conclusion that are needed before beginning to peer edit and revise their essay prior to publishing.