Description
Before students can sit for a great length of time and compose an essay in response to texts, they need to be comfortable with the simple act of writing. Sentences are combined to build paragraphs; paragraphs are combined to create essays. Much like learning to drive a car, writing on demand requires automaticity. Students must be able to interpret a prompt, read one or more articles, synthesize information, plan, organize their thinking, and put all their thoughts together in a clear and interesting way. Students who are unable to write paragraphs with automaticity will struggle greatly with essays.
This work text is designed to help students master the art of writing cohesive paragraphs, which leads to writing strong essays. To this end, the progression of five different units within the booklet is purposefully designed to begin with non-text-based paragraph construction, followed by more complex text-based writing, and culminating in an introduction to text-based essay writing. With nearly 40 lessons, anchor charts, teaching notes, and activities, students’ writing will greatly improve.
