Explaining an Idea lesson 7 - Pearson...

Exposition 89

Explaining an Idea 7lesson

MATERIALS

❑❑ Chart paper and markers

❑❑ Chart:

– Writing Ideas from Reading

❑❑ Student Readers

❑❑ Writer’s Notebooks

❑❑ Online Resources packet:

– Hearing Images

– “Democracy”

– Definition of Democracy

– E. B. White’s Sentence Frames

– Friendship: Notes

– What Friendship Is

students’ learning objective

❑■ Mimic an author’s writing technique to generate other ideas for an explanation

students’ language objectives

❑■ Write a definition, using the following sentence frames:

– Introduction:

•(We) received _______. It presumably is _______.

– Definition

•Surely (the Board) knows what (democracy) is. It is _______. It is _______. (Democracy) is _______. It is _______. (Democracy) is _______. It is _______. It’s _______. (Democracy) is _______.

– Use these sentence frames to:

•Generate an essay of definition

•Generate metaphors

•Define an abstract concept

•Apply the strategies of repetition and parallel structure for emphasis and style

target words

❑■ repetition, n. something that is said or shown again and again in exactly the same way; something that is repeated

❑■ metaphor, n. the use of a word, phrase, or image for something that it does not literally denote, suggesting a comparison

prep

❑■ Preview the material in the Online Resources packet, and decide how to display it for students to view.

independent writing

❑■ Ask students to work with partners to brainstorm at least five new ideas that might be interesting to write about.

❑■ Record their ideas on the class chart.

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Foundations Study90

Lesson 7 • Explaining an Idea

opening

Sharing quick writes❑■ Display the “Hearing Images” instructions for partner work, and have students follow the process. When they have finished, invite volunteers to read their quick writes aloud. Invite the listeners to repeat the best images they identified.

❑■ Celebrate the writers’ ideas as well as their phrasing. Note that often it is the phrasing that attracts readers’ attention to the content.

Introducing an author❑■ Tell students that today you will be sharing the work of a writer who is famous for both his ideas and his phrasing, a writer whom they may have read, E. B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web.

❑■ Invite students who have read the book or seen the film to comment.

❑■ Tell students that White is now known as a children’s author. (In addition to Charlotte’s Web, he wrote Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan). But for most of his life, he was a journalist and essayist whose work appeared in the most important newspapers and magazines in the United States. His essays were very popular, and people regarded him as one of the great minds of his time.

❑■ Note that White was so highly regarded that, in 1944, when World War II was turning into a seemingly endless war, the U.S. government asked him to write something that would help people feel better about the war and remind them of our reasons for fighting.

❑■ Tell students they will be reading this essay. Remind them that 1944 was a long time ago, so some of his words and phrases are truly “old school.”

Using a touchstone text❑■ Display White’s “Democracy” essay, and have students find it in their Student Readers.

❑■ Explain to students that White says “we” even though “he” received the letter. Doing this was a sign of respect, as he was a part of a staff of writers and did not want to seem egotistical.

❑■ Because of the lyricism of the repeated line, read the passage twice, or consider conducting a popcorn reading for students to share in the rereading. (Each student selects one memorable line for the reading.)

STUDENT READER

“Democracy,” p. 10

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Exposition 91


NOTE TO TEACHER

Using a model passage. This particular passage, “Democracy,” offers a nice opportunity for mimicking a repeated line, and it helps students think of other topics to add to their growing lists of writing ideas. It also provides a structure for exploring an abstraction and a chance to embed metaphors to clarify meaning.

opening

continued

❑■ Note that White is defining democracy. Display and read “Definition of Democracy.” Ask students:

– How White’s essay differs from this dictionary definition

– Why White might have defined democracy in this way during a war

– Whether the series of definitions in White’s passage follow one to another or jump around (Students should see that some ideas take their lead from the previous idea, while others seem to jump to unrelated ideas.)

Writing strategies: repetition and metaphor❑■ Tell students that White’s definition is written in a clear structure, one that they will find interesting to play with.

❑■ Display White’s sentence frames. Note that there are two parts to this brief essay, the “Introduction,” where White tells the reader why he is writing, and the “Definition.”

❑■ Draw students’ attention to the fact that the sentences in the definition all start the same way. Note that this repetition keeps the focus of the definition squarely on the topic and provides the reader with a sense of structure. It allows White to list a number of very different definitions while maintaining a sense of organization.

❑■ Ask students to make an entry in their Writer’s Notebook glossaries titled “Writing Strategy: Repetition,” and write a brief definition of repetition.

❑■ Draw students’ attention to White’s definition and note how he used metaphors for democracy, which is an abstract term. Explain that a metaphor is a strategy in which dissimilar items are compared briefly and imaginatively to create meaning in an original way. Describing democracy as a “hole in the stuffed shirt” is a metaphor, as is describing it as the “line that forms on the right.”

❑■ Have students work in pairs to reread White’s essay and highlight the other metaphors they find. When they finish, have them share their findings with the class.

❑■ Direct students to add an entry to their Writer’s Notebook glossaries titled “Writing Strategy: Metaphor” and briefly describe this strategy. PE

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Foundations Study92


opening

continued

❑■ Tell students that they are going to borrow White’s writing strategies by generating a list of definitions of friendship.

❑■ Display “Friendship: Notes,” a list of ideas generated by one student writer. Note that there are two instances of metaphor on this list, the first and last bullets.

❑■ Invite students to brainstorm their own lists of ideas about friendship. Give them a few minutes to collect their thoughts.

❑■ Then show the “Friendship: Mimic of White’s Essay” example to illustrate how the writer used these ideas to begin his mimic.

❑■ Draw students’ attention to the words that are in bold print, the words that the student substituted for White’s words.

❑■ Invite students to make connections between the list that the student had brainstormed and the sentences that were written.

work period

Composing a mimic❑■ Have students create a new Writer’s Notebook page titled “Friendship Definition Mimicking E. B. White’s Essay.”

❑■ Direct them to refer to “E. B. White’s Sentence Frames” in their Student Reader to create a mimic, using one of the ideas that they have brainstormed.

❑■ After about 10 minutes, have students reread their writing to themselves.

❑■ Encourage students to revise as they read. Explain that if they see something that should be added, they should write a note in the margin; if something should be left out or changed, they should make the changes on the page.

Partner sharing❑■ Invite students to share their writing with a partner, again making changes as they see fit.

STUDENT READER

“E. B. White’s Sentence Frames,” p. 11

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Exposition 93


closing

Reinforcing the effects of repetition and metaphor❑■ Ask students to turn to their Writer’s Notebook glossaries and, next to the definition of an essay of definition, record the page number where they wrote their definition of friendship. They should also record the page numbers for their use of repetition and any metaphors they included.

❑■ Add these possibilities to the “Writing Ideas from Reading” chart:

Writing Ideas from Reading

Reading Source Ideas

“My Name” From The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

•Stories and thoughts about names

“Rattled” From Texas Monthly, Gordon Grice

•Fear of snakes

•Snakebites

•Snake handling

•Snake round-ups

•“Scorpions”

•“How Lizards Are Different from Snakes”

•“The Black Squirrel

•Jesse

•Marly

•Candice

•Scary things

•Comparisons

•Odd animals, colors, and markings

“Democracy” The New Yorker •Using repetition

•Writing definition of a topic or idea

•Using metaphor

❑■ Display the “What Friendship Is” options, and ask students which they prefer.

❑■ Be sure they provide reasons for their choices.

❑■ Then ask students to reread what they have written, and put a large star on the top of the one they like the best.

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Foundations Study94


Exposition

homework

❑■ Students should use White’s structure to define and write a short essay on something of their own choice, perhaps something more interesting to them than the topic you assigned.

❑■ Invite students to brainstorm additional topics. Capture their ideas and encourage students to borrow the most interesting ideas for their own lists of possible topics. Possibilities might include:

– Competition

– Teamwork

– Creativity

– Respect

– Responsibility

– Hip hop

– The blues

– Other music, art, or topics from popular culture

Exposition 95


10 Writers Workshop Foundations Study: Exposition


Democracy

July 3, 1944

We received a letter from the Writers’ War Board the other

day, asking for a statement on “The Meaning of Democracy .” It

presumably is our duty to comply with such a request, and it is

certainly our pleasure .

Surely the Board knows what democracy is . It is the line that

forms on the right . It is the don’t in Don’t Shove . It is the hole in

the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the

dent in the high hat . Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more

than half of the people are right more than half of the time . It is the

feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion

in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere . Democracy is the

score at the beginning of the ninth . It is an idea which hasn’t been

disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad . It’s

the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee .

Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a

morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is .

– E. B. White

Reprinted by permission: © E . B . White . Originally published in The New Yorker . All rights reserved .

Old School Terms:

stuffed shirt: indicates someone who is pompous, snooty

sawdust: indicates that they are fake

high hat: another indication that someone is pompous; rich men wore high hats

rationed: during the war, there was not enough coffee, so people were able to buy only limited quantities

Student Reader

Writers Workshop 1111Foundations Study: Exposition

Introduction:

We received

It presumably is

Definition:

Surely the Board knows what democracy is .

It is

It is

Democracy is

It is

Democracy is

It is

It’s

Democracy is

E. B. White’s Sentence Frames


Student Reader

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Foundations Study96


Exposition © 2010 America’s Choice

Work in groups of three:

• Writer #1 should read his or her quick write aloud.

• Writers #2 & #3 should repeat back the best images and phrases.

• Writer #1 should highlight these sections in the quick write.

Repeat the process for Writer #2 and then Writer #3.

Lesson 7 • Explaining an Idea 1/1

Hearing Images

Online Resources packet


democracy, n. 1. Government by the people: a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral process.

– Random House Webster’s College Dictionary


Democracy: Dictionary Definition

© iStockphoto.com/zentilia


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Exposition 97



Got my back

Comfortable

Safe—doesn’t tell all my stuff. Private.

Nice, not mean

Like a comfortable piece of clothing—Bathrobe? Socks? Sweatshirt?


Friendship: Notes

© iStockphoto.com/Jitalia17



I received a letter from some friends the other day, asking for a

statement on “The Meaning of Friendship.” It presumably is my duty to

comply with such a request, and it is certainly my pleasure.

A. Surely my friends know what friendship is. It is the person who

stands by my side. It is the Don’t in Don’t Tell. It is the comfort of a

new sweatshirt of a Saturday morning; it is the high in the high five.

B. Surely my friends know what friendship is. It is the person who

covers your back. It is the Don’t in Don’t Be Mean. It is the

hole in the darkness through which light slowly beams. It is the

understanding smile in the grim world.


Friendship: Mimic of White’s Essay


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Explaining an Idea lesson 7 - Pearson...

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