Blog Post #4: Expository Reading and Writing

The way that this article is set up is extremely helpful. I love how with each step to creating an essay, the author includes the CCSS that go along with the task. I also appreciate the detail put into the reading section, because that is just as important as the writing itself. In order to write a good essay, students need to be able to think critically about the topic, and discuss the subject with the class. Before the students even read the article or text, the article encourages teachers to have them do a type of prewrite. I wholeheartedly agree with this.
For my classes, before we start reading a text, they first help me look over it with the. We look for the author and publication, decide how we know that it is a reliable source, scan for main topics, read descriptions to pictures, etc. This seems very similar to what the text is suggesting. I did not realize that just this alone hit Common Core standards. Next, when we read the text together, we underline words that are unfamiliar, or phrases that stick out to us. The kids also have annotation symbols that they used during any reading. The process that this article walks us through is very detailed and mainly for expository writing. However, I am going to implement some factors of it when my 7th grade classes start writing their argumentative essays. Their topic is going to be about whether or not teachers should carry guns, since it is a topic that is current and actively affecting them. Because of the sensitive nature of this topic, it is even more essential to have a discussion beforehand, as well as a prewrite. The students’ prewrite will help them get their conflicting and emotional thoughts about on paper about school shooting before we starting reading articles. This will help students start to form their assessment of the topic and how they will take their stance. We will be annotating articles that I give them for their research so that they can continue to refer back to them as they build their claim, as suggested in this article. It will also be required that they complete multiple drafts of their essays, and to do so I will give sufficient feedback and hopefully one-on-one conferencing with students. The article suggests doing teacher conferencing after they have revised their first draft, but due to time constraints that may have to be done on their first draft. While writing, students will prove that they are able to meet a variety of CCSS such as citing resources, analyzing data, forming an argument, and looking at opposing viewpoints. In order for students to fully develop their argument, everyone will read articles from both sides, and we will have a Socratic Seminar on the articles.