Any Building Needs A Plan-- Building a Thesis Statement!

Subject Area(s):

• K-12: Language Arts

Grade Level(s):

• 9th Grade
• 10th Grade
• 11th Grade
• 12th Grade

Description:

Students need to be able to create a thesis statement when they are writing a persuasive essay. All too often they can collect evidence about specific topic, but they cannot construct a statement that enables them to present their evidence in a clear and compelling manner. Evidence has no value unless it is supported with an unambiguous thesis statement. After students have created a thesis statement they can create an outline for their persuasive essay. In this way students have a building block with which to write a cogent essay.

Goals & Objectives:

Students will be able to collect evidence about a character in graphic organizer.

Students will be able to use a template to create a thesis statement about a character.

Students will be able to use evidence collected in a graphic organizer about a character to create a thesis statement with the template.

Students will be able to use a template to create an outline for a persuasive essay.

Students will be able to use their outline created with the template to write a persuasive essay. 

Materials:

Characterization Graphic Organizer, Thesis Builder, Rubric.

Procedures:

Students will use fiction that they  have read in class to create a thesis statement and an outline in order to write a persuasive essay about a character. 

Students will use a  characterization graphic organizer to collect evidence about a character.  They will then use a thesis statement template to create a thesis statement about a character. 

Students will also create an outline with a template so  that they can write a persuasive essay about a character.

Assessment:

A rubric for an essay will be used as an assessment tool both by the students for self-editing and as the same assessment tool by the LMS.

Supporting Files:

• Characterizatio1.doc
  This characterization graphic organizer will allow students to gather evidence about a character they have read about with their classmates.
• ThesisBuilding.doc
  This document gives students a plug in for their evidence that they have collected about a character and allows the students to build a thesis statement by following the instructions and then after they have clicked the Thesis Statement Builder they can then click the Outline builder and create an outline with which they can then write a persuasive essay about a character from a work of fiction they have read with their classmates.
• Writing_Rubric_1171.doc
  This document serves to be a self-editing tool for the students and a assessment tool for the teacher.

Standards:

National Information Literacy Standards (K-12)

Appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information.

• Derives meaning from information presented creatively in a variety of formats.
• Develops creative products in a variety of formats.
• Subject: K-12: Language Arts

National Content Standards (K-12)

Reading

• Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
• Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary texts