LESSON SIX: Organizing one’s thoughts
LESSON DESCRIPTION
Students analyze text for the organizational strategies of quality writing including the use of cohesive devices such as transitions, repetition, parallelism, and parallel structure) and various organizational strategies. The objectives of this lesson are to use details from nonfiction text to analyze the text for organizational effectiveness and to compose text using cohesive devices. This lesson focuses on how quality writing is organized, including the use of cohesive devices (transitions, repetition, parallelism, and parallel structure) and various organizational patterns. Students write using a variety of cohesive devices and explain the organizational pattern used in that writing and why that method of organization was effective.
GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
R3C Using details from text
§ evaluate adequacy of evidence
§ determine author’s purpose based on text analysis
§ analyze details from text for
o word choice and connotation
o selection of details
o organizational effectiveness
o accuracy of information
§ analyze multiple text
o by comparing and contrasting details
o by determining importance of information
o for authors’ viewpoints
§ identify problem solving processes and explain the effectiveness of solutions
W2F When composing text, use
§ cohesive devices including
o transitions
o repetition
o parallelism
§ editing to eliminate fragments
§ the rhetorical device of
o repetition for effect
o parallel structure
W3E Compose texts
§ for a workplace communication (e.g., memo or letter) that includes summaries, directives, meeting minutes, and/ or complaints or concerns
§ that address the same topic from two points of view, using appropriate forms (e.g., interpret a school rule from the perspective of an adult and a student)
LESSON MATERIALS
o Teacher-selected
§ Supplies
o Overhead projector, Notepad, or SmartBoard
o Writing with Parallelism answer key
o Formative assessment answer key
§ Handouts provided
o Writing with Parallelism worksheet
§ Words to know
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o evaluate |
o author's purpose |
o analyze |
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o connotation |
o compare |
o contrast |
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o letter |
o points of view |
o workplace communication |
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o repetition |
o parallelism |
o cohesive devices |
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o nonfiction |
o fiction |
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Each student writes one or more paragraphs using a variety of cohesive devices, including transitions, repetition and parallelism, and self-evaluates that paragraph using a scoring guide. The student also describes the organizational pattern he or she used and explains why this pattern was effective for the assigned task.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Provide students with two nonfiction passages, one which is well organized and makes use of a variety of cohesive devices and another that is poorly organized and disjointed and may be somewhat difficult to follow. Read those aloud to or with students.
Guide students in determining which of the passages is easier to understand. Discuss why. Students identify words and/or phrases that help the passage flow and tie ideas together; these can be underlined or highlighted. Tell students that those are called cohesive devices because they hold together the pieces of the passage.
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Questions for Students |
Which passage is easier to read and follow/understand? Why? What words and/or phrases help tie together the ideas in the passage? What could be done to help the poorly-written passage flow more smoothly? |
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Strategy
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The well-organized passage should use a variety of cohesive devices, including transitions, repetition and parallelism. (The teacher may find and use an existing passage or may write a passage appropriate for the task.) The teacher may need to write the poorly-organized passage to serve the intended purpose. The teacher may choose to display the passages on an overhead and/or to provide students with copies of both. It may be helpful to compare cohesive devices to glue that is used to hold two things together. Definitions of the terms cohesive device and parallelism can be found in the Communication Arts Grade Level Expectations Glossary of Terms. |
2. Define and provide examples of each kind of cohesive device: transitions, repetition, and parallelism. (In addition to or rather than using different examples, the teacher may choose to point out examples of each kind of cohesive device in the well-written paragraph from the earlier activity.) Explain how each cohesive device ties the example passage(s) together.
Explain how parallel structure can be used to organize ideas in a piece of writing.
Illustrate parallel structure within a sentence, a paragraph and/or a passage. A good example to illustrate parallel structure is President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, including, for example, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Use the think-aloud strategy to rewrite the poorly-written paragraph used in the earlier activity, adding appropriate cohesive devices, at least one transition, one use of repetition, and one use of parallelism.
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Strategy |
Think-Aloud Strategy What is it? Think-Aloud strategy is an approach in which teachers verbalize their own thought processes while reading, thereby modeling for students the cognitive and meta-cognitive processes that good readers use to construct meaning and monitor their comprehension.
What is its purpose? Think-aloud facilitates learning by: § providing students with the opportunity to see various strategies a good reader uses to construct meaning and cope with comprehension problems. § assisting students with developing their ability to monitor their reading and take corrective action when needed. § providing an opportunity for students to experience effective reading and problem solving and to transfer these strategies to their independent reading. § assisting students develop their ability to make predictions about text; compare and contrast events, ideas, and characters; visualize the information that is described in the text; and make connections to prior knowledge. § helping students focus.
How do I do it? Preparation for class: 1. Select two passages on the same topic that contain points of difficulties, ambiguities, unknown words when comparing the two passages. 2. Preview the passage and imagine that you are reading it for the first time as one of your good readers would. 3. Use a copy of the passage to make note of the comments and questions to model for students.
In the classroom: § Provide students with a nonfiction passage, Passage A, and have them read it silently or read it aloud to or with them. This passage can also be displayed on the overhead. § Identify and then record the passage’s main idea. § List details from the passage that support its main idea. § Place a star by the detail(s) which you consider the most important. § Identify details you are skeptical about by placing a question mark beside them. § Have students skim the passage for any of the previously-discussed clues that might suggest information presented in the passage is accurate; discuss those. |
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Strategy |
This activity is complex and involves several components. Considerable time will be required, as well as multiple drafts, to allow for incorporating all of the necessary components. |
3. Explain to students that there are several patterns that can be followed to organize one’s ideas when writing. These include, among others, chronological order, spatial order and order of importance. Explain the characteristics of each organizational pattern and when and why each might be used. It may be appropriate to provide a separate passage as an example of each organizational pattern. Lead students in determining what organizational pattern was used in the previously studied passage(s).
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Questions for Students |
Why is it important to carefully organize your ideas when writing? When would a writer use chronological order? Spatial order? Order of importance? What kinds of transitions would be used with each organizational pattern (chronological, spatial, order of importance)? |
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Strategy
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Most grammar/language textbooks will include materials on cohesive devices, including transitions, repetition, and parallelism. To help students understand repetition, lead them to identify its root word, repeat. It might also be useful to share a passage, such as a poem, that makes strong use of repetition (of a word, phrase, line or stanza) and discuss the effect that has. Many poems by Edgar Allan Poe would serve this purpose. Note that parallelism as a cohesive device is a scaled-down version of parallel structure as a method of organization. Most grammar/language textbooks will also address chronological order, spatial order, and order of importance as organizational patterns. |
4. For practice students complete the Writing with Parallelism worksheet. This can be done individually or in pairs. Then lead students in discussing appropriate responses. (After evaluating students’ understanding using the worksheet, the teacher may choose to use a similar worksheet for independent practice as well.)
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Questions for Students |
How can we correct a passage that fails to use parallelism/parallel structure correctly? |
Students practice writing with parallel structure to an assigned prompt chosen by the teacher. Display examples of student writing for classmates to evaluate for parallel structure and revise.
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Strategy |
Comparison-contrast writing is a good device for teaching parallel structure. The student can discuss the two things being compared and contrasted one at a time in terms of the similar and different features, or the student can discuss each similarity and difference by describing the feature in one item and then the corresponding feature in the other item. |
5. For additional practice, provide students with a nonfiction passage. After students have read that, have them identify the organizational pattern used in the passage and explain whether that is effective and why or why not. (The teacher may choose to write this passage so that its organizational pattern is obvious but it lacks cohesive devices, or the teacher may simply re-type an existing nonfiction passage but eliminating at least some of the cohesive devices.)
Students are then to revise the passage, adding a prescribed number of appropriate transitions (the number required to be determined by the teacher depending upon the passage used), at least one use of repetition and at least one use of parallelism. Have some students read their revised passages aloud to classmates to illustrate the variety of ways the various cohesive devices can be used.
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Questions for Students |
Does a writer always use the same cohesive devices? Why or why not? What determines what cohesive device(s) a writer uses in a particular passage? |
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Strategy |
Have students complete this revision activity in pairs. |