SENIOR ENGLISH

Critical / Creative Thinking & Inquiry Lesson Analysis

EXPOSITORY ESSAY WRITING LESSONS, RESOURCES AND ASSIGNMENTS CONTENTS:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Lesson Sequence Overview Developing Criteria Student Worksheet Traditional Expository Essay Criteria Handout Expository Essay Practice: Trio Writing Task Handout Expository Essay Assignment Handout Expository Essay Rubric Handout

SAMPLE EXPOSITORY ESSAYS:

7. 8. 9. Small Change by Malcolm Gladwell None of the Above by Malcolm Gladwell Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation by Malcolm Gladwell

10. My Challenge To You: Only Speak Human at Work by Daniel Pink 11. I Used To Be Smart by David Sedaris 12. What is Science Fiction by Margaret Atwood

SHORT STORY:
13. The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas by Ursula La Guin

EXPOSITORY ESSAY LESSONS

Critical \ Creative Thinking & Inquiry Focus DAY 1
1. Share with students the essays Small Change, None of the Above and Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation all by Malcolm Gladwell. Ask the students to select one essay to read. Identify that were reading the essay as a template for learning about expository essay writing. After reading their chosen essay, form small groups to discuss the content. Ask each group to report to the class: Whats the thesis of the essay? What major evidence did Gladwell provide to support his thesis? What techniques has Gladwell used to make his essay engaging for readers interested in the topic of his essay?

2. 3. 4.

DAY 2
1. Critical challenge: These essays by Malcolm Gladwell demonstrate the skills of a very successful writer. Select a second essay to use alongside the one your read yesterday. Using the two essays you read discover with your group the organizational patterns that Gladwell has used in his essays. Be able to describe how he has organized the sections, paragraphs and, within the paragraphs, the sentences of his work. 2. After working in small groups on the critical challenge, with a partner create a graphical representation of the organizational pattern Gladwell uses in his essays on chart paper. As a class compare the chart papers produced by the partners. Exit Pass Explain how one of the graphical representations of Gladwells organizational plan helps you to understand how to effectively organize an expository essay?

3. 4.

DAY 3
1. Yesterday we focused on the organization of expository essays , today well determine some of the other criteria for an effective expository essay. Using the essays by Gladwell as references, determine with your group the other appropriate criteria for an effective expository essay (see criteria handout). Identify specific criteria for each of the traits of writing: Ideas; Organization (reference your work in question 2); Voice; Word choice Sentence craft and fluency; Conventions. 2

2. 3.

As a class publish a common set of criteria for expository essay writing. Compare the class-generated criteria with the Traditional Criteria for an Expository Essay handout (attached). Has anything important been missed? Have the class improved on the traditional criteria?

DAY 4
1. Distribute essays by Daniel Pink, Margaret Atwood, and David Sedaris. Ask students to select an essay theyre interested in reading. Ask the students to apply the criteria the class developed for expository essays. How well does the criteria describe the essay? First in small groups of students who chose to read the same essay, then as a whole class determine if theres a need to modify the criteria or have we identified deficiencies in the essays? Press the students to use specific references to the essays to illustrate the criteria.

DAYS 5-7
1. Assessment For Learning: Assign the students the Expository Essay Practice Trio Writing Task Support their reading and understanding of the story The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas . In trios the students will demonstrate how prepared they are to write an expository essay individually. Monitor their ability to: develop a thesis; organize their ideas; choose appropriate quotations / find useful ideas through research; create an engaging opening paragraph; write a conclusion.

Provide the trios with feedback while they are working to guide their understanding of the criteria.

DAYS 7-8
2. Assessment As Learning: As trios finish their work, pair groups and ask each trio to explain / defend to the other trio that they have successfully demonstrated that they are prepared to write an expository essay independently. Support the trios that are struggling with aspects of the task. Monitor their meetings more closely. 3. Assessment OF Learning: Distribute the Expository Essay Assignment to the students as they complete the trio work. Instruct the students to transfer the class developed and validated criteria for the expository essay to the provided rubric. Note: The independent essay assignment is difficult. Many students will need support generating a topic to connect to their novel. If you are more concerned with using the assignment to evaluate the students writing skills than reading and research skills, you may wish to allow them to use topics already discussed in class.

EXPOSITORY ESSAYS

DEVELOPING CRITERIA
Referring to the sample essays develop criteria for each of the elements of writing that you would expect to be found in all effective expository essays. Be sure to consider the essay authors purpose and intended audience when describing how he/she used each element to achieve that purpose for that audience. W RITING E LEMENTS CRITERIA

IDEAS
Research / select ideas and details to meet your purpose and audience.

ORGANIZATION
Order the ideas and supporting details to support the purpose and audience.

VOICE
Use a tone that is appropriate for the purpose and audience. Engage your audience.

WORD CHOICE
Use appropriate descriptive words, phrases and expressions to achieve your purpose.

SENTENCE CRAFT AND FLUENCY

Write sentences of varying type, structure and length with logical transitions between ideas.

CONVENTIONS
Apply your knowledge of conventions to communicate effectively to achieve your purpose.

EXPOSITORY ESSAY CRITERIA

PURPOSE: an expository essay provides information and analysis that explains and connects ideas or events to
provide its readers with a deeper understanding of a topic. The essay might evaluate the qualities and importance of aspects of the topic to help its readers better understand the topic. The emphasis is on deeper understanding rather than persuasion.

EXAMPLES of expository writing:

Consumer report Magazine article Blog Textbook Article Wikipedia entry Biography Analysis of a proposal Safety report History Travel advice website

TRADITIONAL CRITERIA for Expository Writing.

Ideas: this is the most important element in expository writing. In order to explain a topic effectively you must
provide clear, specific details that accurately inform your reader. The details you choose to include are crucial for the success of your piece of writing.

Organization: the traditional academic expository essay follows a very predictable pattern, but very few
professional writers adhere to this pattern. The traditional academic expository essay begins with a paragraph that outlines the writers thesis and identifies the main points the writer wil l use to prove the thesis. The writer then follows a point, proof, comment formula for each of the essays body paragraphs. Some teachers prefer each body paragraph contain multiple (usually three) proofs for the point the paragraph is proving. Other teachers prefer each body paragraph contain only one point, proof, comment sequence. In knowing your intended audience, you should know the style the teacher youre writing for prefers. Expository essays that are published in magazines often begin with an interesting anecdote about the essays topic to capture a readers interest. This specific anecdote is often followed by a discussion by the author of the larger topic the anecdote illustrates. From this point, magazine articles will generally follow a chronological sequence or feature a variety of examples to support the authors thesis these examples are often grouped into sections under sub-headings. All expository writing must have a logical organization that makes effective use of the authors ideas.

Voice: traditionally the author of expository texts does not include himself/herself in the writing. Only rarely
would an author use the first person in a formal expository text, and never in an academic essay. Magazine articles may have a less formal voice depending on the articles intended audience, but even when less formal language is appropriate the author still tend to write in the third person.

Word Choice / Sentence Fluency / Conventions: as with all pieces of writing your word choice,
sentence fluency and conventions must help your reader to understand and appreciate your writing. Taking into account the formal voice and structure of your expository writing use vocabulary that helps you to clearly and accurately explain your ideas. Many expository essays are presented using subheadings or section headings to support the organizational choices the author has made. 6

EXPOSITORY ESSAY PRACTICE

TRIO WRITING TASK
TASK
As a trio create an outline for an expository essay that demonstrates your preparedness to write an expository essay independently. The outline essay will connects an idea from the short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursual La Guin to one of the issues listed below. Demonstrate through your essay outline, your understanding of both the short story and the issue, and your ability to write an effective expository essay. This essay outline will lead to you being well prepared to write your own essay.

PROCESS
1. 2. Read the story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula La Guin. Select a quotation from the short story that captures either the emotions or attitudes of a character or captures the theme of the story; Research the issue to gather useful details to include in your essay; Create an outline for an expository essay that explains why the quotation youve selected connects to an issue you feel is important; Your outline must contain the following elements: a. b. A draft of the first and last paragraphs of the essay; A point form list explain how you will use organize your the key points in your body paragraphs this list is the recipe you would use to write a full draft of your essay. It should convince me that you understand how to construct a 4-5 page expository essay; A point form list of the quotations you will use from the short story. Convince me that you are able to select important and relevant quotations that connect to your key points. A point form list of the sources you used to research your topic to develop the ideas you included in your body paragraphs. Convince me that you have thought about the topic and know how to find useful information to build an interesting expository essay.

3. 4.

5.

c.

d.

TOPICS
1. Our society is Omelas and the developing world is the child. Begin your research at http://moveyourworld.unicef.ca/en/secondary_default.htm Halton is Omelas and it ignores people who are represented by the child who live among us. Begin your research at http://www.povertyfreehalton.ca/ The argument in the story is flawed. Theres evidence that the life of the poor among us are improving. Society is improving the conditions of all on the planet. Begin your research at http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html and http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/StandardsofLivingandModernEconomicGrowth.html

2.

3.

EXPOSITORY ESSAY WRITING ASSIGNMENT

TASK
Write an expository essay that connects an idea from the text youve been reading in class to an issue you care about. Demonstrate through your essay, your understanding of both your text and the issue, and your ability to write an effective expository essay. Your comprehension and analysis reading skills have been evaluated through the novel seminars. This essay will be evaluated as a demonstration of your writing skills, not your comprehension and analysis reading skills.

PROCESS
1. Select a quotation from your text that captures either the emotions or attitudes of a character or captures the theme of your text; Write an expository essay that explains why the quotation youve selected connects to an issue you feel is important; Research the issue to gather useful details to include in your essay; Write your essay using the criteria and rubric developed by the class as a guide; Your expository essay should be 4-6 pages long.

2.

3. 4. 5.

EXAMPLE
This quotation from Brave New World, That is the secret of happiness and virtue liking what youve got to do could lead to this topic for an expository essay: The attitude expressed by the Director character in Brave New World when he says, That is the secret of happiness and virtue liking what youve got to do describes how many high school students feel about choosing their university programs.

EXPOSITORY ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

LEARNING SKILLS CRITERIA
Responsibility Organization Independent Work Initiative Collaboration Self-Regulation E E E E E E G G G G G G S S S S S S N N N N N N

Completes and submits work according to agreed upon timelines Identifies, gathers, evaluates and uses information and resources to complete tasks Uses class time appropriately to complete tasks Demonstrates curiosity and interest in learning Works with others to resolve conflicts and build consensus to achieve group goals Perseveres and makes an effort when responding to challenges. LEVEL 3 SPECIFIC CRITERIA FOR C HOSEN T ASK
(TO BE CREATED IN CLASS) EVAL

ASSIGNMENT CRITERIA
CURRICULUM CRITERIA CONSTRUCTING MEANING

Demonstrate your understanding of the topic Demonstrates (ie. You make clear / relevant references to considerable the required ideas). knowledge and understanding of Demonstrate your knowledge / the content. understanding of the key terms relevant to the topic.

KNOWLEDGE

DEVELOP AND ORGANIZE C ONTENT

THINKING

Generate and develop ideas that respond to the assignment. locate and select information to support ideas for writing; Organize ideas to support the purpose for your text. Make connections to other content / ideas and/or other research to extend your understanding of the assignment. choose information sufficient to achieve the purpose for your work.

Uses critical / creative thinking processes with considerable effectiveness.

Transfers knowledge and skills to unfamiliar contexts with considerable effectiveness.

APPLICATION

FORM , STYLE AND CONVENTIONS

COMMUNICATION

Respond to the assignment with the required Communicates to the intended format, following the appropriate audience with conventions for the task (presentation). considerable effectiveness. Use your knowledge of form and style including: Voice Word Choice Sentence Craft and Fluency Use your knowledge of conventions to employ effective: spelling grammar

Uses conventions with considerable effectiveness.