23 Other Explanatory Forms

TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Process How-To

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Page 181 from Write Ahead

Sample Process Essay (Cont.)

Have volunteers finish reading aloud the sample process essay. Then lead a discussion about it, using prompts like the following:

How does the writer grab readers' interest at the beginning of the essay? (By presenting a saying that shows the importance of the subject)
Why does the writer include bolded headings in the process essay? (To help segment the major parts of the process)
Why does the writer use numbered lists for some lines and bulleted lists for others? (The numbered lists indicate sequential steps; the bulleted list provides ingredients, which don't have a necessary order.)
How does the closing paragraph encourage readers to try the process? (The final sentence uses "you" and projects a positive outcome from following the process: "will get to enjoy one of the most popular foods in China.")

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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How-To Process

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Page 182 from Write Ahead

Writing Guidelines

When your students are ready to write their own process essays, lead them through this page.

Discuss with students what they know how to do. Let them know that recipes are fine, but you also want them to think more broadly about anything they could explain in writing. How to bunt a baseball, how to throw a football, how to get sound out of a trombone, how to ask someone out on a date, how to clear a clogged drain—all of these are useful ideas for process essays.

Download and distribute the Time Line to help them organize their details for writing.

When students have completed prewriting, lead them through the guidelines for strong beginnings, middles, and endings.

After the first drafts are done, walk them through the guidelines for revising and editing.

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Time Line

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Process How-To

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Page 183 from Write Ahead

Sample Definition Essay

Have volunteers read each paragraph of the sample definition essay. Help your students see that the writer goes beyond a simple definition (which could occur in a single sentence). When you finish reading the essay on the next page, lead a discussion about it, using the suggestions below.

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Page 184 from Write Ahead

Sample Definition Essay (Cont.)

Have volunteers finish reading the sample definition essay. Then lead a discussion, prompting student responses with questions like these:

How does the writer get the reader's attention in the first paragraph? (By referring to a peace march the writer participated in)
How does the writer define "peace" (Freedom from civil disturbance; a state of order provided by law)
How do additional details deepen that definition? (They present the idea that peace is not just a freedom from violence, but the presence of justice.)
What detail most powerfully supports the definition?
What final thought does the writer leave with the reader? (People seek peace in different ways.)

After the discussion, ask students to define another familiar word, such as family. Use the responses to guide students toward other words that they could reflect on in a definition essay. For example, some students will probably bring up the words mother, father, brother, and sister—each of which could provide a rich starting point for a definition essay.

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Page 185 from Write Ahead

Writing Guidelines

Help your students select words to define. Then show them how the sample definition essay includes many types of details: quotations, facts, negative definitions, dictionary definitions, word origins (etymology), and synonyms and antonyms. As students gather information about the terms they wish to define, they should find these same sorts of details (and perhaps more).

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Page 186 from Write Ahead

Writing, Revising, and Editing

When your students are ready to write their first drafts, lead them through the guidelines for creating strong beginnings, middles, and endings. Help students realize that this structure is not simply academic. It's about helping readers become interested in the topic, understand what you want to say about it, learn the details you have to share, and carry the information away with them.

After students complete their first drafts, have them use the Definition Revising Checklist to improve their work. You can also download and distribute the Response Sheet to help peers provide constructive feedback to other writers in your class.

Once students finish revisions, have them begin to work through their essays, looking for problems with conventions. You can also have them use the Editing and Proofreading Checklist as they work on their writing.

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Page 187 from Write Ahead

Sample Comparison-Contrast Essay

Have volunteers read each paragraph of the sample comparison-contrast essay. Use the side notes to help students talk about what they are reading. Continue the reading onto the next page, and then lead a discussion using the suggestions below.

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Page 188 from Write Ahead

Sample Comparison-Contrast Essay

Finish the out-loud read-through of the sample comparison-contrast essay. Then lead a discussion, prompting students with questions like the following:

How did the writer get the reader's attention at the beginning of the essay? (With a shocking statement: "Human beings have spent thousands of years burning things to make heat and energy, but that strategy needs to change.")
What two forms of energy is the writer contrasting? (Nuclear and renewable)
What detail was most interesting in the essay?
How did the writer recognize ways that nuclear energy was preferable to natural energy? (By noting nuclear was "more efficient, consistent, and flexible.")
What final thought does the writer leave with the reader? (Both forms of energy have strengths and weaknesses, so both will likely be used into the future.)

After the discussion, invite students to compare two topics. Start with apples and oranges. Despite the conventional wisdom, you can compare them. Both are sweet fruits grown on trees and available in grocery stores, with Vitamin C. Both are colors founds on the rainbow spectrum (red, yellow, or green apples; orange oranges). However, apples have a thin skin and oranges have a thick rind, apples grow in the north and oranges grow in the south. Apples taste great with caramel, but oranges less so.

With this sample comparison, embolden students to compare and contrast any two subjects, whether they have a lot in common (subways and trains) or almost nothing in common (a pencil and a surgery). In fact, you can challenge your high-flying students to compare and contrast two very different things, daring them to find similarities. (For example, both pencils and surgeries are created by humans to help other humans, both cost money, both can involve "getting the lead out," both can change history, both succeed when sharp, surgeries often involve pencils and poor use of pencils can result in surgeries, and so on.)

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Page 189 from Write Ahead

Writing Guidelines

Use this page to support your students' prewriting with their comparison-contrast essays. After they select their topics and prepare to gather details, provide them either a T-Chart or a Venn Diagram to help them gather and organize details for their writing.

After students have selected topics and gathered details about them, use the material at the bottom of the page to help students organize the information.

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Page 190 from Write Ahead

Writing, Revising, and Editing

Support your students through the drafting process by presenting the information about creating an effective beginning, middle, and ending.

After students have written their comparison-contrast essays, have them revise their work. Download and distribute the Comparison Revising and Editing Checklist. As an alterative, you could provide them the more general Revising Checklist and Editing and Proofreading Checklist.

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Page 191 from Write Ahead

Sample Cause-Effect Essay

Have volunteers read each paragraph of the sample cause-effect essay. After finishing it on the next page, lead a discussion about it, using the suggestions below.

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Page 192 from Write Ahead

Sample Cause-Effect Essay (Cont.)

After volunteers have read to the end of the essay, lead a discussion about it:

What causes does the writer identify for the decline in elephant populations? (Poaching, the ivory trade, ineffective legislation, habitat loss)
What effects does the writer identify? (Possible extinction, loss of keystone species, disrupted ecosystems, harm to humans and environments)
What solutions does the writer offer? (A worldwide effort, sanctions on the ivory trade, money for patrols, political pressure)
How does the writer organize these details? (The main paragraphs focus on causes, the second to last on effects, and the final on solutions.)

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Page 193 from Write Ahead

Writing Guidelines

When students are ready to start on their own cause-effect essays, use the material on this page to provide support. Suggest cause-effect topics from novels or stories the class has read or other subjects you are covering. Also, point students to the cause-effect topics on page 44, and the additional starting points on page 45.

After students have selected topics, help them gather details by downloading and distributing the Cause-Effect Organizer. Have them start filling in the organizer with their prior knowledge and then conduct research to discover information to complete the organizer.

When they have finished their research, lead them through the formula for coming up with a focus (thesis statement).

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Cause-Effect Organizer

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Page 194 from Write Ahead

Writing, Revising, and Editing

Use the material on this page to support students as they draft their cause-effect essays and improve their drafts.

Because two-part essays can be difficult to organize, carefully review the graphics for arranging details in the middle paragraphs. An effect-focused essay names a single cause and follows with its many effects. A cause-focused essay introduces multiple causes and then one effect. A combination approach (as in the example essay on pages 191–192), deals more evenly with causes and effects. Students should choose an approach that works well for their topics.

After they finish their first drafts, help students revise and edit. Provide them the Cause-Effect Revising and Editing Checklist.

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Cause-Effect Revising and Editing Checklist

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Page 195 from Write Ahead

Responding to an Explanatory Prompt

Often, on-demand writing prompts focus on explanatory topics. Demonstrate how one student read this explanatory prompt, analyzed it using the PAST strategy, and wrote a quick list to organize the response. Then have volunteers read aloud each paragraph of the response, from this page to the next.

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Explanatory Essay Definition

English Language Arts:

Page 196 from Write Ahead

Sample Explanatory Response (Cont.)

After volunteers have finished reading the sample, lead a discussion of the model:

How does the planning quick list on page 195 relate to the paragraphs in the model? (The first line of the quick list relates to the first paragraph; each bullet relates to each middle paragraph.)
Why did the writer organize the middle paragraphs that way? (To lead to the most important trait of a leader)

Afterward, prepare students to practice writing their own essays in response to an explanatory prompt.

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TEKS Standard:

110.36.c.4.F, 110.36.c.5.C, 110.36.c.7.D, 110.36.c.7.E, 110.37.c.4.F, 110.37.c.5.C, 110.37.c.7.D, 110.37.c.7.E

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Definition Explanatory Essay

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Page 197 from Write Ahead

Writing Guidelines

Lead your students through the guidelines on this page, helping them understand how to read the prompt, ask and answer the PAST questions about it, and create a quick list. These activities should take about 5 minutes at the beginning of the writing period. Then show students how to use their quick lists to organize their responses: write a beginning paragraph based on the focus and write a middle paragraph for each main point in the list.

After bringing their work to a close, students should spend about 5 minutes revising and editing their work. If you wish, you can download and distribute the Explanatory Prompt Revising and Editing Checklist to support them as they practice.

Then give them a time frame (usually between 35 and 50 minutes) and provide them this explanatory prompt:

Everyone enjoys a good laugh, but not everyone agrees on what is funny. What makes something funny? Think of some of the funniest things you have seen and heard. Why did you laugh? In an explanatory essay, outline some of the ways that a thing can be funny. Give examples to help fellow students follow your ideas—and get a laugh.

When students do their own PAST analyses for this prompt, they should come up with responses like these:

Purpose: Explain with examples

Audience: Other students

Subject: What makes things funny

Type: Explanatory essay

Download and distribute the Explanatory Assessment Rubric to help students self-assess their essays.

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