Writing Strategies
Students will be noting their observations from primary sources listed above and doing some independent research to locate other sources of information and learning about proper text citation. We will be using note cards color-coded by source to allow students to write down key phrases or ideas that they will want to remember when writing their own essay. The format for the essay will be a standard five-paragraph essay which is required by the state’s writing standards. The topic addressed will be: why would there be different versions of the same historical event?
Documents Based Question (DBQ)
Our initial focus in writing will be to create a thesis statement and then topic sentences to construct some expository writing. This is where I will use the DBQ strategy of having students take their note cards and put them into “buckets” of similar information. I will model by using my own notecards and actual plastic buckets/pails to organize my thoughts into larger categories such as: propaganda, patriotic expressions, identity creation or oral traditions. After students have created their own bucket ideas then they will use those reasons to draft their thesis statement in answer to the question noted above. Each of the bucket ideas will generate a topic sentence for each of their paragraphs in the informative essay. This writing process will coincide with their research and reading time in their language arts class. The process of writing their essay may continue after the initial readings and images have been analyzed and evaluated. Students will be using rubrics to self-assess, and the rubrics will provide me with the guidelines to provide feedback to students on how to strengthen their writing of an informative essay.
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