A. Engage the Learner - W.7.2b (5 minutes)

• Repeated routine: students respond to questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 11.

• Once students have completed their entrance tickets, allow time for them to review their responses with their partner for the pair informative essay.

• Repeated routine: follow the same routine as with the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as in previous lessons.

A. Analyze a Model: Strong Concluding Sentences - W.7.2b (15 minutes)

• Display the Model Informative Essay, and invite students to retrieve their own copies.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

Students can work with their classmates who need heavier support to analyze the topic and concluding sentences. Their classmates can read aloud the first and last sentences of each paragraph. Then students who need lighter support can explain their purpose and what makes them strong topic or concluding sentences. Explaining a complex concept to a peer ensures students understand and will remember it.

• Using a total participation technique, invite responses from the group:

"What is the focus of this essay?" (how computer models help scientists better understand animal behavior)

"What is Point 1?" (Computer models help explain animal group movement.)

"What is Point 2?" (Computer models help explain animal choices.)

• Remind students that today, they will be writing Proof Paragraph 2. Read aloud Proof Paragraph 2 of the model essay as students follow along.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

Students can work with their classmates who need lighter support to analyze the topic and concluding sentences. Students who need heavier support can read aloud the first and last sentences of each paragraph. Then their classmates can explain their purpose and what makes them strong topic or concluding sentences. Constructing learning with a peer ensures students understand and remember the complex concept.

• Turn and Talk:

"What is the last sentence in this paragraph?" (Creating a model, just like a computer scientist, helped Pearce understand more about the movement of birds.)

"What do you notice about the last sentence in this paragraph?" (The last sentence relates to the overall focus of the essay. It explains how computer modeling helped us to understand something specific about animal behavior. Computer modeling helped Pearce understand how birds move.)

"What is the purpose of this sentence in the paragraph? What makes it a strong sentence?" (The sentence connects the specific example explained in the paragraph to the focus of the essay.)

• Use a total participation technique to have students share out.

• Point out that the final sentence helps explain how the information in the paragraph relates to the focus statement. Emphasize that the Proof Paragraphs they write, like the model, should have strong concluding sentences that help the reader understand how the evidence in each paragraph relates to the focus of the whole essay.

A. Pairs: Draft Proof Paragraph 2 – W.7.2b (25 minutes)

• Review the appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

“I can write Proof Paragraph 2 of my pair informative essay with a strong concluding sentence.”

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

Encourage students to model orally rehearsing their Proof Paragraph for classmates who need heavier support. Also, challenge students to use the word that to combine two clauses at least once. Or, if students are already working confidently with the word that to combine clauses, ask them to include at least one example of the “empty subject it.” Oral rehearsal will strengthen their writing, as will using new language structures learned in the Language Dive from Lessons 6–7.

In the next lesson, students will participate in a Language Dive using a sentence from the Model Informative Essay. Provide ELLs with the Language Dive sentence ahead of time. Invite students to predict some of the questions that the Language Dive may ask. This will improve students’ metacognition and challenge their awareness of the most interesting or meaningful elements of the sentence.

• Remind students that as they draft this second Proof Paragraph, they should elaborate on the focus of their essay by explaining how the evidence they have chosen supports their thinking. Direct them to write a strong concluding sentence at the end of their paragraph. Distribute lined paper. Invite students to retrieve the following materials:

  • Informative Writing checklist

  • Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer

  • Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer ▲

  • Pair Informative Essay

  • Texts: Patient Zero and “Crime Solving Strategies”

• As necessary, guide students through writing their Proof Paragraph 2, referencing the Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer (for teacher reference) as needed:

1. Discuss the following characteristic on the Informative Writing checklist, adding to the Characteristics column as needed:

• • • “W.7.2b: I use relevant facts, definitions, details, quotations, and examples to explain my thinking.”

2. Invite students to read their Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer, their introduction, and their Proof Paragraph 1 started in the previous lesson to remind them of their focus and their ideas.

3. Invite students to refer to the model essay, the Criteria of an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart, and the Informative Writing checklist, as well as the domain-specific word wall and academic word wall, to write Proof Paragraph 2.

4. Remind students that it is often helpful to verbally rehearse the words they will use when they write. Invite students to begin rehearsing and composing Proof Paragraph 2

with their partner. Circulate to support students as they write and to identify common issues to use as whole group teaching points.

• Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target and the habits of character focus in this lesson, discussing what went well and what could be improved next time.

MEETING STUDENTS' NEEDS 

Challenge students to read aloud the evidence and reasoning from their Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer ▲ for their peers to record in complete sentences in their essay.

In the next lesson, students will participate in a Language Dive using a sentence from the Model Informative Essay. Provide ELLs with the Language Dive sentence ahead of time. Encourage students to independently reflect on this sentence and its meaning before the next lesson. Students may also wish to use dictionaries to add any unknown vocabulary and meanings to their vocabulary logs.