Lesson 2

Lesson 2

Objectives:

Students will learn how to write an academic comparison/contrast essay.

Students will practice collaborative writing.

Students will practice writing summary concluding paragraphs.

Students will practice writing thesis statements.

Students will practice writing funnel-style introductory paragraphs.

Tools:

Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/

UNSW - Transition Signals: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/trans1.html

Methods:

Discussion - (5-10 minutes) - Did anyone encounter any problems, questions, or interesting things to share with the class while doing their homework?

Activity 1 - "Research Findings" - (10 minutes) - Each group member presents their research findings to their other group members (using the "Research" page of their project wiki).

Activity 2 - "Group Writing: Body" - (60 minutes) - Groups work together to write the body of your essay in the main page of your group wiki. Write one or two paragraphs for each main idea.

Activity 3 - "Group Writing: Conclusion" - (10 minutes) - Groups work together to summarize the body of their essay to produce a concluding paragraph.

Activity 4 - "Group Writing: Thesis Statement" - (5-10 minutes) - Groups work together to summarize the conclusion in one sentence. Place this sentence in the line before the body. This will be your thesis statement.

Activity 5 - "Group Writing: Funnel-Style Introduction" - (10 minutes) - Groups work together to write a funnel-style introduction (general to specific) ending in their thesis statement.

Assign Homework

Homework:

1: Study the University of South Wales page on Transition Signals. Find other resources for learning about transition signals. Edit your group project wiki page by inserting at least three transition signals. Write a note in the discussions tab for each edit you made.

2: Find a good place to insert research you found in the previous homework into the essay. Don't forget to cite your sources correctly (in-text and at the end of the essay).

3: Edit the essay. If you find any errors, fix them and add a note in the discussion tab.

4: In the discussion tab on your group project wiki discuss how you will give a presentation (next class) about your project process and final product (wiki - comparison/contrast essay) to the class. This presentation can be in any format you like and using any online/technology tools you want to use.

Extra Credit: 10% (project grade) boost extra credit will be given to all members of the group which figures out how to best format their wiki page according to common academic style rules: double spaced, 1-inch margins, 12pt font, Times New Roman font, indent each paragraph (this is the most difficult in Wikispaces), no extra space between paragraphs, etc...

Next: Lesson 3

- cc 2009 Jonan Donaldson

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.