Goal
MR would compile a list of sentence starters and write an opening and closing sentence for her introduction paragraph.
Opening
We began tutoring session #3 by reviewing the text MR had highlighted to include in her introduction. By and large, MR included purposeful excerpts that could be used to better explain information to the reader. I explained to MR why some of the excerpts she chose were not as powerful, and she removed them from her list; some of her excerpts referred to the main idea but did not mention it, were vague in their explanation, and/or did not offer sufficient context. To give her guidelines as to what make a piece of information good to quote or better to paraphrase, we read through this website article and she took notes about it.
Lastly, I asked MR to take our her K/W/L chart from our last tutoring session and to fill in the “learned” column based on what she now understood from reading and summarizing the two bioremediation articles. I was blown away to see all that MR had taken away from them - she wrote so much that she had to go over to the other side of the paper. I then asked her if she was enjoying learning about this topic and bettering her reading and writing skills. She said that our tutoring sessions so far had helped her build lots of confidence and that she felt like a role model when she went home and explained the things we were doing and learning about to her little brother.
Sentence Starters
I began this part of the tutoring session by having MR read two introductions that her peers wrote; one of them was stellar and scored a five on the rubric while the other one, much like MR’s, needed additional work and scored a one on the rubric. Once she had finished reading them I asked her to write down which one she thought was better and to explain why. MR preferred the first introduction that scored a five on the rubric because the sentences flowed well into each other and the smooth way ideas were introduced. I had her go back and underline words in the introduction that she felt created this “smooth” reading experience. MR underlined phrases such as examples of, conventionally, and additionally. I explained to her that these words were sentence starters and we were going to look at a list of them today.
MR and I looked through the list together and then I had her pick two to three sentence starters from each section and write a complete sentence using each on in her notebook. I told her the sentences could be about any topic of her choosing and that we would review them at the end. I urged MR to use examples from the introduction she preferred to help her do this. After about ten minutes, and help from myself explaining what certain sentence starters meant and how they could be used, this is what MR produced. I told her to star that in her notebook as we would be using some of those within her introduction.
Opening and Closing Sentences for Introduction Paragraph
MR and I began to learn about opening sentences by reading this article out loud together. Once we read through it, I had MR go back and read it to herself, highlighting any information she thought was important and any examples she may want to use. MR and I then looked at several examples her peers wrote in their introductions and began to tease out what makes a good opening sentence. MR mentioned that a good opening sentence draws you in and makes you want to read more. She also said that it must relate back to the main topic in some way. I had her write these observations in her notebook along with any examples she thought were good from her peers’ introductions.
To learn about concluding sentences, MR and I watched the video here, and read its corresponding article below it out loud. I then had MR read through the article again on her own and highlight any information she thought was important and any examples she may want to use. MR and I then looked at several examples her peers wrote in their introductions and began to tease out what makes a good closing sentence. She said that it must tie the ideas together in the introduction and indicate to the reader that you are transitioning to something else now. I had her write these observations in her notebook along with any examples she thought were good from her peers’ introductions.
Homework
The first part of MR’s homework was for her to go home and share the sentences she wrote using sentence starters with her brother. I told her to explain to him what makes the sentence better by starting it off with one of those phrases.
The second part of MR’s homework was to draft three different opening and closing sentences for her introduction paragraph. I told her to use the notes she took and examples she wrote down to help her with the process. I suggested that she read them to her Mom and get feedback on what she thought.