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Grade Level: Eighth Grade                                                                                             Created by: Shalonda Crofton

Problem

Writing is a life-long interactive process that is used to communicate with a variety of audiences and for a variety of purposes. Writing is an act of discovery, a means of personal growth and a tool for clarifying knowledge. To accomplish writing tasks more effectively, students need exposure to a variety of strategies in order to approach writing systematically. What are the different ways that you can pre-write for an essay?

Duration

You will have 4 days to complete this project; however, the skills learned in this project will be used in future literary assignments.

Materials Needed

Computers with Internet access, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint                                         

Objectives

What You Already Know

Scaffolding

Activity 1

Go to the website: Pre-Writing, Outlining and Drafts . Scroll Down to where you see, "Prewriting" in Burgundy letters. Read and follow the directions in the "Focused Freewriting" passage for using the topic," My favorite holiday." On the same sheet of paper, answer question number 7, then answer the following questions. Put them in your folder in our classroom.

What did you learn from freewriting? Why or why not?

Do you think freewriting is a method you would use?

Do you think freewriting would work for any type of topic? Why or why not?

Click on the link Brainstorming. Read the instructions. Next, click on Topics for Writing. Working in your pre-assigned collaborative group, Select a topic from the section labeled "Hypothetical". Give yourselves 5 minutes to Brainstorm the topic you selected.  Write your group's name at the top on the page. Put this sheet in the folder of one of your group members. When you have finished, fill out a Peer Evaluation form for each member of your group.

In a Word Document, answer the following questions in an email them to me as an attachment. In the subject line, write ," Brainstorming".

1. Is brainstorming an effective tool for prewriting? Why or why not?

2. Did you encounter any problems while using brainstorming? If so, what were they? How could the problem have         been solved or avoided?

 3. Could you brainstorm alone? Why or why not?

5. How could you apply brainstorming to something other than prewriting?

Using either your freewriting or brainstorming results from activity 1or 2, create a 3-slide PowerPoint presentation that addresses the following:

slide 1: name the slide: Prewriting. include your name and a clipart picture

slide 2: in your own words, define prewriting.

slide 3: describe the effectiveness of prewriting (why does it work).

Save this to your student account. Then email it to me as an attachment.

Activity 2: I will read your responses to be sure that you followed directions. I also will consider peer evaluations.