IEW- Week 22

This is a record! Good thing this is a three week paper (still lesson #24) and I handed out a lesson plan and the final checklist last week! In keeping with that plan, today we would have gone over some tips and reminder points about good solid introduction and conclusion paragraphs today. This is a modified version of my teaching notes. If you have any questions please let me know.

Also, one of my IEW videos is missing and I neglected to write down who I lent it to! If you have it, would you please bring it to me next week? Thanks a bunch!

Ephesians 4:29; Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is  good for build up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those that hear.

I don't know about you, but I certainly need some grace this time of year. This class has been such a blessing to me personally and since this bizarre weather keeping throwing us curve balls, let me say it now so that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. I have enjoyed getting to know each of you and your amazing sons and daughters! Reading their papers week after week, I feel as if I've gotten a window into their minds. They are treasures each and every one. I pray that they are encouraged to press on with this paper in the face of some crazy roadblocks. And, I hope that my words build you up and bring you grace where you need it. It has been an amazing journey for me to study what scripture says about words as we study how to use our words in writing. Thank you for joining me!

If anyone is struggling, please call me this week. I will talk you through any questions that you have.

      First semester we talked about “telling them what you are going to tell them, tell them, reminding them what you told them.” We have done introductory paragraphs for papers this semester too but they have looked a bit different. They’ve included “background information” so that your reader knows what you’re talking about before you start talking. For this paper, you are going to do both.

-What is a “Hook”? :  Something that makes the reader want to read more of your paper.  Here are some examples:

-     QUOTATION hook: Use an attention getting quote from the person/subject you are talking about: Albert Einstein said, “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”

-     QUESTION hook: Ask a thoughtful question that makes the reader listen carefully to find out the answer: “Did you know that over 60% of words in the English dictionary have Latin roots? In the fields of science and technology, over 90% of words have Latin roots.” 

-     NARRATIVE hook: Use a vivid description or story to get an emotional response from your reader: “Can you imagine a world without a way to leave a note for a friend? That would be the case if we had no written language communication system.”

-     DEFINITION hook: You can also begin by defining exactly what you will be talking about: “Science is defined as a practical and intellectual activity that systematically studies the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.” 

-     -FACT hook: You can use a really interesting or unusual or unexpected fact to open your paper. “41.7% of Fortune 500 companies use some form of technology to train employees!!”

-     SUSPEND INTEREST hook: (Leave out important information so that your reader wants to find the answer.) “It is a $56 billion dollar industry. It is gaining traction in the corporate world. 46% of college students used it last year! It is online educational opportunities.”

-     COMMAND hook: “You must decide for yourself! Will you take your own education seriously?”

-     FRAGMENT hook: “Math. Latin. Science. Language. History. There are many things to study, which one will capture your imagination?”

* Talk about each idea and allow the students to brain storm ideas to use one in their own paper.

     To conclude our papers, we will creatively restate our thesis and our points. But we need to find a final “one-two punch” that wins our case and explains why we really feel that the subject we chose needs to be important to education today. Just like creating the perfect meal for a special holiday, we want this last paragraph to include all of the very best tidbits that we can shove into it. It needs to state the most convincing, most important, most exciting piece of information of the whole paper. It needs to have the “knock out punch.” Many of the same techniques used for the introduction paragraph can be used for the conclusion paragraph as well.

* Take some time to brainstorm conclusion ideas.

Remind students to be thorough in writing their paper at home. Make good word choices and think carefully about making statements that back up their thesis. Pretend you are trying to convince someone that they need to study the subject you chose. 

If anyone did not get the handouts from last week and wants them, please let me know. 

May your week be blessed, your papers be fun to work on, and the sun be shiny next Tuesday! Haha!
Melissa