Daily Journaling—journaling is important because it helps students to focus and think about events and thoughts that occurred during the day. It gives students the opportunity to be creative and descriptive in their writing as they reflect on the day’s “happenings”. Students are asked to record images, events, and scenes that have occurred during the day as well as to explore what the things they remember tell them about themselves.
Transmission/Comprehension/Application—Students are instructed to find passages from assigned literature that are learning lessons for them. They are to copy the quote down, reflect on the quote, write down their interpretation of the quote, then tell how the quote can apply to one’s life.
5 Paragraph Paper—Several five paragraph papers are assigned because generally speaking, they are the basis of all other expository writing assignments. This format is used in almost all formal writing in high school and college. If the method is learned, it will be an extremely useful tool for all papers students write in the future. Students are taught the “funnel” method of writing an introduction, how to write a concise and thought out thesis statement, topic sentences, paragraph sentences supporting the topic sentence, transition sentences between paragraphs, and a conclusion summing up the main body of the paper.
Newspaper Article—The newspaper article focuses students away from detail and allows them to “just give the facts” in such a way as to interest the reader who may not have time for all the details. They learn to answer the questions: where, when, how, who, and what in one sentence.
Concept Map—This technique is used by representing knowledge in graph form. It helps students generate ideas, communicate complex ideas, aid in learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge, and assess understanding or diagnose misunderstanding.
Critiques—Critique papers allow students not only the opportunity to write about what they have read, but also to share their thoughts about the reading. It teaches students to think about the reading and draw conclusions from it rather than just summing up the material.
Editorials—Writing an editorial is an important skill to develop because the writer is sharing their point of view with the public and persuading the reader to draw a conclusion or take a certain point of view. It needs to be clear and “to the point” with well thought out persuasive points.
Descriptive Writing--Description is used in writing to create a vivid impression of a person, place, object, or event. It helps students to uses senses to describe what is going on around them.
Comparison and Contrast Papers—Students will use the “point-by-point” pattern for writing a comparison/contrast paper because it is the one used most often in college writing. The purpose of the paper is for the writer to discover similarities and differences of literature, objects, etc. and convince the reader that these differences or similarities are important.
Persuasion Papers—Similar to editorials, these papers are meant to teach students the use of logical arguments to convince the reader to take a certain side to an issue. These papers are written in “five paragraph” form and teach the writer to use their thinking skills to convince readers.
Author Quote—It is important for students to be able to read a difficult passage from literature, interpret it, and then write about it’s application in the real world. This is the next step students will take after the above “transmission/comprehension/application” skill. Many times in college, an instructor will have students write about their thoughts on a certain literary passage. This lesson gives students the opportunity to practice that skill.
Object Lesson—Being able to apply literature, life experiences, objects, etc. to real life is an extremely important skill to learn. It teaches students to synthesize, integrate, interpret, and reflect upon, to build a life application action for themselves. Much of literature was written to teach the reader about the human condition. It is up to the reader to interpret the writing and apply it to their lives. Putting the learning experience in written form helps the student increase their written communication skills.
Business Letters—Writing a business letter is a part of everyday life. Requesting information, writing about a concern, and sharing ideas is all part of writing a business letter. Students will learn to write business letters that: provides clear and purposeful information; addresses the intended audience appropriately; uses appropriate vocabulary, tone, and style that acknowledges the perspective of the recipients; highlights central ideas; and follows the conventional format.
