Endings and Conclusions

Felicia Burgess

8^th Grade

Time Needed:

15 – 20 Minutes

Materials Needed:

¨ Overhead Projector

¨ Transparency – Experiment with Essay Conclusions

¨ Transparency - Examples of Essay Conclusions

¨ Handout – Some Conclusions to Try

Objectives:

N.C English Language Arts Curriculum

Competency Goal 3: The learner will continue to refine the understanding and uses of argument.

3.03 Create arguments that persuade by developing a controlling idea that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment.

Competency Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.

6.01 Model an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression by using a variety of sentence types, punctuating properly, and avoiding fragments and run-ons.

NCTE English Language Arts

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources to communicate discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes.

Purpose:

The purpose of this mini lesson is to assist students in forming a strong conclusion or ending to their writing. Through a survey students responded that the most difficult task in writing was to end the piece. Through this mini lesson I plan to provide the students choices and ideas for ending their works. Through class discussion I will be able to assess the progress of the lesson and plan for further instruction if and when necessary. My follow up lesson will include the students performing self revision on their current pieces and then conferencing with them to discuss their revisions and the strengths that they have developed.

Script:

Today we are going to discuss various ways to conclude your essays. I am giving you a handout that I want you to keep in the front of your binder. That will be an easy place for you to find this when you need to make a quick reference.

Often it is difficult to end and essay. The handout briefly describes 6 ways that may help you in ending your writing. Let’s read these explanations aloud as a class and then we will discuss them in more depth by looking at some examples on the overhead. (I will then let students take turns reading from the handout. When we are finished we will turn to the overhead and discuss the examples provided by Nancie Atwell.