Concept Unit Day Five

Mentor Text
Context:
English 9
Ninth Grade
90 minutes
Lesson Plan Type: Summary
Objective
UNDERSTAND:
A. Essay is a genre that
opens a dialogue with
big ideas, usually
cultures, or natural
phenomena (friendship,
inspiration, etc.)
COGNITIVE:
B. Some structural and
stylistic features of the
essay as a genre.
C. Characteristics of
strong or memorable
essays.
D. Strengths and
weaknesses of the essay
as a genre.
PERFORMATIVE:
E. Identify features of
the genre.
F. Compare and contrast
between essays,
memoirs and short
stories in terms of
purpose and topic.
G. Analyze how the
features contribute to
an effective essay.
H. Compose an essay
(should they choose to.)

Corresponding SOL
9.4 The student will
read, comprehend,
and analyze a variety
of literary texts
including narratives,
narrative nonfiction,
poetry, and drama.
(c) Identify the
characteristics that
distinguish literary
forms.

Assessment
DIAGNOSTIC:
Students will
demonstrate what they
know about essays and
their structural and
stylistic features during
our whole-class braindump. (A, B, C, D, F, G,
H)
FORMATIVE:
Students will
demonstrate their
progress towards
understanding the
structural and stylistic
features of the essay
during the creation of
our Genre Conventions
Handout. (A, B, C, D, E,
G, H)
Students will be
demonstrate their
progress towards being
able to compare and
contrast between the
essay, the memoir and
the short story during
their journal entry
related to topic and
purpose relationship
with a possible genres.
(F)
SUMMATIVE:
Students will
demonstrate mastery of
our goals in their final
creative project. (A, B, C,

D, E, F, G, H)
Agenda:
1. Do-Now (what is an essay? What comes to mind when we think about
essays?)
2. Mini-Lesson (Essay as a Genre)
a. Brain-Dump (what is an essay? Are all essays the same? Why do we
write them? Why do we read them?)
b. Practice Reading Strategies in Small Groups
c. Class Discussion (what were your thoughts on the essay? How is the
essay constructed? What does it do well?)
d. Build an Essay Genre Conventions Handout
3. Journal Entry: How does the genre that we choose to write in reflect our
purpose when we write? What kinds of topics might make good poems but
bad memoirs? Good memoirs but bad essays?
4. Time to work on your piece (Conferences)
Homework: First Draft!
Instruction:
1. Do-Now [5 min]
Students will be greeted as they come through the door and asked to take a
seat and get right to work on the do-now. The do-now will be written on the
board (What is an essay? What comes to mind when we think about
essays?). After four minutes, students will be given a one-minute warning to
wrap up their thoughts.
2. Mini-Lesson: Essay as Genre
a. Brain-Dump [10 min]
After erasing the board, I will direct students to share some of their thoughts
about the essay and write down these things under a KNOW heading. This
first category should be made up of anything students can come up with,
regardless of strict relevancefor instance, if students say theyre usually
assigned for school, its still going on the board. Then I will put up a new
heading, WANT TO KNOW for those things students arent sure about or
things we want to develop more knowledge about. The way we will develop
this category is by taking things the students share and expand on them.
Examples are offered in the table below.
Possible student comments
Possible instructor responses
Essays provide an argument of Is this the only kind of essay there is?
some kind
Are there other kinds of essays or essays
that deal with other subjects?
Theyre usually assigned by Thats certainly one environment in
teachers
which we write essays, but do we ever
read essays other than to write literary
analysis? Or for school?
They have very strict structures, So its kind offormulaic? Well, is there

like
introductions,
conclusions

body, any chance that there could be different

structures to an essay?

b. Group Work [10 min to read; 20 min to analyze]

Students will be broken into groups of three or four and asked to use the
reading strategies weve been using to take apart the assigned essay. The
questions on the board should help to guide their thinking, but the goal will be
to go through the step-by-step process we have been using to develop an
understanding of the reading and to be able to identify specific features of the
essay as part of a greater genre. Students should be able to point to passages
or words to defend their claims.
While students work together, I will endeavor to conference with students I
didnt get to during the day before and check their progress on their topics
ask questions about how the planning process is going. My goal is to spend
two (at most three) minutes which each student and to do a lap around the
room listening in on progress every two students.
c. Class Discussion [15 min]
Students will be brought back together (we will shift all of our chairs into a
horseshoe so students can see the board and each other) to share some of
their findings. The guiding questions of the discussion should be:

Is this an example of the kind of essays we were thinking about at first?

If its not, how does that broaden our idea of what an essay is?
What did this essay make us feel? Or think?
How did the essay accomplish this? What specific characteristics make it
work?
How is it put together/structured? What kind of order does it have (as in,
what comes first, second, third)? How does this order develop a purpose
or effect?
What does the essay do well? What things, for instance, would the essay
not do well by comparison?

d. Build Genre Conventions Handout [10 min]

To wrap up our thoughts (expressed during our discussion,) we will build a
handout
together
that
incorporates
the
definition(s),
structures,
characteristics, benefits and shortcomings of the genre. We will come up with
the words together, and I will type them up as we come up with them using
Microsoft Word and the projector so that we can all observe the process. The
goal will be for students to articulate different forms of order (general to
specific, specific to general, narrative, contemplative, etc.) and structure of
essays, as well as some features that make it successful (voice, tone, humor,
figurative language, anything thats relevant) in board terms. Isolating
features will help us build vocabulary for further units, but more than
anything will help to develop a concept through recasting. For instance, if

students notice that the authors choice of words is very precise and there
seems to be a very clear sense of authorship, I might say that this is what we
call voice and ask students to isolate some examples to build the concept
further.
e. Wrap Up Journal Entry [5 min]
In order to bring our thoughts full circle, I will ask students to take out their
journals and compose a journal entry that addresses two questions I will put
on the board. These questions will read thus: How does the genre that we
choose to write in reflect our purpose when we write? What kinds of topics
might make good poems but bad memoirs? Good memoirs but bad essays?
4. Writing Time [15 min]
Students will be asked to take out their topics and plans and begin composing
a first draft. This should be a preliminary first draft, and it is completely
acceptable for it to be too long, too short, or too rough. The intent is to be a
first draft, a first stab at putting into words our topics and to wrestle with
genre and structuremore specific features will be developed in later days.
During this time, I will be circulating amongst students or open for
conferences if students ask for my attention or help. Should students become
stuck, I may take them to my desk to work privately on whatever is jamming
the creative gears.
Students will be directed to have a final draft by the next class period.
Materials:
Computer with projector
Excerpt from Be Careful What You Let In The Door pp. 250-256
Student journals
Accommodations:
I feel like during this class period I can let Rebecca and Izzie be more than I
have before, as I have now established they are comfortable and safe where
they are. That said, I do want to ask Rebecca if I can see her Genre
Conventions notes so I can make sure shes got all the information she needs
and that its in words shell be able to use when she starts writing.
I will, however, check in with Nadias group at more length and see that
theyre being sufficiently challenged. If they feel less happy with this reading,
I may provide a more challenging memoir to work with, such as an excerpt
from Annie Dillards The Writing Life.