Posing a scenario and "looping" to provide focus in a cause/effect essay

Most of us are familiar with the idea that in narratives a writer chooses a “hot spot” or critical incident to serve as the focus of the work. Teachers of expository writing also must assist students in finding the “hot spot” or focus of their essays. Use this exercise to help student focus on one aspect of the essay.

A lesson plan for grade 10 English Language Arts

By Margaret Ryan

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Related topics

• Learn more about cause and effect, graphic organizers, language arts, organization, and writing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will learn:

• that cause/effect essays must have a focus. Typically they will emphasize causes or effects, or will be limited to a manageable relationship between a specific cause and effect.
• a strategy for narrowing the focus of their essay to focus on a manageable cause/effect relationship.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3 Days

Materials/resources

• Copies of a graphic organizer showing a “what if” statement, various possible effects, and the result of their choice. See attached graphic organizer option.
• Transparencies.

Technology resources

Overhead projector

Pre-activities

• The teacher will have filled in the attached graphic organizer and transferred it to a transparency.
• Next, the teacher should compose a transparency that illustrates the “looping” strategy to model for students.
• Conduct a discussion with students about how events help to shape our lives. For example, talk about possible difficulties that were caused in your own life by a temporary lapse in judgment, or that were caused by the vagaries of fate. Encourage students to share a few examples in their support groups.

Activities

1. After the discussion, ask students to write a “what if” sentence that would require them to speculate about the results of a particular event in their life or the life of a character in a story. Use the attached What If organizer, if you desire.
2. Students then share their speculations with their support group and choose one that will form their central focus for a composition.
3. Model for students how you have chosen a particular effect as the focus for your own essay. Then model for them how to take that chosen focus and perform a looping exercise to develop that focus.
4. On the overhead, show them your brainstorming about the effects on your life of your personal temporary lapse in judgment. Then circle or loop the idea or cause or effect that you think has the most validity and level of interest.
5. Next, on the transparency, write some more about that concept. Again loop the item that has the most interest and validity and write some more about that.
6. Through this exercise you will model now to narrow down the focus of a cause/effect essay by first speculating on causes and effects, then choosing one, then looping to focus on the most compelling aspects of the topic.
7. Have students use the graphic organizer and converse with their peers for feedback on the most interesting aspects of the topic.
8. Have them choose a cause or effect and write a sentence about it. Encourage them to brainstorm and write about that sentence. Loop it several times, then organize a cause/effect essay based on their chosen topic.
9. Perform peer evaluations on the first draft in Read Around Groups and revise before submitting for a first draft effort grade.

Assessment

As with all new writing assignments, students need to feel free to experiment without penalty, and students need clearly defined goals and objectives. When making an assignment based on a mini-lesson that I have just delivered such as the “what if” scenario and the “looping“, I found it best to clearly state for students what the primary trait would be for the first draft and the secondary trait. In this case, I would point out by drawing a “t” chart on the board that I would be primarily looking for pre-writing that leads the student to a focus on a narrowed-down topic. With their first draft, I would require them to attach their pre-writing “what if” scenario form and “looping” pre-write. As a secondary trait, I would choose one of the grammar mini-lessons that I had presented earlier. Students would then know to turn in their planning documents along with their first draft as part of the assessment. Then they would understand that future assignments should include these pre-planning strategies to establish focus.

Supplemental information

Teachers may use any cause/effect essay resources available in the classroom as student writing models.

Comments

This activity was adapted from several different writing activities in 8 Kinds of Writing by Allen S. Goose and the NC DPI Writing Across the Curriculum Handbook.