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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Improving Student Essay Writing

English II teachers are constantly searching for strategies to improve students' analytical responses to literature. This lesson is designed for all types of learners, offering various activities for all learning styles. Individual, small group, and whole class activities on essay writing culminate with the student writing his or her own formal response to literature.

This generic writing activity may be used with any literary unit and at any point in your students' development of the writing process.

A lesson plan for grade 10 English Language Arts

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Learning outcomes

This mini-unit is designed to offer students of writing who have reached a plateau an avenue through which they may again see improvements. By analyzing average and high-scoring student essay responses published by the state department (average papers are given to low scoring writers; high papers are given to average writers), students are given reasonable goals to achieve. Students are offered opportunities for gradual improvement.

Students improve oral communication skills through small group activities whereby they discuss specific aspects of the essay sample, then write a skeleton essay with their group on the literary work in study.

After the step-by-step process of analyzing student essays, students in the class will demonstrate an improved understanding of the writing process by writing a five-paragraph analytical response to the current text in study.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3.50 Days

Materials/resources

  • Categorize your students according to writing ability. Writers should be grouped homogeneously according to ability--low and average. Groups should have five persons, with each responsible for leading a discussion of one particular paragraph.
  • One mid-scoring and one high-scoring essay published in the state department’s booklet of student responses to the English II Writing Test, or use mid- and high-scoring essays written by your own students. Copies should be distributed to students according to their writing ability.
  • PowerPoint should be accessible to the students. Each group will select (with teacher guidance) key elements of their group effort on the skeleton essay to demonstrate effective writing techniques. Teacher will also use this to demonstrate how to improve on different aspects of the essay.
  • Each student will need a highlighter, copy of the assignment handouts (if not using the computer/TV), copy of the published student essay, paper, and pencil.
  • Each student will benefit from having his own copy of the Helpful Hints handout (see attachment).
  • Each student will need a copy of two essay prompts (appropriate to a unit of literature previously studied) released by the state department, one for the small group activity and one for the individual student essay to be written as a culminating activity for the mini-unit.
  • Computer (classroom and lab) equipped with word processing program that offers spell and grammar check and PowerPoint.

Technology resources

AVer3Key Plus PC/MAC-to-TV Converter
Computer (in classroom)
Television (for displaying activities)
PowerPoint (in classroom)
Computer lab equipped with advanced word processing program (Word) and PowerPoint

Pre-activities

The diversity of teacher expectations allows this unit to be taught at any point of the writing instruction, depending on the type of students in the class. I feel the mini-unit works best when students have reached a plateau in their writing, when they feel they have exhausted all possibilities for improvement yet still have not reached the desired level. This mini-unit should offer students an avenue for improvement; therefore, they should be very familiar with the writing process when this unit is offered.

This instruction should culminate a literary unit in order that students demonstrate mastery of the unit, coupled with improved writing ability.

Activities

Day 1:

  1. To begin the lesson, I give students a copy of and go over Helpful Hints, a self-made handout to help students decipher prompts and plan, draft, and edit analytical essays. (For copy, see segment of attachment titled “Helpful Hints.”) I share this with my students over the television monitor so we may all stay focused on the same concept.
  2. After going over this, students evaluate a student essay response. Individual assessment of a published student essay requires students to have a copy of the essay prompt and the student response (a mid-scoring paper for low writers and a high-scoring paper for average writers) and a pen or highlighter. Instructions are stated explicitly on the attachment. Depending on the class and the amount of writing instruction they have had prior to the lesson, the teacher may wish to scan and display (using the AVerKey3 apparatus and television) a student essay prompt and response and model the activity. This is left to the discretion of the teacher. (Approximate time:30 minutes)
  3. Students should be given approximately 30 minutes to complete the individual activity. (See segment of the attachment titled “Evaluating the essay”)
  4. To culminate this portion of the mini-unit, students should be divided into groups (five students, preferably) according to their writing ability. Teacher should instruct one person in the group to begin with paragraph 1 to keep the discussions as focused as possible. Specific instructions for this activity are given in the attachment (Small group activity). (Approximate time: 30 minutes) **Since students have already studied the paper individually, I limit the time each student has to discuss his paragraph--usually 4 minutes. I also make sure to spend time in each group.

Day 2: Small Group Effort

  1. Students again divide into their small groups to pool their ideas and write a skeleton essay. My students had just finished A Doll’s House and were given a topic appropriate to that work. Explicit instructions for the group effort are given in the attachment.
  2. While students are working on this activity, I circulate among all groups, serving as facilitator and questioner (depending on the group). If a group is struggling, I ask prompting questions to help them focus. With more advanced groups, I prompt them to build on the ideas they have. When I see a group with a particularly interesting insight of which I feel other groups might benefit, I ask a person from that group to go to the computer so we can share that with the whole group on Day 3. My students use PowerPoint for this activity. If the computers in my room are all in use, I send students to another classroom or the computer lab (located in the library). Students’ time for putting the information on the computer is limited to 10 minutes. I usually allow students approximately 45 minutes to complete the skeleton essay.
  3. Afterwards, we begin a whole class discussion where we share the PowerPoint segments of helpful insights. This leads to so many teachable moments. I have a student sit at the computer (hooked up to the television monitor) and type in sentences with grammatical mistakes, paragraphs which need specifics or elaboration, etc… The length of this entire Group Effort activity depends greatly on the class. While I do want to take advantage of every opportunity to help them improve, I generally tie together this lesson at the end of the ninety-minute block.

Day 3:

Students are given individual copies of a new essay topic appropriate to the unit of literature just studied. (In this case, A Doll’s House) Students are allowed to refer to the Helpful Hints sheet only. They are given the ninety-minute block of time to write a five-paragraph essay. They must spend twenty to thirty minutes (minimum) planning their essay, thirty to forty-five minutes writing their drafts, and fifteen to thirty minutes revising and editing their drafts. I do not accept any papers until seventy minutes of class has lapsed, nor do I allow them to work on anything else during the first seventy minutes of class.
Day 4: Returning Students’ Essays

  1. Teacher should select one strong paper and one weaker paper to use for class demonstration. Prior to returning students’ papers, teacher should type the two selected essays. Teacher should use the TV monitor and computer to share these with the class. Teacher may ask one student to sit at computer to type any changes that are discussed and agreed upon. This activity is particularly beneficial to students. Students value learning from their peers. Also, this can be a tremendous confidence builder for students, provided the teacher and students respect the essayist’s anonymity. Suggested time: 45 minutes.

Assessment

While the teacher is able to assess at the various stages whether or not the class has met the objectives of the individual and small group activities, the teacher is able to make a final assessment by scoring each individual’s essay using the holistic scoring rubric provided by the state department. The teacher then can make further assessments by comparing this paper with previous ones to determine in what areas the student has improved. Score comparison will also indicate growth.

Supplemental information

Teacher should have many state-released, teacher-made, and textbook essay prompts from which to pull for this activity.
Teacher should also have many sample essays released from the state department (and student samples from this and previous years). These are a great reference for students to “see” the writing process. Students especially see validity in papers that have been scored by the state’s assessors.

Related websites

N/A

Comments

I designed this mini-unit as a “last ditch” effort to improve my students’ writing (only three-four weeks prior to the writing test). I was quite pleased to see an improvement. These fundamental strategies have offered students who struggled with writing a means by which to achieve success at their own levels, something that presents magnanimous challenges in heterogeneously grouped classes.

I used this lesson at the end of the study of A Doll’s House, but it can be adapted to any unit in study by selecting essay prompts appropriate for the literary work.

The attachment included was written in MS Works 4.5, but looks better in Microsoft Word.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 10 — English II

  • Goal 1: The learner will react to and reflect upon print and non-print text and personal experiences by examining situations from both subjective and objective perspectives.
    • Objective 1.02: Respond reflectively (through small group discussion, class discussion, journal entry, essay, letter, dialogue) to written and visual texts by:
      • relating personal knowledge to textual information or class discussion.
      • showing an awareness of one's own culture as well as the cultures of others.
      • exhibiting an awareness of culture in which text is set or in which text was written.
      • explaining how culture affects personal responses.
      • demonstrating an understanding of media's impact on personal responses and cultural analyses.
  • Goal 2: The learner will evaluate problems, examine cause/effect relationships, and answer research questions to inform an audience.
    • Objective 2.01: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print informational texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
      • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
      • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
      • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
      • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
      • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
      • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
      • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
      • making connections between works, self and related topics.
      • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
      • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
      • identifying and analyzing elements of informational environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
    • Objective 2.02: Create responses that examine a cause/effect relationship among events by:
      • effectively summarizing situations.
      • showing a clear, logical connection among events.
      • logically organizing connections by transitioning between points.
      • developing appropriate strategies such as graphics, essays, and multi-media presentations to illustrate points.
    • Objective 2.03: Pose questions prompted by texts (such as the impact of imperialism on Things Fall Apart) and research answers by:
      • accessing cultural information or explanations from print and non-print media sources.
      • prioritizing and organizing information to construct a complete and reasonable explanation.
  • Goal 3: The learner will defend argumentative positions on literary or nonliterary issues.
    • Objective 3.01: Examine controversial issues by:
      • sharing and evaluating initial personal response.
      • researching and summarizing printed data.
      • developing a framework in which to discuss the issue (creating a context).
      • compiling personal responses and researched data to organize the argument.
      • presenting data in such forms as a graphic, an essay, a speech, or a video.
    • Objective 3.03: Respond to issues in literature in such a way that:
      • requires gathering of information to prove a particular point.
      • effectively uses reason and evidence to prove a given point.
      • emphasizes culturally significant events.
  • Goal 4: The learner will critically interpret and evaluate experiences, literature, language, and ideas.
    • Objective 4.01: Interpret a real-world event in a way that:
      • makes generalizations about the event supported by specific references.
      • reflects on observation and shows how the event affected the current viewpoint.
      • distinguishes fact from fiction and recognizes personal bias.
    • Objective 4.03: Analyze the ideas of others by identifying the ways in which writers:
      • introduce and develop a main idea.
      • choose and incorporate significant, supporting, relevant details.
      • relate the structure/organization to the ideas.
      • use effective word choice as a basis for coherence.
      • achieve a sense of completeness and closure.
  • Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
    • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression by:
      • employing varying sentence structures (e.g., inversion, introductory phrases) and sentence types (e.g., simple, compound, complex, compound-complex).
      • analyzing authors' choice of words, sentence structure, and use of language.
      • using word recognition strategies to understand vocabulary and exact word choice (Greek, Latin roots and affixes, analogies, idioms, denotation, connotation).
      • examining textual and classroom language for elements such as idioms, denotation, and connotation to apply effectively in own writing/speaking.
      • using correct form/format for essays, business letters, research papers, bibliographies.
      • using language effectively to create mood and tone.
    • Objective 6.02: Edit for:
      • subject-verb agreement, tense choice, pronoun usage, clear antecedents, correct case, and complete sentences.
      • appropriate and correct mechanics (commas, italics, underlining, semicolon, colon, apostrophe, quotation marks).
      • parallel structure.
      • clichés, trite expressions.
      • spelling.