Expository Formative Assessment Week 2

Chart Your Progress Be sure to chart your progress in each of the 3 areas of the rubric. Content Organization & Focus Language Conventions

Give your explanation Week 2 results are from 1/29/09 This is in the “b” column. Be sure to give your explanation as to why you received the score--what do you need to improve?

Teacher Notes I tried to take the time to write something to most of you on your essays. Why did I do this?

My Impression of Your Performance Positives: –Some of you used the lesson on addressing reader bias to make your essays better. –Overall, your scores improved.Overall, your scores improved.

My Impression of Your Performance Things we need to work on: –Thesis statements. –Run-on sentences. –Telling one long story instead of writing an expository essay. –How to write an introduction paragraph--draw the reader in to focus! –Bad plans or no plans.

Thesis Statements Look at your introduction paragraph. Can you find the thesis statement? Underline it. If you can’t underline it, what does that mean? The thesis statement is the focus of your essay. How do we make a thesis statement?

Run-on Sentences If you are having trouble with run-ons or fragments, try following the SVO sentence model. Look at a few of your sentences. What is the subject, the verb, the object? If you have extra stuff, you may have a run-on. One common mistake: the comma splice. This happens when you try to use a comma between sentences instead of a period. It’s a run-on. End your sentences with periods! Some of you have entire paragraphs and only 1 period.

Run-on Sentences (how to spot them) Drugs are bad because they make you do crazy things, once my brother took drugs and killed a cat. One dangerous thing that we must avoid is war it is dangerous because people get killed I was in a country that was at war and I escaped now I live in peace in another country. Smoking can give you cancer when you smoke it is bad for you and those around you.

Fragments (how to spot them) Drugs are dangerous. Because if you use them you can get hurt. Even though some people like war. If you are having problems with fragments, make sure each sentence has a subject, a verb, and an object.

Telling one long story instead of writing an expository essay. Remember the good old days of the narrative essay? Those were essays that told stories--we’re not doing that right now. We’re doing expository essays--essays that pass along information. Stories are great, but expository essays require a very specific format. If you don’t follow it, you’re not writing an expository essay. Introduction Body Conclusion

Bad plans or no plans If you rushed through your plan before writing, ponder this question: As you look at your grade and your essay, what was your reward for rushing through your plan? What did you get for not having a quality plan before writing? There are good reasons to write a good plan. What are they?

How to write an introduction paragraph-- draw the reader in to focus!