AN INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION BY EMILY JEANNOTTE GREATER LOWELL TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL ELA STANDARDS #20: ORGANIZING IDEAS IN WRITING The Six Paragraph Essay and You: Learning to Get Along

Purpose In English, History, and on your MCAS, you will be expected to write essays that follow the 6-paragraph format. Today, we will go over that format as well as look at how we go about breaking down MCAS long- composition essay questions. We will not be sleeping our texting our friends, unless we are texting them about how much fun learning with Ms. Jeannotte is!

Format The outline for your six-paragraph essay should look like this: Introduction and Summary Three Support Paragraphs with Examples Conclusion

Your Introduction Needs To: Put the essay question into your own words in two sentences. Restate the Question Give a one sentence description of how a book you have read relates to the question. Introduce the Book In two sentences, discuss how the book answers the main idea of your question. Answer the Question

Step One: Rethink The Question! How would we put this question into our own words? “Often in works of literature, a character is changed by specific events. Choose a book you have read in or out of school and identify the character, describe the event, and discuss how the event caused the character to change.”

Rethink the Question! What is the question looking for you to do? Highlight key points to include in your essay. “Often in works of literature, a character is changed by specific events. Choose a book you have read in or out of school and identify the character, describe the event, and discuss how the event caused the character to change.”

Restate the Question! “Often in works of literature, a character is changed by specific events. Choose a book you have read in or out of school and identify the character, describe the event, and discuss how the event caused the character to change.” Let’s come up with some responses below that put the question into our own words…

Step Two: Introduce the Book! All you are doing here is stating the book, TITLE AND AUTHOR, that you will use to answer the question. “There were many major events that changed George in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men.”

Step Three: Answer the Question with your Thesis Statement! Tie your first three sentences together in order to sum up your argument and deliver your main idea.

Answered the Question! George Milton was deeply changed by many events in Of Mice and Men, mostly coming from his taking responsibility for Lennie Small. Lennie’s child-like mind caused him to kill things unintentionally, and the book’s climax finds George wondering how he can cover up Lennie’s biggest crime. His behavior after the crime shows that a change was necessary in order for him to be a responsible adult for Lennie.

Where’s the Thesis? George Milton was deeply changed by many events in Of Mice and Men, mostly coming from his taking responsibility for Lennie Small. Lennie’s child-like mind caused him to kill things unintentionally, and the book’s climax finds George wondering how he can cover up Lennie’s biggest crime. The change in George’s behavior from before the crime to after the crime shows that a change was necessary in order for him to be a responsible adult for Lennie.

Paragraph Two: The Summary Paragraph! In this paragraph, you will summarize the text you will use for your essay. This is a SUMMARY – it should be no more than six sentences! Let’s try to SUMMARIZE Of Mice and Men in six sentences or less:

Paragraph Two: The Summary Paragraph! #1-2#3-4#5-6

Paragraphs #3, 4, and 5: Support Your Thesis! Introductory Sentence Support from Text Concluding Sentence that ties in thesis.

Introductory Sentence: Our Thesis: The change in George’s behavior from before the crime to after the crime shows that a change was necessary in order for him to be a responsible adult for Lennie’s sake. Support Your Thesis!

Paraphrased Support from the Text: Our Thesis: The change in George’s behavior from before the crime to after the crime shows that a change was necessary in order for him to be a responsible adult for Lennie. Support Your Thesis!

Concluding Sentence: Our Thesis: The change in George’s behavior from before the crime to after the crime shows that a change was necessary in order for him to be a responsible adult for Lennie. Support Your Thesis!

Conclusion! Here, you should be re-phrasing your thesis and summing up your thoughts. Let’s start with re- phrasing our thesis: “The change in George’s behavior from before the crime to after the crime shows that a change was necessary in order for him to be a responsible adult for Lennie.”

Conclusion! We’ve re-phrased our thesis, and now we need to come up with a solid concluding sentence. Some ideas?

Don’t Forget to Revise !!! Revision is Key to Making Sure that You Do Your Best Work! Don’t End Up A Turtle!