Write a Compare and Contrast Essay: Plan Conclusion | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G7:M1:U2:L11

Write a Compare and Contrast Essay: Plan Conclusion

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RL.7.9, W.7.2f, W.7.5, W.7.9a, W.7.9b

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RL.7.1, RI.7.1, W.7.4, W.7.6, W.7.10, SL.7.1, L.7.6
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can plan a conclusion that includes a strong reflection. (W.7.2f, W.7.5)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 11 (W.7.2f)
  • Work Time C: Conclusion part of the Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer (RL.7.1, RL.7.9, RI.7.1, W.7.2f, W.7.4, W.7.9a, W.7.9b)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Engage the Learner – W.7.2f (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. The Painted Essay®: Sort and Color-Code the Parts of the Conclusion – W.7.2f (10 minutes)

B. Language Dive: Conclusion – W.7.2f (10 minutes)

C. Plan a Conclusion – W.7.2f (15 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Pair Share – W.7.5 (5 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Independent Research Reading: Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • Repeated routines occur in the following:
    • Opening A: In the entrance ticket activity, students synthesize their essay into a gist.
    • Opening A: Students review the learning target.
    • W.7.2f – Work Time B: In a Language Dive, students explore the reflection sentence from the model essay to better understand the criteria for an effective conclusion paragraph.
  • New skills are introduced in the following:
    • W.7.2f – Work Time A: Students reconstruct the conclusion paragraph from the model essay to deepen understanding of this part of the essay and how a conclusion follows from and supports the information in an essay.
    • W.7.2f – Work Time A: The class adds conclusion criteria to the Criteria of an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart (follows from and supports the information in the essay and includes a reflection).
    • W.7.2f – Work Time C: Students use their Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer with their plans for their introduction and proof paragraphs to plan the conclusion paragraph of their essays that follows from and supports the information in the essay.
    • RL.7.9 – Work Time C: Students compare and contrast the fictional portrayal of A Long Walk to Water with the historical nonfiction account of “The ‘Lost Girls’ of Sudan.”
    • W.7.9 – Work Time C: Students determine what evidence from the informational text and novel to include in their conclusion paragraphs.
    • W.7.5 – Closing and Assessment A: Students share with a partner to receive peer support on their plans for their conclusion paragraphs of their compare and contrast essays.
  • The Think-Pair-Share protocol is used in this lesson. Protocols are an important feature of our curriculum because they are one of the best ways we know to engage students in discussion, inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated communication. A protocol consists of agreed-upon, detailed guidelines for reading, recording, discussing, or reporting that ensure equal participation and accountability in learning.
  • In this lesson, students focus on working to become effective learners, showing perseverance as they independently plan.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • If students are identifying the parts of their conclusion paragraphs and planning them with ease, draw their attention to specific sentences within the paragraphs and ask what the roles of the sentences are and what effect there would be in removing those sentences, as is shown in Work Time A.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In the second half of this unit, students have been analyzing a model and using their analysis to plan their informative essays. This lesson continues those routines to finish planning the essay.

Support All Students

  • Students may need additional support while planning their conclusion paragraphs. Group those students for a teacher-led discussion that will guide them in determining a reflection to support their conclusions and extend their reflections. ▲
  • Continue to monitor students to determine if there are issues surfacing as a result of the content of this lesson that need to be discussed as a whole group, in smaller groups, or individually.

Assessment Guidance

  • Circulate to monitor students’ planning skills on the Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer. If necessary, collect this organizer to provide feedback to students who may need it before the following lesson.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will use their plans to draft their essay as their End of Unit 2 Assessment.

In Advance

  • Ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 11 at each student's workspace.
  • Post the learning target and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Continue to use the technology tools recommended throughout previous modules to create anchor charts to share with families; to record students as they participate in discussions and protocols to review with students later and to share with families; and for students to listen to and annotate text, record ideas on note-catchers, and word-process writing.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 7.I.A.4, 7.I.B.6, 7.II.A.1, 7.II.A.2, 7.II.B.5, 7.II.C.6, and 7.II.C.7.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson explicitly guides students through organizing and planning the conclusion of their compare and contrast essay. As in the explicit instruction in how to write an introductory paragraph in Lesson 9, the explicit instruction in how to write a concluding paragraph in this lesson makes the unfamiliar academic language for doing a challenging task transparent, comprehensible, and learnable to support ELLs.
  • As in the previous writing lesson, ELLs new to writing in English may find writing plans for their concluding paragraphs challenging because composing the plans entails academic, abstract language they may not be familiar with in English. Therefore, additional supports such as the ones listed below may be useful.

Vocabulary

  • conclusion, reflection (A)

Key

(A): Academic Vocabulary

(DS): Domain-Specific Vocabulary

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening A)
  • Academic word wall (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Opening A)
  • Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 5, Work Time A)
  • Criteria of an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart (example for teacher reference) (from Unit 2, Lesson 7, Work Time A)
  • Criteria of an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 2, Lesson 7, Work Time A)
  • Work to Become Ethical People anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening B)
  • Vocabulary log (one per student; from Unit 1, Lesson 2, Opening A)
  • Painted Essay® template (one per student; from Unit 2, Lesson 7, Closing and Assessment A)
  • Compare and Contrast Model Essay (one per student and one for display; from Unit 2, Lesson 7, Work Time A)
  • Informative Writing checklist (one per student and one for display; from Unit 2, Lesson 9, Work Time C)
  • A Long Walk to Water (text; one per student; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Work Time C)
  • “The ‘Lost Girls’ of Sudan” article (one per student and one to display; from Unit 2, Lesson 1, Work Time A)
  • Similarities and Differences: A Long Walk to Water and “The ‘Lost Girls’ of Sudan” note-catcher (one per student; from Unit 2, Lesson 8, Work Time B)
  • Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer (one per student and one for display; from Unit 2, Lesson 9, Work Time C)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 11 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Organize the Model: Conclusion strips (example for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive Guide: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion (for teacher reference)
  • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion note-catcher (for teacher reference)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 11 (one per student)
  • Online or print dictionaries (including ELL and home language dictionaries; one per small group of students)
  • Organize the Model: Conclusion strips (one strip per pair)
  • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion sentence chunk strips (one per student and one to display)
  • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion note-catcher (one per student and one to display)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

Opening

A. Engage the Learner - W.7.2f (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: students respond to questions on Entrance Ticket: Unit 2, Lesson 11. Students will review their responses to the entrance ticket in Work Time C.
  • Repeated routine: follow the same routine as with the previous lessons to review the learning target and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students if the learning target is similar or the same as in previous lessons.
  • With students, use the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to deconstruct the words conclusion (the ending or closing to an essay or book) and reflection (a thought that results from deep or serious thinking) in the learning target. Record on the academic word wall with translations in home languages, where appropriate, and invite students to record words in their vocabulary logs.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. The Painted Essay®: Sort and Color-Code the Parts of the Conclusion – W.7.2f (10 minutes)

  • Move students into the same predetermined pairs from the previous lesson.
  • Distribute the Organize the Model: Conclusion strips (giving half the pairs the first strip and half the pairs the second strip). Tell students that each pair has been given only one part of the conclusion, and later on they will find another pair with the other parts to create a complete conclusion paragraph. ▲
  • Invite students to refer to their Painted Essay® template to remember the parts of a conclusion paragraph:
    • Restated focus statement
    • Reflection
  • Explain that pairs need to find other pairs with the other parts of the conclusion and put them together in the right order.
  • Tell students that when they have finished, they will check their work against the Compare and Contrast Model Essay.
  • Invite students to begin, and circulate to support students in reading and sorting the strips of the conclusion.
  • Refocus the whole group.
  • Ask students to chorally read the conclusion, pausing after each sentence for volunteers to explain the function of the sentences in the paragraphs. Invite students to help record the criteria of a conclusion paragraph on the Criteria of an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart. Refer to the Criteria of an Effective Informative Essay anchor chart (example for teacher reference) as necessary.

For Lighter Support

  • In Work Time A, before releasing pairs of students to find other pairs with connecting parts of the conclusion, model doing this with volunteers, in order to provide a visual demonstration which further clarifies the verbal directions. Modeling tasks before releasing students to do them independently supports ELLs by providing opportunities to understand the language of directions visually, as well as verbally.

B. Language Dive: Conclusion - W.7.2f (10 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: follow the same routine as with the previous lessons to facilitate a Language Dive with the following conclusion sentence from the model essay:

"Although the article and the novel focus on different parts of the journey, they discuss similar events."

  • Use the accompanying materials to facilitate the Language Dive:
    • Language Dive Guide: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion (for teacher reference)
    • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion sentence chunk strips
    • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion note-catcher
    • Language Dive: Compare and Contrast Model Essay, Conclusion note-catcher (for teacher reference)
  • N/A

C. Plan a Conclusion - W.7.2f (15 minutes)

  • Review the learning target:

"I can plan a conclusion that includes a strong reflection."

  • Tell students they are now ready to plan their conclusions. Explain that in this lesson, they are only organizing the conclusion paragraph in their graphic organizer and will draft the essay for Part I of their End of Unit 2 Assessment in the next lesson.
  • Remind students that as they organize their conclusion paragraphs, they should restate their focus statement and offer a reflection. Ask students to refer to their notes from the entrance ticket activity and to Turn and Talk:

"How does thinking about the gist of your essay help you think about the reflection part of the essay? What more do you want to tell the reader about your thinking once you've concluded the essay?" (Responses will vary. Possible response: Knowing the gist of my essay helps me decide what should go in to the conclusion and gives me an option for restating my focus statement. I want to tell the reader that I think the lost girls deserve more recognition and help.)

  • Invite students to retrieve the following materials:
    • Similarities and Differences: A Long Walk to Water and "The 'Lost Girls' of Sudan" note-catcher
    • Texts: A Long Walk to Water and "The 'Lost Girls' of Sudan"
    • Informative Writing checklist
    • Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer
  • Guide students through organizing their conclusions:
    1. Discuss the following characteristic on the Informative Writing checklist, adding to the "Characteristics of My Informative Essay" column as needed.

      W.7.2f: "My conclusion restates my focus and shows how the information I've provided supports it as well as providing a reflection."
    2. Invite students to read their Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer parts for their introductory and proof paragraphs started in a previous lesson to remind them of their focus statement and their evidence.
    3. Invite students to refer to the criteria on the Criteria of an Informative Essay anchor chart or the Informative Writing checklist to organize their conclusions. As necessary, model completing the Informative Writing Plan graphic organizer with information from the conclusion paragraph of the model essay.

  • Repeated routine: invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning target.

For Heavier Support

  • During Work Time C, let students with no experience writing in English write their plans for their concluding paragraphs in their home language, and then have them Pair Share their work in English as best they can, facilitating their capacity to begin translating concepts between languages. Alternatively, students with little or no experience writing in English may benefit from using speech-to-text software, through which they can dictate their concluding paragraph plans in their home language or in English, and then read the digital transcription from which they can draft their plan.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingLevels of Support

A. Pair Share – W.7.5 (5 minutes)

  • Invite student pairs to pair up with another pair to share their plans for their conclusion paragraphs and provide feedback against relevant criteria on the Informative Writing checklist. Ask for a volunteer pair with to help model this exchange, using prompts such as the following:

“How do you plan on restating the focus statement?” or “What is your reflection about this topic?” ▲

  • Focus students on the Work to Become Ethical People anchor chart, and remind them of the habit of character recorded—respect—as students are sharing out their planning work and developing their understanding of the task.
  • Invite pairs to begin discussion with each other. Circle and monitor the discussions to ensure students each share their restated focus statement and reflection.
  • Incorporate reflection on and awareness of the following academic mindset: “I belong in this community.”
  • Ask students to Think-Pair-Share:

“How does respect help you feel a sense of belonging in this classroom community?” (Responses will vary. Possible response: When my classmates listen to and support me, I feel like this classroom is a safe place for me.)

For Lighter Support

  • Before asking students to discuss how they plan to restate their focus statement, model what a partner discussion about this question would sound like, with a student volunteer, or by doing both "voices." Include concrete examples of restating a focus statement in the discussion demonstration. Modeling and concrete examples supports ELLs by providing them more concrete, less language-embedded directions for completing tasks.

For Heavier Support

  • Provide sentence frames for the partner discussion of concluding paragraph plans. As always when using sentence frames, model how to use them with specific examples before expecting students to use them themselves independently.
    • How will you restate the focus statement?
    • I will restate the focus statement by . . .
    • What is your reflection on the topic?
    • My reflection on the topic is . . .
  • Sentence frames help ELLs better participate in conversations by providing them with the language they need to initiate a comment or respond to a question, freeing them up to focus their attention on generating the language they need for articulating the comment itself, or answering the question in depth.

Homework

Homework

A. Independent Research Reading

  • Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

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