#3704. Writing as a group activity

Reading/Writing, level: Elementary
Posted Sat Mar 18 06:27:06 PST 2006 by Anna (annab@yahoo.com).
Basic Writing Skills, a Manual for Teachers by Dr. Judith Hochman
Hill School, USA
Materials Required: expository topic or Article from magazine or online
Activity Time: 40 minutes
Concepts Taught: Reading Comprehension/ Expository Writing

OVERVIEW

Students will use sentence strategies to write about a current event or expository topic.

PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE:
Read articles on Ellis Island. Examples are for Ellis Island but you can read a current event article from Time For Kids (timeforkids.com) and adapt the strategies.

TEACHER PREP TIME: make sure you do the activities first, model them on the board or on an overhead orally, give them to the students to do independently (The less able students usually use the models but the more able students write their own - great for differentiation)

DELIVERABLES:
Beautiful well-written worksheets to make a current event bulletin board

EVALUATION / GRADING:
Students will be evaluated using the model writing


More Information: basicwritingskills.net (this lesson is just a couple of the sentence strategies you could use but if you have the book there are many more terrific methods that are easy to teach.

Named after Samuel Ellis, a private owner of the island, Ellis Island was the first federal immigration station. It opened its doors in 1892 and processed over twelve million immigrants until its closing in 1954. Currently, fifty percent of all Americans can trace a relative who traveled through Ellis Island. However, all immigrants arriving in New York were not required to go through Ellis Island. First and second-class travelers, the wealthier immigrants, were not considered as much of a problem as the poorer immigrants who traveled steerage and third class. As the poor immigrants walked through the doors of Ellis Island, each entered the baggage room embracing different cultures, skills, and hopes.

Name ________________________________________ Date ____________________
Teacher ______________________________________ Grade ___________________

Use the following phrases and words to write sentences on the lines below.

a melting pot/because

__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

land of opportunity/when

__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

streets paved with gold/ultimately

__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

the fabric of American life/in conclusion

__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name ________________________________________ Date ____________________
Teacher ______________________________________ Grade ___________________

Complete the following sentences.
Before immigrants traveled across the ocean,_____ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

During the trip across the ocean,________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

After immigrants traveled across the ocean, ______
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name_________________________________ Date: __________________
Teacher: ______________________________ Grade: _________________
Write sentences for the following topic.

Topic: Ellis Island

. Statement
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

? Question
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

! Exclamation
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

. or ! Command
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name_________________________________ Date: __________________
Teacher: ______________________________ Grade: _________________
You be the teacher!
Write three questions about
Immigration in the United States that could be used on a test.

1. ? Question

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ? Question
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ? Question
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________