The Delicious RACER to the Five-Paragraph Essay

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

7

Overview

This learning activity, “The Delicious RACER to the Five-Paragraph Essay,” is a slideshow and graphic organizer-based lesson that prepares students to read for information and respond through writing. It is a whole-class, paired, and independent learning activity where all three components are vital to the goal at hand - reading for information to answer a prompt to eventually develop the ultimate five-paragraph essay. Students will learn to ask the appropriate questions to inquire about the relevance, credibility, and purpose of locating a piece of text that is not their own to support a stance that is their own.

This learning activity was created as a result of the Struggling Readers Initiative Resource Development Project, in partnership with Dothan City Schools.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 7

ELA21.7.R4

Utilize a writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

UP:ELA21.7.R4

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Draft
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Publish
  • Genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
  • Various genres of writing.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan writings in various genres.
  • Draft writings in various genres.
  • Revise writings in various genres.
  • Edit writings in various genres.
  • Publish writings in various genres.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The writing process is a set of steps that make writing easier.
  • There are different categories, or genres, of writing that can be used for different purposes.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 7

ELA21.7.7

Produce clear, coherent narrative, argument, and informative/explanatory writing in which the development, organization, style, and tone are relevant to task, purpose, and audience, using an appropriate command of language.

UP:ELA21.7.7

Vocabulary

  • Narrative writing
  • Argument writing
  • Informative/explanatory writing
  • Writing development
  • Writing organization
  • Style
  • Tone
  • Task
  • Purpose
  • Audience
  • Command of language

Knowledge

Students know:
  • A narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story.
  • The purpose of argumentative writing is to convince the reader to take action or adopt a particular position.
  • Informative or explanatory text is a piece of writing that provides factual information that was gathered from multiple research sources.
  • The development, organization, style, and tone of writing will change depending on the writing task, the purpose of the writing, and the intended audience.
  • Formal academic writing should demonstrate an appropriate command of language.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Produce clear, coherent narrative, argument, and informative/explanatory writings.
  • Identify the writing task, the purpose of writing, and the intended audience in order to appropriately adapt the development, organization, style, and tone of the writing.
  • Demonstrate command of the written language.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There are different genres of writing that serve various purposes.
  • The writing task, purpose, and audience should be considered in the development, organization, style, and tone of the writing.
  • Formal academic writing should display their command of the English language.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 7

ELA21.7.7b

Write informative or explanatory texts with an organized structure and a formal style to examine ideas or processes effectively while developing the topic and utilizing appropriate transitions, precise vocabulary, and credible information or data when relevant.

UP:ELA21.7.7b

Vocabulary

  • Informative/explanatory text
  • Organized structure
  • Formal style
  • Transitions
  • Precise vocabulary
  • Credible information/data

Knowledge

  • Informative or explanatory text is writing that provides factual information that was gathered from multiple credible research sources.
  • Informative or explanatory text has organized structure, and usually begins by clearly focusing on the topic, providing credible evidence, and ends with a conclusion.
  • Informative or explanatory writing should include academic, content-specific technical word meanings.
  • Words that indicate transitions.

Skills

  • Gather credible information and data from multiple sources.
  • Write an informative or explanatory text with an organized structure and formal style that develops the topic and utilizes appropriate transitions, credible information or data, and technical vocabulary words.

Understanding

  • Informative or explanatory writing follows a predictable, organized text structure that utilizes appropriate transition words and precise vocabulary.
  • They must gather their information and data about the topic from multiple credible research sources.
  • Using credible information/data can support a writer's ideas and claims.
  • Writers elaborate details included in the text by using formal academic, content-specific technical words.

Learning Objectives

  • Students will use the writing process to plan and draft a five-paragraph informative/explanatory essay. 
  • Students will produce an explanatory writing draft that is clear and relevant to the stated task. 
  • Students will produce an explanatory writing draft that utilized appropriate transitions and credible text evidence.

Activity Details

When introducing this During activity to students, the teacher should refer back to the slideshow provided in the materials section. The teacher can require students to take notes during the slideshow presentation if desired.  As a class, go over the meaning of each letter of RACER and then present the prompt at hand.

With the slideshow on the slide of the first “R” of the acronym, students should, with their teacher, brainstorm ways to restate the prompt without giving away their answer. If the prompt presented (taken from associated Before Activity) is “Based on the residents’ reactions from the "boom" in "Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” which character sounds the most suspicious, like they may have something to do with the strange phenomena? Find three (3) pieces of text evidence to help support your answer,” then the restated prompt could be “In the play ‘Monsters are Due on Maple Street,’ there is a series of strange phenomena that happen that eventually make our main characters turn their backs on their closest neighbors.” Emphasize to students that this statement restates the prompt, but leaves readers wanting to know the answer because we have not given it away yet.

Now, the teacher will lead the student to develop an answer. “Since these neighbors have turned on each other in the face of chaos, it is to be assumed that _________ is the main culprit for this.” (Tell students to fill in the blank with their answer.)

Give students access to the play itself (paper copies or online PDF), and tell them that it is now time to start finding evidence on the character they find to be the most at fault. (Teachers can provide accommodations here with self-made sheets for each character where all or the most important quotes that each character said are included.) 

Have students either find quotes their character in question said or quotes someone else said about their character in order to best frame them. Have them list these in numbers 3, 5, and 7  on the graphic organizers.

After, have a whole-class discussion, allowing peers to check each other, or go around the room and review student responses as a formative assessment. 

Let students know the next section is where they have the most flexibility, as they can easily earn extra sentences here, but it is also the section that requires the most thought. They can have a wonderful answer and text evidence pieces, but if one cannot make those connect, the paragraph will not sustain. Give students time to independently work - explaining why the pieces of evidence they chose are the best examples to prove their character guilty. 

Finally, have students take a look at their first “Restate” and tell them to mimic that for the last “Restate,” but use transition words that bring that paragraph to a close rather than introduce (Example: “In this case, _______ is to blame for all the madness in the play.” (Insert framed character’s name in the blank.) 

Students will perform this process for each Body Paragraph 1, 2, and 3 (show slides from the slideshow on each body paragraph as you introduce, teach, and allow them to work – reminding them of how they found evidence in the first learning activity where they were given a character to frame). “Now… onto Hooks and Transition Words (show them Slideshow on these again). We have words that sound casual and others that sound more formal and permanent.”

Explain to students that they need an ending transition word for the start of each conclusion sentence, leaving the most impactful one for the ending paragraph. 

I recommend teaching the body paragraph sections first, then having students go back, as you restate the rules on an intro paragraph on the slideshow. “You will use the same “Restate” in the beginning, but after coming up with your three (3) body paragraphs, condense those to a singular reason why your character is guilty and simply list them in your intro – we CANNOT have evidence pieces in our intro paragraph, as it gives away too much information right off the bat; we want our readers to want to read our whole essay to eventually reach all of our answers.”

Give students time to rewrite their Restated prompt, list their three (3) main reasons for framing, turn those into sentences that you then need to vaguely explain, and then rewrite their final restate as listed in their body paragraphs

Explain to them that their conclusion paragraph is exactly the same, but we need to change the words so as to not sound robotic or boring. 

“We will use our same first restated sentence and reasons, but our final sentence needs to be strong, stand out, and give a feeling of finalizing. For example, “In the end, the residents of Maple Street are deeply troubled not only over the events that occurred, but also because the real villain at hand lives among them – ______.”

Give students time to work on this and finalize their graphic organizer.

Assessment Strategies

The teacher can formatively assess student progress through questioning strategies and observation as students complete their graphic organizer.

- After students complete their graphic organizers, the teacher should evaluate each student’s work to ensure the following components are included:

  • Intro
  • Body Paragraph 1 (relevant evidence and commentary present)
  • Body Paragraph 2 (relevant evidence and commentary present)
  • Body Paragraph 3 (relevant evidence and commentary present)
  • Conclusion

Acceleration

Add an additional paragraph on which character could be the group’s “Saving Grace” is – AKA who could have gotten them out of all this chaos/who is their natural-born leader?

Intervention

Make and hand out a pre-made sentence template for students who need help not just filling out the graphic organizer, but also who need support in understanding the structure of informative/explanatory writing. The template can have a section for a transition word, the restate, each evidence piece with a piece of commentary for justification, and then a space for the final restate.

Variation Tips

This instructional strategy (RACER Graphic Organizer) can be modified for use with any text selection.

Background / Preparation

Prior to this activity, students should be able to identify all parts of the RACER writing strategy through notes.

Students should have already practiced the skill of reading for information. For example, knowing to have the question or prompt in mind while reading (or using skimming skills) to find the information they need. This also includes using keywords and understanding the purpose of keywords during the reading process. Students will need to be proficient in their school’s preferred online scholastic platform, digital devices, and document tools.

Note: For teachers, The RACER Writing Strategy is a widespread teaching strategy acronym that stands for Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, and Restate again. This teaches students all the necessary components of brainstorming, outlining, and eventually writing a well-constructed paragraph where students have to include text evidence to prove their stance on a given prompt. When given a prompt, students will Restate the prompt given, Answer the prompt in their second sentence, and include all Cited text evidence pieces with necessary Explanations of those evidence pieces. Eventually, they will Restate the prompt again using different wording.

Learning Activity (Before)

Total Duration

46 to 60 Minutes

Materials and Resources

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