Learning Activity

Prewriting: Utilizing Best Practices to Write Clear, Coherent Products

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

9, 10

Overview

After students have defined and identified responsible and ethical research practices as well as strategies for writing clear, coherent products suitable for audience and purpose, they will utilize these practices and strategies to write their own paragraph.  In this activity, students will complete the prewriting steps in this process. Using a guide, they will consider the topic, audience, purpose, and research sources as they prepare to write their paragraph.

English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 9

ELA21.9.R5

Utilize a writing process which includes planning, revising, editing/peer-editing, and rewriting to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing for a specific purpose and audience.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.9.R5

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Peer-edit
  • Rewrite
  • Focused
  • Organized
  • Coherent
  • Purpose
  • Audience

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, revise, edit, and rewrite.
  • Editing can be completed by the writer or by a peer.
  • Peer-editing skills.
  • Completed writing projects should be focused, organized, and coherent, and written for a specific purpose and intended audience.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan, revise, edit, and rewrite to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing.
  • Compose a writing piece for a specific purpose and intended audience.
  • Engage in the peer-editing process.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Writing is a process that requires multiple drafts, edits, and versions.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 9

ELA21.9.24

Utilize responsible and ethical research practices to write clear, coherent products with a command of language suitable for a particular target audience and purpose.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.9.24

Vocabulary

  • Responsible research practices
  • Ethical research practices
  • Command of language
  • Target audience
  • Purpose

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Responsible and ethical research practices.
  • Writing skills.
  • The conventions of standard, formal English.
  • Strategies to modify writing for a particular audience and purpose.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write clear, coherent documents using responsible and ethical research practices.
  • Incorporate conventions of formal, standard English into clear, coherent writing products.
  • Modify writing to be suitable for a particular audience and purpose.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Ethical and responsible research practices are necessary when writing academic and workplace documents.
  • The conventions of standard, formal English are necessary for effective academic and workplace communication.
  • Written language should be adapted, depending on the audience and purpose.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 10

ELA21.10.R5

Utilize a writing process which includes planning, revising, editing/peer-editing, and rewriting to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing for a specific purpose and audience.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.10.R5

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Peer-edit
  • Rewrite
  • Focused
  • Organized
  • Coherent
  • Purpose
  • Audience

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, revise, edit, and rewrite.
  • Editing can be completed by the writer or by a peer.
  • Peer-editing skills.
  • Completed writing projects should be focused, organized, and coherent, and written for a specific purpose and intended audience.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan, revise, edit, and rewrite to create a focused, organized, and coherent piece of writing.
  • Compose a writing piece for a specific purpose and intended audience.
  • Engage in the peer-editing process.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Writing is a process that requires multiple drafts, edits, and versions.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 10

ELA21.10.24

Utilize responsible and ethical research practices to write clear, coherent products with a command of language suitable for a particular target audience and purpose.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.10.24

Vocabulary

  • Responsible research practices
  • Ethical research practices
  • Command of language
  • Target audience
  • Purpose

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Responsible and ethical research practices.
  • Writing skills.
  • The conventions of standard, formal English.
  • Strategies to modify writing for a particular audience and purpose.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Write clear, coherent documents using responsible and ethical research practices.
  • Incorporate conventions of formal, standard English into clear, coherent writing products.
  • Modify writing to be suitable for a particular audience and purpose.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Ethical and responsible research practices are necessary when writing academic and workplace documents.
  • The conventions of standard, formal English are necessary for effective academic and workplace communication.
  • Written language should be adapted, depending on the audience and purpose.

Phase

Before/Engage
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The student will identify the topic, audience, purpose, and sources for a research paragraph. 
  • The student will create an in-text citation of a source using responsible and ethical research practices.
  • The student will utilize a writing process which includes planning.

Activity Details

  1. The teacher will explain to the students that they will be writing a paragraph using research sources and that they will apply the criteria for responsible and ethical research practices and clear, coherent writing for audience and purpose. 
  2. The teacher will display the prewriting questions on the document and ask students to write down their topic, target audience, and purpose. The teacher may determine that the audience is other researchers and that the purpose is to inform. 
  3. The teacher will have students access the research articles that they will use for this activity. 
  4. The teacher will ask students to note the author for each source and direct the student on how to write the in-text parenthetical citation for this source using the  MLA style guide, the APA style guide, or the style guide of the teacher’s choice. 
  5. The teacher will ask students to write down the information that they will use from the sources. (Students may have some experience summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. 
Assessment Strategies

Assessment Strategies

The teacher should evaluate the students' written responses to the prewriting portion of the document to verify that they correctly identified the topic, audience, purpose, and sources and correctly formed the in-text citation in the specified style of documentation.

Acceleration

Students may deviate from the form and use a prewriting tool of their choice.

Intervention

  • Students may be provided with examples of in-text citations so that they do not need to discover this for themselves using the linked articles. 
  • The students may copy and paste the sentences from their original article onto the document. 

Approximate Duration

Total Duration

16 to 30 Minutes

Related Learning Activities

Learning Activity (Before)

Prewriting: Utilizing Best Practices to Write Clear, Coherent Products

Learning Activity (During)

Drafting: Utilizing Best Practices to Write Clear, Coherent Products

Learning Activity (After)

Evaluating: Utilizing Best Practices to Write Clear, Coherent Products

Background and Preparation

Background / Preparation

The teacher should have taught the associated activities on responsible and ethical research practices and clear, coherent writing for audience and purpose. The teacher should ensure that students have at least one research source on an assigned or self-selected topic. Consider consulting your school librarian to help students access reputable and appropriate research sources. The teacher will make the Prewriting and Drafting Exercises document accessible to students through their learning management system. 

Students should have participated in the associated activities on responsible and ethical research practices and clear, coherent writing for audience and purpose. Students should have gathered at least one research article to use for this paragraph. They should have basic knowledge of in-text (parenthetical) citations so that they may document their research sentences appropriately.

Materials and Resources

Materials and Resources

Teacher Materials:

Student Materials:

Digital Tools / Resources

Prewriting and Drafting Exercises
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K6FSCJMPsFKGQ_pGmd4eu1B00wSCkg72y5PsJVOJ9Ho…
MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_s…
In-text Citations: The Basics
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_s…

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

szana
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