Skip to Main Content

Lesson 5

We will edit our individual reflections of our groups’ research processes and our own reading, writing, collaborating, and presenting skills.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and elements to support and elaborate on reflective narratives?

  • Can I apply correct and effective syntax, usage, mechanics, and spelling to communicate ideas and achieve intended purposes?

  • Can I sequence and group sentences and paragraphs and use devices, techniques, descriptions, reasoning, evidence, and visual elements to establish coherent, logical, and well-developed explanations?

  • Can I revisit, refine, and revise my understanding, knowledge, and work based on discussions with others and feedback and review by myself and others?

  • Can I think about and evaluate personal and group development?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “Agents of Change,” Phil Patton, American Heritage, 1994
    • “Introduction,” excerpt from The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown and Company, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2000

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Write

We will edit our reflective narratives for spelling and grammar.

Conduct a spelling and grammar check for accuracy, and respond to the following question:

  1. When the computer prompts you with a red or blue line, indicating that there is an error, how will you know which fix is the right fix? Hint: It will not always be the first choice.

Activity 2: Discuss – Write

We will edit our reflective narratives to include a rhetorical device.

Step 1

The following sentences come from The Tipping Point and “Agents of Change.”

  • “How does a thirty-dollar pair of shoes go from a handful of downtown Manhattan hipsters and designers to every mall in America in the space of two years?” (Tipping Point, para. 4)

  • “But who designed the nails?” (“Agents of Change”)

  • “Today everyone knows of the Surgeon General, but who can name the one behind the Surgeon General’s report?” (“Agents of Change,” Luther Terry)

  • “If a national system of wires could provide such benefits as its advocates say, doesn’t that point to the benefits of the national system of roads?” (“Agents of Change,” Francis Turner)

Discuss the following questions with a partner or group:

  1. What do you notice about each of the example sentences?

  2. What do they have in common?

  3. What effect do they have on the text?

  4. Why might an author write sentences like these?

Step 2

The quotations from these texts are called rhetorical questions.

A rhetorical question is a question that is asked in order to create a dramatic effect or make a point rather than get an actual answer. These kinds of questions can be useful because they engage the reader and get him or her thinking about the writer’s main points.

With a partner, write a rhetorical question about your pathway topic.

One way you might edit your reflective narrative is by adding in a rhetorical question. Scan your narrative for a good place to include a rhetorical question, and add it in.

Activity 3: Write – Discuss

We will edit our reflective narratives to vary internal punctuation.

Step 1

The following sentences come from “Agents of Change.”

  • “Terry was no costume general, however; his research specialty had been hypertension, which was clearly linked to smoking.”

  • “When Ike once found his limousine stalled by interstate construction outside Washington, he was baffled; he thought the interstates were supposed to stay away from the cities.”

  • “So many mall stores seem to sell shoes; where do Americans ever walk enough to wear out so many shoes, except perhaps at malls?”

Think about the following questions for each sentence:

  1. What do you notice about the sentence?

  2. What else do you notice?

Step 2

Each of these sentences uses a semicolon (;). You have probably seen semicolons, although you might not know the rules for using them. Semicolons help to connect closely related ideas and can be used to make your writing more sophisticated. Like the colon (:), semicolons are most commonly used to link together two independent clauses (complete sentences).

Below are some hard-and-fast rules about how to use a semicolon to connect related ideas:

  • A semicolon is usually used to connect two independent clauses (complete sentences). Semicolons can also take the place of commas to separate items in a list.

  • Sometimes, a conjunctive adverb or transitional phrase is used after the semicolon to introduce the next independent clause.

    • Conjunctive adverbs are words or groups of words that help tie together these independent clauses; however, in addition, and for example are common adverbs used for this purpose.

Step 3

With a partner, write a sentence that uses a semicolon and conjunctive adverb to connect two independent clauses (complete sentences). Remember, the second sentence illustrates, clarifies, or amplifies the first sentence. You can either write a new sentence or combine two existing sentences from your drafts.

Scan your narrative for a good place to use semicolons to join independent clauses, and add it in.

Activity 4: Write

We will finish our reflective narratives for homework.

Finish your reflective narrative for homework, and turn it in to your teacher during the next lesson.