POW + TREEw/TRANS: LESSON # 2 Instructor:______________

Students:______________________________________________________

Date: _________________________________________________________

Purpose: Review POW & TREE, Look at Current Writing Behavior

Objectives: review POW and TREE; **reinforce transfer, and graph pretest opinion essay

Materials needed: Mnemonic chart, essay examples: school and recess, TREE graphic organizer, paper, pencils, scratch paper, student folders, students' essays, student graphs; "I transferred.."

_____I. Test to see if the students remember POW and TREE. Also, review what an "opinion essay" is.

A. Give each student a piece of scratch paper. Ask them to write down POW - then ask them what it stands for, and **why it is important (good writers use it often when they write, for many kinds of writing). If students have trouble remembering POW, practice it.

B. Ask them to write out TREE on the scratch paper.

C. Now ask students what each part of TREE stands for. Alternate between the students so that each student has an opportunity to answer several times.

D. It is essential that each student memorize the reminder. If some students are having trouble with this, spend a few minutes practicing it. Tell the students you will test them on it each day to make sure they have it. Remind students that they can practice memorizing it.

_____II. Go through two more essay examples (school and recess) and have students verbally identify the essay parts - what the writer believes, at least three reasons, and an ending sentence. For each of these essays, ask the students if they can think of more reasons!

_____III. **Ask students to report back on using all or parts of POW, TREE and/or WWW in other classes or for other writing tasks. If necessary, brainstorm together some classes or other writing tasks they could use both POW and TREE for, being sure to note that we should use POW with TREE whenever we use TREE. Ask them how TREE is different from the WWW strategy they learned first. Ask them if there might be times they could transfer one or both. Tell them that while they are learning TREE now, they should not forget the WWW trick, and should still tell you when they use it. Other ideas could be: letters to friends, reports on special topics, writing for a school newsletter, writing to a leader like the principal or the president, to convince them of what you believe in. Briefly note that for some tasks, all parts of the TREE trick might not be right to use - so what could we do? (Change TREE to fit the kind of paper we need to write; don't use all of TREE if it doesn't make sense). You fill in their "I transferred my strategies"chart and then ask them to report on helping their partner and fill in their "I helped my partner"chart. Put a star next to each thing you record.

_____IV. Remember the opinion essay you wrote for me the other day? Give out student's pretest essays.

A. Tell students to read their essay and see which parts they have. (You need to have worked out ahead of time what parts they had and which ones they didn't have; for opinion essays, the total can be five or more - what I believe, at least 3 reasons why, and an ending.)

B. Briefly note with each student which parts they have and which they don't. As a group, briefly note common parts missing.

C. Note also that even though we have a part, we might be able to make that part better next time- this makes our essay more fun to write and more fun to read. Discuss examples of how they could do each of the following, using either their essays or the essays you read in Lesson 1:

- can give more than 3 reasons

- can use good word choice, or "million dollar words".

- can use an interesting first sentence

- can use an interesting ending sentence

_____V. Give each student a graph sheet - have each student fill in the graph for the number of parts they had in their pretest essay. Be very positive, remind them that you are just now learning the trick of writing good essays. Explain that if they have more than 3 reasons, they can "bust the rocket." If they bust the rocket, write the total number of parts (6 or more) above the rocket.

A. Explain goal - to write better opinion essays. Remind them that good opinion essays tell the reader what you believe, give at least three reasons why, and have an ending sentence. Also, like stories, good opinion essays are fun for me to write and for others to read and make sense.

B. Our goal is to have all of the parts and "better" parts the next time we write an opinion essay.

_____VI. Lesson wrap-up:

A. Put papers from today's work in folders and collect their folders. Teacher keeps the pretest essay.

B. Remind of POW and TREE test again next time.

C. **Remind them that they will fill in the transfer chart again next time.

D. If either student is still having trouble finding the parts in the essays you have read, plan to read aloud another essay at the beginning of the next lesson.