Chapter Blog 3

Chapter 12. Persuasive writing

People use persuasive writing to argue logically with reasons. Tomkins (2008) says people can be persuaded in three ways. The first appeal a writer can make is based on reason. A second way to persuade is through an appeal to character. Other people are important to us, and we an be persuaded by what another person recommends if we trust that person. The third way people can be persuaded is by an emotional appeal. Emotional appeals can be as strong as intellectual appeals because people have a deep concern for their well-being and for the rights of others (Tomkins, 2008, p. 268). We are living in the complicated society so there are many chances to persuade somebody. In persuasive writing, a writer takes a position FOR or AGAINST an issue and writes to convince the reader to believe or do something.
Rubenstein (2010) explained persuasive writing steps briefly as below:
1. Give yourself time.
2. Brainstorm.
3. First Paragraph This has to be your paragraph that draws attention to your essay.
4. Start off your essay by stating your views.
5. Make body paragraphs.
6. Finish off with a conclusion (last sentence). Proofread.
Also he provided useful tips for persasive writing as below:
Make sure you know your audience. Stick to a certain tone, whether it's formal, informal, funny, pleading, etc.
Be aware of the possible counter-arguments that would go against what you are trying to say. You need to plan ahead for oppositions. Therefore, list some common oppositions and have counters for them.
Avoid the use of personal pronouns such as "I" or "you". This takes away from your writing's professional touch.
Use synonyms. Having the same word over and over will place a toll on the reader's nerves. Mix it up a bit. Also, do not use boring words, such as big or nice. Try and put them as enormous or compassionate.

References:
Rubenstein, L. B. (2010, March 19). How to Write a Persuasive Essay. Retrieved March 31, 2010 from http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Persuasive-Essay
Tomkins, G. E. (2008). Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter Blog 4

Chapter 11. Poetry writing

People write poetry to create images, explore feelings, and entertain (Tomkins, 2008). Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. People think writing poetry is difficult task, but it is easy and even young children can try poetry writing.
When teacher ask children write poem, usually they do not know what to write. Ghare introduced some tips in the website http://www.buzzle.com/articles/writing-poetry-how-to-write-a-poem.html. There are several things that one must consider while wondering how to write poetry. Here is a list of things to think about that.
The Subject:
An interesting way to take the jump from this point is writing down the words, phrases or sentences that come to your mind when you are thinking about the subject or the theme of your poem. Don’t worry if nothing sounds or feels right, just write it down for now.
The Feeling:
A poem, no matter how descriptive it may be, is not to be used to state the obvious. We all know that the grass is green, for example. What you need to express in your poem is what you felt when you saw the green grass. What emotions did it evoke within you?
The Mood:
How do you want to portray your thoughts, ideas and feelings via this poem? Do you want to make it a serious poem, or a funny one, a sarcastic one or an irreverent one? The mood can often help you convey the feelings more effectively.
The Style:
Choose a style of writing the poem from among several – from classical to the modern contemporary styles of writing poetry, there are many to choose from. Pick a style which is easier for you to work with. Most modern poets often use the free verse style of poetry.

References:
Ghare, H. (n.d). How to write a poem. Retrieved March 02, 2010 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/writing-poetry-how-to-write-a-poem.html.
Tomkins, G. E. (2008). Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter Blog 5

Chapter 10. Descriptive Writing

People use descriptive writing to decorate word and to make their writing more vivid. For descriptive writing, we can use many descriptive techniques such as adding specific information, choosing words carefully, crating sensory images, making comparisons and witing dialogue. I am interested in applying sensory images for essay.
When we read some writing with sensory words, we feel like staying in the place where the author is explaining.
Below is the example of sensory writing.

“ I spent a day at the beach with my friend. Children was playing in the sand. I could hear chatter and laughter of children. There were slight fishy smell. The water tasted like salt water. I felt a heat of sun on back.”

In the Website, I found very simple explanation of descriptive writing. This site was created by TQ22 5th grade team. They say Descriptive writing, sometimes called "showing writing" is writing that describes a particular person, place or event in great detail. Descriptive writing uses a lot of flowery adjectives and adverbs to describe what is going on or how something appears. If you were going to describe biting into an apple, you would not simply say: "He bit into the apple and it tasted good". Descriptive writing would convey the same sentence as follows: "He slowly closed his teeth on the ripe, succulent, ruby colored apple. The crunch of his teeth piercing the apple's skin was deafening and the sweet juices of the apple ran down his chin. The taste of the meat was as sweet as candy and he felt euphoric."

References:
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/forms%20of%20writing/em_descriptive.htm
Tomkins, G. E. (2008). Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Assignment #7 Five Rubric Websites that offer samples to assess the kinds of writing genres.

1. Free writing
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1335631&

2. Expository writing
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1340960&

3. Narrative writing
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1537325&

4. Descriptive writing
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1820735&

5. Creative writing
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1777559&

Assignment #4: An Academic Assignment

Title: Make a designed summary of the mini book.

Submitted by: Youngran Song
Grade Level: Grade 3
ELL Level: Intermediate
Duration: 40 min session

Goals:
1.To allow students to report on their reading in a way that is creative and that integrates language skills
2.To let students share enthusiasm for what has been read
3.To introduce students to good books they have not read.

Objectives:
1.Content Objective: To make a designed summary of the mini book
2.Language Objective: To understand difficult words in story book with picture cards and apply it to prewriting.
3.Learning Objective: To have the students break summarizing into understandable parts

Standards: CELD standard
Subject: English
Grade(s): 3
Reading: 3.0
Literary Response and Analysis: Students read to a wide variety of significant works of children's literature. They distinguish between the structural features of the text and the literary terms or elements (e.g., theme, plot, setting, characters).
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text: 3.3
Use knowledge of the situation and setting and of a character's traits and motivations to determine the causes for that character's actions.
Grade(s): 4
Reading: 3.0
Literary Response and Analysis: Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature. They begin to find ways to clarify the ideas and make connections between literary works.
Literary Criticism: 3.7
Evaluate the author's use of various techniques (e.g., appeal of characters in a picture book, logic and credibility of plots and settings, use of figurative language) to influence readers' perspectives.
Subject: English
Grade(s): 5
Reading: 3.0
Literary Response and Analysis: Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature. They begin to find ways to clarify the ideas and make connections between literary works.
Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text: 3.3 Contrast the actions, motives (e.g., loyalty, selfishness,conscientiousness), and appearances of characters in a work of fiction and discuss the importance of the contrast between the plot or theme.

Equipment Needed:
1.Picture book: Valerie Thomas's story "Winnie the Witch."
2.Computer
3.Board & markers
4.Scissors, color pencils, paper

List of Materials:
1.A-1 Focus Sheet: Winnie the witch storytelling script
2.A-2 Word picture cards
3.A-3 Vocabulary Work Sheet
4.A-4 Graphic organizer: Prewrite about the story
5.A-5 Summative Assessment Sheet: Rubrics for Mini-book

Warm-up:
1.Instructor does storytelling for students: Instructor asks pre-during-post questions during the storytelling (please refer to the below Focus sheet A-1).
2.Have students talk about the book with their partner.
3.Teacher shows some Mini-books to students and encourages them to make good one.

Task Chain 1.
1.Understand difficult words with pictures
2.Instructor’s role: Have students memorize key words so that they understand the story better.
3.Students’ role: Concentrate on the key words and try to remember them.
A.Show the word cards to students one by one so that students understand the difficult words easily. Show repeating the words and pictures a few times: Word cards A-2
B.Formative assessment: Check your words with vocabulary puzzle worksheet A-3

Task Chain 2.
1.To make a designed summary of the mini book
2.Instructor’s role: Help students make mini book without difficulties.
3.Students’ role: Have new experience making mini book.
How to Make eight page books
A.Hold up, in landscape position, a large piece of A3 or large white paper and tell the students to hold up their A4 paper in the same way.
B.Tell them “Fold it in half lengthwise” and show the students by folding your paper.
C.Tell the students to “fold the paper in half vertically” and the students will follow.
D.Tell the students to fold the paper vertically again.
E.Tell the students to open the paper.
F.Have the students cut a line lengthwise along the center two squares.
G.Have the students fold the paper in half lengthwise and push the two ends together.
H.The result will be an eight page book.
I.Formative assessment: Have the students unfold the Mini-book and practice the folding method by themselves

Task Chain 3.
1.To have the students break summarizing into understandable parts
2.Instructor’s role: Have the students prewrite about the character, setting, and problems in the story (Please refer to A-2).
3.Students’ role: Students change their prewriting with partner for peer correction.
4.During writing activity
A.Page 1: Title plus the picture from an important event in the book.
B.Page 2,3: A picture of the characters of the book and a two sentence summary of the characters of the book, including physical and emotional descriptions (For example, he has black hair. He is very brave. Etc.)
C.Page 4,5: A picture of the setting and time of the book and a sentence summary of the setting.
D.Page 6,7: A picture of the problem. Climax of the book and a two sentence summary of the problem.
E.Page 8: At the top, put the title again, in the middle, the student draw a picture of himself, and at the bottom he puts his name.
F.Formative Assessment of briefly summarized Mini-book: The instructor has a brief meeting with student individually and provides feedback.
G.Summative Assessment: Using the Assessment Sheet A-6: Rubrics for Mini-book, students check their awareness of description, knowledge of vocabulary.
5.Post-writing activity: For homework, tell students to summarize a book they have read, but instead of writing the actual ending, they should write a different ending.

References:
Díaz-Rico, L.T. (2008). Strategies for teaching English learners. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Thomas, v. (2002). Winnie the Witch. London: Oberon Books.

A Writing Strategy(Visualizing) Mini-Lesson PPT

545-50 ASSIGNMENT#3 BY YOUNGRAN SONG

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Assignment #6: Article review

Date: February 3, 2010
Title: Research on good and poor reader characterstics.(ISSN 1539-0578)

Summary
In reading research, there are lots of studies on good and poor reader characteristics. However, these findings remain largely scattered in applied linguistics and cognitive and educational psychology. This paper attempts to synthesize current theory and research on the topic in the past 20 years along 3 dimensions: language knowledge and processing ability, cognitive ability, and metacognitive strategic competence. A profile of good readers follows a review of the literature. With a special reference to second language reading research and pedagogy in China, the author argues that a key difference between first language and L2 readers typically have a gap between their L2 proficiency and their knowledge or conceptual maturation, and this tension determines to some degree the characteristics of good versus poor L2 readers. By examining L2 reading research in the country, the author proposes some areas worth exploring in the Chinese context.

Description
 Language knowledge and processing ability
 Cognitive ability
 Metacognitive strategic competence
 A profile of good readers
 New research directions in L2 reading in china
 Word-level issues in L2 reading development
 Exposure to print in L2 reading development
 Training of a strategic reader
 Relationship between instruction and testing

Evaluation of article
The review of previous research on reading comprehension and the subsequent profile of good readers presented in this paper may offer a new perspective for our understanding of reading in a second language. In the Chinese EFL context, reading provides rich and abundant samples of L2 input which is needed to improve learners’ overall language proficiency. From a utilitarian point of view, reading is just what Chinese EFL learners need most both in their academic studies and in their future work. China, reputed to have the biggest population learning English as a foreign language in the world, offers a wide range of issues in L2 reading to be explored. The four areas identified in this paper may provide a stimulus for Chinese scholars and others to carry out research that will not only help China to catch up with international research development but also help to exolore theories applicable to EFL reading.


Example of the useful material

Table 1. A profile of good readers
Dimensions
Language Knowledge and Processing ability.
 Automatic and rapic word recognition.
 Automatic syntactic parsing and semantic proposition formation.
 Resonable size of vocabulary ranging from 10,000 to 100,000.
Cognitive ability.
 Good store of cognitive strategies.
 Ready access to variety of purposeful strategies.
 Higher and proficient use of strategies.
 Effective use of prior knowledge.
 Supportive use of mother tongue in L2.
Metacognitive strategic competence.
 Good knowledge of cognition.
 Competence in monitoring comprehension process.
 Competence in evaluation and regulating strategy use to achieve maximum comprehension.

Many good reader characteristics are common to both L1 and L2 readers. Although L1 and L2 reading have differences, the fact that many more characteristics are sharted than not between the two types of good readers is reasonable: Good L2 readers seem to make every effort to approximate the linguistic proficiency and repertoire of skills and strategies found in good L1 readers. a profile of good readers based on the interpretation of the previous literature on three dimensions is presented in table 1.

Reference
Pang, J (2008). Research on good and poor reader characteristics: Implications for L2 reading research in China. Reading in a Foreign Language, 20(1), 1-18.