Lesson: Expository essays

Teacher: Shraddha
Class: A Level Class size: 4
Sessions 12 sessions (June)
Learning  Understand and discuss what is greatness.
Objectives:  Interpret relevant information and identify key word
 Determine context clues.
 Make inferences to determine meaning.

Vocabulary: Words related to greatness

Previous Bridge course
learning:
Reference Coursebook
Plan
Topic Activities Resources
Questions:
Greatness I will ask students what is greatness? https://youtu.be/
What makes a person great? WYP9AGtLvRg
Students will write down the list of qualities that make someone
great.

Each student will read out his/her notes and Discuss.

The students will watch a video from Nike and share the message
they received.

Interpretatio The teacher will ask the students to find the tone and purpose of https://
n of word the author in discussing the topic. I will then instruct them to find www.artofmanliness.co
choice and the words and phrases that help achieve the purpose and how it m/character/
appropriate impacts the audience knowledge-of-men/the-
language
I will analyze an example paragraph along with the students and 35-greatest-speeches-
then allow them to work on it individually. in-history/
 The students will read a small paragraph the teacher
has assigned.

 Each student will be given equal number of

paragraphs (diff).

 They analyze the paragraphs, look for positive and

negative connotation and observe how the pattern of
word choice contributes to the overall message.

Determining The teacher will ask the students how they would guess the https://
meaning of meanings of unfamiliar words. I will then discuss different ways an powerupwhatworks.org/
unfamiliar author can offer clues to unfamiliar words. strategy-guide/context-
words. clues
(using
The students will try to find out the meanings of unfamiliar words
through context.
context clues pg no 54
to determine
meaning)
A worksheet will be given https://
www.englishworksheet
{2 sessions}
sland.com/grade5/
readfoundation/4/4.pdf

Making
inferences The teacher will assign each learner an excerpt from the Pg no. 48
(2 sessions) Biography
https://
The students will read the excerpt. They will write the quote where www.pdfdrive.com/
they had to read between lines in the left column. I will instruct inspiration-to-live-
them to make a journal of two column notes. your-magic-75-
inspiring-biographies-
e11478221.html
In the right column, the students write what could be the
meaning? Why the author might have written and how he must
have felt at that moment.

I will ask the students to look for clues in the language used and
encourage them to understand the meaning

Learners take into account the effects of a character's choice of

action.
What benefit, if any, did the character's choice have?

What might have happened if the character had taken an

alternative course of action, and what effects would that have
had?

Students offer an alternative choice to the character for at least

two different choices the character takes throughout their
experience.

After the students finish their work, I will check their notes and ask
them to exchange their thoughts with the peers.

The students will review their friends’ notes.

Assessment
The students discuss with examples how language changes depending on the surroundings and people
Whole class essay (7 sessions)

Applying Activity: Pg no. 23

evidence to Introduction:
support an The teacher begins the writing process by exploring several
argument potential problems and recording them on the board. I will ask
them to think about people in society who have been called ‘great’
because of a problem they are attempting to solve. What problems
are these?
Once enough ideas have been generated, the class collectively
decides on a single problem to serve as the focus of your ‘whole

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 class’ essay.
The students begin generating ideas to help explain why it is such
a problem. Model the use of a mind map to do so. (GP)

The students individually work on drafts of the various elements of

an essay. write what they think is a good introduction first,
then transfer their writing to a large post-it, present it on a Google
Slide
The teacher will give a mini lecture on basic elements of
introduction.

Mind Body paragraphs:

mapping A mind mapping for structuring the essay.
The essay question asks learners to identify a problem, which they
have now introduced in their introduction, but their main task is to
explain why it is a problem.
The learners pick the strongest reasons why and put them into an
order that makes logical sense.
A sample checklist for a body paragraph is discussed by the
teacher
After which they write the first body paragraph with the whole
class, modelling an approach which effectively supports the point.

Linking The teacher will discuss on supporting thesis, topic sentences and Pg no. 23 – 25
evidence to evidences
claims Learners think critically about the evidence they provide and they Pg no. 4 - 5
are asked to imagine body paragraphs as having ‘input’ and
‘output’.
Discussion on some words/phrases learners can use to link claims
and evidence.

Drawing Learners complete the homework/individual task for writing body Pg no. 27
conclusions paragraphs.
Since the conclusion must be based on evidence from the essay, I
will ask for a few volunteers to share their work, followed by class
collaboration in writing conclusions for these.
Teach the class about the elements of a conclusion.

Assessment
Write an expository essay on any topic of interest.

Food, water and resources

Lesson: Argumentative essays
Teacher: Shraddha
Class: A Level Class size: 4
Sessions 12 sessions (July)
Learning Review Expository writing skills
Objectives: previews all skills of understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and communicating
Understand detailed information in verbal form and identify key words

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 Identify and summarise major issues presented in text.

Vocabulary:
Previous Expository essay writing
learning:
Reference Coursebook and other sources
Plan
Topic Activities Resources
Students watch a video on the organisational pattern of the town’s https://www.ted.com/
successes in urban landscaping by Pam Warhurst. talks/
pam_warhurst_how_we_
can_eat_our_landscapes
They will record their observations after watching the video.
www.channelnewsasia.c
om/news/singapore/
The teacher will send some links to help the debate for the next singapore-s-s-134m-
class. The links will be uploaded on GC bottled-water-
addiction/
3364034.html
www.theepochtimes.co
m/n3/51758-bottled-
water-in-china-worse-
than-tap-water/
www.scmp.com/
comment/insight-
opinion/article/
1199574/chinas-
deadly-water-problem
\
www.latintimes.com/
water-mexico-safe-
drink-tourists-told-
drink-mexico-city-
147764

Develop Mini debate

analytical Should bottled water be banned? Learners divided into 2
thinking and groups
argumentativ Split the class into two halves, and assign each to one side of the
e writing debate (ban, do not ban). Please include grade
(2 Offer class time for each team to research whether or not a ban 9/10 too.
continuous on bottled water would be beneficial.
sessions) As they research, ask learners to complete a table with the
following headings: Borrow an adjacent
Your opponent might say; session. Include
Your initial response; teachers
Proof to support refutation
That way, they can keep track of potentially opposing views, and
problem-solve ways to respond to these with proof from their
research.
Using a debate timetable, allow the sides to present their research
in a modified debate format.
Determine the speaker just before the round starts. Allow the
team to ‘rally’ around the speaker to prepare them accordingly.
Consider including an audience task such as tracking each

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 speaker’s reasons and evidence.
Debate follow-up: When the two sides have finished debating the
issue, reflect on the points and evidence raised by recording ideas
in a classwide T-chart
Elements of Understanding arguments and recognising weaknesses in Pg no. 122
an argument arguments.
( 2 sessions)
The teacher will write a couple of sentences on the board and the
Learners will discuss what is illogical or unfair about each of them.

The teacher will ask the students to state the difference between
An arguing and explaining.
argumentativ
e approach
to writing The teacher will discuss terms like tone, thesis statement
development
The students will read four extracts from the coursebook and
discuss if the purpose is to explain or argue.

Counterargu- The teacher will ask the students what they think is counter- Pg no. 128
mentation argumentation. She will then introduce the topic with a lot of
examples. Black board
Ways to write a counterargument

Analyzing the source of information (RAVEN)

Students practice organising point-counterpoint statements by

creating eight or more generic counterargument sentences.
TREE of Pg no. 132
reasoning Why tree?
What does TREE stand for?
I will help the students guess and then ask them to think which
part of the tree takes thesis, evidence, and conclusion.
Students make a large poster to demonstrate how the elements of
an argument are very similar to Tree.
Homework : Activity 13 from the coursebook

Students watch a video by Marcel Dick http://www.ted.com/

( 2 sessions) Create a set of two-column notes. talks/
In the left-hand column, learners list the various elements of an marcel_dicke_why_not
argument. _eat_insects
Next to each, in the right-hand column, work with learners to fill in
information from the talk that fulfils these elements.
Using their notes, learners work in groups to create a ‘Tree of
Reasoning’ to reflect the line of reasoning contained in Dick’s
arguments.
Pairs design any tree of their choice (deciduous, evergreen, palm,
bonsai, etc.), and ‘grow’ the argument about eating bugs by
plugging the component parts into the picture.

Class to share their observations regarding the argument’s

strength.

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Toulmin
model The teacher will introduce the topic.
Pg no. 134
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/
historical_perspectives_on_argumentation/toulmin_argument.html

Razing’ an argument
In this activity, learners deconstruct an argument they wrote at the
start of this unit regarding whether or not bottled water should be
banned.
Using several different highlighters, learners colour-code the
various elements of their argument. This process of ‘razing’ the
argument they previously ‘grew’ will help them gain an awareness
of
how they approach the critical/argumentative writing process.

Based on what they are missing, learners revise their essay in

order to strengthen their critical/argumentative approach.
Critical/
Argumentati The learners watch two videos.
ve appeals Argument 1
and logical • Watch Jamie Oliver’s talk, ‘Teach Every Child about Food’. https://
fallacies Hailed as one of the most convincing arguments, challenge your yourlogicalfallacyis.co
learners to figure out why. m/
• Specifically, have learners consider Oliver’s audience: Who are
they? What assumptions does Oliver have about them? What https://www.ted.com/
tactics does he use to reach them? Why do these work? talks/jamie_oliver
• Introduce learners to the critical/argumentative appeals of logos,
pathos, ethos, and Kairos. Learners should pinpoint instances from https://www.ted.com/
his speech where these appeals surface. talks/
Argument 2 ann_cooper_talks_sch
• Watch Ann Cooper’s talk, ‘What’s Wrong with School Lunches?’ ool_lunches
which features several logical fallacies.
Ask learners to explain what they notice about her approach to
convincing the audience. Specifically, what does she assume
about them? Their values?
How does she go about convincing them? When do her tactics
work and when do they appear weak?
When they’ve made these observations on their own terms,
introduce learners to the more formal names of some of the
common fallacies.

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