Week 8 of The Great TWSS Adventure: Unit 8


Aug 02, 2021 | Posted by the IEW Blog Team

If you are participating in this year’s Great TWSS Adventure, this week you will be encountering formal essay models. The essay is the goal for formal writing. Units 4 and 6 have provided the scaffolding so that by the time students reach this unit, they are equipped to dive in. There are many different essay types: expository, narrative, argumentative, persuasive, and compare and contrast, just to name a few. Unit 8 provides a model so that students can tackle all of these with confidence.

In Unit 4 students learned to “some-a-rize” facts from a single source. They then expand upon that skill in Unit 6, where they begin to pull facts from multiple source texts. Starting in Unit 8, students learn how to add a conclusion and introduction to their body paragraphs to generate a complete essay. Documentation skills are also taught when appropriate to the lesson. It’s a rewarding unit for teacher and student alike, to be able to see all of the work synthesize the various parts into a whole.

What types of assignments might a student encounter in this Unit 8? An example at the B level can be found in Structure and Style for Students Level 1B in Lesson 21, where students write a 5-paragraph essay related to Oceania. Level C students taking Advanced U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons will encounter a Unit 8 persuasive essay assignment in Lesson 30 on a controversial subject of their choosing.

For our intrepid adventurers, your homework for the week is provided below:

  • Watch Video 8 all the way through (85 minutes).

  • Read pages 125‒146 in your Seminar Workbook.

  • Complete the practicum assignment:

    • Assemble a 5-paragraph essay using the paragraphs written in Units 2, 4, and 6.

    • Include the completed outline on page 144 and a correctly formatted bibliography. Note, you will likely need to revise the body paragraphs of the essay to meet the requirements of the checklist on page 145.

If you missed the Facebook Live event on Monday, you can catch the recording at this link. This year’s Great TWSS Adventure is nearly at a close. There’s only one more week to journey together. During that final week we will encounter Unit 9: the Formal Critique. See you then!

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