Alphasmart NEO 2 User Manual page 96

W O ! L
R I T E N E S S O N S F O R
Write On! Lesson Categories and Teaching Supplements
The Process
of Writing
(continued)
Writing
Skills
86
N E O
2_Middle School (Continued)
Moral Students are provided with several moral dilemmas.
Dilemmas I Prewrite activities lead student writing groups through
a brainstorm of ideas and thoughts about each dilemma,
further analysis and refinement, and the writing of a
position statement or statements. Then each student
writes an essay supporting their chosen position and
stating their personal feelings on the issue. Students
carry their essays through first draft, peer review, and
final proofreading. Through healthy discussion and
debate on these issues, students can learn a lot about
themselves and their values as well as gain practice in
group discussion and decision-making and in writing
expository essays on relevant issues.
Observe and Students develop descriptive skills through observing
Describe and describing, drawing on experience, noticing details,
selecting details, using the five senses, and describing
objects and events. The process of description is one of
the most effective ways for students to learn
observation, style, and tone. Writing descriptions may
be the first stage in overcoming reluctance to write.
Paragraphs to Files in Paragraphs to Essays Level II give practice in
Essays Level writing paragraphs that exhibit a strong topic sentence,
II supporting details, and a summary sentence. Specific
strategies include idea generating by clustering,
narrowing a topic that's too broad, ordering, adding
supporting details, and linking sentences. In addition,
students review different types of writing: descriptive,
expository, narrative, and persuasive. Files are arranged
so that students begin working with topic sentences.
However, files may be used in any order for
reinforcement of skills already taught.
Sentence Students read delightful fables by Aesop, decide what
Combining the morals are, and try their own hand at reconstructing
with a Moral sentences from the fables. They learn to recognize
overstuffed and skinny sentences and revise them for
sleekness by applying the principles of sentence
combining. Learning to write better sentences is what
sentence combining is all about. Writing with a word
processor (such as an AlphaSmart device) is a natural fit
with this editing approach to learning; word processing
features allow students to manipulate sentences freely,
making any changes they want to easily.
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