Writing - Robbinsville Public School District

Fourth Grade
PHASE OF THE
WRITING
PROCESS
COLLECTING CHOOSING DEVELOPING DRAFTING REVISING EDITING PUBLISHING
AND
CELEBRATING
9. Essayists develop a thesis by writing the different
reasons for an idea using the “box and bullets”
strategy. They write a thesis statement about their
chosen topic in a box. Underneath the box, they
write their reasons in a bulleted list.
Reading is magical because…
Reason 1: books let me travel to far
away places.
Reason 2: stories take my mind off of
problems in my life.
Reason 3: I can learn about so many
different topics.
Use Lesson from previous year “draft thesis and
reasons”
1/5/11
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11. Essayists develop their thesis statement by
identifying other types of evidence to support their
reasons using mentor text.
-list
-quote
-mini-story
-outside source
10. Essayists develop their thesis by writing about
different times or instances (mini-stories) that
support their reasons.
Reason 1:
Books let me travel to far away places
-Small moment 1: One time I read the book,
Out of the Dust, which took place in the
mid-west during the dust bowl.
-Small Moment 2: Another time I read a
Percy Jackson book that took place in a
mystical world.
-Small Moment 3: Another time my teacher
read us an ancient Chinese fable and I heard
all about what it was like in China a long
time ago.
New lesson: Donna and Stacey Cappuzello 1/6/
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12. Essayists frame their essays and determine
whether they have enough evidence to proceed
with the chosen thesis by using a graphic
organizer.
ML
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13. Essayists frame and organize their essays by
setting up folders:
writing their thesis statement on the front of a
colored outer folder
drafting reasons to support their thesis (topic
sentences) along the top of each of three folders
setting each of the topic-sentence folders inside
the thesis folder
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14. Day 1: Essayists write mini-stories to support
their reasons (remembering what they know
about writing small moment stories)
make a movie of how the story unfolded
highlight one significant idea
remember it needs to be a tiny story
They place the mini-story in the folder with the
corresponding topic sentence.
Robbinsville School District page 40