Teaching the Thesis

Teaching post today...

Today my students were assigned their first essay. We just finished the novel, "California Blue" by David Klass. This is their first essay in tenth grade English so I keep it less complex but maintain high expectations in regards to writing skills and formatting.

Teaching writing is what I am finding to be, as a new teacher, the hardest part of teaching. It is so hard to be excited and motivating when students have so many walls up when it comes to writing. Especially when it comes to coming up with the thesis.

The first thing I do is give them a handy worksheet that refreshes their memories about what a thesis, grabber and introduction contain. After some discussion and explanation on this(which includes reminding them of what thesis words are: because, since, due to, although, etc...), I begin a thesis that (secretly I've already thought through) they help me build. We build a thesis with this formula: THESIS WORD + SUBJECT + OPINION

For example: In spite of the fact that John is a quiet and shy boy, he manages to find his voice and stand up for the things he believes in.

I underline the parts with differnt colors on our white board. Now that they see this thesis, I have them help me write the beginning of an introduction paragraph in which they will introduce the three events in our story that support their claim. They have been logging events throughout our reading so they have a nice list with their own opinions already.

So, this is what I did today, three times over. All in all it went as well as teaching thesis writing can go. At the end of each class I ask them to be honest and share with me if this was helpful. The response I got was a positive one. I empower them to teach me while I teach them. In other words, I let them know that their ideas and opinions count. All in all, things are going well. I'll keep you posted on the "process".