Essay Writing Lesson, Activity Year-Long BUNDLE: 5-Paragraph Essay Writing Unit

Unlock Your Students' Writing Potential: The Ultimate Essay Writing Program for Middle and High Schoolers on TpT! This newly REVISED Bestseller Essay Architect Writing System BUNDLE is chock-full with everything you need to teach a complete 5-paragraph essay. Students will learn everything about writing a great essay, from the essential structure, organization, and terminology of the essay to in-depth practice on the elements of the essay, to reviewing and peer-editing model and non-model essays, to learning the specifics of how to write and organize each type of essay, to polishing the essay in its final stages -- step-by-step. Enough material for a year-long writing program!

Includes both PRINTABLE and DIGITAL VERSIONS for Distance Learning and In-Person Classrooms. SAVE nearly 40% by purchasing the entire Essay Architect Bundle!

Do your students struggle with writing more than one or two paragraphs for an essay? Are your students confused about the different types of essays and how to tackle the nuances of each? Are you exhausted and frustrated having to grade essays that show little growth? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then this BESTSELLING Essay Architect Writing System is right for you!

Students can learn and practice every step of the process before actually writing an essay and learn how to evaluate and assess other essays to recognize high-quality, well-written essays and poorly written, weak writing. Best of all, we have included an in-depth study of each type of essay, including essay-specific organizers, prompts, notes, peer-editing checklists, and rubrics for Persuasive/Argumentative, Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast, Descriptive, Informative/Explanatory, Reflective, and Response to Literature Essays.

This Essay Architect Writing System is perfect for grade-level middle school and struggling high school students who cannot write more than one or two paragraphs at a time. This program best helps those students who can write at least one paragraph in response to an essay prompt.***

***For those students who struggle with sentence structure and basic writing skills, see the first book in this series, our Essay Apprentice Writing System (Rated 4.0)***

Here's what one teacher said: This unit was absolutely one of the best investments I made last year as a new English teacher. I recommend this unit to ALL of my English teacher friends. Teaches writing in a way kids truly understand. Thank you! - Nicole B.

HOW TO USE THIS SYSTEM: (more details given in Teacher Notes and Sample Agenda)

PART ONE: PREPARING TO WRITE (1-3 WEEKS)

In this crucial first step, students are introduced to the basic terminology and

essay structure they will be working with during this entire program. It is

important that students become familiar with these terms and that they feel

confident with the basic “skeleton” of the essay to move beyond into

the actual construction of the five-paragraph essay.

For Part ONE, you'll need the folder labeled:

Essay Terms and Essay Structure Graphic Organizers with Quiz, Style Guide

which includes:

Teacher Notes

Glossary of Essay Writing Terminology

Essay Writing Terminology Blank

Sample Student Essay

Five-Paragraph Essay Structure Graphic Organizer

Essay Structure Graphic Organizer blank

Quiz on Essay Terminology and Structure

General Essay Organizer Graphic Organizer

General Essay Style Guide Student Checklist

General Essay Rubric

PART TWO: PRACTICING THE BASICS (3-6 WEEKS)

After preparation, students must practice the skills of good writing, step by step.

By practicing these essential elements, implementation of these concepts will

become second nature, liberating students to be able to eventually shape and

polish their essays with great ideas.

For Part TWO, you'll need the folder labeled:

Teaching the Essay Writing Process - Essay Writing Basics Resource BUNDLE, which includes:

Writing Effective Essay Titles

Writing Power-Packed Grabbers

Writing Focus Statements

Writing Thesis Statements for Essays

Writing Topic Sentences

Writing Powerful Challenges

Author's Purpose Worksheets

Reading an Essay Prompt Lesson

Using Appropriate Tone in Writing

Writing Short Response Answers and Answering Essay Questions

PART THREE: PIECING THE ESSAY TOGETHER (1-2 WEEKS)

This optional section is to help students take what they learned in Parts 1 and 2

and piece an essay together using their skills. This fun activity helps students

realize how much they have learned as they put their knowledge into practice.

For Part THREE, you'll need the folder labeled:

Scrambled Essay Activities - Essay Structure and Organization Practice

which includes:

Teacher Notes & Preparation Instructions

3 Different Scrambled 5-paragraph essays of varying difficulty levels

"Piecing and Essay Together" Graphic Organizers for all three essays

Completed (Unscrambled) Graphic Organizers for review for all three essays

Complete Product - the full 5-paragraph essay for all three essays

PART FOUR: EVALUATING ESSAYS (1-6 WEEKS)

Emphasis has been placed on the process of peer editing so that students can

actively learn from each other’s mistakes and become the “experts” in this

process. Students have the opportunity to read and evaluate "real" student

essays (deliberately created with both good and poor writing, grammar,

spelling, structure, etc.) to put their newly acquired skills and

confidence to the test. It is strongly believed that the more students can

recognize these elements in others’ writing, the better they will be at

recognizing and using (or avoiding) these elements in their own writing.

For Part FOUR, you'll need the folder labeled:

Evaluating Essays and Peer Editing Checklist System

which includes:

Teacher's Notes

Peer-Editing Instructions

Evaluating Essays handout and checklist

General Essay Rubric

Sample Essay for whole-class evaluation

Peer-Editing Checklist with sample evaluation of Sample Essay

Sample Essay Evaluation with sample edits/marks

Sample Essay Rubric with sample evaluation

Blank Peer Editing Checklist

6 Sample Student Essays (Argumentative/Persuasive, Cause/Effect,

Compare/Contrast, Narrative, Informative/Explanatory, Reflective)

PART FIVE: LEARNING SPECIFIC ESSAY TYPES (16-32 WEEKS)

An in-depth study of Persuasive Essays, Argumentative Essays, Cause and Effect

Essays, Compare and Contrast Essays, Descriptive Essays, Informative/Explanatory Essays, Reflective Essays, and Response to Literature

Essays have been included in this system.

Each Essay Unit includes unique and essay-specific organizers, prompts, notes,

peer-editing checklists, rubrics, essay prompts, and model and non-model

student essays for evaluation. Take the time to recognize the similarities and differences between each type of essay, which will help students tackle state and local assessments and class assignments with these valuable handouts and activities.

Once students are completely familiar and comfortable with the general essay

structure and terms and are feeling more confident that they have a sense of

what a good essay looks like, it is time to learn the differences between the

types of essays.

You may tackle this section two ways: either you can teach all the essay types in

succession, or you can teach the different types of essays as students are

required to learn them, i.e. in preparation for benchmark exams or before state

testing.

If you decide to teach all the essays in succession, be sure to take the time to

review the differences right before an exam. The program is effective either

way.

For Part FIVE, you'll need the folders labeled:

Argumentative/Persuasive Essays BUNDLE

Cause/Effect Essays BUNDLE

Compare/Contrast Essays BUNDLE

Descriptive Essays BUNDLE

Informative/Explanatory Essays BUNDLE

Reflective Essays BUNDLE

Response to Literature Essays BUNDLE

Teaching each of these types of essays will take approximately 2-4 weeks. For each essay, follow the instructions and teacher notes included in each bundle.

PART SIX: POLISH (ADDITIONAL 3-4 DAYS PER ESSAY)

The process of polishing is like putting the icing on the cake. You have been

provided with numerous resources that will help students repair and improve

their essays through the use of bridges (transitions), improved word choice,

more active verbs, more powerful details and examples, and more. Once students have completed the process of polishing their essays, they will

have a well-written, well-structured final product.

You may want to focus on one particular aspect per essay unit to not

overwhelm students. For example, focus only on improving word choice

with the Show Don't Tell activity and Vivid Verbs with your unit on Descriptive

Essays Unit. Or focus on tone with the Argumentative/Persuasive Essay Unit

by having students complete Using Appropriate Tone in Writing and improving

the tone of their essay with the Identifying Tone Lesson Handout & Word Lists

for Tone and Mood.

At the end of each specific essay unit, the final step will be for you to evaluate

and score the essay using either the essay-specific rubric provided for you in

this system. Repeat this process for each specific essay unit.

For Part SIX, look for the folder labeled

Writing Resource BUNDLE: Writing Activities, Lessons, Resources

which includes:

100 Words to Avoid PLUS Over 400 Synonyms to Improve Word Choice

Character Traits List

Commonly Confused Words List

Frequently Misspelled Words List

Reading an Essay Prompt Lesson

Show Don't Tell

Transition Words & Phrases

Understanding Idioms and Expressions

Using a Dictionary

Using a Thesaurus

Verbs List

SENSORY and COLOR Synonyms Words List

Using Appropriate Tone in Writing

Identifying Tone Lesson Handout & Word Lists for Tone and Mood

Heather R. said: Wow! I did not realize how much I needed this resource until I downloaded it and started using it. My students are well below grade level on writing, and your materials provided the structure and format I needed to take their writing to the next level. Previous resources have felt all over the place and inconsistent. I love how you use a consistent format, so that the students can learn it once and apply it to different types of essays. Thank you for your hard work on putting these materials together to share with us!

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