Title of Lesson: Attention-Getting Techniques for Introductions

I. CCSS met:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.1
Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.10
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and
shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks,
purposes, and audiences.

II. Best practice teaching methods employed:

 Social, collaborative activities with much discussion and interaction
o In Act 1 students are listening to the teacher explain the techniques but also
annotating the examples and answering the teacher’s questions
o In Act 2 students are working together to fill out the Introductory Paragraph
Activity followed by a whole-class discussion
o In Act 3 students are writing their own introductory paragraphs by working alone
or in pairs

III. Learning objectives/goals:

Students will be able to recognize the different techniques used for introduction
paragraphs in informational writing.

Students will be able to distinguish between a strong and weak opening sentence.

Students will be able to identify all the different parts of an introduction paragraph.

IV. Context of lesson: This lesson presents writing introductory paragraphs by using five
different techniques. After being familiarized with the techniques, the students will try writing
their introductions using an article they annotated the day before. The next day’s lesson will have
students go back over their introductions they wrote, using a writing checklist that was
introduced to them at the beginning of the unit. At the end of the unit, the students will have to
write their own informational papers.

V. Assessments: Formative assessment throughout the entire lesson based on students’

participation when answering questions that are asked during Acts 1 and 2. Students will
complete an introductory paragraph activity to show their understanding of the lesson. The
activity will be assessed by the students’ discussion (staying appropriate to the task at hand—
determining the language of the author).

VI. Overview of the lesson:

Act 1: The teacher will present to the students the different types of introductory paragraph
techniques. As a class, we will first discuss the importance of first impressions as a way to tap
into the student’s preconceptions. This will then segue into how the introductory paragraph is the
reader’s way to determine the rest of the paper. Next, the teacher will go over a worksheet titled
“Attention-Getting Techniques” that is the main focus of this activity. The teacher will address
and explain each of the five techniques of writing an introductory paragraph by reading aloud
sentences from the example paragraphs and telling students what they should highlight or
underline. The teacher will ask students why that specific technique works in the example as a
way to check for their understanding.

Act 2: Now that the students are familiar with the five techniques, they will complete an
“Introductory Paragraph Activity.” There are four different example introductions. The students
will need to fill in a chart on which technique is used in the introduction and then give each
paragraph an IDEAS score (a scale of 1-4 with 1 being not proficient and 4 being completely
proficient. The students’ own grades are based on this scale so they are familiar with the
ranking). The students can work together in pairs to figure out the types and scores for the
paragraphs. After five minutes, the teacher will have a whole-class discussion on the type and
score for the examples, asking the students to say why it is each type and explain why they gave
each paragraph received the score that it did.

Act 3: The students now have had practice with identifying and explaining introductory
paragraphs. Next, they will have the chance to write their own introductions. As a class they will
come up with a claim for their introduction using the article they annotated the day before,
“Anti-Gaming Groups Fund Study on Violent Gaming’s Changes in Brain Activity” by Jason
Mick. They can choose on their own or in pairs which of the five techniques they want to use to
start their introductions. For the rest of the paragraph, they will use other information from the
article to fill in the background and forecast the reasoning for the claim, which will be the last
sentence. The students write these paragraphs in their class notebooks so the teacher will have
access to them to check if the students are ready to move on the following day.

Sources
Calkins, Lucy. Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing, Grades 6-8. N.p.:
FirstHand: Heinemann, 201r. N. pag. Print.
Mick, Jason. "Anti-Gaming Groups Fund Study on Violent Gaming's Changes in Brain
Activity." DailyTech. DailyTech, 5 Dec. 2011. Web.