4 Steps: Phase I
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In Phase I, students write only one sentence for each writing requirement. This sentence is a Topic Summary (TS) in which only the basic questions are answered: Who? What? When? Where? How? (and Why? as an optional bonus). See the templates and examples below.
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What did you do today, and how was it?
indent —> Today, (insert today’s full date) __________________________, I (insert something you did) ___________________________________, and it was (insert how you liked doing what you did) ___________________________________________________________.
Example:
indent —>Today, September 11, 2010, I went to my grandparents’ house and watched a 9/11 Memorial Service on the television, and it was very sad.
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What did you do today, and how was it?
indent —>In (insert the title, the author, and the page numbers of the book you just read) ____________________________________________, (insert something the main character(s) did in the pages you read)________________________________, and it was (insert how you liked reading these pages) _______________________________.
Example:
indent —>In Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami, pages 301-351, Toru moved to a new house after he graduated which made Midori extremely angry, and it was not very interesting.
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Note: This writing assignment is based on the Jane Schaffer’s Writing Program which is a fantastic way to give new writers structure to their paragraphs and essays.
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© 2010 David Mach
Education Matters in Urban Schools 