We recently finished our first unit on persuasive writing. Students read a sample essay
called "Shooting an Elephant" by Orwell and had to discern the lines of logic he posed.
After breaking down the language, students then had to consider the moral and ethical
issues related to shooting such an animal. After taking a particular stance, students
crafted their essay using various techniques of persuasion.
As a transitional piece, we took time out to create a vocabulary story. This afforded
students an opportunity to stretch their minds in various ways. The creative writing
pieces were of science fiction, fantasy, childhood stories, humor and the list goes on.
They were thoroughly enjoyable.
In our recent workshop sessions, we have been focusing on word choice and voice.
Students had to consider their purpose for writing as well as their intended audience to
see such effects of language. To further demonstrate how essential audience and
purpose is writing, students created an advertisement using connotations, denotations,
and tone. These exercises were pre-writing techniques for unit 2: The Definition Essay.
To prepare for this essay, aside from our workshop sessions, we read four model
essays--each with different modes of discourse. We then workshopped possible ideas
through a process called graffiti. Now we are in the early phases of drafting the essay.
With kind regards,
Mrs. Greer
Mrs. Greer
tgreer@acsamman.edu.jo
