| P: Presentation | The Pre-Activity
activates the students' background knowledge about the topic of
Facebook and an editorial by asking them questions about it and
having them write their thoughts. Authentic text: Editorial 7.5 Million Kids on Facebook Are At Risk. By having the students read this, it represents the whole language being presented. The text foreshadows a future grammar conversation, the grammatical features are well-represented in the text and used meaningfully throughout the editorial. There are naturally occurring repetitions because certain grammatical features occur in the story. |
| A: Attention | Authentic text: 7.5 Million Kids on Facebook Are At Risk
(highlighted text). The purpose of the highlighted text is to expose
students to written and structured input and text analysis, to help
students develop awareness and sensitivity to form, and to help make
the students aware of certain grammatical features that occur in
editorials. Questions are asked at the bottom of the page to help the
students find patterns in the text. Vocabulary words are provided in a glossary where the students can click on the word, read the definition of what it means, and listen to the recorded pronunciation. |
| C: Co-Construct | Students practice the two most common grammatical features in editorials: nouns and adjectives.
In these grammar exercises, the students gain control of nouns and
adjectives and learn how to use them when writing an editorial because
all of the sentences were taken from other editorials. In addition,
students co-construct the grammar
explanation by discovering the underlying patterns and consistent forms
found in editorials. Here, the students are able to demonstrate their
understanding about the form, meaning, and function of the new
features. The purpose of these exercises is to promote students'
awareness about the grammatical structure of nouns and adjectives, to
lead students to discover the meaning and function of nouns and
adjectives as used in the editorial, and to have the students generate
output and receive feedback. Guided Writing Activity: In this exercise, students are given guided practice in writing informational sentences for an editorial. They must complete the sentences by creating their own while using the grammatical features that were practiced and focused on previously. |
| E: Extension | The Writing Activity:
This gives the students the opportunity to apply the writing strategies
and grammatical features they learned throughout the lesson, write a
thesis statement, select quotes and evidence to support their argument,
and assemble all the information into an editorial. In addition, the
writing portion allows the students to be creative on a topic they know
about and can share with others. The students can use the brainstorming outline to get them started if they do not know how to start their editorial. When they are finished, they can refer to the checklist to make sure they included all the requirements before submitting their work. |