EnageNY, Grade 6, Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 12: In Which We Keep Discussing the Hero's Journey and Compare It to the Original Text

It's like we're doing the same thing! Before we were competing the stages of the hero's journey to The Lightning Thief and writing that on a worksheet. Now we're turning that into an essay.

The one thing I like about this assignment is the checklist. We've seen them earlier, but this is a good idea for writing. Sometimes kids get too focused on one aspect of writing a piece they can neglect other critical parts.

Read the criteria below. Read your partner’s paragraph, keeping this checklist in mind. If your partner meets the criteria, place a √. If your partner needs to revise this because they did not meet the criteria, place a X.

Criteria Checklist:

Did your writing partner ...

_____ begin your paragraph with a topic sentence that makes a claim?

_____ use evidence from The Lightning Thief that supports their claim?

_____ use evidence from “The Hero’s Journey” that supports their claim?

_____ make it clear how the quotes are connected?

_____ close the paragraph with a clear concluding statement? 

Not the worst thing in the world. Of course, the whole thing is designed to help kids write good responses for state tests. This isn't about creating good writers at all but good test takers. However, this is something I can steal for my own lessons on essay writing.