Recap!
- Why I’m creating a Teen Essay Writing Guide for my two high schoolers.
- It’s based on the assumption you own and finished Brave Writer’s Help for High School curriculum. Lots of its pages are referenced throughout my guide. If you haven’t used H4HS, it won’t make sense.
- This was my answer to what to do after Help for High School.
- Post #1: Topic Selection
- Post #2: Brainstorming
- Post #3: Freewriting
- Post #4: Working Thesis & Outline
- Post #5: Research
We’re getting there, you guys! Just drafting and revision/edits after this. And then party time. This refined thesis section is a little one-class event. Much needed after that long stint researching, right?
Now that the research is done, we shape that final thesis statement. I hold off until now to write an essay-worthy thesis statement. It turns out my teens would discover information in their research that gave them more nuanced views of their argument. Which is good! That’s what we want. But that meant we’d end up revising their previously thought-out thesis statements. So why spend a lot of effort crafting one in the earlier stages? I mean, if I want to waste time and effort, I’ll eat an entire Lindt sea salt chocolate bar after my forty-five minute run. I won’t make any progress losing weight, but damn it will taste good. You know what doesn’t taste good? Paper with a wasted thesis statement on it.
In the notes are tips, methods (a short freewrite response!) and resources (Help for High School page numbers! They Say/I Say chapter!) to help craft their final thesis statement. No additional teacher notes with this one either.
Just two more stages. And because I love my Type A Brave Writer sisters, I also typed up a pacing guide for how many days on average I spend in each stage. I’ll post that at the end of this series.
Heather
