Resource: Planning supporting points for thesis
Three things essayists consider when they collect their supporting points/reasons:
- Do the reasons support the claim?
- Do I have enough information to support my reasons?
- Are the reasons different enough?
Organizing the essay – Building support for the claim
My claim: Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends.
Supporting Points:
- Middle school students should not have homework on the weekendsbecause after a full week of school and homework they need time to recharge and get ready for the next week.
- Middle school students should not have homework on the weekendsbecause they need time to distress after a full week of academics.
- Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because many kids have extra-curricular activities like sports, playing an instrument, dance, or scouting and the weekend should be time when they can focus on these activities.
- Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because kids need time to spend with their families reconnecting after a busy week of work and school.
- Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because they need time to socialize and hang out with friends.
- Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because kids need time to develop their outside interests like reading and other hobbies.
Class claim: We’ve noticed that many people stick to routines, but we’re starting to realize that it is important to take risks.
Supporting Points:
Resource:Ways to Gather Evidence
From Nancie Atwell, we’ve learned thereare a variety of ways to gather evidence when writing a non-narrative, informational piece. Some of these ways are listed below:
Facts: true, specific details from reliable sources such as newspapers, magazines, books, and trustworthy Internet databases
Statistics: numerical data that proves your point found in reliable sources such as newspapers, magazines, books, and trustworthy Internet databases (ex: percentages, etc.)
Examples: specific times that the issue has happened in the past or the author’s situation has been encountered before
Anecdotes: Small stories that show people experiencing the issue
Quotations: Statements made by others that tie to your claim or supporting points. They can be from famous people or people you know.
Personal Seed Stories: Seed stories from your life that show the problem
Observations: What you notice that actions of certain people affected by the problem are – pros and cons
Background: Information about the history of the problem
Theories of Why: Your theory about what has caused this problem and what is continuing it
Resource: One Example of Body Paragraphs Using Quotes
Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because many kids have extra-curricular activities like sports, playing an instrument, dance, or scouting and the weekend should be time when they can focus on these activities. After a week packed with school and busy weeknights with homework, students look forward to spending time on the athletic field, in dance class, or going on a camping trip with the scouts. Many experts feel that homework interferes with kids becoming well-rounded individuals who develop all kinds of interests. Alfie Kohn, a respected education expert says, “The negative effects of homework are well known. They include children’s frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities, and possible loss of interest in learning.” If students are free from homework on the weekends to spend time doing extra-curricular activities, they will come back to school on Monday ready to learn and reenergized.
Resource for Active Engagement Class Essay Quotes Body Paragraph:
Select one quote with your partner from this list to use in a body paragraph to prove one of the three supports for our class essay.
- Courageous risks are life-giving, they help you grow, make you brave, and better than you think you are. –Joan L. Curcio
- Do not be too timid and squeamish. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Don’t be afraid to take a big step. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. –David Lloyd George
- If you play it safe in life you’ve decided that you don’t want to grow anymore. –Shirley Hufstedler
- If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success. – John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe. – Harry Gray
- Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your feet on first. – Frederick Wilcox
- Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. – Mary Tyler Moore
- Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing taking. – Tim McMahon
- One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. – John W. Gardner
- -There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win. – Elie Wiesel
- -They who lose today may win tomorrow. – Cervantes (Don Quixote)
- To win without risk it to triumph without glory. –Pierre Corneille
- You can become a winner only if you are willing to walk over the edge. – Damon Runyon
- You can’t be a winner and be afraid to lose. –Charles Lynch
Note: These quotes are from the website
Resource: Sample Seed Story/Anecdote Body Paragraph
“Oh no,” I groaned as I opened my eyes to a sunny Saturday morning. “I wish it weren’t so nice out.” I muttered to myself. I knew I couldn’t hang out outside in my favorite spot, my family’s hammock slung between two oak trees in our back yard. I was exhausted from a full week of school and homework. But today was going to be another crazy day with a French project to complete, a math packet that was assigned the day before, and writing for twenty minutes in my writer’s notebook every day. This just didn’t seem right. This was one more time when I realized that middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because after a full week of school and homework we need time to recharge and get ready for the next week. I’ve heard from friends similar stories about missing important events because of homework on the weekends. My friend Sam recently had to miss his brother’s star performance in a school play because he had too much homework to do. He was disappointed, and so was his brother. Too often kids’ lives are overcomplicated because of homework on the weekends.
Resource: Sample paragraph using Stumbling Blocks/Opposing Sides
I realize that many teachers feel that there is too much curriculum that needs to be covered for kids to have the weekends free from homework. There is a tremendous amount of learning that needs to be accomplished each academic year. However, students would be able to work more efficiently and they would be more engaged if their weekends were free from homework. Many middle school students are even more exhausted on Monday mornings than they are on Fridays after a weekend spent doing homework, sports, socializing, and visiting family. Weekends should be free from homework so that on Monday when kids return to school they will be rested and ready to learn.
Resource: One Example of Body Paragraphs Using a Statistic
Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because they need time to distress after a full week of academics. Stress is very unhealthy for growing teens and statistics show that 29% of 13-year-old students report spending 2 hours or more on homework daily in the U.S. Kids need to have Saturday and Sunday free of the stress and worries of school. Young teens need an opportunity to recharge. A balanced life that includes time for relaxation is necessary to all people, but particularly for young teens that are going through many other stressful changes in their life. Kids have recently started middle school, which is a major change, and in addition they dealing with the difficulties of adolescent relationships, and they are trying to become more responsible and independent. Too many young people have too much homework and they need a break on the weekend.
Resource: One Example of Body Paragraphs Using Examples
Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends because they need time to socialize and hang out with friends. At my cousins’ school kids do not have homework on the weekend and they are able to spend the weekend socializing with their friends. When they call me and want to get together, I need to make sure I can see them and get to my homework. It is frustrating to hear that they are going to go roller skating on days when I am occupied by a math packet. The really frustrating thing is that my cousin Mary is doing great in school. She is a super star on her school’s math team and they recently went to a state competition where her score helped them win top place.
Resource:Essay Organization Sheet
My Thesis:
Supporting Point 1:
- Evidence 1 (Type and Explanation)
- Evidence 2 (Type and Explanation)
- Evidence 3 (Type and Explanation)
Support Point 2:
- Evidence 1 (Type and Explanation)
- Evidence 2 (Type and Explanation)
- Evidence 3 (Type and Explanation)
Supporting Point 3:
- Evidence 1 (Type and Explanation)
- Evidence 2 (Type and Explanation)
- Evidence 3 (Type and Explanation)
Resource: One Example of Body Paragraphs Giving Background
Middle school students should not have homework on the weekends. These same kids did just fine in elementary school where they did not have homework. In fact, some people might argue that kids learned more in elementary school. After all, that is where they learned to read, write, and do basic mathematics. Many kids show up in kindergarten not even knowing their alphabet and by the time they leave after fifth grade they sure have come a long way. If they can accomplish all this without doing homework on the weekends, it is not too difficult to understand the middle school kids can accomplish all that they are required to accomplish without the added pressure of doing school work every weekend. There are many kids right here at Diamond who report doing several hours of homework on both Saturday and Sunday. Others report that they don’t get enough sleep on the weekend because they are trying to pack in all of their homework along with their other responsibilities. Homework is a big problem in kids’ lives and it is time to make a t least one simple change. Homework on the weekend should be eliminated.