This is Day 2 of a two lesson on writing an opinion essay about the themes in the book Bud, Not Buddy. (Click here to view Day 1 lesson). On yesterday, we completed a four square graphic organizer and wrote a first draft about examining the themes in the book Bud, Not Buddy and examining the author's approach to growing up. To begin today's lesson, I review the writing prompt I have displayed on the SmartBoard and I take a few minutes to call on a few students to share their introductory paragraphs.
Now that my students' appetites have been wet as they heard some of their peers introductory paragraphs, I tell them they will now take a deep dive into the entire essay of one of their classmates. I explain to them that during peer review they are given the opportunity to read the essay of one of your classmates and give feedback using the peer review form I provide to them. I read one student's essay and model how they should provide peer feedback. I make some intentional errors and am proud when some of my students correct me. This shows their thorough understanding of not only content, but conventions such as grammar, as well.
Now is my students' opportunity to make revisions and edit each other's papers. I allow them to use a dictionary to check for correct spellings and to review suggested revisions on their Peer Reviewer's checklist. The revisions and editing phase of the lesson is a prime opportunity for my scholars to take ownership of their own learning. They like this portion of the lesson because it allows them some autonomy to share their own ideas about their classmates' writings.
Now that we've completed the pre-writing, drafting, peer review, revising, and editing phases of the writing process, we come to the close of the lesson. For homework, I ask my scholars to complete the publishing phase of the writing process by writing their final draft to submit to me as the culminating writing activity for our unit on the complex text Bud, Not Buddy. I also provide them a copy of the scoring rubric (see attached resource) and answer any questions they have.