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At a Glance
Students will: ü choose one of the paragraphs and rewrite it in complete sentences
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Purpose: Study in sentence structure, vocabulary, imagery, and paragraph structure Materials: copies of extract for each student
Preparation: minimal – make copies Time: one to two periods, depending on student levels |
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Teacher’s Notes |
Procedure The combination of structure on both the sentence and paragraph levels, as well as the challenging vocabulary, will help students improve their descriptive writing skills. 1. Distribute the first two paragraphs of Dickens' "Bleak House" to students and have them read the paragraphs. 2. Divide students into small groups and have them work together to look up meanings of unknown vocabulary. 3. Ask students to analyze the sentence structure and the images used in their groups and then discuss their ideas as a class. 4. Have students then analyze the paragraph structure and come up with reasons as to why Dickens has chosen to write using this style (hint: very visual style of writing, gives a first visual impression like the introduction to a movie). Discuss these ideas as a class. 5. In their groups, ask students to choose one of the paragraphs to rewrite. Thomas writes, "All the sentences are fragments, and the simplest way to change them is with "to be" verbs, but I suggest that they also consider action verbs to turn the fragments into complete sentences." 6. Have students who have re-written the same paragraph pair up with another student from a different group and ask them to compare their versions of that paragraph. |
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