Day 17 Communication (Thesis Statements)

The instructor will place the two following paragraphs on the white board.

A good breakfast is an important part of a productive day. studies have shown that people who skip breakfast aren't as productive as those who eat well. A good breakfast doesn't have to be bacon and eggs. Fruit, cereal, or even a cheese sandwich can make a wholesome breakfast.

Do you sometimes feel a rumbling in your stomach when you first get to school or work? How does it affect you? Studies show that those people who don't eat a healthy breakfast aren't as productive as those who do. To have a productive day, it is important to have a good, productive breakfast.

The paragraphs will be read as a class and the thesis statements (bolded) will be identified. The structures of the two paragraphs will be contrasted, and the students will be lead to discover that the 1st paragraph states its main idea and then backs up the information, while the second paragraph leads the reader to the main idea. Neither paragraph is better than the other, just a different style.

Students will then be given page 89 and 90 from Empowering the Learner 2, and do the exercises where they read a paragraph and underline the main idea. Some of these thesis statements are the first sentence, some the last, and some are in the middle.

Students will then write two paragraphs, about the same topic, one where the thesis statement is the first paragraph, the other being in the middle or the last sentence. Students will then orally compare and contrast their two paragraphs.

Students will then be givem page 90 and 91 and aasked to repeat the ativity of finding the main idea of paragraphs. They will then complete the sentence: 'Time goes by most quickly for me when I am...', and then write a paragraph using that sentence as a thesis statement.