Today Hudson wrote a how-to essay outline after we discussed lesson 3.2 Paragraphs in Essays and Other Compositions in the Prentice Hall 8th Grade Writing and Grammar textbook. We read and discussed the main parts of a 5-paragraph essay: introduction, thesis statement, lead/hook, body paragraphs and conclusion. We discussed that the introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion can be thought of like a hamburger. The top and bottom bun are like the intro and conclusion, and the middle part (patty, cheese and tomato) are like the body paragraphs. We also discussed how the conclusion is like a mirror-image of the introduction. The conclusion restates the thesis statement in the intro, but using fresh verbiage. Hudson also said the conclusion is like a mirror-image because you provide a reflection of what you discussed in the body paragraphs.

Hudson wrote an essay outline following a model I provided.

In the last 7 minutes of class, we moved onto grammar lesson 21.4 in the Prentice Hall on Avoiding Sentence Problems. We discussed what fragments and run-on sentences are, then read a description of fragments and some examples. We discussed which grammatical component was missing from each of the fragment examples (subject, verb, subject and verb).