Activity
The students will need copies of The “OP Pesticides in Children’s Bodies The Effects of a Conventional versus Organic Diet article:
1. Before the students actually begin writing the essay, they need to be taken through a prewriting exercise. In this exercise, the students will need to discover elements that can be compared and contrasted between organic food versus conventional food. Elements they may compare and contrast might be fresh food verse processed foods. This includes fruits and vegetables for fresh foods and canned food and frozen vegetables for the processed foods. The best way to conduct this exercise is to use a Venn diagram. The Venn diagram might look something like this:
In cell A, the students would list the examples that are specific to costs and benefits of organic food. In cell B, the students would list the examples of . In cell C, the students would list the similarities between the two pieces of writings.
2. After the prewriting exercise, the students would then write their first draft. However, the format for a comparison contrast essay must first be taught. The comparison contrast essay comes in many forms, but the format that works best for this assignments is as follows:
- Introductions
- Topic sentence
- Background information on topic
- Thesis—stating the three items that will be discussed
- Body Paragraph/Topic 1
- Similarities
- of organic food
- versus conventional food
- Differences
- of organic food
- versus conventional food
- Concluding thoughts/ clincher/analysis
- Body Paragraph/Topic 2
- Similarities
- of organic food
- versus conventional food
- Differences
- of organic food
- versus conventional food
- Concluding thoughts/clincher/analysis
- Body Paragraph/Topic 3
- Similarities
- of organic food
- versus conventional food
- Differences
- of organic food
- versus conventional food
- Concluding thoughts/clincher/analysis
- Conclusion
- Restate thesis
- Summarize main points
- Final thought
3. Before the students write their first draft, it would helpful for them to outline their essay, detailing every element that they will cover. After they outline their essay, they can then draft their essay. This process should be easier now that the essay is completely outlined.
4. The next process is an editing phase. The teacher may wish to edit the papers or to conduct a peer editing session. Whatever the process, the editing phase needs to highlight mechanical errors, as well as fluidity of thought.
5. After the editing phase, the final drafts need to be composed. Generally, final drafts are typed, follow MLA format and are free of errors.
The students will turn in their essays. A rubric should be used to assess this essay. See handout 1.
Homework
Students can read and write as class work or homework. |
