Outlining

[1Togo]

Does anyone have a book of essays or some other type of resource with essays? I don't know if such a thing exists, but I am looking for something with well-written student essays. I want our daughter, 8th grade, to do outlining this year, but I don't want her to outline a textbook or anything like that. We use Cornell notes for textbook and lecture notes. In addition to teaching the skill of outlining, I want her to look at the ways a writer presents argument and support.

 

Btw, throughout our years of homeschooling and the paths we have travelled with writing, I have found finding student samples to be an issue. Depending on the curriculum, there may be an example (possible two), but for the most part, our children are writing in a vacuum. This is one area where I see an advantage to teaching a class. Lots of opportunities to see the work of other writers.

 

Thanks.

 

Bonita

[memphispeg]

I am using a book called "50 Essays - A portable Anthology" - Samuel Cohen . These are professional authors. It is recommended for rhetoric classes in hs and college. This may be a bit "mature" for an 8th grader. It has some nice little questions at the back of each essay to get started on the analysis. Also---You might look at some of the standardized test review books. They have student essays there.

[Myra]

Write Souce: A Book for Writing, Thinking, and Learning has tons of basic student writing samples. The book is divided into types of writing (essay, paragraph, narrative) then gives a short lesson, pre-writing activities, student samples, assignment, then a self grading-rubric. I have the grade 7 student book ISBN 0-669-50702-4-7 from Great Source Education Group that I've use for a reference for my kids.

 

Myra

[1Togo]

Thanks for the suggestions, especially the idea of essays from the prep books. I have many of them and don't know why I didn't think of them.

 

Bonita

[Janice H]

Speeches generally are not overly dense in content and tend to have obvious transition phrases, intros and conclusions. This helps students see the structure of the speech/essay and then to do the outline. Good speeches are available on almost any topic so you can find one that goes with the science, history, or literature era or topic of your choice.

 

For fans of limited government, Imprimus, the free newsletter from Hillsdale.edu is a good source. Famous historical speeches are free on the internet: Cicero, Lincoln, Cato, Shakespeare, etc. This anthology is often recommended: World's Greatest Speeches, edited by Copeland et al.

http://rainbowresource.com/product/World%92s+Great+Speeches/041466/1280346173-1169161