Essay Model Project: While looking for ideas to teach writing, an ongoing quest for my humanities partner, Anne Cadigan and me, it was my good fortune to run across a 1997 article from English Journal by Linda Hecker entitled, Walking, Tinkertoys, and Legos: Using Movement and Manipulatives to Help Students Write. I even think that I had read the article before, yet this time it inspired me to try something new with my students in order to help them solidify their understandings of the five paragraph essay structure. Unleashing the creative power of my eighth graders and allowing students to express themselves in a modality other than writing, students had to create their own 3 D models of the essay using any materials available to them. Please enjoy their many different visions and their explanations. Sandra Cordes Vaughan, Humanities Instructor
Kyle Z. Humanities 3D Essay Model Explanation The Inner Workings of a Five Paragraph Essay My project is a model of a five paragraph essay that shows all necessary tools to write one. The base symbolizes all the resources I use to create an essay, and the framework shows the organization of the essay. There are seven planks surrounding the base, and there is a word on each plank. The meaning of the seven words is described as follows. The writers toolbox is a collection of literary devices used to induce a certain effect on the reader. Grammar, defined as a way of thinking about language, is the foundation and order of individual ideas. The MLA format, as shown in the MLA Handbook, is the standard way of formatting essays that we use. Logic and reason are the key behind any strong essay, and a good thesis uses the foundations of logic and reason to convey an argument. The acronym WETW stands for the book What English Teachers Want, a book that teaches students how to write essays well. I use this whenever I create an essay, and it has been invaluable to me. Vocabulary symbolizes the words that are used to convey meaning or thought, and without them there would been no written thought, and therefore no essay in the first place. I also expressed the importance of vocabulary by using colored popsicle sticks to show how certain adjectives and adverbs can add color to an essay. Finally, any good essay has research collected from knowledgeable and credited sources. These seven ideas make up everything about the essay, without them the essay would have no grip on it s ideas, and it would be a discombobulated mess. The tower symbolizes the paragraph by paragraph organization of the essay. The tower is built upon the introduction and the thesis, the argument being presented. The introduction narrows down and introduces the topic, and previews the three body paragraphs. The next level is a wooden plank that is the first body paragraph, on it are three wooden popsicles sticks that say claim, evidence, and analysis. Claim, evidence, and analysis are the three things that support a body paragraph. A body paragraph makes a claim that supports the thesis, however is a more specific argument. The evidence, supporting the claim in the model, backs up the claim with credibility. Finally, we break down the claim and use the evidence to reason through our argument. This same format repeats three times. All three paragraphs have popsicles sticks connecting it to the introduction again, showing that everything else supports and links back to the thesis. Finally, there is a small square board at the top of the model, representing the conclusion. The conclusion is where I would restate my thesis using the arguments I have already gone through. It is symbolized by a highlighter cap, because it highlights the thesis and caps off the arguments. I chose to model it this way because I felt that was the best way to model not just the format of a five paragraph essay, but the other key resources used in writing one. Also, building a structure with wood is similar to carefully constructing an essay.
August D. 8th Humanities 3D Model Essay Project Artist Statement Inedible Overturned Chanterelles This structure represents a common five paragraph essay. It does so through a basis of the thesis that connects every piece together through its bonding pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaners are orange to signify the proximity of Halloween, and they are also colorful and creative, as the arguments of a five paragraph essay should be. The five paragraph essay has three main parts that are all bonded together by the thesis. The parts include the introduction, the body paragraphs, and the conclusion. The conclusion and the introduction are a bit larger than each of the body paragraphs, but the conclusion and the introduction are roughly the same size because they do have many literary similarities. There is a literary formula to each separate section of a five paragraph essay. This is exemplified in the text repeated over and over on the structure. In the introduction, the text focuses on general information. In the body paragraphs, the formula is, Introduction, Evidence, Analysis, Conclusion. This is a formula that focuses mainly on explaining data gathered by the author, which leaves the topic wide open to evaluation, interpretation and other perspectives. The conclusion paragraph focuses on restating parts of the introduction and adding a clincher. Through the conical formation of each piece of the essay,
the sturdiness of the structure is highlighted. Every cone placed on the structure can stand alone, just as each paragraph should be able to. When every piece is together, though, it symbolizes much more. It is almost reminiscent of a mushroom palace in a Nintendo game with two plumbers, a princess, and a fire breathing hedgehog that can speak. Mushrooms also happen to be nutritious for your physical health, as do essays for your educational well being. The argument portrayed here is not as well held together by its thesis in its physical state, but the true words on paper of an essay modeled after this example should easily be able to stand as a well respected essay.
Audrey~Rose F. Humanities 8 3 D Essay Model Explanation My model is a small creature mainly made up of three hexagonal boxes, two legs, and eyes. Throughout the model, there are clear sticks helping form and outline the creature. These, along with the legs, signify the introduction, which outlines the body and states the thesis, holding up the rest of the essay. Each of the little boxes signify a body paragraph and create the body of the creature. They give an essay the form, an existence. Within these boxes are little speech bubbles representing a topic, a magnifying glass to signify analysis, some representation of evidence, and clear sticks to anchor to the thesis. The final part of my essay creature are the eyes, which give clarity to life and to an essay, tying everything together. Like any essay, my creature has recurring themes, but is also very unique and interesting, as an essay should be.
Jeremy C. Humanities 8 This diagram represents the five paragraph essay in many ways. This 3 D model starts from the bottom up, as you are building upwards when showing ideas in an essay. You need to build onto these ideas. At the bottom, you can see a sword. This sword is my hook to introduce the topic and interest the reader. Then, the model widens, and this represents introducing ideas into the essay. Then, the model narrows. The first 2x2 brick represents the conclusion of the introduction. The second brick represents the transition into the first major detail. Then, the model expands again. This represents adding more about the specific detail. Then, the model narrows again, and this time, the slanted bricks represent the conclusion about the detail. Then the 2x2 brick represents the transition again, and this repeats for the other two details. Then, we move to the conclusion. There is a 2x2 brick as a transition. The next layer is about repeating the main idea, and the last brick is the conclusion of the essay. There are two green things which represent the clincher, as they look like they are clamping something.
Nate S. Grade 8 Essay Structure Structure There are four groups to which every Lego brick belongs: White bricks correspond to the introduction and, more often, the thesis. Tan bricks correspond to the body paragraphs and their arguments. Black bricks correspond to the conclusion. All other bricks correspond to various sources and the works cited page. The white structure up top corresponds to the introduction / thesis paragraph. It is filled with three tan bricks, representing a touching upon the three main arguments, and one large colored brick, corresponding to a possible main source / author and book title. The next three structures are all constructed out of tan bricks, signifying that they are body paragraphs. They are all connected by white bricks, which symbolized how all the arguments are linked through a common thesis. All three structures are filled with with multicolored bricks, representing all the different facts (and their sources) that are included in the body paragraph. The bottom most structure is made up of black bricks, as it is the conclusion. It is linked to the body paragraphs through a mixture of body arguments and a unique bit of conclusion, showing how all the arguments can be looked at in a new, more unified light come the conclusion. For this same reason, the black structure is filled with tan bricks. There is also one white brick, representing the restatement of the thesis, as well as any particular enlightening ideas on the thesis which may emerge when all of the essay s arguments are taken together in one paragraph. Finally we have our works cited page and sources. These are represented by the multicolored bricks both at the bottom and sprinkled throughout the entire structure. They hold the entire essay up, as they do in this sculpture. Tan bricks are also present, symbolizing how all of the different sources (along with their facts and ideas) can be synthesized into strong arguments.
Teddy W. Essay Model Project Explanation For my essay model project I made the Olympic Rings. Each ring represents a part of the five paragraph essay. The first ring (blue) represents the thesis. It then connects to the first detail paragraph (yellow ring) using a transition word. Then with another transition word the first detail paragraph connects to the second detail paragraph (black ring). Then this paragraph connects to the third detail paragraph (green ring) with another transition word. Finally it all connects to the conclusion (red ring). I chose the Olympic Rings because I thought it represented a model of a five paragraph essay and me very well.
Cameron C. 8 Indigo 3D Model Essay Project Description This model is a pyramid, with a triangle as the base, three different colored triangles as the sides, and a small piece holding the sides together at the top. The base of this pyramid is like the introduction of the essay. It is connected to all three main points, and captures the main idea of the essay. The three sides are the three detail paragraphs. They are all different colors, as each of them do not state the same ideas. They all are connected to the main idea which is stated in the thesis, which is in the introduction. This is represented by how all three sides are connected to the base. The piece which connects all of the sides represents the conclusion. The conclusion wraps all of the ideas together, which is represented by how it puts all of the sides together. The conclusion restates the thesis, which is why the base and the piece are both the same color.
Janine R. 8Hum Essay Model Project Hourglass of Candy I made my project out of candy. To be specific, I used Mike&Ikes, and Skittles. I used the colors red, pink, yellow, orange, green, and purple (more of a blackish purple). I built a structure out of cardboard, making it hourglass shaped. I painted the top section pink, the middle section yellow, green, and orange (one color per side) and the bottom section red. I built the structure using triangles, with the top and bottom sections being half pyramids, and the middle section being a tall column with three sides. I chose the shape of a triangle because triangles are one of, if not the strongest shape, and to create a good essay you need to create a strong one. Looking at the structure from top to bottom, you are able to notice that the top is the introduction, and thesis, the middle is the body, and the bottom is the conclusion. Looking at the introduction and conclusion sections of the structure, you will notice that the colors used are quite similar. This is because the ideas in the thesis and conclusion are similar, one is using the ideas to open up the essay, and lead to the body section of the essay, and the other is using the ideas to wrap up the essay. But upon closer inspection, you will notice that the top section, the introduction, is pink, and the bottom section, the conclusion, is red. That is because, although the two sections have similar ideas, they are both different unique sections of an essay, both used for a certain purpose. Looking at the middle section of the structure, you ll notice three distinct sides, each a different color. These represent the different details that support the thesis. Although they all help to support the thesis, the different details are all different, supporting the thesis in their own way (no two should be the same). This is why they are all distinct colors. As you can see I built the structure so that the middle section of the structure is supporting the top section, as the body paragraphs or details support the introduction and thesis. A question that an observer might have is why I chose the candies that I did. I chose Mike&Ikes because they are long candies that reminded me of sentences, and I chose Skittles because they are small and reminded me of individual words. I found that it took a good amount of candies to cover the structure, just as there are quite a few words and sentences in essays. I also noticed that every single candy on the structure is needed to get the effect that is given, just as every word and sentence in an essay is needed to form a strong essay. The last part on my structure is the purple Skittles. I used these to not only split up each section of the structure into its own spot, but to also symbolizes the grammar in an essay. The purple Skittles run all throughout the structure just as grammar runs throughout an essay. The purple Skittles almost seem to hold the seams of the structure together, just as grammar holds the seams of an essay together. All together, I find that the candies do a fine job showing how each word, sentence, and section is needed to form a strong essay, and that the purple candies help to pull the structure together.
Julian A. 8 Humanities Essay Model Project Description My essay model project consists of caramel apple sticks, yogurt containers, and duct tape. The containers represent each paragraph within the essay, and the sticks hold the cups together and show how the paragraphs transition into one another. For the introduction and conclusion paragraphs, I used Icelandic yogurt containers, and for the body paragraphs I used Greek yogurt cups as Greek yogurt is more nutritious than Icelandic yogurt. This was to represent how the body paragraphs support the thesis in the introductory paragraph as the Greek containers are much bigger, while the Icelandic ones are not quite as large. Physically, there are three caramel apple sticks which each go through the introduction paragraph cup, one unique body paragraph cup, and the conclusion container. Duct tape holds the sticks against the introduction yogurt cup. The paragraphs are positioned with the introduction on the top, and the conclusion on the bottom, with the body paragraphs progressing as they would in an essay: with the second paragraph on top, then the third and fourth. All paragraphs are touching those directly before and after to symbolize the transitions between paragraphs and the transition to the conclusion.
Noah P. Humanities 8 Essay Modeling Project This sea serpent represents the structure of a five paragraph essay. Its head stands for the introductory paragraph. It has fangs which could metaphorically hook the reader in, and it holds the brain, which is like the thesis of the essay in that it dictates the actions of each other part. The three visible arches of the sea serpent are the three body paragraphs. They lend the thesis strength and power, and they enable it to encircle the reader with evidence of its truth. Without the evidence or muscles in the body, the head would be stranded alone on the rocky ocean bottom of doubt surrounding unproven claims and immobile clams. The body allows it to move and surge from the ocean floor into the sea of certainty and ensnare the readers docilely floating on the surface. Finally, the tail is the conclusion of the essay. It echoes the thrashing, dangerous power of the head like a good conclusion echoes a thesis. It also wraps things up effectively. In these ways the parts of this sea serpent represent the parts of a well written opinion.
Josh B. Description of 3D Model of 5 Paragraph Essay I made my 3 D model of five paragraph essay in a circle with five boxes connected by dowels. It spins around similar to a carousel. I used the organization format of a critical essay found in What English Teachers Want. Each box corresponded with a paragraph in a critical essay. In the introduction paragraph, I made a trail marked off by wooden sticks with examples of each part of an introduction paragraph on either side. The first example that appears in my model is an example of a general observation or comment. This model is an umbrella over a speech bubble and binoculars. The umbrella represents an overall topic. The speech bubble represents a comment being made and the binoculars represent an observation. When you make a comment, you say something, and you use speech bubbles in comments when something is said in a comic. When you see something, or make an observation, you sometimes use binoculars to make that observation. The next model is a whirlpool in a bottle which represents narrowing the overall topic down to the subtopic and filling the essay with the subtopic. The third model is a miniature book which represents the title of the book and the author being included in the essay. The fourth model is a LEGO grandfather clock and a picture
of a forest which represent including the background information. These two things are on one side of a fork in the road. This fork connects back to the main road; though it curves away in the end. The trail does this because you only have to include these things if it is necessary to the introduction paragraph. The fifth model includes a miniature gray car that is supposed to be a Lancia Thesis, an Italian made car. This represents the thesis of the essay, similar to the name. The last model in the introduction paragraph are LEGO car parts. These represent the subtopics from the thesis. Each part is a piece of the car and they are put together to make the car, just like the subtopics are pieces of the thesis and are used to put together to make the thesis. The next three boxes represent the paragraphs of the body in an essay. They all have something to do with the acronym TAEA. This represents topic sentence, analysis, textual evidence, and anchor. The first model is a phone with the texting app open and the acronym TAEA in the bottom bubble. The second model is a tea cup with an A in it. This represents tea with an A in it (taea). The third model is of two LEGO bionicles that are dressed up as ninjas. They have black karate belts on and one is in a black kiai and the other is in a white kiai. A kiai is the uniform used in karate and other martial arts. The final paragraph, the conclusion paragraph, has another Lancia Thesis to show that you are repeating the thesis in this paragraph. The paragraph also has a bionicle in a green kiai and a green karate belt, another tea cup with a wordart A in it, and another phone with the texting app on it. The entire model shows all of the things required by the book, What English Teachers Want, and also is able to spin in a circle.