Unit 3

What Does It Mean to Explore? Assignment 3-5 

Lesson 10

Activity

Researchers at Work: Research Question

Now that you have become an expert on Space, let's look at how to write and present an effective explanation.


You will choose a topic that can be broken down into three categories. Your purpose is to share information. Your audience is students, teacher, and parents.

  • Begin with a focus statement that tells what the explanation will be about. 
  • The main ideas of three categories are written in three topic sentences. 
  • The body sentences present specific details of each of the three categories.
  • The closing sentence makes a final statement about the topic. 


For example, the following explanation discusses the importance of the moon to planet Earth.
The moon, our nearest neighbour in space, affects oceans, animals, and humans (example of focus statement).
The moon helps to clean the oceans of the Earth by causing tides. (category 1 main idea) The gravitational pull of the moon tugs on the surface of the ocean until the water mounds up and out in the direction of the moon. The water at its highest point is called high tide and at its lowest point is called low tide. (supporting details) Tides prevent oceans from stagnating. (restatement of Main Idea 1)

The moon doesn’t just affect oceans, it also affects animals. (category 2 main idea) For example, Fiddle crabs are more active at low tide. Some animals, even land animals, have a “circalunar” clock. Moonlight enables some animals like night animals like owls and bats to hunt better. The African dung beetle even uses the moonlight to walk in a straight line. (supporting details) Animals are uniquely affected by the moon. (restatement of Main Idea 2)

Finally, the moon doesn’t just affect the environment and animals. It also affects humans (category 3 main idea). Our month is set by the rotation of the moon. Also, the moon slows down the earth’s spin so that we have a 24 hour day instead of an 8 hour day with high winds. (supporting details) The moon affects humans as well. (restatement of Main Idea 3)

Because the moon affects ocean, animals, and time, we can conclude that without the moon, life on earth would be very different. (closing sentence)
Complete a Self-Assessment based on the paragraph above.


 Self-Assessment
Answer each of the following questions.
Ideas
1.  What three categories does the writer give?

Organization
2.  How does the writer organize the specific categories (order of importance, order by time, order by topic)?

Voice & Word Choice
3.  What words or phrases show that the writer is knowledgeable about the topic?

Planning an Explanation

Read How Writers Organize Explanations on page 135 of Literacy in Action. Then, download Assignment 3-5.







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