Chapter 14 page 332
Figure 14.5
a. Seven questions to generate and organize ideas for stories
b. Four prompts to generate and organize ideas for persuasive essays
(Graham et al., 2005, p. 217)
After learning the story-planning strategies, students learn about strategies for planning persuasive
essays. To generate and organize ideas for persuasive essays, students are taught to ask themselves the four
questions in Figure 14.5b, using a TREE acronym to remember the questions.
In addition to learning all the strategies above, students learn about the characteristics of good
stories and persuasive essays (Graham et al., 2005, pp. 217-218):
Ɣ The purposes of stories and of persuasive writing. For example, an important purpose of stories is to
be fun to read.
Ɣ The basic parts of a story and a persuasive essay
Ɣ The characteristics of a well-constructed story and a well-constructed persuasive essay. A well-
constructed story makes sense, is fun for the reader to read, and has seven parts corresponding to the
seven questions in Figure 14.5a. A well-constructed persuasive essay also makes sense and is fun to
read; it also tells the reader what you believe, gives at least three strong reasons, and gives a
conclusion (corresponding to the questions in Figure 14.5b). In this way, students learn criteria for
good stories and good persuasive essays.
Ɣ The importance of using words that make a paper more interesting; these words were called “million
dollar” words.
In addition to learning all the writing strategies and about the characteristics of good writing,
students learned general-purpose self-regulation strategies including setting goals, self-monitoring, self-
instructions, and self-reinforcement. We will discuss these strategies and how teachers promoted their use
in a later section.
By teaching all these writing and self-regulation strategies, the teachers aim to help students gain
metacognitive control over writing processes over a period of five or more months. By learning about the
W Who are the main characters?
W When does the story take place?
W Where does the story take place?
What What do the main characters want to do?
What What happens when the main characters try to do it?
How How does the story end?
How How do the main characters feel?T Tell what you believe!
R Give three or more Reasons (Why do I believe this?)
E Examine each reason (Will my reader buy it?)
E End it (Wrap it up right)