Students will study and gain knowledge of the elements of a strong essay introduction in this unit. At the end of this lesson, students are going to:
- Recognize and demonstrate a range of attention-getting strategies.
- Study examples of transitional sentences and craft your own to help the thesis and attention-getter flow together.
- Examine the goal of a strong thesis and get a sneak peek at a divided thesis statement.

- To what extent does the writing process influence writing quality? 
- How can we become proficient writers?

- Attention-Getter: A technique to intrigue the reader at the beginning of a composition. 
- Characterization Techniques: Methods an author uses to provide information about a character.

- copies of the Quotations & Statistics as Attention-Getters handout (L-C-2-2_Quotations & Statistics as Attention-Getters and KEY)
- copies of the Real Life & Hypothetical Scenes as Attention-Getters handout (L-C-2-2_Real Life & Hypothetical Scenes as Attention-Getters)
- copies of the Topic List handout (L-C-2-2_Topic List)
- thesis and preview information created in Lesson 1, or alternate subject
- optional Internet access, quotation materials, or fictional characterization techniques notes

Students will demonstrate understanding through small-group and whole-class interactions, written introductions, and individual evaluations of the effectiveness of others' introductions. 
During each writing step, keep an eye out for any misunderstandings, clarify them, and assign more practice as necessary. 
Offer editorials and features from magazines or newspapers to students who need more practice with reading examples. Ask them to identify the elements of an introduction or the different attention-getting strategies used.

Explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolding, and active engagement
W: The lesson's goal is to give instructions on how to make attention-getters that work well to start an introduction. Making a comprehensive introduction will be the lesson's last performance task. Models are provided in resource handouts. 
H: To pique the interest of visual learners and give them instantaneous examples to discuss, the hook builds curiosity based on past movies watched. 
E: A range of learning opportunities are offered to comprehend the components of an introduction, including small-group research, drafting, discussion of examples, and evaluation. 
R: As each section of the lesson progresses in higher-level thinking, students should be challenged to identify limits to their comprehension and collaborate with others to solve problems on how to master the material. By means of group and peer evaluation, students will assess their comprehension and pinpoint and correct any misconceptions. 
E: Students will be able to assess their level of proficiency by looking at the model's introduction format and trying to apply the strategies to their own writing. The writing assignment can remain focused with the use of a peer or teacher rubric. Before a final assessment is given, there should be time for revision or additional practice. 
T: The engaging task provides opportunities for various intelligence appeals: logical-mathematical for critical thinking and assessing technique use, verbal/linguistic and interpersonal attention-getter, and visual-spatial reading comprehension and note awareness. You can assign students to flexible work groups and differentiate models based on their reading proficiency. Student interest may also be increased by allowing them to choose their own topic and position structure. 
O: The lesson is structured to provide students with access to prior knowledge, information, guided practice, comprehension check, and extension to help them achieve skills. 

Main Question: How does an introduction affect and direct the reader's understanding?

Part 1

Remind students that the goal of this lesson is to help them understand the relationship between each component of an introduction and solidify each part individually. Say, "You will be asked to write a full introduction with one alternative attention-getter at the end of the lesson to gauge your understanding."

Discuss the opening scenes of recent films as a class or in smaller groups. Ask, "Which opening scenes have the most success drawing in viewers? Why or why not?"

Go on: "Every genre needs to grab the reader's interest right away to avoid losing the audience's interest. This implies that a piece of writing needs to satisfy the reader's need for complexity, detail, and interest right away."

Make sure your students take notes on this: "An attention-getter technique, transition, thesis, and preview are the basic parts of an introduction."

Keep going: "The attention-getter gently touches on the subject by piquing the reader's interest just enough to encourage them to keep reading. There are numerous approaches to achieving this. Broadly speaking, anything that can be utilized to bolster an argument or provide evidence can also be employed as a means of drawing attention, such as facts, figures, hypothetical or genuine instances, metaphors, descriptions, and so forth."

Please consult the handout Notes & Data as Captivators (L-C-2-2_Notes & Data as Captivators and KEY). Read the steps for creating an attention-getter in quotation or statistic format as a class. To assist students in staying focused, have them highlight the important subjects and verbs for each step as well as circle the important actions and verbs as they are read. (Refer to the handout key.) Discuss the citation style for the quotation based on the students' understanding of MLA in-text citation.

Say, "In light of the topic of today's culture and values, have the class come up with terms other than "culture and values" that they could research to find pertinent quotations or data." (Some possible responses include being liberal, worldly-minded, independent, green, greedy, etc.) Ask students to describe how they would go about locating quotations or data that would make an intriguing headline. Ask them to consult the handout if they need any help.

Next, use the handout titled "Real Life and Hypothetical Scenes as Attention-Getters" (L-C-2-2_Real Life and Hypothetical Scenes as Attention-Getters) as a class to discuss the material. Describe: "An engaging way to captivate a reader can be to describe a scene that is real or hypothetical but has a loose connection to the topic." If necessary, go over the nine characterization strategies for narrative with the class and have them take notes. (The protagonist's actions, words, and thoughts, as well as those of other characters, physical character descriptions, setting descriptions, and direct authorial explanations)

Now, given a paper topic such as "charity," brainstorm a scene with a partner that could be described (it can be made up or real; alternatively, consider instances or positive scenarios that demonstrate the need for charity). Remind students that "using scenes develops the reader's emotional and mental curiosity." Make sure that the action in the scene is limited to what could occur in five to ten minutes, and encourage students to use at least five of the nine characterization techniques, labeling them as they go. This will assist the reader and add more detail to the scene. After finishing, groups could switch scenes and evaluate how accurately the labels for each other's techniques matched. Alternatively, the original authors might not have labeled, in which case the peer-evaluation group could swap for evaluation and look for (and label) at least five distinct techniques. Groups should next get together to discuss any disagreements.

Describe: "There's no magic number of sentences that will grab readers' attention. One common mistake that new writers make is assuming it is only one sentence. It is necessary to take the goal into account. How much will it take to pique readers' interest and entice them to continue reading? It should be used to determine how long an attention-getter is. A second factor to consider is the genre's maximum length. Attention-getters need to be succinct and powerful if the task involves writing a letter to the editor. The final product could be two to three pages long if it's a research paper."

Part 2 (Application)

Permit students to select a topic from the provided list (L-C-2-2_Topic List) in pairs or individually. Make use of a list to save time and increase productivity; otherwise, students might waste it attempting to choose "the perfect topic" for the exercise. After they have written a thesis and a preview (or a divided thesis), assign them to write two distinct attention-getter strategies, each of which could be used to support a different thesis. (This will give experience combining the elements of a complete introduction and allow for practice using the various approaches.)

After finishing the introductions, assign students to rotate chairs while labeling the methods or sections of the introductions they encountered. Write the original author one suggestion and one encouraging note. Encourage students to discuss any doubts or questions they may have about the labeled techniques when they get back to their original seats and make any necessary revisions.

Ask students to write down their responses to each of these questions on an exit ticket without consulting their notes. Ask them to write down the location of the answer if they are unable to answer a question but know where to look, and have them turn in the ticket before they depart.

Which three methods can you employ to grab someone's attention?
What does a transition sentence between the thesis and the attention-getter accomplish?
In what way does the essay's body fit into a divided thesis?
Before the next lesson, assess the student's understanding and identify any misconceptions. If required, assign individual reviews or conduct any necessary reteaching.

Extension:

Students should identify target audiences and discuss their likes, dislikes, loves, fears, and other characteristics to expand their understanding of how writing an attention-getter will impact that audience. Next, make attention-getters that would pique those audiences' interest or emotionally engage them.