To foster an awareness of and practice with the writing style, students will start a portfolio in this lesson, with the ultimate goal of creating their unique voices. Students are going to: 
- Edit the two- to three-paragraph account of an unexpected moment. 
- Examine and evaluate multiple well-written sentences, using them as models for their own. 
- Use a range of sentence openings and sentence structures in your practice. 
- Edit a few sample paragraphs, paying particular attention to the length of sentences and their beginnings. 
- Improve their word choice abilities. 
- Practice using precise language when expressing themselves. 
- Determine the qualities of a well-written passage. 
- Apply what they have learned about effective writing to their rewriting. 
- React to what their peers have written.
- Maintain a portfolio throughout the unit, which will serve as a collection of their work.

- To what extent does the writing process influence writing quality?
- How can we become proficient writers?
- How does writing function in our daily lives?

- Focus: The center of interest or attention. 
- Sensory Details: The use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste. 
- Irrelevant Details: Having no bearing on or connection with the subject or topic. 
- Style: How an author writes; an author’s use of language; its effects and appropriateness to the author’s intent and theme. 
- Word Choice: The rich, colorful, and precise language that moves and enlightens the reader. 
- Voice: The fluency, rhythm, and liveliness in writing that make it unique to the writer. 
- Tone: The attitude of the author toward the audience and subject (e.g., playful, critical, ominous, wistful). 
- Redundancy: A writing flaw in which unnecessary wording is used.

- a board, large screen, or easel with a large drawing pad to put up examples and student responses. 
- model sentences (pp. 12 and 32 of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving, in the lesson, and available at http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=IrvLege.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1) 
- practice sentences created by the teacher (examples included in the lesson)

- Throughout the class, pay close attention to how you use different sentences to describe things. Evaluate each student's work using the revised papers. You can also use them to quickly offer suggestions to the writers and determine whether the class as a whole or certain groups needs to go over the piece's focus, sensory details, strong verbs, and concrete nouns. 
- Before composing another response, review the writing group responses to determine whether more help or discussion is required.
- Take a look around the room while the students are working on a model sentence. If a group finds a sentence difficult, feel free to suggest an alternative, but after that, let them finish. Additionally, note who requires more training. A check will alert you to any students who do not bring their own model sentences.
- Watch the writing groups as they make revisions to the paragraph, and then ask each group to read aloud what they have revised.
- Provide a quick review to students who appear to be struggling with any part of the lesson (sensory details, specific details, strong verbs, concrete nouns, focus, working with models, appositives, etc.). Make them practice combining sentences on the spot.

Explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolding, and active engagement 
W: With an emphasis on sentence lengths, structures, and openings, students learn how to employ sentence variety in their own writing. 
H: Students use what they've learned to improve their own writing by working with their peers to analyze and construct model sentences. 
E: Students edit their work based on what they talk about in class, and they can strengthen their own writing by using expert models. 
R: Applying their knowledge of sentence structure and variety, students reevaluate and edit their writing topics. 
E: Students use expert models to enhance their writing and gain from reinforcing their weak writing samples. Through analysis and revision, these experiences enable them to produce better work. 
T: Students engage in class discussion and work in writing groups to practice particular revision strategies. Everyone has the chance to contribute during the class analysis of the model sentences. 
O: This lesson extends the writing process model from Lesson 1 and gives students the opportunity to edit their ongoing work. 

Topic: How can we enhance our writing by utilizing a variety of sentences?

The revised description of a startling moment will require students to apply what they have learned about sentence variety, which they will do by breaking down and rearranging sentences in their own compositions and by analyzing professional models.

Show instead of tell.

At the beginning of class, gather the updated papers from Lesson Plan 1. You can utilize them for

Examine each student's progress separately.
Provide brief advice to the authors.
Determine whether the piece's focus, strong verbs, concrete nouns, sensory details, or particular details need to be reviewed by the class as a whole and/or just in some groups.
Before composing a new response, you can also review the writing group responses to determine whether more help or discussion is required.

Draw the student's attention to a sentence you have written—for example, "The room was a mess"—on the board. "We will do a quick warm-up activity based on what you have already learned before beginning today's lesson," explain to them. "Take a look at the sentence written there. Do you think this sentence tells or shows its meaning? (Students should understand that the sentence merely gives the information.) "Make that sentence alive. Show us that messed-up room! After spending a few minutes revising this sentence, read it out loud."

Once all of the students have finished, ask them to quickly share their sentences. Then, find out which details they remembered from the sentences and why.

This kind of quick exercise can be used for many purposes at any time, such as getting students' minds going, having them practice a skill, or allowing you to observe what they can recall or comprehend. Make the exercises brief and purposeful, like this show-instead-of-tell sentence.

Study and mimic the structure of model sentences.

Next, let the students know that the current lesson will be concentrated on sentence variety so they can acquire more skills for enhancing their own writing. You could start with a sentence from Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that describes a terrified Ichabod Crane. Post the sentence on the board or screen and instruct the group to "unpack" it as their first task.

The schoolhouse was located at the foot of a wooded hill, with a brook nearby and a formidable birch tree growing at one end.

Inform the students that this sentence can be interpreted as a synthesis of the next five sentences:

The schoolhouse was situated in an isolated spot.
The schoolhouse's situation was also comfortable.
The school was located right at the base of a hill covered in trees.
The schoolhouse was near a brook.
The schoolhouse had a massive birch tree growing at one end.
Read aloud the five sentences (or assign a student to do so); after that, read the model sentence out loud. Ask students, "What distinctions do they see between the two readings?" (The student should point out that, in contrast to the model sentence, the five sentences have a somewhat choppy and repetitive tone/The model sentence is more engaging because it has more action and doesn't repeat "schoolhouse.")

Ask students to consider combining the sentences once more to create the model sentence. Ask them to note anything that gets added, subtracted, or altered while combining. As an illustration:

Sentence 2 is changed to "but pleasant" and combined with Sentence 1.
Sentence 3 adds "just at the foot of a wood hill," followed by a comma, and deletes the rest of the sentence.
Sentence 4 is changed to "a brook running close by" and joined to the original sentence with a comma and the word "with."
Sentence 5 is changed to "a formidable birch tree growing at one end of it," and is joined to the sentence with "and" and a comma.
Inform the students, "I want you to do one more thing before we leave the model sentence. Write a sentence that mimics the structure of this sentence. You can either follow our example and start with the five individual sentences, or you can start with the original sentence. You will not be working on this alone. You and your writing group will collaborate to create a single sentence. After working on these for about fifteen minutes, we'll review what you wrote."

Go around the room and watch the groups as they work. If a group is struggling with language choice, feel free to offer suggestions, but let them figure it out together first. It's advisable to identify the students who will likely require more practice. Post the results on the board or screen after 15 minutes, or after the first group has finished. Tell them not to be concerned if they aren't finished because the entire class will work hard to finish what the groups started.

To understand the kinds of issues that students are likely to face, you should also complete this exercise. An example of an imitation sentence would be:

The ancient home was situated on a pricy yet noisy lot, directly beneath a tall bridge, with lots of passing traffic and an incompetent band rehearsing in the home next door.

Have the students finish the sentences that they started in groups, if at all possible. Give students enough time to discuss any sentences or sentence fragments that they feel worked especially well and to explain why.

"For the next class session, use another sentence as the model for one that you write on your own," instructs the students. "Consider the sentence you wrote describing an unexpected moment, and consider using it in your paper." "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" serves as the model for this one as well.

On all sides, he beheld vast stores of apples, some hanging in oppressive opulence on the trees, some gathered into baskets and barrels for the market, and others heaped up in rich piles for the cider press.

Create “Texture” in the Writing

Ask students to remove the prepared model sentence. You can quickly check on any underprepared students. To ensure nobody has his or her back to each other, arrange for the students to sit in a circle. Inform the pupils, "You will now all read aloud your sentences. There will be no discussion until everyone has finished reading. Focus on every single one of them. After each presenter has finished, I'll ask you to name specific details that come to mind and give an explanation for why you think they stand out. We won't be moving around the circle in chronological order; instead, I'll pick one writer to start. "I'll call out each new reader's name."

Maintain a fast pace throughout this, and then ask students to name specific details they remember and why. Ask them again why they felt that particular sentence struck them the most. (Students should develop the habit of asking "why" questions at all times.) The sentence will be included in their portfolio and possibly in their upcoming paper revision.

Remind students, "Not every sentence they write will be long. Some might even be extremely brief. It's crucial to remember that your writing needs to have "texture." Many factors contribute to texture, including the words you use, their length and sound, the sentences' overall length, and the patterns you employ inside them. I'll demonstrate what I mean. If you don't think sentence length is important, this should change the way you think."

Read a paragraph to your students in which every sentence is almost the same length. (Alternatively, write or display the paragraph on the board.) For example:

Tim heard the warning bell ring. He attempted to shut his locker. His jacket and books tumbled out. He attempted to pick them up. A mob trampled them. Tim collected them. He placed them inside the lock. To get to chemistry class, he ran.

"You can hear the stultifying, tedious effect of having the sentences all about the same length," says the class. "What other recommendations do you have to make this paragraph better?" It will be evident to students that this is a boring paragraph that has been presented in the most uninteresting way possible. Students should draw attention to the fact that most of the sentences have the same subject-verb structure and opening pronoun, in addition to noting sentence length and word choice. This adds to the paragraph's unappealing quality.

Say, "I'll give you ten minutes to edit this paragraph in your writing group. Take it to them. Without including any additional actions, make it as readable and engaging as you can. Take advantage of everything available to you. Improve your word choice, put sentences together, alter the way you start sentences, and include some sensory details." After assessing each group's progress, ask them to present their revisions out loud. Gather the updated versions.

Next, mention in passing that you would like to demonstrate to the students an apparatus known as an appositive, which they can utilize in their compositions. Present them with two sentences like these:

Edgar Allan Poe was a well-known American mystery writer. And he unraveled mysteries in real life.

Show how simple it is to combine the sentence pairs:

Edgar Allan Poe, a well-known American mystery writer, also solved real-life mysteries.

Inform students that an appositive follows the noun it renames and gives additional information about (e.g., "a well-known American writer"). Appositives will be used effortlessly if they believe them to be simple to understand.

Distribute copies of the following paragraph to every student:

The sun set into the western sky. It appeared to be a fiery ball of gold. It was almost nighttime. It would sift through the sunset's lingering flame. It would eventually extinguish the flame, leaving nothing but embers. Ultimately, nothing would survive but the pitch-blackness of a starless, moonless night.

Ask each student to rewrite the paragraph, paying attention to appositives, sentence openings, and sentence structure. After that, invite the students to present their findings and discuss in their writing group. Remind them to remember appositives, combine sentences, use the strongest details, and avoid being overly wordy. For example:

The sun, a golden ball of fire, set in the west. Night would soon extinguish the last embers of sunset, leaving only the deep darkness of a moonless, starless night.

Return their descriptive drafts and tell them, "For the next class session, revise your paper again, this time paying special attention to sentence length, sentence openings, and the variety of structures that give your writing its 'texture' and interest. Date and staple your most recent revision on top of the others. This most recent revision requires two copies for your writing group."

Extension:

Students can practice more model sentences if they feel that they would benefit from more learning opportunities. Give your students some practice "unpacking" the sentences in the model and examining how they are combined. They can collaborate with others in groups, so they can get quick feedback from them as they work. Give them a minimum of two more model sentences to practice.