Writing Session #5

More Practice
Generating a Thesis Statement and Basic Support

Writing Prompt
Are smaller families better than larger ones?

Student Activity #1: Brainstorming List

a. Generate ideas for 10 minutes on the assigned writing prompt.
b. When your time is up, review the ideas you came up with.
c. Strikethrough any weak ideas.
Yes - we agree. Why? No - we don’t agree. Why?

Yes, the benefits of having a smaller family
are experienced by children. Children of
smaller families receive more attention of
higher quality from their parents, resulting in
higher achievements.
No, large families say they are more satisfied
with their lives than others and that they think
they have stronger personal relationships than
most people.

Con’t Brainstorming & Organizing Ideas

a. Write for another 10 minutes on the assigned writing prompt.
b. Improve weak ideas. Strikethrough any weak ideas.
c. Select your top three ideas for each side (Yes/No).
Yes - we agree. Why? No - we don’t agree. Why?

 Having a large family can be chaotic at 
times, financially difficult and sometimes
overwhelming.
 Children of smaller families receive more
attention of higher quality from their 
parents, resulting in higher achievements.
 Studies have shown that children with
one or no siblings perform better in
education, for instance.
There are some really great benefits to
having a full house.
 In large families, however, teamwork
becomes necessary.
Large families have the advantage of
utilizing each family member's strengths
in daily life.

Claim Sentence and List of Reasons

Take a look at your organized ideas.
Which side do you feel has your strongest ideas or argument?
Choose a side and select your top three reasons.
In the column below, write your thesis statement. Be sure to use the advanced thesis formula. An
example was provided in the slide presentation for this lesson.
Write Your Thesis Statement
Smaller families are better. Regardless of how many children you have, parents love their
children equally, but it's no secret that the fewer children there are the more time parents have
to dote on and pay attention to them. Being able to devote your attention to fewer children
means that those children will benefit from having more of your time and your resources. Not
only can this be beneficial to your children, but it can also alleviate a lot of stress for the
parents.

Student Activity #2: Generating Basic Support

Using your thesis that was generated, you will now come up with some support for each of the
reasons stated using the different types of support below:
1. Personal History
2. Pop Culture
3. Examples
4. Explanation
5. Description
6. Current events (newspaper, TV, internet)
7. Historical events
8. Literature

Write your Write your Write your

Reason #1 Reason #2 Reason #3

Finances Opportunity Responsibility

There is a big financial benefit
of having a smaller family.
Caring for children is a full-
time job and often one parent
stays home to raise those
children until they're at least in
school.
While only children or
children from small families
may reap the benefits of
having more attention from
their parents when they are
younger, they often feel
overwhelmed with the
responsibility of caring for
those parents when they age.

Student Activity #3: Creating Body Outline

For this activity, you will fill out this outline with the support you came up with using the
different types of support, as discussed in Activity 1.

Question: Should schools offer more opportunities to learn computer programming?

Thesis Statement: In computer programming, a class contains a group of instructions that act as
commands for the computer. The class is made up of variables, integers, decimals and other
symbols. These are put together in certain orders to let the computer know what task to perform.

Support: Computer science programs for high school students deepen critical thinking as they
empower students to grasp complex or abstract ideas and transform them into beliefs or direct
actions. Computer programming has an integral role in our world. You would not be reading this
article without it. In fact, without computer programming you would not be able to use your cell
phone, computer or smart TV. Learning the fundamentals of programming can set you apart
from your counterparts, giving you a competitive edge in this technology-driven world. Earning
a computer programming degree can help you innovate and create solutions for a global society.

A. DESCRIPTION:
Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or
more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and
building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as analysis,
generating algorithms, profiling algorithms' accuracy and resource consumption, and the
implementation of algorithms (usually in a chosen programming language, commonly
referred to as coding). The source code of a program is written in one or more languages that
are intelligible to programmers, rather than machine code, which is directly executed by the
central processing unit. The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that
will automate the performance of a task (which can be as complex as an operating system) on
a computer, often for solving a given problem. Proficient programming thus usually requires
expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain,
specialized algorithms, and formal logic.

B. EXAMPLE:
When classes of programming languages are grouped together, they create
functions. These functions allow you to perform certain tasks in a program. Some functions
are small and control just one aspect of a piece of software or program. Other functions are
big and ensure that the program itself runs.

C. Topic/Idea #3:
Programming is using a language that a machine can understand in order to get it
to perform various tasks. Computer programming is how we communicate with machines in
a way that makes them function how we need.
 A program is a group of logical, mathematical and sequential functions grouped
together. When they are grouped, these functions perform a task. Each programming
language focuses on different types of tasks as well as gives commands to the machine in
different ways.

Reflection
Reflect upon the Prewriting Process. In a well-written paragraph (one-two paragraphs) answering
the questions below:
● How do you feel about using the thesis statement formula? Does it help you create an
effective thesis statement? Explain.
● Share your thoughts and feelings about the writing session you have completed so far for
this course. Is it helpful? Explain why or why not.
● What topics would you like to see in this writing assignment? Please suggest a topic.

The topic may be the commercial fishing industry. The claim part of your thesis is your
argument; it is a stance on the issue you brought up in the topic. I feel great because of finishing
the writing session again. What I would like to see in this writing assignment is the thought of
small and large family importance and how computer programming helps us in school.