We will start by brainstorming a list of causes of childhood obesity. You may want to take a look at the following PICTURE to help generate ideas. Think hard and write fast!
You will share your ideas with the class and I will make a list of 10 or so on the board.
During the pre-writing stage, coming up with many ideas helps you later on because you have more to work with, but in order to use your ideas effectively in your writing you will have to sort through all of your ideas to find out which ones are too similar and can be lumped into one category. We will work as a class to find some ideas that were brainstormed and categorize them into the same group.
After you see how it's done, work with a partner or two to reorganize the rest of the ideas into several groups.
The categories you have come up with can very easily be used as the main causes you discuss in a cause/effect essay. Each of the causes could function as the idea around which a body paragraph would revolve.
Review this OUTLINE STRUCTURE again. You will work in pairs to create a thesis statement and outline for the causes of childhood obesity in the United States.
After you have developed your outline, work on this WORKSHEET with your partner. We will discuss the worksheet as a class, and your group will be assigned a cause or effect word. You must create a sentence related to childhood obesity in the United States using that cause or effect word
