1. Paragraph Writing, Week 3
Comparing and Contrasting: Would You Rather Be a Hammer or a Nail?

2. Overview
In this two-week lesson, the entire writing process from pre-writing and brainstorming to drafting, revision, copy editing, and publication will be taught. In this first week, students will brainstorm ideas in response to the question, Would you rather be a hammer or a nail? Ideas will be recorded on the board and students will begin to draft their essays. Midway, the instructor will stop to teach some useful sentence structures for comparison and contrast. The students will complete their first drafts this week by the end of class.

3. First Hour: Prewriting
Hammers
Nails
Strengths
Powerful
Only need one
Control the situation
Aggressive
Collective
Hold things together
Permanent
Weaknesses
Destructive
Lonely
Get hit
Can be bent
Not important alone
Passive
Pose the question to the students, “Would you rather be a hammer or a nail?” See the YouTube videos of El Condor Pasa and the Simon and Garfunkel English version of the song; if possible, play this in class.
Whole-class discussion (perhaps with some realia): What are hammers like? What are nails like? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Record ideas on a the board or using a projector.

4. First Hour, Cont’d: Drafting
Raise the question: Now that we’ve had this discussion, which would you rather be? Why? In your own words, what is good about being a hammer? What is bad? A nail—good and bad?
Let’s write! (Have students write freely and do their best. We are not going to grade this yet)
Allow students 20 minutes to write. Circulate among students as they write, answering questions, and asking to read what has been written. When a great sentence is written, stop and share it with the class. Be encouraging but not directive.

5. Second Hour
Stop toward the end of the first hour or beginning of second hour to discuss some possible sentence structures; generate some model sentences using these:
On one hand, ….; but on the other, ….
Whereas hammers…., nails….
Although nails …, hammers….
Hammers are…., but nails….
Nails….; however, hammers….
Use the Would You Rather? Examples to illustrate how to compose the paragraph.
Allow students to continue writing to the end of the period. The instructor may collect the papers or assign them to be completed as drafts and brought to class the next week.