1. Paragraph Writing, Week 8
Giving Explanations: Revising, Proofreading, and Copy Editing

2. Overview
In this week’s lesson, students will finish their revisions, proofread/copy edit, and prepare to publish their essays giving explanations for a video presenting a slice of Moroccan culture. The activities follow the same procedures used in Weeks 3 and 4.

3. First Hour Students should sit in the same groups as last week.
Distribute drafts of explanatory essays to the students. Read a few of the best aloud; discuss why these are good.
Review the challenges for a foreign audience to understand this slice of Moroccan culture. What do you need to explain? How can you best do this?
Have students continue their revisions.
As the students revise, the instructor should circulate and make note of any particular problems with spelling, grammar, etc., that he or she sees.

4. Second Hour
Review the basic conventions of formal writing in English. Point out some well-written sentences that the instructor has seen in student papers.
List on the board specific problems that the instructor sees, giving a minilesson on each of these (there should be no more than 4-5).
Have the students exchange papers and look for problems, making notes and corrections.
Students will rewrite their essays as their final versions. Make sure to collect all papers at the end of the hour, with all students’ names on them.

5. Follow Up
On the class blog, the instructor will post the essays written by the class along with a link to the videos that were written about.