1. Elaboration through…
DRAPES

2. What is elaboration? Fully developed paragraphs, thoughts, ideas
Elaboration is scored in IDEAS
Too much brevity and your paper will NOT earn a passing score
Use DRAPES to add elaboration

3. What is DRAPES?
D-dialogue R-rhetorical question A- analogy P- personal experience E- example S- statistic

4. Football is about to be abolished!! Oh No!
You must come up with reasons this SHOULD NOT happen!

5. Football is about to be abolished!
Think
Pair and Share
You must come up with reasons this SHOULD NOT happen!

6. Football is about to be abolished!!
Football is a big money-maker…
D-Scott Brady, our athletic director, said, “Last year, profit from football tickets alone made $18,000 for the school.”
R- Do you know how much an average spectator spends at a game?
A- football games bring in cash the same way that rain brings in crops.

7. Football is about to be abolished!!
P- Last week, my friend Dottie and I went to the football game and here is what we spent….
E- One example of profit is in concessions. Chocolate alone brings in …
S- 62% of our student body bought at least one ticket to a game this month, at the cost of $3 each.

8. How many DRAPES should you use for each reason?
2 or 3 would be awesome!

9. Now let’s practice…
DRAPES

10. What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?
You need to stop giving us too much homework. We complain because of the amount. Kids just skip their homework because they have practice or “better things to do.”

11. Every sentence is a topic sentence and should begin a new paragraph!
This is a Level 1 paragraph…
(“lack of development”)
Every sentence is a topic sentence and should begin a new paragraph!
You need to stop giving us too much homework. We complain because of the amount. Kids just skip their homework because they have practice or “better things to do.”
We must add subtopics and development (DRAPES).

12. What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?
Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. We complete too many problems in math each night. We dislike all of this work.

13. For every red sentence, try to add AT LEAST one green DRAPES sentence!
This is a Level 2 paragraph…
(“minimal development”)
There are only blue and red sentences. We must add elaboration (DRAPES).
Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. We complete too many problems in math each night. We dislike all of this work.
For every red sentence, try to add AT LEAST one green DRAPES sentence!

14. What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?
Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. Each night, we complete too many problems in math. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? We dislike all of this work.

15. For every red sentence, there is ONE green DRAPES sentence.
This is a Level 3 paragraph…
(“sufficient development”)
Another reason we complain about homework is the amount you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. (P) Each night, we complete too many problems in math. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? (R) We dislike all of this work.
For every red sentence, there is
ONE green DRAPES sentence.

16. What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?
An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day. Our workload in math makes the problem worse as we do too much. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments. We could become better students if you thought about your assignments.

17. For every red sentence, there are TWO green DRAPES sentence.
This is a Level 4 paragraph…
(“consistent development”)
An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity you give us. How much we have to do is not fair. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired. (P) Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day. (S) Our workload in math makes the problem worse as we do too much. Why should we complete 30 word problems if you can tell we know the material in 10? (R) I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments. (P) We could become better students if you thought about your assignments.
For every red sentence, there are
TWO green DRAPES sentence.

18. What color highlighters would you use on the following paragraph?
An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity of worksheets you give us. How much we have to do is not fair to us or to our families. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired, and my family wants to have some time to talk together. Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day, and I may miss the family meal. Additionally, our workload in math makes the problem worse as we struggle to complete assignments. Why should we complete 30 complicated word problems if you can tell that we know the material in 10? I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments and turn them in on time. We could become better students if you thought about your requirements of our time out of school.

19. This is a Level 5 paragraph… (“full development”)
An additional reason we complain about homework is the quantity of worksheets you give us. How much we have to do is not fair to us or to our families. After a long day at school, I don’t want to work another two or three hours because I’m tired (P), and my family wants to have some time to talk together (P). Even 30 minutes of work for each subject quickly becomes two hours of additional time out of our day (S), and I may miss the family meal (P). Additionally, our workload in math makes the problem worse as we struggle to complete assignments. Why should we complete 30 complicated word problems if you can tell that we know the material in 10 (R)? I know that reducing our workload to only a few problems would give us the desire to complete all of our assignments and turn them in on time (P). We could become better students if you thought about your requirements of our time out of school.

20. Now it’s your turn…
DRAPES

21. Pick a topic to write about
School uniforms
Bullying
Lengthening the school day
Adding a new class of your choice
Chores
Jobs
Racism
Your own idea