“Parents should be held solely responsible for their children’s actions. ” Do you agree? A WebQuest for Secondary 3 NA / 3 Exp / 4 NA Designed by Teachers teaching Secondary 3 NA / 3 Exp |Ms Deepa Madan |Mr Sharom Mak |Mr Victor Ong | |Miss Cheryl Tan |Mrs Grace Wong |Ms Lee Chai Noi | | | | |
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Introduction This WebQuest is a follow-up lesson to consolidate what you have learnt about writing an argumentative essay. There are 2 components to this assignment: the Essay component and the Reflection component. Essay Component First, you are to research online on what an argumentative essay is all about, the grammatical features of an argumentative essay and how you should structure your argumentative essays. Secondly, you are to read the articles provided in this WebQuest and you are to figure out how you can use the materials provided in your assignment.
Thirdly, you are to come up with an argumentative essay of about 500 words entitled ‘“Parents should be held solely responsible for their children’s actions. ” Do you agree? ’ and submit the essay to your English teacher on the first day of school in Term 3. Reflection Component On a separate piece of your paper, you are to imagine that you are a parent and you are to pen your thoughts on the following questions: 1. What is your role as a parent? (50 words) 2. What are your responsibilities as a parent? (50 words) 3.
What kind of situations do you think are Beyond Parental Control situations? (50 words) 4. If you are in a situation where you have difficulties controlling your child, what action would you take and why? (50 words) Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | The Task What you are expected to learn from this assignment: • The grammatical and structural features of an argumentative essay (text-type) • Through reading the e-articles on whether or not parents should be held responsible for their children’s actions, you are to form your own opinions on this topic.
The end product is an amalgamation of the text type (argumentative text) and the topic (“Parents should be held solely responsible for their children’s actions. ” Do you agree? ). Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | The Process 1. Go to http://www. orangeusd. k12. ca. us/yorba/persuasive_writing. htm to find out more about the structure of an argumentative essay. Make sure you are certain of the grammatical features (i. e. he technical aspect English: tenses, punctuation, pronouns, spelling, sentence structure) and the structural features (what goes in the introduction, body and conclusion) of an argumentative essay. 2. To familiarise yourself with the essay topic, read the following e-articles: • Family Education Programme: http://familyes. org. sg/education. html • Should parents be held responsible for child truancy: http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/talking_point/1984821. stm • Is dress code for female teachers feasible? http://www. asiaone. com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20080204-48099. tml • Teenage abortion: http://www. getforme. com/health_abortions. htm • Holding parents accountable for their children’s behaviour: http://www. ncpc. org/topics/bullying/strategies/strategy-holding-parents-accountable-for-their-children-s-behavior 3. Once you have read the articles, you are now able to form your own opinions on the topic. Should parents be held responsible for their children’s actions? If at this point of time you are still unsure whether or not parents should be held responsible for their children’s actions, it is good to make a list. 4. You can now start planning your essay.
Take at least 10 minutes to plan your essay so that your essay will be more organised and effective. Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Evaluation You will be graded according to these 3 criteria: language, content and style. • Language: Standard English is to be used. You must make sure that your spelling, punctuation, tenses and sentence structure are in place when writing the essay. • Content: The content must be based on the readings provided, and you are free to quote references from the other readings that you have done. You are also expected to quote examples actively from your readings. Style: Your style must be persuasive enough to convince me that your point-of-view is the point-of-view that I should adopt. | |Lava |Pupa |Butterfly | | |1 – 3 |4 – 6 |7 – 10 | |Language |Language used is not consistent with |Language used is fairly consistent with|Language used is very consistent with | | |many mistakes made throughout the |frequent lapses. occasional lapses. | | |essay. | | | |Content |Content is not relevant to the topic |Content is sometimes relevant to the |Content is very relevant to the topic | | |and rarely substantiated with concrete |topic and seldom substantiated with |and always substantiated with concrete | | |evidence. |concrete evidence. |evidence. |Style |The writer has not managed to persuade |The writer has managed to persuade me |The writer has managed to persuade me | | |me to agree with his point-of-view. |to agree with his point-of-view to some|to agree with his point-of-view to a | | | |extent. |large extent. | Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Conclusion At the end of this WebQuest, you should have consolidated your knowledge from Term 2 of what argumentative essays are all about.
Do ask your EL teacher in Term 3 should you have any doubts on how to answer argumentative essays or on the text type. Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Credits & References • Don’t forget to list, in your essay, the sources of any images, music or text that you’re using to give credit to the authors or publishers. In citing the source of the resources, you need to include the author, title, name of web site, date of publication and web site address. Avoid plagiarism. You should learn to construct new knowledge from the information gathered, and not copy everything in your resources. • Steer clear of the dangers of infringing copyright Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | ———————– Argumentative Discussion Discursive Exposition Parents held accountable for their children’s delinquent behaviour are more likely to reinforce appropriate behaviour in the youth. National Crime Prevention Council
