You just spent three weeks teaching a unit on argument writing. You’ve analyzed essays, modeled writing in front of the students, had lots of discussions, and have just given your students the final prompt that they’ll complete independently.
Most of your class is clacking away on their Chromebooks.
But there’s one student just sitting there, staring at her blank screen.
You walk over and do the lean-down-whisper-by-her-head thing and ask her if she’s ok.
She says, “I don’t know how to get started.”
You could give a shoulder-pat and tell her to do her best while you ease away. You could give her your best teacher look. You could go stress eat some M&M’s.
Or! You could tell her to pull out her handout of hook ideas!
Here it is:
Ideas on How to Teach Hooks
This handout is perfect for a mini lesson or two about starting lines. There are examples from both informational and literature texts. The strategies are transferrable across the argument, informative, and narrative writing genres.
I would print out a copy of this handout for each student and have them keep it in a page protector in their binder.
After giving students a few minutes to skim over the list and discuss their favorites with their table, I would facilitate a hook flood.
A flood is when you give students tons of texts so they can begin to see patterns or notice features.
Give groups a variety of fiction and nonfiction books. Real books. Using their handouts and sticky notes, let them label the strategy each author uses to hook the reader. They only have to read the first few lines of each text, discuss as a group, write the name of the strategy on the sticky note, and stick it on the front cover of the book.
Don’t feel obligated to pre-read all the texts to see if they fit. Just pull some books of your shelves and let them go to town. They are reading, analyzing, and discussing authentic texts. They’ll start to argue over which type of hook it is and realize that some authors use more than one strategy. It will be beautiful. Don’t get in the way. Resist the urge to turn this into a multiple-choice worksheet even though you need to post 17 grades by Friday.
They may find a way that isn’t listed. Great! They can add that idea to the end of their handout.
After they’ve spent enough time delving into texts, lead a whole group discussion. What did they notice? Why do we even care how we start our writing?
After this activity, I would have them star or highlight their top 3-5 favorite ways to start a writing. There are a lot of ideas on this paper and this will help them choose an idea quickly the next time they pull it out to write.
If they have some pieces they’ve already written, you could have them choose a strategy to try out right then by revising one of their beginnings.
When It’s Not Working
Again, this is a handout packed with text. For your low-performing, ELL, or younger students, don’t feel obligated to go over the entire list. Go ahead and highlight a few of the strategies you think would be most effective for the genre of writing you’re currently working on and focus on those. There are more there if they want, but there’s no need to overwhelm them. Teach other strategies later.
After some time, if you notice that students need a refresher, display two hooks side-by-side, one that demonstrates a pattern of error you want to correct, and a solid example you want them to emulate.
(Never use a poor example from a student in that class. Say it’s yours or from last year or your other class or a class down the hall. Do use good examples from your students and let them know whose it was!)
Ask them to discuss in their groups which hook is more effective and why.
Invite them to look back at their hooks and revise.
If, even after all that, a student is still staring at their screen during writing time, tell them to type the word “Hook” as their first word, and then move on. They can come back to it if they have time.
Hooks aren’t the most important part of their writing.
But they’re a good place to start.
See the entire series on writing:
These resources are for opinion/argument and informative/explanatory essays, geared for grades 3-8.
- The Writing Process Explained in Memes
- 5 Types of Writing on the Mississippi State Test
- ChatGPT? Might as Well
- Writing Introductory Paragraphs
- Writing Body Paragraphs
- Choosing the Best Evidence
- Revising
- Writing Conclusions
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