Application of DOLACEE and ILLIPS

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Application of DOLACEE and ILLIPS

• Lo Wai Kwan, Dawn
• Methodist College
• S4 History
• Writing an evaluation essay

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Experiences in teaching essay writing in S4 -5
Early years Explained question words the approaches to different types of essay questions
A few years later Had to teach the structure of an essay the use of topic sentences
Recent years Demonstrate analyze essay plans model essays for almost every assignment test
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• Why cant they do what I could do at their age,
  when I wasnt explicitly taught how to write an
  essay?
• I dont know what else I can do to help them!

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My way out

• What is predictable can be taught.
• The teaching-learning cycle
• Setting the context
• Teacher modeling text deconstruction
• Joint construction of teacher students
• Students independent construction

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Example Writing an evaluation essay (S4)

• Question
• To what extent was the Second World War a
  continuation of the First World War?

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• Step One Modeling Deconstruction
• Analyze a model essay of the same type.

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• To what extent did the appeasement policies of
  Britain and France bring about the Second World
  War?
• What is the question about?
• The causal relation between the appeasement
  policies the Second World War
• What are the question words?
• To what extent ?????? / how important
• How far

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Read the sample essay carefully

• Underline the sentence that tells the view of the
  writer directly responding to the question- in
  which paragraph?
• Mark the paragraph that explains the appeasement
  policies with a star
• Bracket the paragraphs about how the appeasement
  policies brought about the WWII.
• Mark the paragraphs that explain other causes of
  the WWII with
• Circle the connectives that are used in
  arguments.
• Note that the arguments (??) are supported by
  examples (????).

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• The appeasement policies contributed to the
  outbreak of the Second World War. First, the
  policies encouraged Hitlers aggression. When
  Germany remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936,
  Britain and France did not take action to stop
  her. Britain even believed that the Germans had a
  right to remilitarize the Rhineland as they were
  only getting back their own back garden. The
  remilitarization of Rhineland not only encouraged
  Hitlers aggression but also ensured the safety
  of Germanys western frontier, so that Hitler
  could concentrate on expanding eastward. Hitler
  might not have an overall plan to expand but he
  was encouraged by the appeasement policies of
  Britain and France to be more aggressive.

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Organization of this type of essay

• View point to a large / small extent
• e.g. To a small extent the appeasement policies
  caused the WWII.
• Arguments (reasons) to justify (support) the view
  point.
• e.g. Why the appeasement policies caused the WWII
  only to a small extent
• Causes other than that specified in the question
• e.g. Hitlers aggressive foreign policy was the
  main cause of the WWII.

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• Step Two
• Joint Construction

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(1) Discuss in groups Are these questions the
same or different in meaning?

1. Was the Second World War a continuation of the
   First World War?
2. To what extent was the Second World War a
   continuation of the First World War?

Yes / No in what ways yes / no
To a large / small extent discuss the
importance of WWI in causing the WWII compared
with other causes.
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Group work

• (2) Make a mind map of the causes of the Second
  World War.
• (3) Discuss which of the causes were rooted in
  the First World War.

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Joint construction

• (4) Students report on the causes of the Second
  World War .
• Teacher writes them on the blackboard.
• (5) Students report on the causes related to the
  WWI and give justification.
• Teacher makes blackboard notes based on
  their responses.

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Group work

• (6) Students discuss in group
• How important were these causes in bringing about
  the Second World War?
• To what extent the WWII was a continuation of the
  WWI.

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Joint Construction

• (7) Teacher and students
• discuss what should be written in the
  introduction,
• write an introduction for the essay together.

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Joint Construction

• (8) Teacher and students
• discuss what should be written in the middle
  paragraphs,
• write topic sentences (main arguments) for each
  paragraph together.

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• Step Three
• Students Independent Construction complete the
  essay on their own.

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• THANK YOU!