GENIUS TEACHER IDEA:

Writing Hooks

Editor’s Note: We love this idea for teaching hooks from Scope teacher advisor, Kathy Walseman. Kathy is an ELA teacher in Virginia.

My students were researching and writing argument essays about cloning, using Scope debates as mentor texts. When it came time for them to write an introductory paragraph, they were struggling with the hook and having trouble distinguishing among different types of hooks. I realized there were literally dozens of articles in the Scope archives they could use for inspiration—and this lesson was born.

What You’ll Need:

• Scope debate that students will use to write an argument essay, plus 20 additional debates from the archives
  
• a shared Google Sheet 
• computers or tablets, either 1:1 or enough for a few groups

Skill: writing a hook for an argument essay

Time: two class periods

• Choose 20 debates from the Scope archives online that provide a variety of hook types. Find all Debate Essay Kits here and all Debate Scavenger Hunts here. (Or use the 20 I chose, which are listed on the spreadsheet below.)
  
• Identify the types of hooks. I identified four out of the debates that I chose: anecdote, surprising fact, rhetorical question, and other. There are others too!
• Create a Google Sheets spreadsheet with the following columns and tabs: (Or click here to make a copy of the spreadsheet I used with my students, and simply remove the hooks before sharing with your students.)
  • Tab 1: Scope Debates
    • Columns: Reviewer (i.e. student), Issue date, Title
  • Tabs 2-6: Create one tab for each type of hook plus an “other” tab for any hook that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the categories. (You may end up with more than four tabs.)
    
    • Columns: Reviewer, Issue date, Title, Hook
• Share the Google Sheet with your students.

DAY 1

Students choose a debate and identify the type of hook.

• Teach a mini lesson on hooks, modeling how to identify a hook and going over the characteristics of each type of hook. 
• Model entering the information into the spreadsheet. 
  
• Have each student choose one of the 20 debates from the first tab and enter their name next to their choice. Depending on your class size, some debates may not be chosen. Note: If you have a large class and/or are not a 1:1 classroom, this can be done in small groups rather than individually.
  
•  Students read their chosen debate, identify the type of hook, and enter the hook in the appropriate tab in the spreadsheet.

DAY 2

Drill down and analyze which hooks were most effective.

• Put students in groups that focus on one type of hook. 
  
• Each group reviews all the hooks listed on the tab for their hook type.
• Each group reports back to the whole class. They share what their hook type was and give one example hook of that type that they thought was particularly effective by answering this question: Why would that hook make someone excited to continue reading? 
• Using all the information that has been collected and analyzed, have a whole-class discussion about the different types of hooks and the pros and cons of each type. 
• Students begin to write their argument essay. 

Final Note

This activity served as a bridge for many students who began Day 1 unable to think of any hooks and arrived at the end of Day 2 with a new problem: “Now I don’t know which type of hook to choose!” Since doing this lesson, my class hasn't had any issues composing hooks. As one of my students said, “I had major writer’s block on hooks, but this cured me.” We now have a kid-curated digital collection of hooks to refer to for inspiration.