What it is. These phrases tell a reader what you are about to do with an idea — so the reader must then find you doing it.
Why our test works. *On the one hand* with no other hand, *nevertheless* between two agreeing sentences — this is the commonest Grade 7 error and it is invisible to the writer, who knows what they meant. These phrases are promises to the reader, so the only useful test reads FORWARD from the phrase to check the promise was kept. It also stops the discussion vocabulary being used as decoration, which is how it usually arrives.
Leans on. Grade 6's chunks steered the reader. These steer an argument.
Watch for. On a first meeting accept a rough use. Precision is asked for in the two lessons that follow, not this one.
Match 10 academic words to their everyday partners and use each in a sentence frame. The worked example is built on It could be argued that cost matters more., ringing it could be argued. The class reads Writing Book 7, p.78 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U27 set 2, U28 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per piece: the word it could be argued alone first, and you wait — let them look at it before you give them the meaning. Then someone might say arrives beside it, and you point from one to the other with your hand. Then the sentence underneath: It could be argued that cost matters more.. Three clicks, three things said. Do not let the whole slide arrive at once — a slide that arrives whole gives the answer before the question is asked.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class matches each item to its partner aloud, then uses the frames in pairs. Every child says at least one frame. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 7 to page 78 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone through the five steps — match, choose, frame, write their own. The frames stay on screen while they write: You may use the frame for two of your three. Try the third without it. Say both halves of that — the frame is there if they need it, and it is better writing without it. Walk and note who used it; that is your group for tomorrow, not a mark against them today.
You close on the exit direction — Say one sentence using it could be argued. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: It could be argued, this suggests, on the one hand, nevertheless.
On a first meeting accept a rough use. Precision is asked for in the two lessons that follow, not this one.