Possible questions to build your topic:

Who are some famous people from Maine?

Why are these people famous?

When did they live?

Who are some famous people of Maine?

Why are these people famous?

When did these people live?

Notes

-Stephen King, Samantha Smith and Margaret Chase Smith are famous people from Maine

-Stephen King

-Writes many horror books

-Very popular author

-Born in 1947

Notes cont.

-Samantha Smith- Visited the Soviet president during the Cold War-Lived 1972-1985

-Margaret Chase Smith-First woman to serve in the U.S. House of

Representatives-First woman elected to the U.S. Senate-First woman to seek the presidential

nomination of a major political party-Lived from 1897-1995

Write it up!

A great opening

A topic sentence

Good punctuation and spelling

A concluding sentence

Lots of voice to keep your audience interested

Example of voice

• Opening sentence:

• Topic sentence:

• Say it!

• Concluding sentence:

Try starting with a question to get your reader interested.

Say what you are going to say.

Answer the question briefly.

Say it! Be sure to put it in your own

words. (Synonyms, explain it to yourself.)

Restate the topic sentence. Say what

you said in a different, shorter

way.

Opening: Are there really any famous people in Maine?

Topic Sentence: Even though Maine is not a very big in terms of population, there are some famous people.

Say it! Some famous Maine people include Stephen King,Samantha Smith, and Margaret Chase Smith. Born in 1947,Stephen King is a well-liked author of many horror books.Samantha Smith is another famous person from Maine. Eventhough she died very young, a lot of people around the worldnoticed when she wrote to a Soviet leader during the Cold War. Shewas invited to visit the Soviet president, and told him she wanted the

Cold War to stop. Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to run for president. She was elected to the U.S. senate. She also served in the house of representatives. She was born in 1897, and lived during a time that not a lot of woman were politicians.

Concluding Sentence: In this way, these people from Maine are famous for different reasons: one is a writer, one a politician and one a citizen who reached out to another country during a time of war.

Try starting with a question to get your reader interested.

Say what you are going to say.

Answer the question briefly.

Say it! Be sure to put it in your own

words. (Synonyms, explain it to yourself.)

Say what you said in a different,

shorter way.

What question are you trying to answer?

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

1. Choose a topic by reading the table of contents, skimming the headings, or looking at the pictures and reading the captions.

2. Then, turn that heading or subject into a question.

Your Name: ____________________

Take Notes. Pay special attention to any information that answers the questions you asked before you started reading