We learned a trick for transitions so you aren't just adding transitional "tag" words. If you were absent, read the definitions below and find the simple hook and deeper hook used in the whole essay below.
Topic sentences can be transitions, too!
Simple
Hook —
the last word of the previous paragraph is hooked into the first sentence of
the next paragraph to introduce the next reason.
If you can’t do this trick with the last word, find your best phrase….
Deeper
hook —
hook to a specific word/phrase anywhere
in the previous paragraph to connect to the next reason.
Name
Should students have daily a daily
physical education class?
Coach
Williams is barking out the count for our fifty crunches. The gym smells like feet. I’m exhausted. Despite these complaints, I’m in favor of
physical education at least every other day in school. It helps us maintain our physical health, it
elevates our mood, and improves our academic performance.
Let’s start with what many would say
is the most obvious reason to have daily physical education: maintaining our health. In the Achieve3000 article, “Fewer Kids
Getting Fit at School,” it says, “Exercise can reduce the risk for chronic
diseases, like diabetes, and help support healthy bones, muscles, and joints.”
It also mentions that about a third of kids today are overweight. For me to maintain a healthy weight and keep
my muscles and joints in good shape, I walk daily—and I take my daughter
too. It makes a difference that we can
feel when we occasionally fall out of the habit. Other parents may not be able to guarantee
that hour of play because of work or other family commitments. This is where daily P.E. fills a need. Still, few elementary schools offer it
everyday. There’s not much that’s more
important than being fit, strong, and healthy.
In
addition keeping us healthy, having P.E. everyday would enhance our emotional
mood. According to the article “Another
Reason to Get Up and Go,” exercise helps to trigger neurochemicals inside our
brains. The article says, “These
chemicals heighten feelings of pleasure.”
Neurochemicals are like little inner tubes floating our bad feelings
downstream. When we exercise, we have
more neurochemicals, which makes us happy. Because of our
feelings of happiness while exercising, we are also less likely to look for
pleasure in bad activities, like drug use.
In that same article, I learned that kids who exercise daily “were fifty
percent less likely to smoke cigarettes” and “forty percent less likely to
experiment with marijuana.” That is
remarkable. Teachers always teach about
the dangers of drugs, but a better way to prevent drug use is to just let kids
have P.E. everyday. Exercise simply makes
us happier, which leads to better mental health.
Those
little neurochemicals that get activated during PE also help you perform better
in your job or at school. According to
“Keep Moving,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan himself said that, as a student,
exercise helped him focus since he often “had a hard time siting still in
class.” I know many students would agree with this. Ninety-minute classes can seem like an
eternity when you’re doing nothing but staying in one place reading and
writing; this leads to lots of toe-tapping, clock-watching and heavy sighs of
frustration. Besides helping with focus, gym class can provide a much needed
break from academic classes and give students a chance to socialize. Some schools say they don’t have time in
their schedule or the money for P.E., but research shows that “giving kids time
to play….does not have an adverse effect on their test scores” (“Fewer Kids
Getting Fit at School”). Hopefully
someday all schools will see the link between a daily PE requirement and doing
well in school.
Daily
physical education class will help us do well with all of these: our health,
our mood, and our academic performance. So, even though the gym smells like
feet, and we hate dressing out everyday, I’ve come to the conclusion that a
daily physical education class is worth it for the benefits we reap.
