If your students can't write a thesis statement, then you can't move on. This is the #1 essential skill that students need in high school. If our students can't create a thesis, then they can't write a paper! Use this tried and true lesson that I made for an observation - so you know it has all the bells and whistles. Use this to guide your students in learning: put students into groups and give them a whiteboard and an Expo marker and you are set!