Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Circle What's one reasonable thing that you would change about this school to make it better for students and teachers.

Administrivia
Essay work today
Book reading today & prep for Monday's essay about your book.
We'll be back to philosophy on next Monday after the essay.

Writing an Essay
Learning Target: When we finish, you will be able to be given a piece of evidence and write a paragraph the contains a claim and full warrant.
Overview
We will be working on getting better
Step One
1) We'll be handing out a paper with a series of paragraphs from different student essays.
2) On the board will be written a thesis: "I will be giving you some advice on how to live your life in order to more successful.
3) We will evaluate each paragraph to determine the quality of the claims, evidence and warrant. We will look at one at a time and vote here.
4) After voting, we will either move on or fix it.
Step Two
1) We'll be giving you pieces of evidence in order for you to create your own paragraphs to support the thesis on the board.
2) Copy and paste the part of the evidence you want to use, removing parts you don't and inserting eclipses.
3) Before your example, write "For example,".
4) Write a claim that supports the thesis on the board and fits the evidence.
5) If needed, write some sentences before the example to further explain your claim and set up your example.
6) Write a warrant: first, explain what the evidence simply mean -- translate if for the reader; second, explain why it matters -- how does the evidence support the claim or why is it important.  Make sure to use words from the claim.
7) Rinse and repeat.

Reading
Learning Target: When we finish, you will tell me that you are ready to write your essay about your book.
Overview
We will spend time making sure that you are good to go for Monday. We'll start by gathering evidence, then move on to possible claims.  The rest will be up to you.
1) Gather evidence.  Using stickies, pieces of paper and notes, look through your book identifying passages that you think are significant.
2) As a class, we will be writing a series of "claim starters" for literary analysis. As a reminder, here are the things you can write about:
-plot
-figurative language
-tone
-imagery
-symbolism
-point-of-view
-setting
-character

Possible themes can be found on this page.