Draft Letter for College Essay/Personal Narrative & 5 Author Questions

Goals for today's class:

• Opening Moment: Joe N
• 5 Author Questions--due today
• Silent Conversation: http://nyti.ms/1fPUfhK
• Watch the above video and then respond to one of the two following questions in comment on THIS POST!
• HOW does this video show that sometimes the facts can get lost in sensational news stories?
• HOW does this video show how sometimes special interest groups can distort the facts of an event to further their own goals?

Draft Letter Assignment: College Essay/Personal Narrative

Overview: It’s never a good feeling to get a paper back only to be criticized for something you already know isn’t going well, or worse, for something that you thought was pretty great. Your draft letter will give you the opportunity to tell your reader(s) what you think about your piece before it’s evaluated. As a teacher, it’s easier for me to help you improve when I know what you think about a particular assignment!  Please use reasons and examples to support your judgements- try to incorporate at least one direct quote from your writing piece.

Task: Write a letter addressed to your reader (today...that's me!) that reflects on several aspects of your writing. Here are some reflection questions to consider examining in your letter:

• What is your favorite part of this particular piece and why?
• Are there any weaknesses you see in this piece? Tell me about them.
• What techniques did you try which differed from your regular process?
• How does this piece compare to other pieces you have written?
• What difficulties did you encounter when creating this piece and why?
• What really worked in this piece? Why did it seem to work well?
• What’s one thing you would like to do to improve this piece, if only you knew how to do it?
• What do you think is the one thing a reader is most likely to take away from your piece?

You are free to respond to as many or as few of these as you wish. The goal is to think about your writing process and also evaluate what worked well and what didn’t.

Length: 350-500 words

Location: At the bottom of the page of your College Essay/Personal Narrative in GoogleDoc.

Format: Follow letter conventions (date, greeting, body, closing, and signature)

This will count for one participation assignment and will be graded using the homework rubric.

Reader's Response #5 & Author interview example

• Reader's response #5 (Who have you never been in a group with?)
• Author interview example
• HW: Polished draft of college essay due Tuesday

Reader's Response #5--postponed

Noteworthy
Grading for Journalism is as follows:

• Major Assignments 50%
• College Essay
• Favored Personality Profile
• Author Interview 
• Participation/In Class Activities 20%
• Homework 30%

Opening Moment: Nick O.

Reader's Response #5

Punctuating Quotes Correctly

Resume & Reader Response #4

1. Opening Moment: Nick N.
2. Book Project
3. Resume work (see examples from class)
• Good for giving to teachers to help write letters of rec.
• Getting a job
• Guidance 
4. Reading Response #4

• Alisha, Sam, Deanna
• Kenny, Joe,   Nick N, Gabby T
•  Zoe,  Gabby B, Nick O

• What's the six-word memoir for your book?  Post individually to this blog post.

College Essay #2

Opening Moment: Deanna

GET READY TO WRITE!
It's a draft...so crank it out.  Come prepared with the prompt you would like to use.

Make a time to meet with Ms. Peterson to look at essay OR make an appointment in the Writing Center.

Visit the prompts for the common app here:
Common Application: 650 words! New Prompts

Reader Response #3, Personal Narrative #1 due, Opening Moment

Goals:

• Opening Moment: Reilly G
• This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/504/how-i-got-into-college
• Readers Response #3...share out.

1. Dillon, Julia, Nick N.
2. Deanna, Joe,  Gabby T
3. Nick O, Luke, Gabby B
4. Kenny, Zoe, Alisha, Sam

Group Question: What is the best way for you (and your group members) to keep up with the reading? Can Ms. P do anything?  Can your peers do anything? The books should be finished by October 23rd.  Respond to this question by responding to this blog post.

•  Personal Narrative Draft #1--Check this out.
• Due next time:  Interview for Career Personality Profile (100 points HW grade)

Favorite Mistake & Grade Evaluation

Goals for Wed 10/2/13:

1. Opening Moment: Alisha
2. Look at printouts of grades to make sure my calculations and yours are on track
3. While I'm checking up with grades: 
•  Go to this link and then answer the following question on this blog post: Do schools provide students with enough opportunities to be creative? Feel free to reply to the replies of your peers. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/do-schools-provide-students-with-enough-opportunities-to-be-creative/?_r=0#more-137660
4. Come in with Favorite Mistake Worksheet complete...start drafting!
5. Second profile of a career you're interested in: interview on October 9th.  Please plan ahead to complete your interviews. 
6. Next class: 3rd reading response and first narrative draft due! Good thing you have Friday off!