Strong Introductions

Good Morning!

Let's read.

Today we're going to be looking at the first sentences of personal statements, or what's commonly known as the "hook."

Let's take a look at some example opening statements:

Your turn:

1. Open your own draft and review your first paragraph.
2. Keeping your overall purpose in mind, take five minutes to brainstorm 4 or 5 different opening sentences. Don't worry about quality. Just experiment with different ways you can get your reader's attention.
3. I'll let you know the next step when we get there.

Writing Response

Good Morning!

We'll be reading, as usual.


Goal #1: Revision
While some of you may have gotten good advice from some of your peers yesterday, we need to take a step back and work in smaller steps.

Today, you will work with partners. You should all be with new people. With these partners:

1. One person will read their personal statement to their partner.
2. The listener identifies at least one piece of praise, one question, and one wish about the reader's personal statement.
3. Trade roles.
4. After this process, I will give you all a copy of the rubric. Identify where your partner falls in each category on the rubric, and give some suggestions for how your partner could improve their score. I would recommend trading computers so that you don't have to worry about sharing it with them. 

Goal #2: Reflection 

When you return to your seats, after you've put your netbooks away, I have a small piece of reflective writing to ask of you. I will give you paper.

1. What worked well and what didn't work well in today's process of peer editing (being assigned a partner, reading, sharing suggestions, looking at the rubric)
2. What is working/not working in your personal statement?
3. What is your plan for fixing/improving upon those issues?

Writing Response Groups

Good morning!

Let's get reading!

You need tabs open for:

• This blog
• Google Drive
• Your Writer's Notebook

We have a few goals today.

Goal #1:

Check out the document I sent you. There should be a link to it in an email you received last night from Google Drive. You should also be able to locate it in the "Shared with Me" folder in your Google Drive. (You'll need to move this document to a better location by clicking "File" and then "Move to Folder..." Put it somewhere where it won't get lost.

This is where you will "turn in" your personal statement.

Goal #2:

Yesterday, you looked at the elements of the rhetorical framework in relation to the essays you were writing. Today, you will work in Writing Response Groups to look for ways to revise and improve your writing.

FIRST: Identify three questions that you have about your personal statement for your peers. (I will give you examples of the kind of questions you might want to ask.)


Once in your assigned groups, this is the procedure:

1. The reader will read their draft out loud to their group after sharing the three questions (s)he has about the product.
2. As the reader reads, other group members are listening, following along, and making notes using the framework provided.
3. Once the reader is finished, the group has five minutes to talk about what they heard using the Writing Response Group procedure: All members of the group should be able to state one piece of praise, one question, and one wish. One Timekeeper should keep track of the time. The reader does not speak during this time.
4. After five minutes, the reader gets 2 minutes to clarify anything or ask questions. The reader gets the final word.

Looking at Rhetorical Framework

Good morning everyone!

Let's begin by reading at the bell.

Today, you should have a draft of a personal statement.

You'll need a few tabs open:

• Your Writer's Notebook (where your draft should be)
• This view-only document on the Elements of the Rhetorical Framework (you can make yourself a copy if you wish)
• This form that you will be using to evaluate your draft.

Our goal today is to assess our personal statements in relation to the elements of the rhetorical framework. 

It's okay if you were not thinking about these elements when you were writing your draft. Today, we'll dig into them a little bit, and you can begin to think about what's successful and what's missing within your own work.

A number of you, at the beginning of the year, asked what we meant by rhetorical. Let's start there.

Rhetoric is how you craft your writing (or speaking) to be meaningful/purposeful, and effective.

To do this, you must think about more than simply writing it down. You must evaluate how you want to present yourself to your readers/listeners.

We'll look at these elements in relation to some advertisements.

Time to Draft

Fill out this form






"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."

- Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

Do you feel like we don't do enough writing?

I feel like we don't do enough writing.

Today you will be working on the first draft of your essay.
Writing involves many drafts, especially when they are about personal experiences.
You will need to have your first draft written in your Writer's Notebook on Monday, which means that you'll need to do as much writing as you can today, and know that you may have to do some extra writing this weekend.

The document below gives you options for your personal statements.

Personal Statement Prompts

Please make sure to label your draft with your essay prompt and, if applicable, the college it applies to.

There are two ways to go about this:

Option 1: Just start writing. Forget about structure and organization because you can figure that out later. Writer's that choose this option should feel ready to write. They should know which essay they want to write and have a good idea what they want to present in their essays.

Option 2: Take some time to sketch out your paper using a planning chart like the in the Personal Statement Prompts file. It may be a good idea to choose a couple prompts and try out different approaches and/or subjects. Draw on what you read this week and have written over the past few weeks. Use this to draw out your sense of purpose for your essay. Then move on to writing.

Student Models, Day 2

Books out!

Let's read!

Yesterday you read from a selection of student models that all took different approaches to writing the personal statement.

Today, you will meet in groups to share what you have read, and provide your group members with what those approaches look like.

These are not the only ways to approach your personal statements. They are simply some examples.

With your group, ask each other the following questions (though you can ask more than just these). You do not have to write anything down, simply discuss:

• Can you give us a brief summary of your personal statement?
• What was the writer's purpose in writing the essay they did?
• What are some of it's strengths? Weaknesses? Can you give evidence?
• What are some powerful sentences in the essay that we should hear?
• How can we apply techniques from this personal statement to our own?

With the remaining time, reflect on the following in your Writer's Notebook, at the top, under today's date, as a freewrite.

How can I tell my story?

"____________ is a keen interest of mine......"
"My story begins with......"
Try a technique: Dialogue, flashback, reflection, a description

Looking at Student Models

Guess what day it is!

Let's read.

You'll need to get yourself to this blog, and open your Writer's Notebook.

Yesterday you did a little bit of research and individual work based on your needs.

Let's get ourselves focused on the upcoming task. We're going to spend the next couple days looking at some student models. These are real personal statements that high school students wrote. 

Right now you only need to focus your attention on one of the following. I will tell you which link to click on.

Example ONE

Example TWO

Example THREE

Example FOUR

Copy and Paste the following questions into your Writer's Notebook:

1. Which model are you reading?
2. What does the writer want you to learn about her/him? What was his or her goal in telling you this particular story?
3. How does the writer introduce their essay? How is it effective or not effective?
4. What are 1 or 2 powerful sentences that show who this person is and what they are trying to convey?
5. What part of their writing was most successful? (Voice, word choice, story arc, clear ideas, etc)
6. Do you see any instances of ethos (credibility), logos (logic), or pathos (emotion)? How do the affect the writing?
7. How might you apply these techniques to your own writing?
8. What could make their essays better or stronger?

Research Day

Hello! Happy Tuesday!

Please get your netbooks and your books out.

When the bell rings, we'll be reading.

In your Writer's Notebook, labeled with today's date:

Which career/college path am I planning for? Write one word at the top of your document to describe what this is. (If you aren't sure, or are still deciding, pick one for now.)

I will give you directions from there.

By the end of today, you should be able to walk out of this class knowing what essay you are going to be writing, and, if applicable, the college it applies to. A more detailed description will be given to you later this week. Your choices are:

• Write a personal statement that you can tailor to your future job (like a statement of purpose) that explains who you are, what matters to you, and/or the skills that you possess that will show why you will be an excellent "candidate" for employment. It should probably be between 500 and 700 words.
• A specific college application essay from a college that you are applying to. If the required essays have a 250 or 300 word limit, pick two. (Trust me, you'll be happier if you're working on two at once.) You may, of course, choose an essay from the Common App.

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Places to start:

HELPFUL LINKS:

• Common App essays (plus Stanford Essays)
• UC Schools Personal Statements (If you want to write towards a career path, instead of a specific school, I would recommend checking out these essays. You can choose one of these as your prompt.)
• For questions about colleges, a good place to start is College Board
• Choosing a Career Path and/or Major
• If you're planning to attend a local community college, make sure you look at the website for admissions requirements. And if you plan to transfer to a 4-year university, remember you'll still need to write transfer application essays!)

Career-bound topics of research:

• skills or abilities needed to enter their career
• what a typical day looks like, or common tasks you would be doing
• job security - Is this field hiring? How does it treat its employees?
• What does a statement of purpose look like?

College-bound topics of research:

• Deadlines/admission requirements
• Financial aid requirements or opportunities
• What it means to choose a major, and opportunities in that field
• What does the college's town look like?
• Which application essay do you want/need to write?

BEFORE YOU LEAVE, FILL OUT THIS FORM
I would like to know what direction you're heading with your essay before we sit down to write in a couple days.

Also, here's a link to an interesting article you might like. It's called 7 Strange Questions that Help You Find Your Life Purpose

Library Day

Good Morning!

You do not need your netbooks.

After I take attendance, we will go to the library.

You need your ID. 

If you already have a book, bring it.

You can read in the library.

 

1. Now that we're back, we'll read for ten minutes! This will be a daily thing. You must bring your book.
2. One of the Common Application questions asks the following: "Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?"
   
   Let's look more closely at this through writing.

One thing to keep in mind is that you need to tell a story and/or paint a picture. How can you create the most vivid picture for your reader?

Hidden Intellectualism

Good morning!

You will need to open your Writer's Notebook in Google Drive, and the "Hidden Intellect" article from yesterday (you can find a link to in on yesterday's blog post).

While you're working on that let's talk about the word "intellectual" for a minute.

Intellectual. adjective

1. : of or relating to the ability to think in a logical way
2. : involving serious study and thought

Take a look at the following quotes about intellectuals. 

• “Intellectuals are not defined according to the jobs they do, but [by] the manner in which they act, the way they see themselves, and the values that they uphold.” -  Frank Furedi
• 
  
  “An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.” ― Albert Camus
    
   “The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.”
  
  
  
  ― Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
  
  
  “Intellectuals are not defined according to the jobs they do, but [by] the manner in which they act, the way they see themselves, and the values that they uphold.”
  
  
  
  ― Frank Furedi
  
  
  “What is an intellectual? In general, someone seriously devoted to what used to be called the “life of the mind”: thinking pursued not instrumentally, for the sake of practical goals, but simply for the sake of knowing and understanding.”
  
  
  
  ― Gary Gutting
  
  
  “Academics were not intellectuals; they were not curious, they built their stolid tents of specialized knowledge and stayed securely in them.”
  
  
  
  ― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
   
  
  

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You're going to be reading Graff's article today in class, with a partner. 

I have assigned you those partners. It should be relatively easy to find them today. I've made it so that they're sitting next to you.

Here is the protocol you'll need to follow when approaching this text. 


Say Something Protocol

1. Work with a partner.
2. Decide together how you will "chunk" the text.
3. Read the first chunk independently. (highlight/comment on/make notes about things you find important)
4. Stop and talk about what you just read.
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until complete.

Talk in order to:

• Explain what you read
• Ask questions about the text
• Connect with the rest of the text
• Connect to personal experience

In your Writer's Notebook write to answer the following questions before you leave:

What is Graff's thesis? Restate it in your own words.
What is your hidden intellect?
What is your area of expertise/knowledge?
How can this benefit you in the future?

Truth and Intellect

Truth

Sarah Kay is a well-known spoken word poet. Her TED talk is called "If I Should Have a Daughter..."

She invites us to seek truth within ourselves, asking us what truly matters and why.

In your Writer's Notebook

1. Begin a new entry at the top of the page that you label with today's date.
2. List your three truths.
3. Wait for more directions.

If you were absent, you are still responsible for this:

Watch Sarah Kay's to the 6 minute mark (or thereabouts), write down your three truths, and write for 10-15 minutes starting here: "One truth I know without doubt....."

You have to be in class. You're missing important pieces of our learning.

Intellect

We're going to be looking at a new reading today over the course of today and tomorrow. This one is called Hidden Intellectualism. It is not easy, and that's okay. 

Before we get to it:

How would you define or characterize an "intellectual?"

Click here for the essay when I tell you to

It is view-only. You'll need to make a copy for yourself that you can annotate/edit.

Today we're only going to be looking at the first two paragraphs and the last paragraph together.

"The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it innothing." - Eugene Delacroix

You need you computer. You will need to access your copy of the article from yesterday, and open your writers notebook.

Yesterday you read an article on the idea of failure by Angel Pérez and you were asked to identify important advice and put it into a chart in your writer's notebook.

Today I'm going to ask you to do some group work discussions and writing.

If you need the article, scroll down to find the google document in yesterday's post. You can also google the title.

Reading with Purpose

Yesterday you left class with a homework assignment to ask someone you trust about the words you ranked and to take down notes

Right now I would like you to reflect on that through writing (on that paper). What did you learn from your discussion? Do you agree with what they had to say? Why or why not? How might this help you with your own sense of self?

Once you have logged onto your netbook, please make your way to this blog.

Create an English Journal

1. Create a new document in Google Docs.
2. Name it with your period# Full Name Writer's Notebook (i.e. 2 Alyssa Black Writer's Notebook)
3. Share it with Ms. Black using her gmail address.

Today's Text

Today we will be previewing and reading an article by Angel Pérez called "Want to Get Into College? Learn to Fail."

• Click here to get the view only copy. You will need to click File and then Make a Copy so that you can edit it.
• Preview it: What do you think Pérez's message will be?
• Read the article "with the grain," meaning you will want to read with the lens that Pérez has a perspective or idea that can expand your thinking in a positive way. For now, read as if all of his advice is good advice.
• Underline or highlight the best advice Pérez gives about how to represent yourself.

Once you have read and highlighted the best advice Pérez gives, make a chart that looks like this one in your Writer's Notebook. Make sure you label it with the date.

You should have up to pieces of advice, including your responses. You will have some time to share your thoughts with those around you.

The last thing:

Write a one-page description of an evident or moment when you were less than perfect and explain to a reader what your response says about your character, values, or potential for work or study.

Words Matter

Get your computer, log in, open this blog.
12thWritersWorkshop.blogspot.com


We all have different ideas about who we are and what represents us. Today you'll look more closely at the words that you use to define yourself.

But first I need you to Create a Writer's Notebook:

1. Create a new document in Google Docs. 
2. Name it with your Period# name Writer's Notebook  (i.e.  4 Alyssa Black Writers Notebook)
3. Share it with Ms. Black using her gmail address.

You'll be using this almost every day. Unless the internet breaks. But we're going to pretend that won't happen. You'll need to write today's date on your document to signify your first entry.

---------------------------

Okay. Now let's get to the real work.

Below is a list of words. It is not a comprehensive list, and that's okay. 

Choose the ten words off of this list that best fit your sense of self and write them in your Writer's Notebook.

Now, add 10 more words to your list that describe how you see yourself at this stage of your life. These may or may not come from this list. 

Last, rank those 20 words based on which words are most important to you in your life.

Making Predictions and Asking Questions:

The last thing you're going to do today is to reflect on the language you've chosen to describe yourself with, and to consider the significance of it. This goal is to be able to make predictions and develop ideas about what you'll need to do to best represent yourself in your personal statement. In your Writer's Notebook, answer the following questions:

• Why did you rank your words as you did?
• What do your words tell you about your opinion of yourself in terms of readiness for work or college?
• What would someone who knows you well think of the words you chose?
• Based on your analysis, predict what you will need to do learn more about to achieve your goals.
• Predict how well your words/concepts will work for you as you move into the next stage of your life. For example, if one of your words is "stubborn," how do you think that will work for or against you in the future?

Homework: (It's not that bad, I promise.)

Find someone you trust and show them or share with them your list of words.

Ask them what they think of your choices, and ask them to share their thoughts about how you've defined yourself. 

This may be difficult, and that's okay. Listen (without talking or interrupting), and jot down some notes about how people perceive your words and choices. You may even write down your opinion of what others said.

It's never a bad time to ask for more perspectives on concepts such as these words represent. It is difficult to represent yourself to others if you don't have a solid sense of who you are and what you believe about yourself.

Our First Unit

Happy Monday! (I know you're excited.)

As we start to get the year going, there are still a few things we have to do before we can jump into our first unit, so we have a few things to talk about today

• 6 word memoirs: Let's share! Truly, this helps me to get to know you better and learn your names.
• Finish your student outcomes self-assessment: While you are doing this, I'm going to be passing back the papers you turned in last week. Once your group has finished, share what you think your strongest and weakest skills are and why.
• Technology! - Tomorrow we will be getting the netbooks out, which means you need two things: The Netbook Use Agreement signed by a parent, and a Gmail account. 
• Introduction to our New Unit: We'll be working on personal statements to start off the year. Many of you mentioned in your writings that you were worried about what happens when you graduate, as well as getting all of your applications completed, so our goal is to work together to do that in class, with the support of your peers and your teachers. 

Thinking Ahead:

The final piece of the upcoming unit results in the development of one of two pieces of writing:

1. If you believe you are more inclined to pursue a career or enter the work force, write a "letter of introduction" to the work community or job that you wish to pursue.
2. If you plan on entering college, write a personal essay for a college application.

These essay topics can be revised or individualized based on your needs (i.e. you can use your essay to answer a real essay topic that one of your applications requires).

If you want to look at common application essay topics check out the Stanford website.

Freewrite: What do you think you'll be doing next year? What are your intended plans?

Some questions to guide you if you need them (Please don't answer these in number order.)
1. If you are going to college, why did you make this decision, and where will you go?
2. What do you want to get from your college experience?
3. If you are going into the work world or the military, why are you choosing that option?
4. What do you want from working or entering the military or any other career you might be considering?


When you are finished, reread and begin to list reasons you feel you are ready, or questions you have regarding what you need to know to get where you want to go.