Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Own Your Education

You are writing an essay that will use three types of arrangements to answer three different sets of questions.
Definition: How can it be defined?
Description: What does it look like? What are its characteristics?
Exemplification: What are some examples of it?
This prompt requires you to accomplish accomplish two tasks. First, you must define what it means for someone to own their education. That may include describing as well as defining.  Then you must explain, using examples, what it would mean for you to own your education. That will likely involve connecting the generalized descriptions with specific examples of what it would look like for you to do this.


When writing this, consider where you are at in high school right now. However, also consider where you want to go in life and what education or training you may need to get there. While the state has defined the minimum requirements for graduating high school, there is room to both customize that and position yourself for success in your chosen field. Often with all the grad requirements and tests mandated by the state it can be easy to become passive and take on a “whatever” attitude. Yet we also all know that education and training is one of the most important currencies in our society, and the only one readily available to everyone. This essay deals with the overarching issue of how we should spend that currency to our best individual advantage.


Due Dates
Rough Draft: End of the period tomorrow, Thursday January 29th.
Final Draft: Monday February 2nd

Length: 450-650 words

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Semester Final

If you somehow missed what was going to be on the final, here you go.

Study the image grammar stuff we've been doing. Know how to spot a participle, absolute, appositive, and adjectives out of order. These links were developed by others who use the same system I'm using.
http://quizlet.com/3747817/5-image-grammar-brush-strokes-flash-cards/
http://www.birdvilleschools.net/cms/lib2/TX01000797/Centricity/Domain/3125/BrushstrokesPDF.pdf

The rest of it is hard to study for. There is a section with excerpts from Plainswoman where you have to answer questions about the text. There is some poetry you answer questions about (that's why we were going over those poems again). There is also a piece you haven't seen before that I've asked some questions about to see how you can read and determine meaning.

The last part is you take a position on a statement and defend your position in a 2-chunk paragraph like we did with Emerson.

The most you can really do to prepare is to reread the poetry from the Romanticism section and make sure you understand what's going on and then study the grammar. The two links above should help remind you what we did in class. We'll likely use that PDF later. I hope that helps.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

This I Believe Paper

Your This I Believe essay is due on Monday January 20th. You will need two copies, one for me and one for you. As this is a radio show staple, it will be presented aloud. Here are the requirements adapted from the This I Believe submission page (I encourage you to submit them to This I Believe if you wish).
Keep the following in mind when you write your essay:
1.    Limit your essay to 350-500 words.
2.    Describe an event that shaped your beliefs or a person who inspired them.
3.    Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!
4.    Read more of the This I Believe essay-writing tips.

You can peruse multiple examples at http://thisibelieve.org. Often the ones put on the radio are a bit better, but not necessarily so.


Andrea Kang's (Class of 2009) This I Believe essay. They re-posted it from its original posting so all of the comments are gone, but her essay is there.