Writing Holcomb

1: Vocab Review followed by the class close reading of In Cold Blood passage. For homework, construct an outstanding introductory paragraph and one body paragraph on one strategy. Bring tomorrow for peer review and discussion.

3: Vocab Review followed by thesis statement analysis of Capote passage. Then, you constructed an introductory paragraph for the prompt. For homework, compose one body paragraph for one strategy and the concluding paragraph. In all, you will end up with 3 paragraphs for this assignment.

4: Vocab Quiz 13 followed by the reading of introductory paragraphs. During the rest of class time, you worked on one body paragraph and the concluding paragraph for this prompt. Make sure to have all 3 paragraphs ready for class tomorrow.

7: Vocab Review followed by the last paragraph close reading of the Capote passage. Then, you crafted thesis statements for the prompts, which allowed us to analyze and provide feedback of your work. For homework, compose an outstanding introduction for the prompt, and then select one of the rhetorical strategies and write one body paragraph.

Close Reading Club Commences Tomorrow

For those of you available on a Monday afternoon, our first close reading club will be in my room after school. Ideally, we will have a current article to close read and then have an official AP Lang prompt for another practice. For each one, we will be close reading, identifying strategies, and formulating thesis statements. I just found a strong article for our first close read! Let's just say that it has to do with an animal that just had its appreciation day last week: the rhino.

Holcomb

All the classes are in different spots, so do make sure that you are following your specific hour's assignments. And band people, you only have to complete the assignment that reflects where you class happens to be. I gave you more stuff to do just in case!

1: Vocab experts continued, meetings completed, and we began the close reading of the In Cold Blood passage, which you will finish over the weekend. Be ready to share your "circles" as we finish the class close read on Monday.

3: Vocab experts resumed, and we completed the class close reading of the In Cold Blood passage, which really delved into this "outlier" community and what was to come to Holcomb. For homework, you are to take the 4 required parts of a thesis statement and write a thesis statement that answers the prompt. We will have thesis statement feedback on Monday.

4: Vocab review happened, which means you have a quiz on Monday. We finished the class close read of the In Cold Blood passage, crafted individual thesis statements for the prompt, and evaluated sample introductory paragraphs that were quite boring and faulty. Since those introductory paragraphs lacked the voice and excitement that an analysis of Capote deserves, your homework is to write the most amazing introduction ever!

7: Vocab experts finished, and we began the close reading of the In Cold Blood passage. Alas, we did not finish the close reading, so you will have to finish that up over the weekend!

Survey - Complete Prior to 9/29

Our school district needs a favor from you: a brief survey detailing what English classes you have taken and related questions to your experience at FZN. It is 5 questions and should take you all of two minutes to complete. Here is the link: https://goo.gl/forms/Ns3ukhff2JX347Vo2. Make sure you complete this activity by September 29.

The Path to Close Reading

All classes are continuing with vocabulary on the block days with fourth hour completing all 15 words at this point. All classes reviewed tips from my previous blog regarding how to write a strong rhetorical analysis essay. All classes came up with new nicknames for our buddies Jeffy and Washy. All classes started Banneker prompt meetings to clarify future writings. All classes should know what rhetorical strategy I have been using throughout this paragraph.

Individually...

1: Still have a few meetings to finish for Friday's class. Afterwards, we will work on a class close read to practice the skill and to encourage your rhetorical strategy identification.

3 & 7: Meetings are completed. We ended class breaking down the prompt for the Capote passage to determine what we will be close reading in the upcoming passage on Friday.

4: Meetings are completed. We spent the remainder of the class breaking down the prompt for the Capote passage and almost finishing 2 paragraphs for the class close read. At this point, you have identified several words to characterize the town and a few strategies that are already popping up in Capote's view of Holcomb. We will continue this tomorrow during class, and then it will be time to take the close read and apply it to the writing process.

All band students should have picked up their homework assignment - one page has the instructions, and the other page has the actual text. 

Rangefinding

After vocabulary today, we spent the rest of class analyzing the rangefinders and looking at what to do and what not to do. Tomorrow, we will review my blog from Saturday, which enumerates all the reminders on how to write a successful rhetorical analysis essay, and have essay meetings on the Banneker prompt. After that, we will be completing a class close read on a prompt, so make sure you are reviewing your terms in preparation!

*Vocab Quiz 11 will be recycled on Friday, so you will need to pick up the quiz - especially those of the nameless that currently have a zero in the gradebook.

Close Reading Club

After evaluating three classes and their rhetorical analyses of Benjamin Banneker's letter, a common theme began to appear: students were not close reading the text for its overall strategies and were not fully comprehending the prompt. This could stem from nerves at a timed prompt or a lack of experience with how to close read a passage. As there are some of you with ethos in the close reading field and some of you completely foreign to the concept, it is fortunate that we will be spending quality time with close reading a variety of texts over the upcoming weeks.

For those of you who want to foster stronger prompt understanding, close reading skills, and strategy identification sooner rather than later, I will be instituting a Close Reading Club, which will start next week. This is an optional club that will feature passages from articles, essays, and actual AP prompts. Ideally, we will start with a recent article and then do an AP-style prompt to show the transference of strategies in different styles of writing. I highly recommend that you attend any or all of these club days - which will vary according to my after school commitments with Scholar Quiz and meetings - in the upcoming weeks. You will be able to keep all of the passages, and you will be able to discuss these passages with me (of course) but also your fellow classmates in a smaller setting.

The first Close Reading Club will be Monday, September 25. Future club days will be announced via the blog and will not always be on Monday for those of you with commitments on that general day.

The basis of close reading is noting words and patterns in the text. As soon as you start the reading selection, begin to circle words that stand out to you. Eventually, those words create a pattern - a diction shift, repetition patterns, tone shifts, persuasive appeals, and all those frisky upper level strategies that you are learning. Find three patterns and you have three strategies for your essay.

Tomorrow, you will receive your essays for the Banneker prompt. Thus far, two of the classes have improved their average score; one class has dropped in average.  (I'm in the midst of the last class.) While this may be disappointing in the short term, it should be noted that this is a diagnostic prompt and now you know what you need to do to excel in rhetorical analysis writing. And a great deal of lower level essays misread the prompt regarding audience, possibly mislabeled strategies, and continued to create distractions via informal reference to the author/audience, full sentence textual evidence and mechanical issues. All of the aforementioned errors are FIXABLE if you take the time and effort to continue close reading and rhetorical analyses practices. Just as when you struggle with math or chem or any other subject, you often have to do supplementary work to improve. For those willing and needing that supplementary work, you now have another option to help you out.

I shall now return back to the last 23 prompts to evaluate, and I hope to see you on Monday for our first Close Reading Club. Remember, if you are struggling, you need to ask for help and assistance to improve your writing levels.