Agenda, June 1

• Late: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Due Tomorrow: Final Draft of Justice Essay

Today's Agenda:

1. Who wants free money?
2. Essay questions
3. Things to do on a college essay
4. Prompt 1: Brainstorming / Writing Time

Agenda, May 27

• Late: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Not Due Now: Works Cited pages for feedback purposes only
• Due Tuesday: Typed, completed rough draft of Justice Essay in MLA format.
• Due Thursday: Final Draft of Justice Essay

Today's Agenda:

1. Who wants free money?
2. SBAC

Agenda, May 20

• Late: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Late: Bring your Language of Composition Textbook
• Due Monday: Justice Essay Outlines. Typed. Claim, complete topic sentences, and supporting details
• Due Monday: Bring ear buds, if you have them.
• Do this weekend: Go see The Giver.

Today's Agenda:

1. Who wants free money?
2. Justice Essay questions?
3. Structure in "Insufficiency" and "Ways"
4. Laptop Time

Agenda, May 19

• Late: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Late: Bring your Language of Composition Textbook
• Due Now: "The Ways We Lie," by Stephanie Ericsson
• Due Monday: Justice Essay Outlines. Typed. Claim, complete topic sentences, and supporting details
• Do this weekend: Go see The Giver.

Today's Agenda:

1. Who wants free money?
2. Justice Essay questions?
3. What not to say about "The Ways We Lie"
4. What to say about "The Ways We Lie"
5. Everybody talks once. Repeat.

Agenda, May 18

• Late: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Due Now: "The Insufficiency of Honesty," by Stephen L. Carter (it's from 50 Essays, 2nd Edition if you need it for a Works Cited)
• Due Now: Bring your Language of Composition Textbook
• Due Tomorrow: "The Ways We Lie," by Stephanie Ericsson
• Due Monday: Justice Essay Outlines. Typed. Claim, complete topic sentences, and supporting details
• Do this weekend: Go see The Giver.

Today's Agenda:

1. Who wants free money?
2. Justice Essay questions?
3. Bias and the Justice Essay
4. Stripping of the stickies
5. To the library!
6. How is "Insufficiency" useful?
7. Redemption and the Justice Test

Agenda, May 17

Due Dates:  

• Due Now: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Due Now: "The Insufficiency of Honesty," by Stephen L. Carter (it's from 50 Essays, 2nd Edition if you need it for a Works Cited)
• Due Wednesday, 5/18: Bring your Language of Composition Textbook
• Due Thursday: "The Ways We Lie," by Stephanie Ericsson
• Due Monday: Justice Essay Outlines. Typed. Claim, complete topic sentences, and supporting details
• Do this weekend: Go see The Giver.

Today's Agenda:

1. The returning of the work
2. Justice Essay Questions?
3. Did we fail The Justice Test?
4. Everything you need to say about honesty
5. Everybody speaks 3 times

Agenda, May 13

Due Dates:  

• Due Tuesday, 5/17: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Due Tuesday, 5/17: "The Insufficiency of Honesty," by Stephen L. Carter (it's from 50 Essays, 2nd Edition if you need it for a Works Cited)
• Due Wednesday, 5/18: Bring your Language of Composition Textbook

Today's Agenda:

1. The Justice Test

What is Justice in 2016?

What is Justice?

Craft a research paper of 7-10 pages that provides your personal answer to the question “What is justice?” You may base your answer on your personal reading, as well as events in the news and in your own life. Feel free to scavenge from previous essays (remember, however, that this is a research paper. This paper needs to demonstrate the ability to conduct original, college level research). Classroom texts don’t count as research.

You may consider other questions, such as who deserves justice? Who abdicates their right to justice? Who decides who deserves justice?

This paper requires parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page in MLA format.

Schedule:

5/13: Justice “Test”

5/16: Laptop Day

5/20: Laptop Day

5/23: Typed Outline Due

5/27: Not due: Works Cited page for feedback purposes only

5/31: Completed, typed first draft of essay due for Peer Review. Participation grade only.

6/2: Final draft of essay due.

Rest of tri: college essays

How to Write a College Level Paper

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

(Or: What it Means to Write a “College Level Paper”)

1. I read first. I read all the assigned work for the class, even the boring pieces (except, I confess, for the single most boring piece). As I read, I looked for connections between essays, connections between the essays and my personal experience, and particularly for places that created “disequilibrium” – a disconnect between the writer’s point of view and the world as I understand it.

2. I took notes during the lectures. I took three types of notes: 1) content based notes; 2) ideas for my paper (both thesis ideas and supporting arguments); 3) curriculum ideas for my classroom. I identified ideas for my paper with an asterisk in the left hand margin.

3. I wrote an outline on Saturday, July 19^th. The outline identified four sections of my paper. Each outline section heading was a question. The bulk of my outline consisted of authors and page numbers where I could find textual support to answer the question.

4. I let the essay “cook” until Tuesday, July 22^nd. I thought about the essay, discussed my thesis with classmates, skimmed the class readings, and reviewed my lecture notes, but I did not compose.

5. I wrote one section of my paper each night from Tuesday through Friday. As part of the writing process, I turned the questions from my outline into thesis statements. Yes, my essay has four distinct thesis statements. The main thesis for my essay – the one that operates as an umbrella thesis for the others – first appears at the bottom of page two (not at the end of the first paragraph).

6. The writing process created new questions for me, so I turned to the internet for research. I did not use wikipedia, except to fact check one definition. Often, the websites Google provided were not helpful, but the pages contained links to other pages that met my needs. Ultimately, I found three resources that were both useful and credible: one of my sources was from Indiana State University (after I selected the resource, I googled the author to confirm that he was reliable), the Pew Research Center (a nationally recognized institute), and a government website.

7. Each night, before I began work on a new section, I reread my previous work. This helped with proofreading, maintaining continuity of voice, and creating smooth transitions.

8. On Saturday, I revised. I reread the paper from beginning to end. I fussed with my organization, particularly the transitions. I also created my Works Cited page; it took almost two hours.

9. On Sunday, I gave the essay to my wife to read (in school, this is called peer review). She’s also an English major and an excellent editor. She gave me feedback on diction and voice, audience awareness, grammar and punctuation, and a few logical lapses. She also gutted my conclusion.

10. On Monday, I made the easy revisions. I attempted to revise the conclusion, but it still needed more time to “cook.”

11. On Tuesday, I revised the conclusion. My wife reviewed the new conclusion, offered a few tweaks, and griped that I didn’t accept every single one of her suggestions.

12. Tuesday night, four weeks after I began my reading for this essay and ten days after I began the process of composing, I e-mailed my final draft to my instructor. I sent the essay as a Microsoft Word attachment AND pasted the essay into the body of the e-mail.

Agenda, May 12

Due Dates: 

• Due Tuesday, 5/17: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia
• Due Tuesday, 5/17: "The Insufficiency of Honesty," by Stephen L. Carter

Today's Agenda:

1. So, how was it?
2. The Return of the Portfolios
3. A little bad news about the Bibliographies
4. What happens next?

Agenda, May 11

Due Dates: 

• Due Tuesday, 5/17: Deliver $13.30 to Olivia

Today's Agenda: 

1. Mr. Kline stares at an empty classroom and sends positive vibes to his writers.

Agenda, May 10

Today's Agenda: 

1. What do you need?

Agenda, May 9

Due Dates: 

• Due Now: Review Presentations, Round 3
• Now: War Revisions

Today's Agenda: 

1. Now presenting ...
2. 10 minute argument
3. A fun math formula

A Fun Math Formula

Total MC x 1.2272. Do not round.

Total of three essays x 3.0556. Do not round.

>115 = 5
110-114 = 4
82-99 = 3
58-81 = 2

If you were absent, I have your MC scores at home (but not your essays). Send me an e-mail if you're curious.

Agenda, May 6

Due Dates:

• Due Now: Review Presentations, Round 2 
• Due Monday: Review Presentations, Round 3
• Due Monday, May 9 (or sooner, if you like): War Revisions

Today's Agenda: 

1. Now presenting ...
2. Arg Scoring
3. A fun math formula

Agenda, May 5

Due Dates:

• Due Friday: Review Presentations, Round 2 
• Due Monday, May 9 (or sooner, if you like): War Revisions

Today's Agenda: 

1. How many RAs can you read?
2. 10 minute TEP
3. 10 minute Arg

Agenda, May 4

Due Dates:

• Due Friday: Review Presentations, Round 2 
• Due Monday, May 9 (or sooner, if you like): War Revisions

Today's Agenda: 

1. Now Presenting ...
2. A few moments with Auntie Thesis

Agenda, May 3

Due Dates:

• Due Tomorrow: Review Presentations, Round 1 
• Due Monday, May 9 (or sooner, if you like): War Revisions

Today's Agenda: 

1. Presentation expectations
2. Thoughts about last Friday and yesterday
3. Yet another way to score timed writes

Agenda, May 2

Due Dates:

• Due Monday, May 2: Completed MC section plus three timed writes on separate sheets of paper (you'll put each timed write in a separate stack on Monday). If you are gone on Monday, make sure your guy brings your work.
• Due Wednesday: Review Presentations, Round 1 
• Due Monday, May 9 (or sooner, if you like): War Revisions

Today's Agenda: 

1. A moment of silence for our missing sisters and brothers
2. Presentation expectations
3. Thoughts about last Friday
4. Multiple Groups