Last Minute Reminders

1. Whichever introduction strategy you choose, be sure to contextualize your argument.
2. Pay attention to the nitpicky details: hit return before you type your name in your header, italicize the containers in the body of your paper, put the punctuation to the left of the quotation marks ...
3. Review the Bibliography Notes 2017 blog post before printing your Works Cited. Everything you need to know is there.
4. Reread and proofread. Those are two different tasks.
5. Second most importantly, have confidence and play! You are not the writer you were in September. You are smarter, more skilled, and you have more tools in your toolbox. Take advantage of those strengths!
6. Most importantly, write an essay that matters to you. This isn't just a class assignment: you will spend the rest of your lives trying to figure out what to do in complex situations. This essay shouldn't be an ending point, but it should be a useful tool in helping you make decisions along the way.

Agenda, May 31

• Due Monday: Pick one: "The Age of the Essay" OR "The Insufficiency of Honesty" OR "The Ways We Lie." Take good newts.
• Due Tuesday: "The Allegory of the Cave," by Plato. Take good newts.
• Due Friday, June 1: Justice Essay
• Due Thursday, June 7: Return all books from my library to me. Put them in my hand, not on the shelf.  

Today's Agenda:

1. Can I? Should I? Do I have to? 
2. A visit from the counselors 

Some research resources ...

If you're looking for academic journals, but you don't want to use Gale, try

scholar.google.com

The first three minutes of the following video offer a very quick, quite useful introduction to Google Scholar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3NtCkSIwcY

Once you've found an article, you might want some help reading it. Here is a video that offers a useful strategy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKxm2HF_-k0

Here are two websites that address the same issue:

https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/strategies-for-reading-academic-articles

https://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/ReadArticle.html

When you are using the general web, be sure to assess the credibility of your sources. Once you've done that, however, be sure to assess the sophistication of your sources as well. Ask yourself who the audience for this website might be. Assess the level of diction and the use of citation. Basically, does this website sound like the texts we've been reading?
 

Agenda, May 21

• Not Due (Yet): "The Age of the Essay", "The Insufficiency of Honesty", "The Ways We Lie." These texts are excellent models for the essay you are writing, and might provide some strategies to make your essays better AND easier to write.
• Due Tuesday, May 29 (or earlier): Typed outline of your Justice Essay. No introduction or conclusion is necessary, though you may leave me notes about your intended strategies. You should include the topic sentences for each body paragraph and two examples to support each topic sentence.
• Do every day this week: Bring non-bluetooth ear buds.
• Due Friday, June 1: Justice Essay 

Today's Agenda:

1. Can I? Should I? Do I have to? 
2. A Smarter, More Balanced Test

Justice Essay Prompt

What is Justice?

Due Date TBA. Start ASAP.

 

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.

Agenda, May 18

• Due Now: Optional Revised War Essay Works Cited Page.
• Do Friday and Saturday: Go see Sarah, Plain and Tall. Box office opens at 6:45. Show starts at 7:30. All tickets are $8. 
• Coming Monday (maybe): Be smarter and more balanced 

Today's Agenda:

1. Help Mr. Kline problem solve
2. How you know you aced the Lang exam 
3. A Justice Test

Agenda, May 15

• Due on or before Friday, May 18: Optional Revised War Essay Works Cited Page.
• Do Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday: Go see Sarah, Plain and Tall. Box office opens at 6:45. Show starts at 7:30. All tickets are $8. 

Today's Agenda:

1. Semi-colons
2. Silly sentence review: However; Although; From to; List, list, list, dash 
3. Fun with Syllogisms: A little logos

Agenda, May 14

• Due on or before Friday, May 18: Optional Revised War Essay Works Cited Page.

Today's Agenda:

1. Who's with me on Wednesday?
2. Any last reviews?
3. Do you know what time it is?
4. Briefly noted
5. Syllogisms: A little logos
6. A few more silly sentences

Agenda, May 10

• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. The Feedback Loop
2. Divide and conquer
3. Review Presentations
4. The art of definition
5. Although statements
6. From ... to

Agenda, May 9

• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. What did we learn yesterday?
2. Divide and conquer
3. Review Presentations
4. Somebody remind me to return essays
5. T-shirts Wrap Up
6. Definition

Agenda, May 8

• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. What did we learn yesterday?
2. Divide and conquer
3. Review Presentations
4. T-shirts
5. Party

Agenda, May 7

• Coming tomorrow: T-shirt talk
• Coming tomorrow: Party planning 
• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. Divide and conquer
2. Review Presentations
3. However statements
4. Practice with analogies

Review Presentations

Step 1: Pick a text (that hasn't already been taken)
Step 2: Summarize the text (SOAPSTone is a good strategy)
Step 3: Identify the three dominant rhetorical strategies.
Step 4: Identify two examples of each of your rhetorical strategies and explain how they help the author achieve his or her purpose.
Step 5: Rehearse and be prepared to present on your assigned day.

May 7:

1. Isabella

2. Christina

3. Maggie

4.

5.

May 8

1. Lucas

2. Kristen

3. Ian

4. Linnea

May 9

1. Alissa

2. Kat

3. Dom

4. Dylan

5. Kylie

May 10

1. Joel

2. Dean

3. Ari

4. Nicole

5. Evan

6. Xander

May 11

1. Brandon

2. Ravyn

3. Gabriel

4. Matti

5. Jada

Texts:

Ian – When Music Heals

Kylie – The Communist Manifesto

Kristen – I Want a Wife

Maggie

Dylan – The Gospel of Wealth

Isabella – The Crucible

Evan – I Have a Dream

Linnea -

Lucas – A Modest Proposal

Matti – The Raven

Nicole – I Just Wanna Be Average

Gabriel – Lost in the Kitchen

Ari – How it Feels to be Colored Me

Nemo – In Praise of Chain Stores

Christina – The Female Body

Dominic – Obama Nobel

Kat – GoW

Jada

Ravyn – The Speech of Miss Polly Baker

Dean – Independence Day

Brandon – Invisible Hand / Wealth of Nations

Joel – Declaration of Independence

Alissa – On Dumpster Diving

Xander

May 7

1. Paxton

2. Brisa

3. Evan B

4. Keeley

5. Noah

May 8

1. Baileigh

2. Riley

3. Andrew

4. Rachael

5. Roxann

May 9

1. Mitchell

2. Ashley

3. Savonn

4. Sarah T

5. Isaac

May 10

1. Josh

2. Caitlin

3. Saul

4. Lillie

5. Haley

May 11

1. Brooke

2. Evan D

3. Camille

4. Adam

Texts:

Paxton – A Modest Proposal

Rachael – The Female Body

Andrew – On Dumpster Diving

Isaac – The Communist Manifesto

Sarah – Just Walk on By

Brisa

Savonn

Adam –

Haley – Tiffany Stephenson

Camille – How it Feels to be Colored Me

Evan – I Just Wanna Be Average

Keeley – I Have a Dream

Noah – The Declaration of Independence

Lillie – I Just Want a Wife

Brooke – Runner

Saul – When Music Heals

Evan B – The Gospel of Wealth

Caitlin – Superman and Me

Josh – The Plot Against People

Riley – The Raven

Baileigh – Lost in the Kitchen

Roxann – Obama Nobel

Mitchell – How to Restore the American Dream

Adam – Independence Day

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Agenda, May 3

• Presentations begin Monday!
• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. What do you need and when?
2. Review Presentation Sign Up
3. One good paragraph
4. Small group discussions
5. Scoring Circles

Agenda, May 2

• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. Review Presentation Sign Up
2. A 6 and a 9
3. Argumentative Timed Write

Agenda, May 1

• So, ya wanna write faster?  

Today's Agenda:

1. Review Presentation Sign Up
2. 10 Minute Paragraph OR Small Group Discussion
3. Small Group Discussion OR 10 Minute Paragraph
4. Scoring Circles