Thursday, August 21, 2008

DAY 2 AGENDA AND HANDOUTS

Opening Activity: Make Do's and Don'ts Posters
(In small groups, use one piece of chart paper to recall everything we should DO in our college essays, based on yesterday's lessons, clip, and articles/samples...use a second piece of chart paper to chart College Essay Don'ts. This will help students do most of the review and allow the teacher to comment only as needed.)

Q&A from yesterday: Read & answer any questions from the exit slips

Homework Share out: What surprised you in the Family & Friend Inventory? What was confirmed?

Create Chart: Positive Qualities, Stylistic Techniques, Potential Problems/What We Dislike

Lesson/Activity: Examine UC Prompts and Samples...discuss strengths, stylistic choices, what essays reveal about applicants, first at tables, then as a whole group (Teacher reads aloud all 3 while students mark comments, then discuss each)
UC Prompt #1, "Your world": "Baking" essay
UC Prompt #1, "Your world": "Softball" essay
UC Prompt #2, "Talent": "Marathon" essay
Supplemental Prompt, "Talent": "Hurdles" essay
Common App Prompt #1, The "Stroller" essay
Common App Prompt #1: The "Iranian-American" essay

Writing time: Select one of the prompts to respond to. Use the samples to help guide you and generate ideas.

Partner share: What's going well? What will you work on next?


Writing time: Select one of the prompts to respond to. Use the samples to help guide you and generate ideas.

Introduce Peer Response Protocol and use protocol to review a partner's draft.

Writing time: Make revisions or add to your draft based on the comments from the protocol. Continue to use the samples/articles to help guide you and generate ideas.

Exit Slips: What went well today? What are you nervous about, or wondering about, in terms of these essays, or college in general?

4 comments:

Jennifer Pust said...

2009 - substituted Matt's "Islands" essay and Saba's "Iranian-American" essay for the "Pencil" and "Badminton" essays. Worked beautifully. Also, did not do poster recap of Do's and Don'ts. May move that to Day 5 as a wrap-up.

Jennifer Pust said...

2010 - skipped badminton essay for now. Did a comparison chart for Hailey's "Softball" essay, Saba's "Iranian-American essay," Robbie's "Hurdles" essay, and Tiffany's "Baking" essay. Did not do poster recap of Do's and Don'ts because we made them yesterday.

Added reflection questions: What went well? What are you concerned or nervous about when it comes to your college essays? How close are you to having your first topic chosen/narrowed down?

Jennifer Pust said...

2010 - also, substituted Hailey's "softball" essay for the "marathon" essay for now and moved McEssay handout to tomorrow.

Jennifer Pust said...

2011 - Made a comparison chart:
Columns: What We Like, Qualities of the Applicant, Stylistic Choices
(NOTE: In second dry erase marker we listed things we didn't like or were uncomfortable with)

Read and discussed Tiffany's "Baking," then "Marathon" essays--worked nicely to have two essays by same student, back to back. Then did writing time and introduced Freewrite #1 topics as alternative to Common App/UC prompts for those who weren't ready to tackle those yet. After 15 minutes of writing time, we read Matt's "Restaurant" essay and discussed, then headed to break.

Wrapped with more writing time, then Robbie's "Hurdles" essay, then a little more writing time, then final reflection. Used questions from 2010 comment.

After Hurdles essay but before reflection, asked students to jot down notes for tomorrow--what might you write about next? What's tomorrow's game plan?

Added Reflection Question: Which of the sample essays did you most connect to and why? (To Throw a Pot, Baking, Marathon, Restaurant, or Hurdles).