Friday, February 21, 2020

So now that we've got our claim, our intro, and our conclusion (easily 3 of the most important elements of an essay), but now we've got to focus on the 4th element that is essential to an argumentative essay. To cover this, we'll be doing a Nearpod together in class.

Click here to go to Nearpod, then put in the code to start your class's lesson. Make sure you put in the right code, though!

1st Period: HKEOM
2nd Period: QRANX
3rd Period: AZJUN
4th Period: BUKVF
5th period: JKVAW
6th Period: ZCNMY

If you were absent today, please click this link to complete the student-paced lesson.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

So now that you've finished analyzing your article for reasons and text evidence, and you've evaluated which author had the best argument, it's time to develop those thoughts into a claim to answer the prompt we looked at on Tuesday. Pull your notes from Tuesday out, get out the packet you completed for homework, and something to write with.

You will be taking all of that information and using it to develop a claim today, then using that claim to work on an introductory and a conclusion paragraph. Your intro and conclusion paragraphs will be due when you come to class tomorrow because you'll need all of that to develop the next part of your essay.

Remember, all of this is in preparation for next week's District Writing Assessment - give 100% effort!

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Today you'll continue working on what we started yesterday. You'll need to get your packet out of the drawer and continue working on reading and annotating; Ms. Fowlkes is going to give you 10-15 minutes to finish working on it before you move on to the next thing.

If you missed class yesterday, please see Ms. Fowlkes to get the assignment - you'll need to complete it before coming to class tomorrow so you can participate in tomorrow's writing assignment.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

This week we are working hard at preparing for our upcoming District Writing Assessment (Wednesday, February 26 and Thursday, February 27). You will be working on reading and analyzing two (very short) texts, then answering a prompt about which one has a stronger argument. Once we've done that, we'll work on creating introductory and concluding paragraphs, and finally addressing counterclaims and rebuttals.

Listen. I know you think this sounds like a lot. Or that it's going to be really hard. Both of those are wrong. And I promise you, just like I told you on Friday that if you are paying attention and giving 100% effort this week, you will feel so prepared and confident when you sit down to take your DWA next week! If I were there in class today, I'd even give you a pinky promise on that - that's how confident I am about this.

Today with Ms. Fowlkes you're going to be working on dissecting an essay prompt in your notebook. Once you've done that, you're going to be assigned one of 3 topics to read about. Each topic presents a question and then 2 short texts: one in favor of the question, and one opposed to it. You'll start the reading in class today and finish it tomorrow in class; your packet shouldn't leave the classroom today!

Okay, grab your notebook and something to write with, then go ahead and pack your laptop away - you won't need it again today! See you on Friday!