End of Year Reflection

End-of-Year Reflective Writing

Due: May 8, 2014  

Self-reflection page with examples. (send by email and post to your blog)

Write as you reflect about the journey you’ve been on to read classics and a genre of writing (either Sports Lit or Sci Fi) and getting prepared to write essays in college. Look back on what you read and wrote this year, and give examples to illustrate how you developed confidence and/or skills as a reader and writer. As you reflect about your progress as a writer, specify which areas you gained skills in.

·         Sentence level writing, word choice, expressing your ideas in sentences

·         Coming up with big ideas, college-worthy claims or assertions

·         Organizing essays and paragraphs to present a logical flow to your reasoning

·         Using and analyzing evidence and quotes to support your reasoning

To what extent do you feel prepared for college reading and writing? Finally, envision where your writing may be going beyond this year. How would you like your writing to evolve? Thanks for a great year!

New paragraphs on The Stranger

TEA paragraph:

1)      ASSERT (topic sentence makes a claim) Craft a bold and creative assertion

2)      EVIDENCE quote(s) or examples,

3)      ANALYSIS (discuss and explain evidence,

4)      CLOSE (explain the implications of your assertion or show what it implies about the writing

5)      Revise your paragraph for clarity, grammar, sentence structure, or meaning. Add a title, email & blog it.

 

Justin:                   Words Reflect Meursault’s Experience of the World

T: Camus’ language reflects Meursault’s view that the world is hostile to him

E: words from the end of part I: spear, stabbed, slash, etc.

A: analysis of how violent words communicate M’s view of being attacked

C: Implications for the novel

 

Raul:                      Settings Affect Character

T: Different environments affect Meursault’s behavior and emotions

E: The beach environment panics M, whereas the prison makes him feel safer

A: Analyze quotes

C: Implications of a protagonist who changes with the setting

 

Christine:                             Can the Sun be One’s Enemy?  

T:                            Sunlight is Meursault’s Enemy  

E: On the beach, the sunlight attacks him; in the prison, the heat overwhelms him; in the courtroom, the “harsh light” from the sky oppress him

A: Analyze the three examples to clarify why the sun can be M’s enemy

C: Explore the implications of M’s impression that a natural element can make him feel attacked.

 

Nia:                        Understanding One’s Own Reactions    

T: When Meursault has insight into how his physical needs take precedence over his emotions, he comes to understand his own patterns of reactions and therefore feels safer.

E: “my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings” (65)

A: Explain the quote and how it supports the assertion.

C: Explore the implications that self-knowledge in the novel can lead to a greater feeling of safety.

 



Paragraph per week on The Stranger

Write a paragraph/week on Camus

With the goal in mind to get you as ready as can be for college writing next semester, you now have the option of writing a well-written paragraph each week on The Stranger (or you have the option of writing the 3-5 page essay). Each Thursday (April 10, 17, 24, May 1) we will take 30 minutes to write paragraphs on Camus. Follow the T.E.A. body paragraph structure: Topic (Assert something bold), Evidence (examples and/or quotes), Analysis (Show how your examples support your assertion), and Close (Write a succinct close to your paragraph that reasserts your claim and convinces the reader that it is true).

Use these paragraphs to explore the text, your ideas, and support your bold claims. Recent research on High School Students’ Expectations of College Writing: “Students incorrectly expected college writing to be “about filling a particular kind of form—that it’s very much about correctness and very little about inquiry” (11). Notes DelliCarpini: “They believe we grade mostly on grammar and mechanics.” (Source: Collier, Lorna. “Listening to Students: New Insights on Their College-Writing Expectations.” NCTE Council Chronicle. March 2014, Vol. 23, No. 3.)

·         30-minute in-class writing (which you can revise at home and turn in by email and on your blog)

·         Your name and a title, double space, in MS Word as an attachment

·         TEA Body paragraph style: 1) ASSERT (topic sentence makes a claim), 2) EVIDENCE (quote(s) or examples, 3) ANALYSIS (discuss and explain evidence, and 4) CLOSER (explain how your assertion explains the text and/or the narrator).

·         Choose a passage or section of the novel. Narrowly focus on one aspect of the writing or any character. Choose several examples.

·         Analyze your example(s).

·         Craft a bold and creative assertion to open your body paragraph.

·         By the end of your paragraph, write a closing to your paragraph connects your assertion, evidence, and analysis.

·         Revise your paragraph for clarity, grammar, sentence structure, or meaning.

·         Email your paragraph to the instructor and post it on your blog.

Brainstorm your ideas here or on a keypad.          Focus _____________________________            Name ____________

Your assertion: __________________________________________________________________________________________

Your evidence: __________________________________________________________________________________________

Your analysis: __________________________________________________________________________________________

Your closer: __________________________________________________________________________________________

Write a paragraph on patterns you detect in Meursault in The Stranger

Write a paragraph on patterns in Camus

·         30-minute in-class writing (which you can revise at home and turn in next day)

1.       Paper copy or type and email to instructor

2.       By the end of the week, post to your blog

·         TEA Body paragraph style: 1) ASSERT (topic sentence makes a claim), 2) EVIDENCE (quote(s) or examples, 3) ANALYSIS (discuss and explain evidence, and 4) CLOSER (explain how your assertion explains the text and/or the narrator).

·         1^st: Focus on a topic or a pattern you’ve detected in the writing (and that interests you).

·         Choose one:

1.       How does the writing style match the narrator’s view of life? Analyze examples.

2.       How do Meursault’s physical needs take precedence over social or emotional needs? Analyze examples.

3.       How does Meursault relate to people (Marie, Maman, Salamando, or Raymond)? Analyze one or two examples.

4.       A different pattern that you detect in the text and Meursault.

·         Analyze your example(s).

·         Craft an assertion to open your body paragraph.

·         By the end of your paragraph, write a closing to your paragraph connects your assertion, evidence, and analysis to what we are learning about Meursault as a character.

·         Revise your paragraph for clarity, grammar, sentence structure, or meaning.

·         Email your paragraph to the instructor and post it on your blog.

STYLE: How does the writing style perfectly match Meursault’s point of view?  ‘I was tired.’ (12)

PHYSICAL: Find examples of how Meursault’s physical needs are more important than his emotional needs. Washing hands. (25) Heat and light bother him. Hunger (47) Smoking. Physical thrills/attraction.

SHOULD: Meursault wonders about social conventions and “shoulds.” Should he have viewed the body?

RELATES: How does Meursault relate to others?

HABITUATION: Repetition and routine gets you used to anything. (Salamano)

YOUR CHOICE: Find a pattern in the book and analyze examples of it

Student-Led Discussion on Dune

Student-Led Discussion Questions on Dune

 

Choose your topic of interest: _____________________________________

(androids, ai, bene jeserit, arakis)

 

Choose your team  ___________________________________________________

 

Choose a recorder ____________

Brainstorm multiple discussion questions to lead the whole class in discussion.

(Make sure there are follow up questions so that the discussion can be sustained for 10-15 minutes.)

(Draw on your essays to generate more context and discussion questions.)

Decide on presentation format ____________________________________________

(one PowerPoint slide or word document to display the questions.)

Choose a format for the discussion:  ______________________________________________

(panel? Circle of desks? Presentation? Interactive?)

 

works cited page

Sci-Fi Essays

The best use of class time is to synthesize different texts and write about them. You are all so ready for the challenges of college writing and thinking and research.

For college essays, remember:

·         A catchy title

·         A startling thesis claim, or at least a kind of bold statement

·         Few proofreading errors per page (commas, apostrophes, fragments)

·         Paragraphing that makes sense, with T-E-A structure (topic, evidence, analysis)

·         Structure that allows readers to follow your logical thinking step by step

·         Works cited page with at least a few sources (and no plagiarized ideas)

·         Beyond that, be creative, use “I” in the conclusion if it works, and draw strong conclusions.

·         Don’t forget the MLA header

                                      

                                    Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1953.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. NY: TOR, 1977.

Eller, Jonathan R. “The Story of Fahrenheit 451.” in Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1953. 2013 edition. 167-187.

Gaiman, Neil. “Introduction.” in Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1953. 2013 edition. xi-xvi.

Reagan, Roark. Personal Interview. 10 February 2014.

  

            OWL Purdue online resource for MLA citation: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/09/

 

Essay: Fahrenheit 451

Essay on Fahrenheit 451

(Must include at least on example from any of the following I, Robot, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Hamlet, or Ender’s Game; you may also use 1984 or Brave New World; list on works cited)

Mon. Feb. 3 Finish reading text

By Wed., Thu, and Mon, (Jan. 28-29, and Feb. 3): at least two blogs exploring your essay topic. Frame your own question.

Drafting in-class and at home Feb. 3-6

Due: Mon. Feb. 10, 3-5 page essay, college level, few if any errors per page, MLA headers, works cited page, strong intro and argument-like thesis, backed up with quotes and evidence from the text and perhaps other reading we have done.

Possible topics:

1.       How do Sci-Fi authors create a defamiliarized world that readers eventually enter into and immerse themselves? Trace the reader’s journey in entering that world with examples from different texts.

2.       To what extent are protagonists of Sci-Fi novels insiders or outsiders? What makes them outsiders, if they are? How much do readers sympathize with the protagonist and how do protagonists resist sympathy?

3.       To what extent do Sci-Fi authors portray futuristic societies as dysfunctional? Is this dysfunction meant to be a warning, satirical, or a prediction? Are readers merely entertained by dystopian novels or do such novels wake them up?

4.       Form your own question (with instructor’s approval).

Room to plan your essay (later blog your notes)                     

·         Form your own question

·         Lay out examples

·         Prepare a working thesis (with a strong point of view, argument, or claim)

Sketch preliminary structure