Day 43!

If you're not in class, you will probably miss the fact that we are moving over to Google Classroom. So, wave a sad little goodbye to our blogs here, and head on over to classroom.google.com

Day 42!

Happy Friday!

You are working to get your rough drafts done today! You will have the class period to work, and I expect that your drafts will be ready to go on Monday!

Day 41!

Happy Thursday!

Today is another writing day! You should be moving on from your outline to your rough draft. I realize that I am not there to check over your outlines today, so instead of having me look over it, please have someone you trust in class to look over it and make suggestions of what you could add. Once you finish with that, please move on to your rough drafts! Your outline should include the facts, statistics, and quotes from your articles (at least 4) that you are going to use in your essay.

You've got the whole period to work....use your time wisely. Seriously.

Day 40!

Happy 40th Day Anniversary!

We'll celebrate today by working on our Persuasive Essays! Yay!!!

Your goal is to have about 2 pages done of your rough draft by the end of the day. Remember, I would like to see your outlines before you begin writing!

Day 39!

Happy Tuesday!

Today, you will continue to work on your "Hot Topic" Persuasive Essays. You will have time to continue your research, and to start an outline today. Use the following two resources to help you build your outlines:
Persuasive Essay Resource #1
Persuasive Essay Resource #2

You may do your pre-writing (outlining) in any way that you would prefer, but I will need to see it before you go on to your rough drafts.

Not sure how to write a thesis? Check out this helpful video.

In addition, your revised scholarship essays are due today! Please turn them in using the farmy form below:

Day 38!

Happy Monday!

Today, we will begin talking/ working on our Persuasive "Hot Topic" Essays! Yippee!


Remember, your revised scholarship essays will be due at the end of the day tomorrow!


Here are some resources that will help you structure your essay:
Persuasive Essay Structure #1
Persuasive Essay Structure #2

Day 36!

Happy Thursday!


Today we will take a short break from Persuasive Writing to look at our Scholarship Essays. I will give you some time to look over the comments I made and start making revisions. Completed revisions for redo credit will be due at the end of the day...sometime next week.

If you have not done so already, please turn your persuasive RAFTS (complete with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs) in via the form on yesterday's blog post.

Day 35!

Happy Wednesday!

We will keep talking about persuasive writing today. Please turn in your RAFTS below!

Day 34!

Happy Tuesday! Happy Homecoming week!

Today, we will finish talking about the different types of appeal based on our TV commercials. Then, we will work on this RAFTS activity!

Day 33!

Happy Friday!!

Today, we will spend a little more time talking about persuasive appeal. We will use TV commercials as our guide.

Once we finish with that, we will work on this baby (not so baby) writing exercise.

Day 32!

Happy Thursday!

We'll pick up where we left off yesterday. You should have finished your arguments and counterarguments before class today, so we should be good to go there!


If we get time, we will move on to learning more things! Then, we will do this.

Day 31!

Happy Wednesday!

If you have not done so, please make sure that your final revisions to your scholarship essay are on the same Google Doc that you started on. I have begun my final scorings, and I have noticed that some of you have not done that.

Today we get to talk about new things! You're going to need to make a copy of this NOTES SHEET  in order to pass my class! :)

Day 29!

Happy Monday!

Your revisions on your scholarship essays should be done as you read this. If they are not for whatever reason, that needs to be completed ASAP!

Since many of you will be taking the ACT tomorrow, we will do some practice today!

Practice Tests #1
Practice Tests #2

Day 28!

Happy Friday!

Today will be your FINAL revision day! You've had plenty of time to do these, so I am expecting greatness.

Day 27!

Thursday!

We'll keep working on revisions today!

Day 26!

Good morning all!

I apologize that I forgot to tell you  I would be in a meeting today. But, lucky you! You get to have Mr. Peterson today!

By now, most of you have received your feedback from the people who read your essays. Kendra and Peyton, your feedback from Ms. Waugh is on my podium.  Yesterday, we talked about how you can use a story to show the good qualities you have. Today, you will take the feedback and use it to guide more revisions. Focus on finding a spot to provide those stories. You will have the entire period to work on this, and yes, I do expect you to work.

For those of you who have not yet received your feedback. This is your chance to use your formal email skills. I would like you to write an email to the teacher who read your essays. Your job will be to politely  remind them they agreed to read your essay and ask when they hope to have it done. Be sure to follow the six rules we talked about in class. Please have someone read over it before you send it.  When you  do send it, be sure to CC me in on it, so I can see your skills at work.

Once you have sent the emails, I want you to go back and look at your essay again. Identify a spot where you can add one of those stories we've been talking about. You can start revisions without necessarily having their feedback in front of you!

Day 25!

Happy Tuesday!

We will talk a little bit about the feedback you have received so far to start class today.

I have a feeling, though, that some of your reviewers need a little more time (which is totally okay). You will have time to look through real scholarship searches today. By the end of class, you will have found a scholarship on one of these three sites to apply for. You can access the links below:

ICanSucceed.org
Scholarships.com
FastWeb.com

Day 24!

Happy Monday!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

On Friday, we discussed the basics of revision. Today, you should use the feedback you got on your essay to guide your revision process.

You will also need to select one adult (outside of your family) to read and score your revised essay. Be sure to print out a copy of the evaluation form, so they can use it to provide feedback.

Day 23!

Happy Friday!

We'll start working on revisions today. I will put an example up on the board, and we can work through how to make it better.

Day 22!

Happy Thursday!

We'll talk a little bit about how your peer editing went yesterday, and we will cover any questions you may have.

I'd like to take a little time to talk about quality revisions, and then I will give you some time to revise your essays.

Day 21!

Happy Wednesday!

I apologize that you are missing me today!

Today, you will work in small groups to begin the editing process for your scholarship essays. If, for whatever reason, you are not finished with your rough draft, you need to get that done and submitted ASAP. You will not be able to complete the editing step today, so you should use class time to catch up.

If you are done, which I hope all of you are, please get into groups of 3 if possible, 2 if 3 doesn't work. Share your essays with your partners. For each person in the group, please complete a Scholarship Essay Evaluation Form. I know this looks pretty basic compared to the peer editing you are used to in my class, but I created this form based on real life scholarship evaluations I found online, so it is probably similar to how you will be assessed. As you fill out this form, please be sure to provide thoughtful, constructive feedback in each category. I'm looking for more than "it's good". Remember, there is real scholarship money on the line, so be sure you put forth your best effort.

You will have all class to complete this. If you finish early, you may begin revising your essay!

I'm upstairs in a meeting today, so if you have questions, shoot me an email.

Day 20!

Happy 20 day anniversary of starting school!

You will have another writing day today. Remember, your rough drafts are due at the end of class today! Please turn them in using the form below: 

19

Happy Monday!

Today will be a writing day for you! Remember, your rough drafts will be due at the end of class tomorrow!

18th Day!

Happy Friday!

Okay, so today, we will continue to work in groups on your scholarship essay outlines. Based on feedback from your group, you will add/remove information on your outline. After that, I will have you start drafting your essay. Rough drafts will be due Tuesday!

Day 17.

Happy happy Thursday to you!

We'll keep moving forward with your scholarship essays today. I will have you start by partnering/ grouping up (maybe an opportunity for TEAM SHAKE?!) to look over/ discuss your essays. Does the outline include all necessary information? Does it answer every part of the question? What can be added or taken out? What is the thesis going to be?!

This just sounds like a whole load of fun to me!

Day. 16.

Here we are...day 16....Wednesday.

We'll keep working on our outlines today and spend a little time discussing thesis statements for scholarship essays. Didn't know that those existed?! Loving learning!

If you were absent yesterday, or need to reference the scholarship presentation again, you may access it HERE.

Day 15!

Happy Tuesday!

We will finish talking about tips for writing a great scholarship essay today. Then, you will begin outlining your essay answer! It's going to be a blast!

Click HERE if you'd like to see a few more tips for success and several sample essays.

You can access the SAMPLE OUTLINE on that link <----there.

Day 14!

Monday morning! Everyone's favorite time of the week!

Today we will spend some time talking about how to write an awesome scholarship essay! Yay for money!

Day 13!

FRIDAY!!!!!

Today we will finish up with a quick discussion of when to and not to use passive voice in writing.

THEN, I will have you take some time to complete this Tone/Purpose Check In using the form below.


If we get time after that, we can start talking about how to write a scholarship essay! Whoop, whoop!

Day 12!

Hey, it's Thursday! You've almost made it through the week!

Today, our parallelism group will finally get to enlighten us. After that, we will do some extra practice together using the sites linked below.

Parallelism Practice
Passive vs Active Voice Practice
Rules for when to use and avoid passive voice

Then, I'd like to check in to see how well you understand tone, purpose, and the rules of writing a formal email. Please fill out the form below before class tomorrow.

Ir 

Day 11!

Happy Wednesday!

Welcome back to school; I hope you enjoyed your long weekend!

Today, we will continue to work on our parallelism and passive vs active voice presentations in groups. THEN, we will finally get to present them!

Day 10!

Happy Friday!

You will have time to work on your parallelism and passive vs active voice mini lessons today. If we have time, we will present them!

Remember the requirements are:

• Presentation defines topic and shows how to use it properly
• Group should provide an interactive practice activity for the rest of the class
• Group will discuss the answers to activity after sufficient time has passed
• Everyone in the group should have a job assignment
• Each group member should have some part of the presentation

Day 9!

Thursday!

We will take a look at some of your revised emails today and talk about how they could be even better.

Then, you will work in groups to research parallelism and passive vs active voice.

Your job will be to create a mini lesson to teach the class about your particular topic. You will need to design an interesting presentation, and a practice activity for the class to do.

Requirements:

• Presentation defines topic and shows how to use it properly
• Group should provide an interactive practice activity for the rest of the class
• Group will discuss the answers to activity after sufficient time has passed
• Everyone in the group should have a job assignment
• Each group member should have some part of the presentation

Day 8!

Hump day!

For today, you were to find an old email of yours that could use improvement according to our rules.

Then, we will break up into groups to do some work with parallelism and passive vs active voice.

Day 7!

Tuesday!

We'll keep it going with how to write a formal email today. I will have you do some practice by finding and revising one of your old emails!

Day 6!

Happy Monday !

Today, we will take a look at your tone/ purpose RAFTS from last week. We'll evaluate the importance of word choice in conveying tone. Then, we will do some revising!

If we get time, we will talk about the rules for writing a formal email.

Day 5!

Happy Friday!

We'll take some time at the beginning of class to work on our tone/ purpose RAFTS. After everyone has completed theirs, we will take a look at some of them and evaluate the word choice.

If we get time at the end of class, we will begin talking about the rules of writing a formal email.

Day 4!

Happy happy Thursday to you!

We'll pick up where we left off yesterday. We will begin discussing what tone and purpose are in writing.

If we get time at the end of class, we will work on these RAFTS.

Day 3!

Wednesday!

I will give you some time at the beginning of class to start/continue/finish your course outline for your ideal Real World Writing class. We will combine all of our lists (eliminating repeated topics, adding new ideas, etc.) until we have one final curriculum.

With the remaining time, we will start working on tone!

Day 2!

Time to get to business!

Today we will take a look at some of your writing from the past, and set goals for this year!

Then, you will do some research with a partner to design what your ideal "Real World Writing" course curriculum would look like!

First day of school, first day of school!

Welcome back to school! I can't believe summer is OVER. I hope you had a great vacation and that you are stoked to be back.

Today, we will spend some time getting to know each other, and will go over the basics of life in Mrs. Gulley's room. It's going to be so exciting!

Yay for school!