College Essay Boot Camp- LAST DAY!

And now, a note from your teacher...
Hey everyone!  My kid is running a fever of 102 as I type this, so I will be home tomorrow watching endless episodes of Daniel Tiger and trying to coax her to eat chicken and stars soup.  Everything you need to accomplish today is below- please read the instructions carefully!  I will check my email when and if she naps, so if you have any questions, please email them to me. 

To help you with the writing goals portion, you should use your college essay and the seminar reflection feedback I gave you (afternoon class, your graded reflections are by the projector--please grab them!). Honors folks, I will be sending you your essays as I get to them throughout the day.  I apologize that they're not all done!  Do the best you can with the writing goals- I will have your essays back tomorrow when I return to school, and you can revise your writing goals then based on my feedback.

College Essay Boot Camp Feedback
Complete the Google Form feedback survey on College Essay Bootcamp:  SURVEY IS HERE!
 
Exhibit Your Work

1. Design the College Essay Display Board.  See the Document of the same name linked to the documents page of my DP, and the example hung on my board.
2. When your display board is put together, stack them neatly on the table in the front of the room.  We will hang them in the hallway tomorrow.

 
Writing Reflection

1. Look at the Three Levels of Writing and my Writing Rubric as a resource (honors folks, see the Honors Rubric).
2. Develop three specific writing goals for yourself as a writer based on these documents and my feedback.  We're going to be using these goals for the rest of the semester to gauge your growth as a writer, and will use your end of semester writing reflection as a springboard for your senior project paper.  As you feel like you achieve your goals, we'll develop new ones!  This reflection will be worth 40 points, and will go into the "Am I developing as a learner?" category.  HINT:  This is worth as much as your college essay, so make it good!
3. Write 3 Goal Paragraphs:  For each of those three goals, write a paragraph.  That paragraph should include: 
   • What your goal is 
   • An example from your Tocqueville writing, your college essay, or your blog that shows the need for that goal
   • Some ideas about how you can work towards improving this skill for your next piece of writing
   • Example:  Goal 1- Understanding the Text.  I will make sure that I thoroughly understand the text I am using in my writing before I use it as evidence.  In my "Habits of Highly Cynical People" writing, I used a quote that said "..........."  In my essay, I said that this quote meant "....quote from essay....." However, I misunderstood this quote because I didn't put it in the larger context of the argument Solnit was making.  In fact, the quote means (tell real meaning of quote here).  To improve this in future writings, I think I need to summarize the meaning of every paragraph of the reading in my annotations, and I need to ask questions more actively during seminar coaching.  If I'm reading it independently, I need to make sure I completely understand one paragraph before moving on to the next paragraph, rather than just continuing to read on.
   • Example: Goal 2- Logical Flow.  I will  make sure that all my paragraphs logically flow from one idea to the next.  In my seminar reflection, my first paragraph was about how both the presidential campaigns oversimplify what the other one is saying, and my second paragraph was about how naive cynicism is bad.  I didn't connect these two ideas at all, so it was confusing for the reader to make that jump.  In future writing, I could do a number of things to improve this.  Early in my writing process, I could make sure that I have an outline, so that I've clearly thought through the logical flow of my paper.  I can also use transition sentences to show the reader the links between ideas.  Finally, I can references terms and ideas from the previous paragraph in the one after it to show the reader how the ideas from the preceding paragraph connect to the ideas in the next paragraph.
   • Example: Goal 3- Semicolon Usage.  I will make sure that I'm using semicolons correctly in my writing.  In my college essay, I had written this sentence:  "....example of sentence from college essay that uses semi-colons incorrectly..."  In her feedback, Lori pointed out that I was using the semi-colon incorrectly here.  I looked up the rules on semi-colon usage, and found that I should only be using them to join two complete sentences- right now, the piece after the semi-colon is not a complete sentence.  In future writing, to make sure that I am doing this correctly, I can go through and circle every semi-colon I use, and then read the sentences before and after it out loud to make sure they can stand on their own as complete sentences.
4. Write 1 paragraph about your revision in your College Essay.  Talk about one specific way that you grew as a writer between your first and final drafts of your College Essay.  In this paragraph, you should include:
   • How you grew (what skill improved?)
   • What it was like before (give a specific example- you could quote an early draft of your essay here!)
   • What feedback you got that pushed you to revise
   • Evidence of your growth in this area (again, you should quote the final draft of your essay here!)
   • Explanation of what you did to make this growth happen- what was your process?

 
DP Update
Create a tab for your college essay.  It can be within your Humanities class tab, or can be separate.  Include BOTH the information from you Display Board AND the full text of your college essay. 
 
Put your writing goals on your regular Humanities page.

HOMEWORK

1. Email Lori your DP link when it is completely updated with the Writing Goals (see above- 4 paragraphs total) and your College Essay (see above for requirements).  DUE:  Friday 9/16, start of class.