Day 2- College Essay Brainstorm + Outline

DUE DATES- ON TIME​​​​​​

1. Rough Draft College Essay. DUE: Monday, 9/25, Start of Class. Google Classroom.
2. College Essay Conference + Reflection. DUE: Complete sometime between Thursday 9/21 and Tuesday, 9/25. Turn Reflection in on Google Classroom after the conference.
3. Revised College Essay + Display Board. DUE: Wednesday, 9/27, Start of Class. Turn in Hard Copy of Display Board.

 
DUE DATES- LATE (-10%)

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Starter 4- Model Essays (10 min)
Read at least one of these examples. If you have time, read more than one.  Then answer the questions below on your brainstorm document for the essay you liked best.

1. Describe this person in one sentence
2. What did you learn about the individual?
3. What did you like? Dislike?
4. What did you notice about how this essay was written? What techniques did they use?

Debrief as a class

Ira Glass on Storytelling (10 min)
Listen to this.  List 3-5 things that you learned about telling effective stories.
Turn to your partner- how can you incorporate this into your college essay?

So What? Exercise (20 min)
Based on your brainstorms yesterday and today, list your top 3 anecdotes/experiences for your college essays.  This is going to be a rapid fire verbal brainstorm with different partners to suss out the possible So What of your essay.  You will want something to take notes with.

Partner 1/Topic 1

1. Take 1 minute to explain your anecdote.  Just tell the story, describe the experience.  DON’T explain why it’s important to you.
2. Partner: Ask, “So what?”
3. Answer them (30 sec)
4. Partner: Ask, “So what?” again
5. Answer them (30 sec)
6. Take 1 minute to write down insights you want to capture from this process
7. Repeat with your partner’s topic.

Repeat with Partner and Topics 2 and 3

Choose Your Own Adventure: 

1. Brainstorm some more (see resources linked on my DP)
2. Outline (see the outline resources linked on my DP)
3. Start writing a draft ​