College Essays: Day 3!

Starter: This activity is adapted from page 7 of “Escape Essay Hell” guide book

1. Write your name on the top of a piece of lined paper
2. Underneath your name, write three qualities that best describe you. They have to be POSITIVE! (stuck- see the list of qualities on page 8 of the Escape Essay Hell guide)
3. Now, pass your sheet of paper and help each other out! Provide ONE new quality that best describes how you see your classmates. Let’s help build each other up.  Next to the quality, write WHEN you saw them demonstrate that quality. Keep it to one sentence. 
4. When you get your paper back, review the list and feel warm and fuzzy. 
5. If this feels useful, try the next exercise in the Escaping Essay Hell guide “Searching for a Time” on page 10

Class Biz

• If you are ahead of the game with college essay and want to conference with me, you should start your portfolio conference #1 prep. See instructions here! (we'll all do this Tuesday of next week)
  
• Heads up! We'll be at the Durango Public Library next Wednesday for Senior Project Orientation from 8:30-12.
• ​Homework: Bring your draft tomorrow for critique with….

1. The prompt you are responding to and word limit
2. Your current word count for your essay
3. A focusing question for critique (see College Essay Tuning Questions on the documents page for ideas here)

Support Group Check In
Spend 7 minutes in your support group, checking in. 

1. Review your support group google doc/schedule. Make sure everyone knows what they need to do for the days, and have each person in the group share where they want to be by the end of class today.
2. Next, each choose one of these helpful 90 second video tutorials and then share out what you learned from it:
   1. How to make sure your essay isn’t boring. 
   2. Should I Talk About Religion in My College Essay?
   3. Does it Matter Which Common App Prompt I Choose?
   4. What if I’m Worried that My Essay Will Sound Like a Sob Story? (not a video, but has some GOOD examples)

College Essay Work Time
Today, your goal should be to get a complete draft written, and if possible, do some initial refinements.​  Try to run right up against the word limit of your essay! 
 You could tackle any of the following:

1. Need some more warm-up time? Warm-up exercises
2. Choose a Prompt- Figure out what prompt speaks to you.  Need help with this? Come talk to Ashley!
3. Brainstorm- Use your own method, or any of the methods linked on my Documents page to help you generate ideas.
4. Write- Start writing, get words on the page.  Remember, at this point it's okay to go over the word limit.  We can always cut later.
5. Get Feedback- Show your writing to Ashley, your support group, another teacher, other classmates.  
6. Revise- Make it better!  Cut, revise, focus, refine!  Check for show don't tell, cut extra words, replace boring sentences with more powerful ones, check out the revision strategies on the Documents page of my DP.

​Please note that you should NOT be using your time for any of the following:

1. College Applications- This time is for writing your essay, NOT filling out the applications.  That needs to be done outside of my class.
2. Scholarship Applications- See above.
3. Work for Other Classes- This is pretty self-explanatory, right?
4. Time Wasting Techniques- Including, but not limited to....YouTube, social media, finger-boarding, cosmetics, movies, idle chatter.

Exit Ticket

• How productive or engaged were you today?
• Explain: What contributed to that? 
• What do you need to do tonight to be ready for peer critique tomorrow?