Tuesday, September 6th

WStarter 5
Read this New York Times article about a controversial college essay and answer the following prompts:

• What are your general impressions?
• Would you advocate for accepting this student, given the rest of his application was worthy? Why or why not?
• In general, do you think one should aim to "entertain" the admissions officer? Why or why not? 

Class Biz

• Homework for Wednesday is to bring 3 printed copies of your essay (one for each member in your peer critique  group PLUS one for me).  Dylan, Emily, Annie and Garrett-- please bring 4 copies.
• Honors! Your essays are due Friday via email  by 3:20 pm (NOTE THE EXTENSION IN TIME)
• Stuck on your essay? Need more examples? Check out these "college essays that worked" from Johns Hopkins University
• Who is ready to conference with me today? 

Agenda
1. Share responses to the starter article

2. Support Group Check In  (Be sure to save 5 minutes at the end of class to check back in and share out what you accomplished today)

• Spend 5-10 minutes in your support group, checking in.  
• Make sure everyone knows what they need to do for the days
• Have each person in the group share where they want to be by the end of class today.  
• Be sure to revisit the resources on the Documents page of my dp!  Perhaps suggest a resource to someone in your peer support group if you think relevant!

3. College Essay Work Time
Time to work on your college essay!  You could tackle any of the following:

1. Choose a Prompt- Figure out what prompt speaks to you.  Need help with this?  Come talk to Lori!
2. Brainstorm- Use your own method, or any of the methods linked on my Documents page to help you generate ideas.
3. 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.
4. Get Feedback- Show your writing to Ashley, your support group, another teacher, other classmates.  
5. 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.

4. Support Group Check-In
In the last 5 minutes of class, regroup with your support group.  Go around, see how well each person did at achieving the goal they set for themselves at the start of class today.