English 11 Noodleblog

By Friday, you need to turn in a thesis and I will check off your evidence. Remember that a thesis, at its most basic, is the following:

Subject + Opinion (Pizza is good.)

An example of the type or level of thesis you need to write follows from the 1st option for the paper we discussed in class today:

The villainy of Abigail in The Crucible resides in her temptation and willingness to lie to get what she wants.

That thesis speaks to the source of her villainy. It could also focus on the effect or character of the villainy.

Due on Friday is your thesis and the evidence you gathered for your question thus far.

If you haven’t chosen a question to write on, do so tonight. All of you take your question and brainstorm as much as you can from the text that has to do with your question. That includes quotes and facts from the play.  Look for patterns and ways that you might be able to use this data, but at this point, primarily just brainstorm as much as you can.

If you lost the assignment sheet, it is linked in the previous post.

Act 3 questions: Friday October, 30

DGP Test: Friday October 30

Act 4 Questions: Monday November 2

Prompt choice for the Crucible paper: Monday November 2

Remember that the discussion questions for act one and the character sheets are due Friday.

Also we have a quiz on vocabulary week 6.

When you turn in your paper tomorrow, it should be typed, double-spaced and in either Times New Roman 12pt or Calibri 11 pt font.  If you cannot type it, it should be written in blue or black ink and double-spaced, though i much prefer it typed.  I will NOT accept pencil or pink pen.  If you turn it in with pencil or ink of another color, I will return it to you and you may resubmit it, though it will be counted as late.

Please staple your papers in the following order:

1. Final Draft
2. Rough Draft
3. Prewriting
4. Rubric

If you had your rough draft in class today and worked through the revision protocol we went over in class, please make whatever changes you need to in your paper and bring a fresh copy to class.

If you did not have a rough draft ready for class today, please have your rough draft for tomorrow.  Use the revision guidelines to look over your paper or have someone else examine it (remember 5 Higher Order Concerns — HOCs and 3 Lower Order Concerns — LOCs).

If you are willing, I would love to have someone’s paper to illustrate some things on the document camera tomorrow.

Your rough draft for your American Dream comparison essay is due on Monday.  We will spend most of Monday doing peer revision.

Suggested format:

1. Introduction
2. Body #1 (1st article — how does the American Dream affect this article?)
3. Body #2 (2nd article — how does the American Dream affect this article?)
4. Body #3 (discuss the comparison) — optional.  You may be able to do this in your conclusion. Do NOT write an empty, padded paragraph just to have five if your comparison is pretty uncomplicated.  That said, don’t oversimplify it either.
5. Conclusion (wrap up)

Have a good weekend and happy writing!

1. Identify the parts of the American Dream that appear in each of your essays/story. They don’t have to be obvious, though they might in the Declaration of Independence as part of the very definition of the American Dream comes from that document.  For example, they could be present as a shared belief between the writer and his audience that the writer counts on for his argument.
2. Collect details from your story that show/prove that the parts of the American Dream you identified are really there. You’ll use these for your paper.  For example, if you identify the right to a pursuit of happiness as a part of the American Dream in one of your articles, ask yourself “what was it in your article that made you think that?”  There’s your detail.  A detail can be a quote, an anecdote from the article, an idea in the article, etc.

Rough drafts will be due on Monday, October 5th.  We will have all day Thursday (10/1) to work on them.  Remember we will have a quiz on SAT Vocab Week 4 on Friday.

Thoughts on Work Ethic

Some of you (yes, I know not all) have used class time very poorly so far, spending most of your work time socializing while I’m busy helping those who are struggling.  That tells me that you aren’t worried about having time to work on this at home, thus you must have plenty of time to work on it at home.   If that is the case, we can use class time for other things and increase the pace of this class a fair deal.

Take your two pieces and insert them in the first and last columns of the modified T-chart below.  Then find details from each story to compare that share an element of the American Dream, whether it is overt or tacit.  In the Category column, indicated how they are related.  In the Similar/Different column, put a S or a D to indicate if they are similar or different.  Find at least 5 details, though the more the better.  You won’t use all of them in your paper, but if you have enough where you can start to see patterns, it will help you find a good direction for your paper and you will have quality details to use as evidence.

I will be checking this off and you will get points for this.

For tomorrow’s class, you should have your purpose for writing this comparison essay written down on a piece of paper.  Yes, your purpose may be to get a grade, but it should also be more than that.  Some examples from class were:

• to examine the American Dream both then and now and to critique how we interact with it now.
• to look at the differences in what parts of the American Dream are emphasized and advocate for embracing more/less of the American Dream.
• to understand the ways our concept of the American Dream as evolved/devolved and to convey that understanding to the reader.
• to answer the question: What are our underlying assumptions concerning the American Dream in the late 20th and early 21st century?
• etc.