Essay
Process 1.
Read carefully, pencil in hand; underline
important passages and make notes in margins. 2.
Listen carefully during in-class discussions; take
good notes. 3.
Speak up during in-class discussions; test out
your own ideas by asking good questions and participating actively in the
analysis. 4.
Write regularly in your journal; respond to the
characters and situations, quote the text, and explore ideas in the reading;
flesh out ideas that came to you during class discussions. 5.
Brainstorm first responses to essay questions in
your journal. 6.
Engage in collaborative planning discussions with
fellow students in which you test notions and talk about ideas for a possible
thesis statement; take good notes of the feedback from your partner. 7.
Draft several versions of your thesis statement.
Don't be satisfied until you develop a provocative, engaging idea to defend
in your paper. 8.
Write a rough draft of the full text of your essay
on the word processor. 9.
Engage in a peer revision session with fellow
student either in class or at the Writing Center during which you read out
loud the first draft of your essay and listen carefully to feedback about the
clarity of your thesis and the organization of your argument and the solidity
of your conclusion. Take notes! 10. Revise your
thesis statement on the basis of notes from your peer revision session. 11. Write a second
draft of the full text of your essay. 12. Proofread the
draft with careful attention to clarity of expression, sentence variety, creative
transitions between paragraphs, adequate quotations
from the text and appropriate documentation of sources using MLA format. 13. Write the
final draft of your essay. Portfolio
Project 1.
As you write papers during the semester, try to
pinpoint the key moment in your writing process, that "A-ha!"
moment when a great thesis statement comes to mind. 2.
Collect documents from the various stages of the
writing process that chart the development of your thesis statement, leading
to a final draft. Underline or highlight the important stages of the idea's
evolution. Feature the "A-ha!" moment. Possible
Portfolio Contents: 1.
significant class notes 2.
significant reading log entries 3.
significant pre-writing materials 4.
notes from collaborative planning sessions 5.
significant portions of rough drafts 6.
significant notes from peer review sessions 7.
final draft 8.
thesis highlighted to demonstrate process 9.
links to significant sources --
comments by teachers, other students and parents --
student self-assessment of his/her performance: "Final Reflections" |