Hi everyone,

This will be my last post before the final exam. The readings were distributed in class on Thursday. If you were absent and did not receive the reading, I will be on campus early on Tuesday and can coordinate with you for delivery. You must email or comment below for this privilege.

As you know, you may bring the one sheet of readings into the exam, with whatever notes you choose to write on that one sheet. The exam will be during our normal class period—1 hour and 15 minutes. Before class, you’ll likely want to annotate the writing, write a summary statement of the reading, look up any words you don’t know, and think about your own opinion of the author’s thesis (remember our practice final exam). This also involves understanding the author’s purpose, audience, and strategy—something we’ve been working on all semester long with every piece we’ve read. You can’t truly understand a piece of writing unless you can identify the author’s argument.

Don’t forget to review the exam rubric to know EXACTLY what I’ll be looking for when I grade your essay. Remember to pay attention to structure (thesis, topic sentences, paragraphs focused around a single point that helps prove the thesis), textual evidence (use quotes from the reading and show that you know how to signal and cite properly), and grammar (no comma splices please!). You must write legibly, and you may want to make some notes about these things on the reading sheet you can bring into the exam.

For any last minute questions, comment below. See you Tuesday, and good luck!

Oral presentations, day 1.

Even if you went today, you are still responsible for being in class and writing in your notebook for each presenter on Thursday. It is also important that you attend class on Thursday to:

a) turn in your essay #3 revision
b) turn in your in class writing notebook
c) receive the readings for the final exam

HOMEWORK

1. Oral presentations for your argumentative essay will continue on Thursday, May 14th.

2. Essay #3 revisions are due Thursday, May 14th.

3. In class writing notebooks must be turned in on Thursday, May 14th. If you do not turn your notebook in, you will not receive credit for any of the in class writing you have done since your first turn in (and if you did not turn it in at the first due date, and do not turn it in on the 14th, you will not receive credit for any of the in class writing you did over the course of the semester).

4. Our final exam is Tuesday, May 19th. Readings will be distributed on Thursday.

Today we did our final free write, and our final round of sentence corrections. In addition, the final draft of your proposal and annotated bibliography was also due today.

HOMEWORK

1. Oral presentations for your argumentative essay will begin on Tuesday, May 12th. You must be prepared on Tuesday, as names will be drawn at random. View the assignment, and criteria, here.

2. Essay #3 revisions are due Thursday, May 14th.

3. In class writing notebooks must be turned in on Thursday, May 14th. If you do not turn your notebook in, you will not receive credit for any of the in class writing you have done since your first turn in (and if you did not turn it in at the first due date, and do not turn it in on the 14th, you will not receive credit for any of the in class writing you did over the course of the semester).

4. Our final exam is Tuesday, May 19th. Readings will be distributed the class before.

Today we discussed the Oral Presentation, which will happen next week. Everyone must be prepared for their presentation on Tuesday, as the names will be drawn at random. Please view the assignment if you missed class.

Then we discussed the practice final from last Thursday, discussing in detail what will be expected on the actual final. Remember, this is an argumentative essay. You are not talking about your experience for the sake of talking about your experience. Below you will find a sample outline, drawing on all the information asked in the prompt.

• Introduction
  • Hook
  • Introduce article (summary)
  • Introduce your experience.
  • Thesis
• Describe Mydans’ article
  • the point of it (his argument)
  • What is he basing it on?
  • Why does he feel it is important?
• Talk about your own experience of change (or an experience you’ve read/heard about)
  • Describe the agent of change and its effects
  • What you learned from this experience
• Compare Mydans’ view to your experience
• Conclusion
  • Some summary
  • A point to drive it home

HOMEWORK

• Post thesis rewrite to Open Lab
• Annotated bibliography revisions due Thursday 5/7.
• Start preparing for oral presentations on Tuesday, 5/12.

Today in class, we did a practice final exam. This was actually the final exam from a previous year and is a great indication of what you can expect on the real final. Remember, if you don’t pass the final exam, you will not pass the class. We will discuss the practice final next Tuesday.

HOMEWORK

1. Essay #3, in its entirety, is due Tuesday, May 5th.
2. Revisions to your proposal and annotated bibliography are due Thursday, May 7th (remember, this alone is worth 5% of your final grade). Please review the assignment and sample here to make sure you’ve done everything correctly.
3. Oral presentations will be the week of the 5/11 (we will discuss this in detail next week).
4. In Class Writing Notebooks will be handed in on Thursday, 5/14.
5. The final Exam will be on Tuesday, 5/19.

Today, we had a peer review session for essay #3.

HOMEWORK

–  Work on essay #3. Your final draft is due Tuesday, 5/5/15.
–  Proposal and annotated bibliography revisions will be due Thursday, 5/7/15.