The Week Behind; The Week Ahead

Last week’s paragraphs were a mixed bag: some better than others. The major problems are not (in most cases) grammar or spelling related. They are, instead, related to communicating clearly your thoughts on a complex piece of work and on your overall comprehension. Some students got bogged down in the “correct” answers (no doubt influenced by my teaching and secondary sources). Others showed more original thinking. To do well, do your own thinking.

Some of you are giving a “signal” before quoting the text and then going on to explain the significance of your quote. If you are, congratulations! I expect a ratio of at least 2 to 1 of original content to quote. Thus, if you quote 20 words, your signal (introduction to) and explanation (after the quote is used) ought to be 40 words or so.

Overquoting makes it harder to pick out your thoughts from those of the writing to which you refer. I also encourage those of you who paraphrase well, especially for factual matters that are not important to quote. Beware the tendency to tell me what a quote says and then hitting me with a quote that says the exact same thing! I’m much more interested in why you’ve chosen it, actually.

 Another area students could improve on is reading the question carefully. When I asked about a character and then specified that you look at “two actions” and what each one shows, some of you responded only to the beginning of the question, thus avoiding the requirements! 

 

This week, we’ll be looking closely at our current story, using a specific way of reading a text: writing annotations. We will also be working in groups to compare our annotated versions.

 I’ll be giving out some resources for writing good comparison/contrast paragraphs as Friday’s class will be more challenging than usual: writing paragraphs that compare and contrast stories we've studied.

After the break on Friday, I will give you a media-based assignment and resources to help you complete it. Your work will be posted to the blog. Since the American election will occur between our Friday and Wednesday classes, the media will be abuzz with information that we can discuss on November 5. It should be interesting!