Developing Arguments / Rhetorical Analysis

English 11 - For the block periods, we focused on moving to the next step in the writing process.  So far, we have primarily concentrated on taking good notes and developing effective critical reading skills.  During the block periods, we started using those notes.  First, we built a paragraph together out of our notes on Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative of the Life.  As we constructed the paragraph, I pointed out the students that the writing they do in college and their careers will increasingly rely on their ability to effectively coordinate and synthesize evidence and rely much less on them consistently providing their own opinion.  We closed off class by connecting a quote from Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life to other works we had read in the class so far.  Students used the notes they already compiled to do this exercise and I pointed out  that the exercise will come in use when we go to write our essay on Huckleberry Finn over the course of the next month.

AP - The students continued to work on the rhetorical analysis essay during the block period.  We finished evaluating responses to the Florence Kelley speech and then discussed some strategies for effectively attacking the AP rhetorical analysis essay. Students then completed an in-class AP rhetorical analysis essay.  We used the prompt from last year and for homework students are scoring 8 essays that students around the country turned in.  During class on Friday, we will look at what scores the students would give the sample essays and their own.