Goal for the day: To explore the qualities of a strong college essay
We ran out of time yesterday with the fire alarm and DP posting technical difficulties. So we're starting boot camp today.
We started with a four corners to see where everyone is in the college process and then divided up into support groups of three people. Everyone discussed their goals for their essays and then I passed out sample essays to review and rate with the NY Times rubric.
We discussed which essay was the strongest and what qualities made it so. These included having something unexpected, being honest and humble, being positive, using unforced humor, having something to unify the essay, such as a theme or story, and being original and unique.
I passed out my Super Summary of various tips gleaned from various websites. I encourage you to visit the Essay Hell website and CollegeEssayGuy.com for more detailed information. I offered to make copies of a 35-page guide to the Common Application and University of California essay prompts.
I then passed out the College Essay Boot Camp Project Summary. This describes what you need to do by when and how I will evaluate your final project. The most important thing for this project is to bring a FOUR copies of a draft on Friday for peer review. You will get 20 points in Community Learning portion of the course for coming ready to participate. Read the Project Summary for all the details. On the back of this sheet is the Personal Essay Rubric that I will be using to grade your essay.
I then passed out materials to help you get started, including a schedule sheet for your support group, a brainstorming worksheet, and two brainstorming exercises to get you started if you're stuck: one based on your objects and one based on your values.
Everyone worked independently for the second half of class.
Homework for Wednesday through Friday
Finish your First Amendment Essay and turn in materials if you haven't as yet
Finish posting your First Amendment materials on your DP and send me and Matt the link
Write a draft of your college essay and bring FOUR hard copies on Friday.
We ran out of time yesterday with the fire alarm and DP posting technical difficulties. So we're starting boot camp today.
We started with a four corners to see where everyone is in the college process and then divided up into support groups of three people. Everyone discussed their goals for their essays and then I passed out sample essays to review and rate with the NY Times rubric.
We discussed which essay was the strongest and what qualities made it so. These included having something unexpected, being honest and humble, being positive, using unforced humor, having something to unify the essay, such as a theme or story, and being original and unique.
I passed out my Super Summary of various tips gleaned from various websites. I encourage you to visit the Essay Hell website and CollegeEssayGuy.com for more detailed information. I offered to make copies of a 35-page guide to the Common Application and University of California essay prompts.
I then passed out the College Essay Boot Camp Project Summary. This describes what you need to do by when and how I will evaluate your final project. The most important thing for this project is to bring a FOUR copies of a draft on Friday for peer review. You will get 20 points in Community Learning portion of the course for coming ready to participate. Read the Project Summary for all the details. On the back of this sheet is the Personal Essay Rubric that I will be using to grade your essay.
I then passed out materials to help you get started, including a schedule sheet for your support group, a brainstorming worksheet, and two brainstorming exercises to get you started if you're stuck: one based on your objects and one based on your values.
Everyone worked independently for the second half of class.
Homework for Wednesday through Friday
Finish your First Amendment Essay and turn in materials if you haven't as yet
Finish posting your First Amendment materials on your DP and send me and Matt the link
Write a draft of your college essay and bring FOUR hard copies on Friday.