If I do nothing else for you as a teacher, I hope that I am able to make each of you better writers. My goal is that you will attend your first college English, Philosophy, Psychology, etc. class and be able to not only hang with your peers but surpass them with your ability to critically think and write. In order to do that, though, I need your help. You simply MUST do your part since I am only one person up against the machine that is your educational experience. What I am asking you to do isn't for a grade, or for a test, or for some mindless packet. It's for YOU. It's for your wallet. It's for your future promotions, presentations, and pitches.
That being said, here's the heavy lifting for the week.
Tomorrow's lesson will center around your Synthesis essays from last Thursday as well as the text The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing - They Say I Say by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russel Durst. Read this excerpt, annotate it and attempt to understand what we're going to do for the next month. I will expect this done by Wednesday (though if you come to class already having read it, YES!). If you don't make the time to complete this task by Wednesday, it is truly and sincerely your loss.
(Some of you lucky enough to have the means might also consider reading the whole book as an investment for senior year, college and beyond.)
In addition, I would like you to read and annotate Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Wednesday. We will be discussing King's "academic moves" and then applying our newfound knowledge to a different text for practice.
Since I'm not one to give homework or big projects over breaks (if you haven't read East of Eden yet, well...that was mentioned in September. That's your bad.) we will be doing a lot this week.
Enjoy your Sunday. It's a beautiful day.
xoxo
They say, I Say was required reading at American and I wish I had read it sooner. You're students this year are lucky!
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