Pre-AP English II: Final Draft of Expository Essay

If you weren't in class yesterday, please complete the final draft of your essay. Use this 26-lined page rather than numbering 1-26 on a lined sheet of paper.

Remember to shoot for a score point 3 or higher. Revisit this blog post for the criteria.

All Pre-AP English Students: EOC-Style Expository Essay Prompt

If you weren't in class today, please write an expository essay responding to the following prompt:

Write an essay explaining the importance receiving a good education has in today's society.

Please number the lines on your paper 1-26. This is about the space you'll have available for your final draft on Friday. Feel free to go beyond the 26th line on your draft. You'll need to revise it anyway.

All Pre-AP English Students: EOC Essay Rubric

In class today we looked at the End-of-Course (EOC) rubric for the Expository Essay. Good times.

If you missed class or would like a complete rubric of your own, please download a copy.

We looked at the information for Score Point 3 and considered the "Big Ideas" of each bullet point as follows:

• You must write an expository essay!
• You must have a clear thesis statement that is focused on the topic of the prompt.
• Your essay must "flow."
• You support your thesis with "specific and appropriate" details.
• Your response is "original" rather than "what everyone else is going to write about."
• Your essay has a "sophisticated" tone and demonstrates an advanced vocabulary.
• You use a variety of sentence types appropriately.
• Spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, and other mechanics/conventions are all employed properly.

If you want to see the examples of essays we looked at in class -- including the TECHNOLOGIE! essay -- and dig deeper into what make an essay "worth" a score point 3 or 4, please download this document.

Pre-AP English II: Audio File of Fahrenheit 451

If you have a copy of Fahrenheit 451 and would like to listen to a recording of the book as you read, please bring me a USB drive so I can pass the file(s) along.

This offer only available to students who have acquired a copy of the book. You still have to read the story.

Pre-AP English I: The Four Obstacles to Achieving Your Dream

In class today, many of us looked at the central idea of the introduction to The Alchemist. If you missed the opportunity to critique Coelho's claim, here's your chance to make up the assignment.

Coelho claims that there are four things that prevent people from achieving their dreams (aka "personal legend"):

1. Being told the dream is impossible
2. Fear of abandoning those who love them in order to achieve their dream
3. Fear of difficult obstacles/set-backs along the way
4. Fear of success

After analyzing Coelho's claims, write 2-3 sentences to take a stance in agreement or disagreement with what he says. Be sure to embed quoted evidence from the introduction to support your argument on way or the other. (Do not debate the existence of one's personal legend or Coelho's claim that God gives everyone a personal legend to pursue; focus only on the four obstacles.)

Pre-AP English II: Pleasure and Burning in Fahrenheit 451

In class today we looked at the opening line of Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451

It was a pleasure to burn.

If you missed your opportunity to construct a T-Chart of "pleasure" and "burning" references in the opening scene of the novel, here's your chance.

Please make a T-Chart and label the left-hand column "Pleasure" and the right-hand column "Burn." Anything (diction, imagery, detail, figurative language, etc.) that has a connotation of either pleasure or burning should be placed in the appropriate column (or both columns, if it has connotations for both).

At the bottom of the T-Chart, please complete the following sentence and add one or two more sentences of your own; embed material quoted from the story to help support your response:

In addition to drawing the reader into the novel, Bradbury opens with a paradox because it is likely that by the end of the novel...

(Bear in mind that Flannery O'Connor employed a similar paradox at the end of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" when The Misfit said, "No pleasure but meanness." How does the appearance of the paradox at the beginning of the story versus the end allow the reader to make different inferences about the outcome of the novel?)

Pre-AP English I: Timed Writing (Destiny)

Read the information below.

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

― William Jennings Bryan

Although many people believe that their destinies will just happen to them by fate, other people believe that their destiny will only happen if they work at it. Think carefully about this statement.

Write an essay explaining whether people should take what life gives them as their destiny or work toward their dreams.

Be sure to

• clearly state your thesis
• organize and develop your ideas effectively
• choose your words carefully
• edit your writing for grammar, mechanics, and spelling

Time limit: 25 minutes.