The purpose of this paper is to get you to recount a tale from your past that proves to me, and everyone who reads it,
that you who you are today because of what happened in the past. In order to do this you must first be able to define what
it is about your past that makes you who you are. Therefore, you need to find a time in your life that had significant meaning
to you. Perhaps you did something that you are very proud of, you learned a lesson because something happened, you understood
something better because someone helped, or you had an experience that changed the way you view the world around you. The
more detailed you can be, the better your paper will be. Please take the time to do this right. The tale that you tell must
be true; it cannot be fictitious.
- Things to include in your paper:
- Somewhere in your paper you must include your definition of the following quote: "Ones past is what
one is." In other words, what does this quote mean to you. (You cannot say that it
means nothing or "I dont know.")
- Your paper must have an introduction. Your introduction may include your definition to the quote. However, your intro
must include a reason why the event or things in your past are significant. Why do they make you who you are?
- Your paper must also include a detailed description of an event or events that have changed or effected who and what you
are.
OR
Your paper can include a detailed description of why your past has made you who you are.
- Your paper must have a conclusion that restates, not using the exact same words, your introduction and purpose for writing
the paper.
- Your paper must be typed, double spaced, or written in ink, blue or black. It must be at least a page and half typed or
three pages hand written.
GO BACK TO GLEICHMANN'S CLASSROOM
Response to Literature
For although literature can never replace human interactions, it can deepen the understanding that comes from sharing in
the common struggle for human dignity and freedom. - Coretta Scott King
:
A personal response to literature explores your thoughts and feelings about a piece of literature; this is also known as
a Literary Analysis. A Literary Analysis presents your thoughtful interpretations or understandings of a literary work.
It is the most challenging form of writing about literature. The foundation for a meaningful analysis is your honest response
to a piece of literature. You may like how the story line develops in a novel, or you may be interested in the actions of
the main character in a story. Then again, you may wonder why a writer spends so much time developing certain images. Any
one of these features could lead to an effective analysis. How you work with or explore an initial idea is the real challenge.
Base the ideas in your analysis upon a close and careful reading of the textbook. Make sure to have connections with specific
references to the text. And, present the results of your work in a carefully planned essay. This is an outcome worth 60% of
your grade. Make sure that you respond to the quote "In the Name of Love."
More than likely youll want to focus on the theme. Theme--Do the authors seem to say something about ambition, courage,
greed, jealousy, happiness, or love? Do the stories show you what it is like to experience something? Does the author say
something about a specific historical event? If after reading the sample response to literature you still need help figuring
out what to write about, you can use the following guidelines:
- Intro paragraph explains your definition of the phrase "In the Name of Love."
- 2nd para. cites and explains quotes from the book.
- 3rd para gives an interpretation of what the quotes mean as applied to the theme.
- 4th para. examples from your life that relate to the theme.
- 5th para. comparison between your life and the textbook.
- Conclusion wrap things up nice and neat.
Contraversial Issue Research Paper
The purpose of this is to get you to practice your research skills and expand your views to ideas and issues that surround
you every day, whether you realize it or not. You are quickly on your way into the real world where people deal with these
issues. You have probably thought about these types of topics before but paid little attention to them. Now you must prove
to me that you understand an issue and can support your thoughts and ideals using specific facts gained from other sources
other than your parents and peers. This paper is also an outcome paper that must be completed in order to pass.
Students will use a variety of resources.
Students will find and use appropriate material.
Students will communicate effectively their ideas.
Students will use appropriate material to support ideas.
Students will communicate effectively through a written medium.
You need to choose a topic from the value list. Please choose a topic that appeals to you (a rating of four or five). The
more interest you have in the topic, the better and easier it will be to write. The topic that you have chosen from the list
will then become the title of your paper.
- Your paper must have a title page. (See class notes for proper format)
You must then find and research your topic. There will be some class time devoted to the use of the library, but more likely
than not, you will have to use some of your own time researching.
- You must have at least three resources.
A resource is anything that provides you facts or details that supports your position and topic. The more resources you
have the better your paper will be. (3 = basic paper; 4 or more = proficient to advanced paper)
- You must also have note cards for each of the three resources. (See class notes on format)
In addition to the note cards from the resources, you will also have to have at least 10 note cards based on information
that you found in each of the resources. A good rule of thumb would be to find at least six facts or details from each resource.
(See class notes for proper format of note cards)
- You must use quotations, or citations, in your paper. There must be at least, no less, three quotes within your paper
from a variety of resources.
- Your citations, or quotes, must be in the correct format. (See class notes for proper format)
- Your paper must also have a works cited page. (See class note for proper format)
- Your paper must be at least 1,000 words long. Short two and three letter words do not count (example: the, a, an, in,
for, or, and, but, to, et.al.).
On top of everything that has been given to you thus far, you ultimately have to prove to me the question that is your
title. This is not a new concept to you, because you have already proven to me many times in the past that you can answer
any question that I put forth.
Oral Presentation
All written outcomes will be read aloud in class. There are four major reasons for doing this:
- Far too often students do not read their own writing aloud. They are denying themselves an opportunity to critque what
they have written. Grammar has been engrained into our head because we have grown up hearing it spoken. We know when something
sounds awkward and incorrect. By hearing themselves speak what they have written, they may pick up on those errors.
- Far too often teachers are only ones who read a student's essay. It is the teacher who gains the benefit of reading something.
They are the ones who know who can write well, who has good ideas but just needs to add details or explanations, and who wrote
something the night before it was due with little to no insightful effort. And when outstanding papers come across the desk,
it is often just the teacher who basks in outstanding example placed before them (Some do get published or made the exemplar
for later on). We learn mostly by watching and emulating those whom we admire. Having a student read aloud their paper gives
the chance to hear good writing. It is no different than seeing Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods work their magic in the game.
We hear something good and then want to emulate it.
- Students need to own up to their work. They have to take responsibility for the their actions. Having them read their
essays aloud gives them that opportunity for ownership. It says to world, "I wrote this and I'm proud of it!" It also forces
students to work harder. They know that they are going to read it aloud; therefore, they don't want it to sound inadequate.
If a student wants to read a paper that is of low quality, then the teacher is not the only one who has to suffer through
it as well. It merely provides other students an example of what not to do.
- What we say in our head is not always what comes across on the paper. Reading a paper aloud gives the author the opportunity
to add their voice to what they have written. They can inflect, emphasize, and characterize their written words, thereby conveying
the full meaning and intent behind what they really wanted to say.
Students will have multiple opportunites throughout both semesters to complete the outcome at a proficient level. It is
a requirement to pass this outcome with at least a 70% or greater grade.
Explicating Poetry
Novel
Literary Techniques
Narrative Procedure
Our culture exists because of culture. Our culture is the way it is because of art. Art expression how a culture feels,
how it is suppose to act, what its conflicts are, or how problems can be solved. A culture is defined by its art, which is
a combination of all of its forms (TV, ads, music, paintings, et al.). If we are incapable of understanding what is going
on around us, we are somewhat diminished and isolated from our own culture. We cannot then contribute to the society that
we exist in. We have to understand everything around us in order to survive and thrive.
- What You Will Be Accomplishing
- You will be given one art transparency that you will have to evaluate. You will be told nothing about the art work.
- You will be given time to research information about art and how to evaluate it.
- You will then write a paper describing the process you used to obtain information on how to evaluate art.
- You will present your art transparency to the class telling us about it using those same techniques that you discovered.
- The essay itself will not be read aloud in class, but you will have to do the oral presentation.
Your grade will be determined through a combination of factors: 1) an evaluation of how well you use your time in class
to work on the project, 2) an individual evaluation from you regarding the time and effort put into the project, 3) an overall
evaluation from the teacher, and 4) an evaluation of the essay.
- Presentation Will Include:
Where were you when you started? What did know or not understand?
Your overhead transparency projected up on the wall.
An oral critic or evaluation of the piece of art.
Where are you at conclusion of the project? How your understanding and knowledge has changed?
An explanation of how you found out information and what the process was in evaluating the art piece. What sources did
you use?
A minimum of 350 words.
Typed, using 12 font, double spaced, and normal lettering.
An evaluative critic of the piece of art.
Cause and Effect
As was presented in the video Merchants of Cool, there are many ways in which corporations try to market their wares
to you. They have done extensive research and studies to try and figure out who you are as a person. They have studied you
more than any other culture on the face of the planet. Well, now it is your turn. In small groups, that I will determine and
create, you will conduct a research study, an ethnography, about the population of students here at school. With the information
you gather, you will then make deductions and inferences about that data. Ultimately, you will make a presentation to the
class based upon those findings. There will also be a paper that will accompany that presentation. This project counts as
an outcome, and some time will be given in class to work on it. However, the majority of the interviews and data collecting
will have to be done outside of class. The goal of this project is to get you to understand the work that some people put
into finding out information about others. You will also learn how to make inferences based upon facts that you have gathered.
"They don't call it human research or people research, they call it market research."
- David Ruskoff
Did the marketers in The Merchants of Cool get it right? Do they really know you? If MTV was really based on understanding
you as a person, what would it look like?
Based off data that you collect, make a presentation to the class, via a Power Point presentation, telling us what MTV
would look if they used real information about the students on this campus.
There are five different topics that will be the focus of the study.
Music
Fashion
Entertainment
Attitudes
Income
Before you ever take the first interview, you have to know what exactly you are going to ask. As a group, you will have
to write out questions and test them first to see if they give you information that can be used.
Once you have gathered the information, you then have to study the facts and make inferences and deductions. Let the data
determine what your presentation will be about.
With the information that was gathered, write a report about what MTV would look like if they used the real data that you
gathered. This report will be accepted as either an individual report or as a group report. It is worth 70% of your overall
grade. Group papers will require that a separate evaluation be given in order to ensure that all members participated equally.
The entire group is responsible for the production and presentation to class. All requirements must be met for the group
to receive a grade on the presentation. Each member will be responsible for some portion of the presentation.
Compare and Contrast
In order to understand the world around us, we make comparisons and contrasts to those things that we already know. If
we can make good observations about things that are unfamiliar by comparing the similarities and differences, we allow our
knowledge to expand and accept things because we understand the relationship with things that are new to things that familiar.
Example, as children, when we were learning to talk, things that had four legs, we would group them into one category, say
everything was called a Kitty or Puppy. But, as we grew older, we were able to make out differences between things; therefore,
we changed our knowledge and started calling them cats and dogs. Our knowledge only changed slightly. For this
paper, you already have knowledge about one event, all you have to do is make the comparisons (or contrasts) to another event.
- Read the story "The Man in the Water" by Roger Rosenblatt in the 10th grade literature textbook, pg. 824.
- Complete the worksheet. (You probably have already done this. This was the CSAP practice) You should have used some sort
of graphic to help you organize your thoughts.
- Write a basic rough draft in the allotted time given to you. This rough draft will become rough, rough draft for you final
draft.
- When you have completed the timed writing piece, you are then going to take that and expand it into an essay. You should
narrow the focus of your paper to either one or two commonalties or differences. But, you should expand those into a complete
essay including an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
- Workshop you paper with fellow students. Seek help from them regarding clarification, organization, and mechanics. You
will also be required to fill out an evaluation of another students work.
- Hand in a final draft for an outcome grade worth 60%.
This essay will be graded using the same standards of assessment as put forth by the Colorado Student Achievement Program.
In other words, it will be graded on a scale of 1 to 4 with the inclusion of pluses and minuses. See chart below:
|
1 |
2 |
3- |
3 |
3+ |
4- |
4 |
|
<59pts |
60-69pts |
70-76pts |
77-81pts |
82-85pts |
86-93pts |
94-100pts |
Anything scoring a 69 or lower is considered to be a failing grade. The paper will have to be revised and edited in order
to bring the grade up to at least a 70 or better. If this is not done, it will be counted a 0 in the gradebook.
Writing Poetry
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