November 15, 2007

Homework:
Finish unit 4 vocab unit
I suggested that students be done writing half of their love essay for tomorrow.

Today:
We discussed using commas in compound sentences.
We reviewed the answers to the choosing the right word.

I will try to quickly summarize what I told the students the love essay should sound like. It should start off with one of the six introductions we have discussed so far. The intro should state something about the fact that we were studying the song from HSM2, and the teacher told them they have to write an essay on love. For 3/4 of the paper, then, I think they should be taking the reader through the many definitions and ideas about love that they have learned. I suggested they organize all the details from the chart into paragraphs, either by row or by column. I had them take the info straight off of the chart and make an outline. From the outline, they have to figure out the smoothest way to present all the info.

The most important paragraph of the paper will be the second to last. After they have listed the numerous ideas about love, it is now time for them to say what they think love is. The paragraph will bring the important ideas from above together into THEIR own view of love. Maybe their view will be none of what was written above! Then they will write a conclusion.

The good draft is due Monday. I told the kids this essay will be a lot of work. I hope they step up and get it done on-time! I have led them step by step through this. There are no excuses for not knowing what to do.