Thesis Statements/SR Assignment #3 - Personal Statements/College Essay

1. Thesis Statements/SR Assignment #3-Personal Statements/College Essay 9-3-2013 Please turn in summer reading assignment #2 as you come in!

2. Goals • Content Goal: Students will use their prior knowledge on theme and support (quotes) to begin to formulate thesis statements for their argumentative essays. Students will begin to think about the importance of the college essay in gaining college admission, and will familiarize themselves with the common application or the prompt for the specific school that they will be applying to. • Language Goal: Students will further their understanding of the terms personal statement and college essay and will learn more about the common application. Students will work on skills such as engaging the reader, using narrative techniques, and using imagery to convey meaning. • Social Goal: Students will recognize the importance of the college essay/personal statement in gaining admittance into a university of their choice.

3. Summer Reading Assignment #3 • You will use your first two assignments to help you write a thesis statement and argument about your summer reading book • The prompt for your argumentative essay: identify the community and the struggle your main character experienced, and discuss how this struggle revealed the author’s main message (this theme should be apparent, as well as defendable). • Guiding Questions: • Use guiding questions from assignment #1, as well as the questions on your summer reading sheet that you received over summer, to help develop your argument. • What is the author of your book trying to say? What point are they trying to make/get across? What are they trying to tell us as readers? • What stands out to you as important about the plot, characters, and themes? Is there an underlying message/point that the author seems to be trying to convey?

4. Thesis Statements • The main point you are trying to make in your essay • A one-sentence argument that you use the rest of the essay to prove. • What you want your reader to know, believe or understand when they are finished reading your essay. • A thesis should: • Make an argument about your topic • Consist of a strong, clear statement

5. Example • Listen to the song and follow along with the lyrics. Pick out the community that we see in the song, the struggle that your character experiences, and specific quotes that back this up. • Pair up with one or two other students (please stay in your area and refrain from moving across the room) and discuss the community, the struggles your character experienced, and the quotes that back those ideas up. • Afterwards we will develop a thesis statement based on the content and support that we have accumulated • Remember, our prompt is to show how the community and our main character’s struggles within that community reveals the author’s main message

6. Thesis Statement Language/Structure In…(title of book/poem/song/etc.) the author … (some type of verb statement that describes content) + To…(verb statement describing what the content shows/illustrates/exemplifies) The basic topic of the paper/book (an observation) vs. Why that topic is important (the main message/theme)

7. Developing Your Thesis • What is the community in your book? • How does the character struggle with that community? • Based on those two things, what is an argument that you can develop about your author’s main message? • What does the main character’s struggle with the community say about this type of situation overall? (think back to the Coldplay example)

8. Personal Statement/College Essay Free Write • What types of things do you think about when you hear the phrase “personal statement/college essay”? • What are the things that you are supposed to include? What are you supposed to avoid/leave out? • What are you confident about in regards to your essay? What fears do you have about the essay?

9. Personal Definition Video and Assignment

10. Common App Free Write • Pick one or two of the common app essay prompts that appeal to you most and complete a basic free write to start to brainstorm about what you might write for that topic: • Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. • Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn? • Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? • Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? • Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

11. Small group discussions • Find somebody else who went over the same question as you and have a discussion about what you might write about for that topic/question

12. Homework • In lab 302 tomorrow (and Friday…and Monday) • Summer Reading Mini Assignment #3 due next Monday • Personal Statement Rough Draft due Monday • Personal Definition Final Draft due Tuesday • Have a great day!