Goodbye Persuasive Writing...Hello Expository Writing.

16 Abril 2020, 10:00 • Hilda Alexandra Prazeres Eusebio

Summary for the 9th April, 2020 (number of students = 15)
The remaining groups delivered their presentations on their analyses of their sections of the Barack Obama speech.
We then went on to learn about the basics of Expository Writing.
The class was informed that for their oral exam, they will be presenting (individually) an academic piece on the their choice of short story from Joyce Carol Oates' Small Avalanches and Other Stories.
Student have been informed by email that it is fundamental that they show up for all classes from now on as they will be preparing for their orals in class.  I will be modelling each stage of the process, and students will follow my example.  Classes will be recorded for those who are unable to attend, but the group work will not be filmed (this is not possible) and students who do not participate in the group work will encounter difficulties preparing for their oral.
Summary for April 14th, 2020 (number of students present = 20)
Today, we began to look at how to create an explository piece by deciding on a topic or idea that we are passionate about, and then freely brainstorming the arguments and ideas that will prove the thesis on a piece of paper.  Students were then taught how to rank the ideas from strongest to weakest, and then ordering them, ensuring that they begin their papers with the second-strongest idea, and ending with the strongest.  What happens in between these arguments is up to them; rules are meant to be broken intelligently.

We then analyzed an opinion piece (Wonder Woman: Carrying the Weight of the World) and identified: 1) the thesis statement (or, in this case, the essay question) embedded at the end of the first paragraph; 2) how each paragraph links from one to the next by linking ideas (a.ka. the flow of ideas); and 3) the thesis re-worded in the concluding paragraph + a little idea that has never been mentioned in the paper up to that point (a.k.a. a nice little kick); and 4) how quotes were embedded into the text, and the techniques/rules surrounding quotations, citations, bibliographies, etc.  

Next class: we will finish looking at the opinion piece and then students will get into groups according to their story (e.g. all those who have chosen Bad Girls will work together in a group; all those who have chosen Shot will together, etc.) and they will identify the themes in their story together.  Each student will choose the theme/s that s/he is interested in to ensure that everyone in the group will present a completely different thesis/idea for that story (otherwise, we'll get bored hearing the same ideas over and over again).
Summary for April 16th, 2020 (number of students present = 18)
Today, the class and the teacher collectively worked together to identify the themes in the short story Small Avalanches and Other StoriesI (e.g. preadator vs. prey; coming-of-age; girl power; sexual abuse/rape; adolescence; etc.)  The students then got into their groups and did the same thing for their respective stories, and then chose for themselves which themes they wish to explore in their upcoming academic piece (i.e. their oral exam).  No two students can have the same theme.