6.1. Writing an Introduction for a Logical Essay W.1.a.

This week, we're learning how to turn the theses we wrote last week into introductions that use rhetorical questions and sophisticated, formal language.

Here's a video that shows how to do this in the easiest way possible. Remember, all of our classic versions of these will look like this - 

Don't you wish that there was a easy way to write a good introduction for your persuasive essays? If we master a pattern, can't we then save time to use to learn other things? Don't people use these kinds of formulas all the time to solve problems? Recently, students have come to me and said, "We don't know how to start these essays, we feel stuck." The optimal choice is to start by mastering a good formula: it's easy, it saves time, and it helps students solve problems in their lives.

???RT = Question for SR1, Question for SR2, Question for SR3, "Recently" + Topic, Thesis - that's it.

Here's a video to teach this - watch it if you feel unsure about how to do this.

6.1. Writing a 3?RT Logical Introduction W1.a.

What are we doing this week? Practicing writing an the easiest introduction paragraph to a persuasive or explanatory/logical essay. 

How hard is it? Really easy, actually - and this year, a majority of you may already know it. 

How do you do it? Look below to read the Mastery List for Writing a 3?RT Logical Introduction 

How do I get my three grades? 
Novice: Know the pattern. 
Proficient: Apply the pattern pretty well to five of the theses we wrote last week. The theses should already be in your Google Drive folder. 
Expert: Write great rhetorical questions for at least five of the theses.

11.0. Language Arts/Mathematics/Social Studies Reading: On Being a Quant

I thought this article was interesting, and am going to put it up on the page of links under "Mathematics" and "Civics," but thought I should be posting when I am doing this stuff. The article refers to the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis, who normally writes about business matters. The book is about changing the way a baseball team is run in order to try and quantify things number. We use the word "quantify" in our logical essays, it means to understand or express something in quantities, or numbers. The word "quant" is a back formation (that's when people take a word and shorten it to make a new word that's faster to say) that means "a person who believes in understanding the world through the sophisticated use of statistics." Here's the link to the article, "The Statisticians on the Bus: How a Nerd Changed Political Reporting Forever," by Andrew Romano, at Newsweek's website.

Social Studies - Language Arts Interdisciplinary Writing Prompt

This week's essay forces you to assume a role and write from that perspective, so don't forget the RAFT skill - it's our easiest skill, but also easiest to forget doing.
The teachers in eighth grade Social Studies and Language have convened and arrived at a prompt that will test both Writing Skills and Social Studies content knowledge.

W1. Keyboarding-Language Arts Writing Prompt

Good morning, this post applies to my period 2/3b and 6b/7 students, both of whom have keyboarding right now. This week's essay, as I mentioned to you, will be conducted in your keyboarding class. I wanted to make sure that you had ammunition for your own ideas, so I've prepared a link to a reading that you can go over first to help you out. Click here to read "Benefits of Music Education," an article from Music Education Online.

Once you are in Keyboarding class, you will have the entire period to compose your response. Remember that this is a graded exercise for me, so if you need any writing checks for my gradebook, this is a good way to get them. I have given Mr. Carmona the writing prompt and lined paper.

I appreciate both your taking the time to do this for me, and Mr. Carmona taking the time to administer it. I want to construct situations where you write when I am not around, so you can make sure that you can do all of these tricks that we learn in lots of different contexts and classes.

W1. Foreign Language-Language Arts Interdisciplinary Writing Prompt

Good morning. This week's essay will be conducted in your Foreign Language class. I wanted to make sure that you had ammunition for your own ideas, so I've prepared a link to a reading that you can go over first to help you out. Make sure to click the link with the appropriate prompt for you, depending on what language you are studying.

I appreciate both your taking the time to do this for me, and Mr. Leister taking the time to administer it. I want to construct situations where you write when I am not around, so you can make sure that you can do all of these tricks that we learn in lots of different contexts and classes.

Once you are in Foreign Language class, you will have the entire period to compose your response. Remember that this is a graded exercise for me, so if you need any writing checks for my gradebook, this is a good way to get them.  Remember, you can't type on the original, so click "File," then "Make a Copy," so you can have your own personal copy. Do not share your file with anyone this time.

Latin Students
We wanted to give help with this, so here's Click here to read "The New Case for Latin," an article from Time magazine.
Here's the file with the prompt.
Again, do it in Google Drive, just like in Language Arts.
German/Italian Students
If you need help coming up with arguments, click here.
Here's the file with the prompt.
Again, if your class uses Google Drive, do it in Google Drive. If not, do it in Word.

8.1. W1.b./W2.b. Creating Specific Proving Examples

This week's skill follows from last week's, where we were going over the three things that a logical paragraph usually does - states a main idea, explains why the idea is true, and give specific examples to show how the idea works. This last part is by far the hardest for writers, so we should spend more time working on it specifically. I have three kinds of examples to share that hopefully will allow you to create specific example more effectively and easily. Here's the mastery list for the week.

Let's learn this stuff at the knowledge/comprehension level - check quizlet.com for a flashcard set.

W1.b. Writing SEE Body Paragraphs Application

Today, we're going to take the body of knowledge that we reviewed yesterday and apply it to the introductions that we wrote - choose three of the introductions that you wrote last week and for each of them, write TWO body paragraphs (not three, we're only going to finish the body of our essays later in the week. If you need help, watch the video embedded in yesterday's lesson.

4.4. Planning a Logical Argument Essay W1./W4.

We're learning how to plan a logical argument this week/month/year, and it is one of my very favorite things to teach, since it's really important and also can be really interesting, because it asks that you fight about it. I made a video that demonstrates step-by-step one of these prompts, in case anybody needs help.




Here's the document itself, if you just want to see the finished product as a reference for your work.