Because, sadly, I have read too many essays that are in no way connected to the original assignment task or prompt, I wanted to share with the Muons some strategies for understanding what writing prompts are and how to make sure you’re following the directions. I used this helpful video from the UNC Writing Center to give them a process for breaking down their chosen prompt into its components. They then applied this process to their chosen prompt and shared their work. Then, with a better understanding of their prompt and its key task, they brainstormed by freewriting for 5 minutes. They shared some gems from those freewrites, including very random thoughts (about Pokemon!) which are totally acceptable in freewriting. There was even a lovely moment when two students went back and forth about which scene better represented the theme of “democracy” in Hamilton. Great stuff! They have some more brainstorming to do for homework, which I emailed Muon parents, and we’ll be adding to this work this coming week when we start hunting for explicit and implicit evidence in our primary text.
Thanks, as always, to Jennie and Erinn for supporting students and keeping us all on track! Thanks to Nicole for taking pictures!