Due:
- Workshop drafts of Inquiry Essays.
Goals:
- To generate workshop criteria for the Inquiry Essays.
- To apply those criteria to a sample essay.
- To catch up an any final questions or concerns before students
revise their final products.
Assignment:
- 2 copies of workshop comments for next time.
Setup Needs:
- Daily prompt.
- Copies/transparencies of sample essays for class critique.
Sequence:
- Start out the day with the following Daily prompt (10 min.):
Our main task today is to generate workshop criteria for the Inquiry
Essay. So, spend the next few minutes writing about those criteria.
What should an Inquiry Essay accomplish in terms of each of the four
writing elements? Make your comments as specific as possible. Don't
just tell us the focus should be clear and the essay should be
developed--tell us what the focus should be clear about and what kind of
development will work best.
- Once your students have generated some ideas, bring everyone
together and create a master list of criteria on the board. Have
your students write down the criteria as the class generates them.
- Once you've got the list of criteria, hand out the sample
essay and have your students critique the essay in terms of the
criteria they just generated. Use any version of an in-class
critique you've used so far. (See days 3 and 9 for some ideas).
- If you have time left, consider going even further than usual
with the class critique. One useful way to do this is to have
your students critique the strengths and weaknesses of the essay
and suggest alternatives, and then send them BACK into their groups
to actually rewrite portions of the essay. Then, you can bring
them back together and have them present their solutions.
- Use any remaining time for individual work and conferences.