Announcements

• Honors meeting lunch Wednesday
• Grades:  Check Powerschool!  Do you have a note from me about your seminar self-assessment?  Did you turn in all of the pieces?  See me to reconcile confusion.
• Deadline update:  Please have interview scheduled by the end of this week.  Next week, we will work on uploading to Storycorps together.

Goals for Today

• Know what makes for a good claim
• Refine your thesis statement
• Prepare to write your in-class essay (Outline and gather evidence!)

Starter:  What will you claim in your essay?  Write your working thesis statement on your mini whiteboard.


Mini-lesson:  Making Claims (ie. Crafting Thesis Statements!)
For further reference:

• Powerpoint on Making Claims
• More practice on writing thesis statements
• Concessive Thesis Statements

REVISE YOUR CLAIM BASED ON THE CRITERIA!


Thesis Statement Critique
1.  Pass the whiteboards around, reading each other's theses.
2.  For each person’s thesis statement, discuss as a group:

• Does it make a debatable claim about the topic?
• Does it state the obvious or something factual?
• Is it specific or general?
• Is it focused?
• Is it stated clearly?
• Is it stated eloquently? 
• Will there be sufficient evidence to make the argument?
• Does it avoid the first person?  (“I think…” “I believe”)
• Could it benefit from a concessive?

Preparing for your In-class Essay

1. Refine your claim (thesis statement) and think about how you will lead into it.
2. Review your sources for evidence that supports your claim.  Do further research if necessary.
3. Organize your notes and source materials.
4. Review the In-class Writing Rubric.
5. Review Setting up Quotations.
6. Review TEA paragraph structure.
1. Google folder of handouts
2. Screencast mini-lesson
7. Outline your essay.
1. Here is an outline template or use a format that works for you.  
2. Don’t let the outline template box you in!  There is not a designated order that your E and A have to be presented in.  The outline should not be an attempt to write your essay out in complete sentences. Be sure to explain your ideas thoroughly, even if they don’t fit between the boxes of the template.
8. Think about how you will introduce and conclude your essay.
9. Conference with me about any of these elements that you are confused about.

Executing the Essay (TOMORROW! Tuesday, September 22)

1. Writing the Essay
1. Write the essay in a fresh Google doc.  Give the doc the name “FirstName LastName In-class Essay”  
2. The essay will be open-note, open-outline, open-readings, etc.
3. You may also have this document open during the writing.
2. Cite your sources.  
1. You should be setting up quotes in text using author’s names or source of information.
2. We won’t format a works cited page in MLA for this assignment, but include a list of authors, titles, and URL’s (when appropriate) at the end of your essay.
3. Formatting
1. Double space the document.  
2. Use 12 point font.  
3. Put your name and date in the top left corner.  
4. Give your essay a title that is more clever than “In-class Essay” and center it at the top of the essay, after the name and date.
4. Submitting the essay
1. Cut and paste the rubric onto the end of your essay.
2. Submit your essay to the Google Classroom assignment called “In-class Essay.”  Before turning it it: Make sure you maintain a copy for yourself! BE SURE TO SELECT GOOGLE DRIVE WHEN YOU ADD THE FILE. SELECTING GOOGLE DOCS SEND ME A BLANK PAPER! Cut and paste the content into a new Google Doc or submit it through Google Drive. If Google Classroom eats it when you turn it in, how do we get around it?

DURING WORK TIME

Conference with me if you have not yet done your interview!