Persuasive

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.


Today's Objective: Students should be able to write body paragraphs that refer back to the thesis statement and support it with valid reasoning and sufficient evidence.  This should contribute to the overall organization of the essay.

Persuasive Essays

Learning Objective: Write arguments to support claims in analysis of a substantive topic using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

In other words: Students will be able to write a persuasive essay with arguments supported by valid reasoning and sufficient evidence while using the six elements of the writing process and working on proper organization and developing individual voice.

Objective: Today we will look at valid types of evidence and work on the introductory paragraph.  

Thesis Statement, Ideas, Defining your argument, backing up your argument with proof	Ideas are fresh and original.  Thesis is narrow and manageable. Order of development clear and precise and helps development one clear main idea.  Hook and thesis connect.   Clear important details for support	Ideas are clear but might be overused.  Topic/ Thesis is fairly board.  Order of develop may ramble and may not back up thesis.  Hook is present but may not connect with thesis.  Support is attempted but not quite fulfilled with specifics.	Paper lacks a central idea or purpose.  Ideas are not developed or seem to go in several directions.  Information is limited or unclear.  Details are missing.	Not Evident
Organization	Original title. Transitions connect main ideas. Effective opening and ending.  Easy to follow.  Important ideas stand out.  Clear beginning, middle and end.  Details fit where placed.	Appropriate title.  Transitions connect sentence to sentence but not necessary idea to idea.  Good beginning.  Attempted ending.  Logical sequencing.  Key ideas are beginning to surface.  Readable.	Paper is hard to follow because transitions are weak or absent.  There is no clear beginning or ending.  Ideas may not fit together or ramble.  Paragraph structure might not be evident.	Not Evident
Voice	Point of view is evident Clear sense of audience Enthusiastic about topic.  Says more than is expected.  Words elicit both ideas and emotions.  Work is engaging and persuades	Personal treatment of standard topic.  Perspective becomes evident.  Some sense of audience.  Conveys ideas to reader.  The writer likes the topic, but is not passionate about it.  Writing persuades in some places	Paper is lifeless, mechanic, stilted.  Predictable treatment of topic.  Energy lacking.  Audience could be anyone.  Writer is indifferent to the topic.  Does not persuade at all.	Not evident
Word Choice	Precise, fresh, original words.  Vivid images.  Avoids repetitions, clichés, vagueness.  Use of figurative language.  Everyday words are used well.	Uses favorite words correctly.  Experiments with new words.  Attempts to use descriptive words to create images.	Ordinary and recognizable words.  Language is generic or cliché.  Uses repetitions or relies on slang.  Overuse of “to be” verbs.	Not Evident
Sentence Fluency	Consistent use of sentence variety.  Sentence structure is correct and creative.  Varied beginnings, varied structures, and varied lengths.  Natural flow and rhythm.  Writing is not wordy.	Sentences are usually correct, but some may not flow smoothly.  Simple and compound sentences are present.  Varied beginning.  Sections have rhythm and flow.  Writing could be cut to avoid wordiness.	Sentences are choppy, incomplete, rambling or awkward.  Meanings are not always clear.  Words are strung together.  Sentences could be extremely wordy.	Not Evident
Mechanics	There may be occasional errors in mechanics (spelling, fragments, run-ons, punctuation, capitalization, usage, etc.).  However, it is hard to find errors.	Errors in writing mechanics are noticeable but do not impair readability.	Numerous errors in usage, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and/or punctuation distract reader and impair readability.	Not Evident
Uses of Persuasive Tools	Uses 4 or more tools: expert testimony, quality of reasoning, points out flaws in opposing views, appeal to audience self-interests, radically different topics or new twists on old topics	Uses 2-3 tools.	Relies heavily on one tool.	Not Evident
References and Sources	More than five sources.  All sources of information are noted in correct in-text citation (MLA format) and correct Works Cited page.	Three to five sources. Some sources of information are noted incorrectly or not in MLA format.  Minor problems with Works Cited page.	Less than three sources.  Most information noted incorrectly.  MLA format completely missing.  Many problems with Works Cited page.	Not Evident

Persuasive Essays

I want you to look for a essay topic today and come up with a thesis statement.  Remember your essay needs to be debatable - so it should have two sides to it. 

We will review some of the things you need back up a good persuasive argument tomorrow. 

There are NFL Championship Orations on my desk.  If you need to remind yourself about persuasive essays or want to watch one for ideas. 

The Harlem Renaissance

So today we will finish reading Harlem Renaissance writers.  You will need to choose one writer and one work and discuss the theme and some literary devices employed that make work completely African-American.  You will need to write a well-developed and detailed paragraph on your writer.

The Great Gatsby - THE END

Today, Shelby Surdyk will be your sub.

She will give you a quiz on chapter 9 and a take home essay.

The essay will be due on Thursday, but you should start to get your ideas down now.  Shelby has read The Great Gatsby so you can ask her opinion about the book, themes, symbols, etc.

Your final on The Great Gatsby will be on Wednesday.

Also if you are able to watch these here are John Green's overview of the novel and Thug Notes' overview.

The Great Gatsby Chapter 9

The Great Gatsby

Things to KNOW

1)   List four sub-plots and be able to outline them according to the six elements

2)   Outline the main plot

3)   List all the rumors

4)   MOTIFS – explain the following and how it works in the overall meaning of the text: TIME, Car Crashes, Weather

5)   SYMBOLS- explain the following and how they work in the overall meaning of the novel: Eyes of Eckleburg, Green Light, Settings, Biloxi, Daisy’s voice, songs

6)   Characters: Nick, Jordan, Tom, Daisy, Gatsby, Klipspringer, Wilson, Owl Eyes, Myrtle, Mr. and Mrs. Sloan, Mr. Gatz, Dan Cody, Mr. and Mrs. McKee

7)   Quotes

8)   List all the dreams/illusions of the characters in Gatsby

9)   Allusions – KNOW AT LEAST FIVE ALLUSIONS and be able to discuss their importance

10) Classes – discuss the different classes and there representatives in Gatsby

11) THEMES: The Death of the American Dream; The Roaring Twenties; Time – The Meaning of Time; Social Classes and Social Structure in America

12) Meaning of characters names.

 

THEMES

The Corruption or death of the American Dream

When a man who spends five years trying to achieve wealth, social power and social respect, in order to win back the love of his life, a woman, discovers that the past can’t be repeated no matter how much money you acquire, he might meet an unfortunate end.

The American Dream is the dream of success, of being able to gain riches by who you are and how hard you work.  In America everyone is equal and therefore the DREAM is available to anyone with imagination, a hard work ethic, and internal resources of character.  The American Dream also is that with money we can buy anything.  Jay Gatsby, the invented persona of James Gatz, is the protagonist of THE GREAT GATSBY.  Born to a poor Mid-West family he is taken under the wing of Dan Cody and learns about the world (by being both the care-taker of one of the richest men in the world and by traveling around the world three times with Cody).  Gatsby is robbed of his inheritance from Cody by Cody’s wife and ends up joining the United States Armed Forces in WWI. As an officer he spends some time in Louisville where he meets Daisy Fay.  Daisy is upper-class and a member of a family with history and name.  Gatsby realizes that he is not in the same class as Daisy so he lies about his background.  He is able to do this because he has been around the world and seen so many things.  He falls in love with Daisy, but loses her while he is in Europe.  During WWI, Gatsby does well.  He wins a medal for courage and becomes a Major, and is granted the chance to study at Oxford.  He spends little time at Oxford wanting to hurry home to find Daisy.  At Oxford he receives notice that Daisy is already married.  Gatsby, unlike the traditional American Dream, makes his millions by selling illegal alcohol over the counter at his drug stores.  He then buys a huge house, much like Daisy’s childhood home, right across the bay from Daisy.  He holds large parties on weekends both in hope to have Daisy show up and to achieve some success as a socialite.  After all he needs both money and a social standing.  Realizing this need he begins to fabricate lies about himself: that he is from rich parents, that he is educated, that he is GREAT.  Ironically, Gatsby has achieved the American Dream—he is a self-made millionaire.  He has beaten his past, and yet he is not accepted into the elite society.  People make up rumors about who he is or how/where he has attained his money.  Both Jordan, Nick and owl eyes know he isn’t educated.  His real dream is too win Daisy but he needs more than money.  He needs to turn back the clock.  When he and Daisy finally meet after five years, he immediately impresses her with his wealth, his beautiful house, his beautiful shirts (Daisy is after all someone who looks into the outer beauty of things and can be bought).  Daisy decides to leave Tom for Gatsby.  When Tom shows Daisy how Gatsby has made his money and how Gatsby is not “old money” not educated or elite, Daisy gets scared.  It’s not that she doesn’t love Gatsby, it’s that she isn’t strong enough to leave the security of position for a Gatsby.  Gatsby is self-made, but that is not enough.  He doesn’t have the security of a time-honored family name.  He really isn’t anyone (ironically he is nothing but an invention of James Gatz—and James Gatz no longer exists).  Gatsby loses the dream, but makes the ultimate sacrifice to Daisy and that is his ending.  

Gatsby - Final?

• Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work.
  Choose a novel or a play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.
  
• In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well.
  Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work.
  
• Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. 
  
  
  

Class work for Monday

Read chapters 4-5 of The Great Gatsby