JGraham

Lesson Plan Title: **Ning AP Writing Practice Project** This lesson also addresses UEN Core Curriculum for Grade 12 Language Arts: “ Standard 2 (Writing): Students will write informational and literary text to reflect on and recreate experiences, report observations, and persuade others.” “ Objective 2 (Extended Writing): Write to critique literary text and to evaluate informational text. (Emphasize expository writing. Students should use the entire writing process to produce at least one extended piece per term, not necessarily limited to the type of writing emphasized at individual grade levels.) a. Write in formal style and format (e.g., academic papers, business reports, multi-media presentations, etc.). b. Analyze information and systematically organize to support central ideas, concepts, and themes. c. Convey a particular tone and voice through deliberate word choice.” (http://www.uen.org/cc/uen/core/pub/displayCoreCourse.action?ccId=4126) //Step 1// : Students will be given a card with their login for grahamclass.ning. Each login is the name of a famous literary character. Students are given to understand that the login with its associated email is only theirs temporarily. Future students will be able to learn from past student writing, and the writing will only be identified by its pseudonym. //Step 2// : Use the ActiveBoard or a projector to show students how to log on to the site and help familiarize them with it. Show the essay question to which they will respond. Students are given approximately an hour to write their responses, with a suggested time of 40 minutes. This may be assigned for homework. //Step 3// : The students will type their responses using either a word processing program such as MS Word or Pages or Google docs (recommended). When complete, the essays are posted to the Ning. //Step 4// : (Days 2 and 3) Students will log on to the Ning and evaluate one another’s essays. They will make comments and suggestions, based on their own knowledge of good writing. Everyone is expected to evaluate each of the essays using the comment function of the Ning, and is expected to be polite and constructive. This expectation may be modified according to the number of students enrolled or to condense the length of the unit. One option is to draw names of those whose essays each student will evaluate. However, each essay should be reviewed by at least three people. //Step 5// : (Day 4) In class. A few of the student-written essays will be read and discussed in class. Samples of differing quality levels will be used. (unless of course, everyone wrote a top-notch response!) Discuss pros and cons of the samples and how the writing could be improved. //Step 6// : (Day 5) Rewrite. Students will consider the comments and suggestions made on their essays and make any desired revisions.
 * Concept / Topic To Teach** : Essay Writing, Peer Review, and Editing
 * Duration** : Approximately 5 days of one-hour class periods.
 * Standards Addressed** : The primary focus for this lesson is to prepare students for the annual Advanced Placement exam in English Literature, administered by the College Board.
 * General Goal(s):** Enhance and refine the writing capabilities of senior AP English students in preparation for the exam in May.
 * Specific Objectives** : Students will a) write a response to an essay question, b) evaluate peer responses to the same question, c) review comments made by peers to their own essays and d) edit the essay for a final evaluation by the teacher.
 * Required Materials** : Access to Graham Class at Ning Network. []. Access to a word processing program, such as Google Docs (recommended), MS Word or Pages.
 * Anticipatory Set** : Students are shown examples of AP essay questions. A few examples of top level essays are read, taken from the AP Central website [] Suggested script: “Few students can achieve high scores on the exam without practice. We will be practicing for the exam using questions from past exams over the next few weeks.
 * Step-By-Step Procedures** :
 * Closure** : Short discussion of the usefulness of the activity. Discuss what skills students would like to review before attempting this exercise again. (Subsequent uses of this lesson, with new essay questions, will most likely require far less time, and could possibly be done on a weekly basis for the final several weeks before the AP.
 * Assessment Based On Objectives** : Emphasis is placed on effort and participation. Therefore, 30% of the grade for this project will be for completing and posting the first response to the essay question. 30% will be for completing the required peer reviews. 10% will be for participation in class discussions. The final 30% of the grade will be based on the actual quality of the final draft. Thus, 70% of the grade depends on participation. Points will be deducted for any perceived lack of effort – expect that if you type a bunch of nonsense and post it, that it will not count as having completed the essay. Points will also be deducted for inappropriate content, either in the main essay or in peer reviews. Disrespectful comments will result in a large deduction.