Personal History Essay

Definition

            In a Personal Essay, the writer tells a story about a series of events.  The writer needs to explain the event(s) clearly enough for the reader to follow what happened and when it happened.  The writer also has to tell the story dramatically enough to keep the reader’s attention and interest.  Your goal should be to develop an essay that informs and/or entertains, and that impels readers to think about their own lives.

           

Organization of a Personal Essay

Just about anything in your life that interests you, amuses you, angers you, or makes you think is a possible subject for a personal essay.  Dig as deep into your experience as you can.  As you think about a topic, event, person, or place of significance, look for an emerging focus, main idea, or viewpoint.

            A personal essay is a blend of narrative (sharing some aspect of your life) and analysis (commenting upon this time).

Thesis Statements

            The thesis statement of your essay presents the subject of the narration and its significance.  Your essay should reveal your attitude or opinion about the event.  Your essay can also tell a message or lesson related to the event.

Some Helpful Tips on Writing

– Decide on the story you want to tell, and think about what the story means to you.

– What attitude would you like the reader to learn by reading your story?  What feeling or attitude would you like the reader to have about the story you are telling?

– Outline what happened first, second, third, and so on.  Don’t forget important, specific details.  Divide the action into major blocks.  Determine the logical breaks.

– Focus on the people involved in your narrative, and try to describe them accurately.

– Include the feelings you experienced at different times in you story.

– Avoid stringing together a series of events without dramatizing any of them or showing their significance.

– Avoid a list.  Make sure the events are logically connected with appropriate transitions to help the reader follow the sequence of events.

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Rough Draft due September 21; Final Draft due October 5.

– Essay length:  at least 300 words (about 1 page)

– Rough drafts can be typed or hand-written, but must be double-spaced.

– Final draft format:

– Typed (if this is not possible, please let me know)

– 1 inch margins

– Name and date on the upper right hand corner

– Number the pages on the lower right hand corner

– Title centered above the text of the essay

Take Home Quiz -- Chapters 1 - 4

Introduction and Preface

1.  Orwell wrote Animal Farm as a response to Communism in what country?

2.  Napoleon is a type for what real person in history? 

3.  Snowball is a type for what real person in history? 

Chapters I – IV 

1.      Before they change the name to Animal Farm, what’s the name of Mr. Jones’s farm? 

2.      Who is the old, prize boar who shares his wisdom with the animals? 

3.      What is the song that is taught to the animals? 

4.      Who is vain carriage-horse who doesn’t want to give up sugar and ribbons? 

5.      How many commandments do Napoleon and Snowball come up with and where do they paint them?

6.      What is Boxer’s personal motto? 

7.      Which animals become the best readers?

8.      What is Mr. Jones doing while the pigs are running the farm? 

9.      What happens at the Battle of the Cowshed? 

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (September 7)

Greetings!

We had a good day in class this week. Because it was a return-rough-drafts-week, the greater portion of our time was spent going over common mistakes, and this included lots of mini grammar lessons.

We wrote our Quick Writes about television because Sept. 7, 1927 was the date of the first transmission to a television set.  We've certainly come a long way in the past 90 years!

Our Words of the Day were of Latin and French origin.

alma mater -- Latin, "nourishing mother" -- refers to the high school or college from which you graduated

cum laude -- Latin, "with praise" -- a distinction when graduating that refers to a certain grade point average.  Similarly, magna cum laude means "with great praise" and summa cum laude means "with highest praise."

femme fatale -- French, "a dangerous woman" -- a stock character in film noir, in modern film or novels, this is an attractive woman who leads others into dangerous situations

esprit de corps -- French, "the spirit of the body" -- a feeling of pride or fellowship with a certain group of people.

As I mentioned, I spent the majority of class going over the Rough Drafts.  My practice is to keep track of the patterns of mistakes made in these first drafts and then to address them in small grammar lessons.  This week we addressed some format issues, compound sentences, contractions, comma splice sentences, and exclamation points.  In the notes at the end of the rough drafts, I include a "Watch out for . . . " section where I list the 2 - 3 most prevalent mistakes.  I've asked the students to start a page in their notebooks where they will keep track of these.  As we progress through this year's essays, they can use this list for reminders of problem areas or to even set goals for their writing.  For example, if he repeatedly has comma splice errors, on the next essay he could focus on that aspect of his sentence structure.

At the end of class, students signed up for one of the 8 Parts of Speech.  We have 24 students in the class, so we have nicely divided into groups of 3.  I will be sending out e-mails to the individual groups so that they have one another's contact information.  Below are the groups and the dates of presentation:

Parts of Speech

I -- Interjections -- Anika, Jack, Ethan

V -- Verbs -- Mike, Joshua, Stevan

A -- Adjectives -- Owen, Bryar, Jarrett

N -- Nouns -- Emma, Corrie, Laura

C -- Conjunctions -- Sarah, Ellie P, Selah

A -- Adverbs -- Ellie T, Joey, Aiden

P -- Pronouns -- Bailey, Jacob, Blake

P -- Prepositions -- Ana, Morgan, Samantha

Dates of Presentation:

9/21 -- Conjunctions

9/28 -- Pronouns *

10/5 -- Nouns *

10/12 -- Adjectives

10/26 -- Adverbs

11/2 -- Verbs

11/9 -- Prepositions

11/16 -- Interjections

* Note:  These dates have been adjusted due to students' schedules.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Final Draft of the Descriptive Essay

     (Remember to bring in your rough draft to hand in with the final draft)

-- Read Chapters 3 & 4

-- No Take Home Quiz!  (We will do that in class next week)

-- Parts of Speech Pre-Test

-- Work on Parts of Speech Project

     -- Research and learn all you can so that you can come prepared to work in your group next week!

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Parts of Speech Assigned Groups

Parts of Speech Pre-Test (or PDF)

Parts of Speech Planning  (or PDF)

Have a wonderful weekend.  If you're not doing anything, join us in Northfield for the Defeat of Jesse James Days!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Parts of Speech Pre-Test

In the list of words below, circle the nouns and cross out the verbs.  Do nothing to the words that are neither nouns nor verbs.

Cat

Sing

Happy

Sofa

Liberty

Drove

Is

Camel

Very

Laughter

Traveled

Under

After

Dog

Rug

Cleaned

Quickly

Stove

In the sentences below, circle the adjectives.  Underline the adverbs.

1.    The silly, little girl danced wildly yesterday at the birthday party.

2.    My older brother generously loaned me fifty dollars from his very scanty rainy day fund.

3.    Tomorrow I will carefully bake that complicated recipe for my mother’s favorite dessert.

In the sentences below, underline the pronouns.

1.    Bob, your father wants you to call him.

2.    The beautiful concert brought the crowd to its feet.

3.    Jane has her own ideas, but her family doesn’t agree with them.

Put parentheses around each of the prepositional phrases:

1.    For many years, there had been groups of campers in the fields near the river.

2.    All of the trees at the farm died during the winter.

3.    After the game, the crowd of noisy fans cheered with a loud shout.

 Underline the conjunctions in the sentences below.

1.    Although we weren’t hungry, we ate a whole pizza and drank all the soda.

2.    The teacher asked many hard and confusing questions, yet we could answer them all.

3.    Neither the cat nor the dog obeys our commands, but we still love them.

Underline the interjections in the following sentences:

1.    Well, I don’t think so.

2.    Marvelous! You have done an incredible job.

3.    Oh no.  This is terrible.

Fill in the blanks for the following definitions:

1.    A _____________________    is a word or words used to join other words, phrases, or clauses.

2.    An ______________________   is a word or group of words expressing emotion or feeling, however slight.  Also, this part of speech doesn’t fit into any of the other categories of the parts of speech.

3.    A _________________________ links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence.

4.    An __________________________can modify a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a phrase, or a clause. It  indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how much".

5.    An __________________________ modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words.

6.    A ___________________________ can replace a noun or another pronoun. 

Parts of Speech Project Planning Worksheet

  

 My assigned part of speech:  _______________________________________

In your own words, define this part of speech:

  

What important aspects of this part of speech are important for your classmates to know?

  

What information do you need to find out about this part of speech?

  

Where can you find this information?

  

List the best resources that you’ve found:

  

Lesson Plan

Objective:  to teach my classmates about _______________________________ by explaining these key points:

1.      Main Point:  ________________________________________________

a.       Details: ________________________________________________

b.      Details:  ________________________________________________

c.       Details:  ________________________________________________

2.      Main Point:  ________________________________________________

a.       Details:  ________________________________________________

b.      Details:  ________________________________________________

c.       Details:  ________________________________________________

3.      Main Point:  ________________________________________________

a.       Details:  ________________________________________________

b.      Details:  ________________________________________________

c.       Details:  ________________________________________________

4.      Main Point:  ________________________________________________

a.       Details:  ________________________________________________

b.      Details:  ________________________________________________

c.       Details:  ________________________________________________

5.      Main Point:  ________________________________________________

a.       Details:  ________________________________________________

b.      Details:  ________________________________________________

c.       Details:  ________________________________________________

Parts of Speech Assigned Groups

Below are the groups and dates for our Parts of Speech Projects:

Dates of Presentation:

9/21 -- Conjunctions -- Sarah, Ellie P, Selah

9/28 -- Pronouns * -- Bailey, Jacob, Blake

10/5 -- Nouns * -- Emma, Corrie, Laura

10/12 -- Adjectives -- Owen, Bryar, Jarrett

10/26 -- Adverbs -- Ellie T, Joey, Aiden

11/2 -- Verbs -- Mike, Joshua, Stevan

11/9 -- Prepositions -- Ana, Morgan, Samantha

11/16 -- Interjections -- Anika, Jack, Ethan

* Note:  These dates have been adjusted due to students' schedules.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (August 31)

Greetings!

We had another good class this week.  I'm working hard to learn names and to get to know this good group of students.

For our Quick Write today, I used the fact that September 1 - 7 is National Childhood Prevention Week, and I asked the students to write about some injury or accident that happened to themselves or to someone they have known .  As a mother of 7, I've made 8 trips to the ER with my kids, and I heard about big and little injuries from the students.

Our Words of the Day were French expressions that have become parts of our day to day language:

RSVP -- fr. French "Répondez s'il vous plaît" -- Please respond; a request for a response to an invitation

déjà vu -- fr. French "already seen" -- th feeling that a situation has already occurred

du jour -- fr. French "of the day" -- used to describe something that is being served on the day or of a current interest

faux pas -- fr. French "false step" -- a slip or slight blunder

bon voyage -- fr. French "good travels" -- an expression used to express good wishes on a journey

For every week's class, I put the agenda for that day along the side of the whiteboard.  We always start with the Quick Write and Words of the Day, and following that, we cover writing, literature, and grammar topics.  This week, we covered our writing assignments, then literature, and finished with grammar.

Students have finished and handed in the Rough Drafts of their Descriptive Essays.  I will go over them this week and hand them back next week.  They will then revise the rough drafts and hand them in the following week.  Another short writing assignment for them for next week is to write 1 paragraph titled "Penguins as Pets."  I teach writing classes at Arcadia Charter School, and this year I'm having students from each school write paragraphs that students from the other school can use for editing practice.  These paragraphs should have at least 5 mistakes; these mistakes can be spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, or usage related.  

I've assigned the beginning chapters of our book, Animal Farm.  Before reading, they wrote about the  qualities they thought goes into being a good leader, and we put many of their responses on the board:  humble, accountable, servant leader, love for followers, doing what is correct, motivational, handle situations, protect followers, selfless, patient, experiences, loyal, responsible, courageous, self-control, maturity, generous, forgiving, integrity, trustworthy, Christ-like, wise, push to do the best, making hard decisions, considerate, honest, fair, intelligent, has vision, teachable, sees people as equals, loving, fearless.

Students have a Study Guide of questions for each reading assignment, but they may also choose a reading response from the "ala carte" portion at the end of the study guide.  I also told the students that I would include links to audio versions of the books.  Many students find that either listening or listening while reading helps with reading comprehension.

This week I introduced the Parts of Speech unit.  As I explained to the students, every single word that we use in our sentences falls into one of the parts of speech categories:  interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, and pronouns.  Some students may have a strong working knowledge of these while others use them in sentences but don't understand them as fully; they are important to writing in that they are the building blocks of our sentences, and many times writing errors occur from incorrect usage.

For this unit, students will be put into groups of three to learn and become the "class experts" on their chosen part of speech.  On their assigned week, they will teach the class, give them an activity, and provide homework for practice.  Next week the students will group themselves and sign up for a part of speech.  We will talk more about the "hows" of a project like this.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Ch. 1 & 2 of Animal Farm

-- 3 Reading Responses (at least 2 study guide questions)

-- 3 Vocabulary Words

-- Write 1 paragraph -- "Penguins as Pets" (at least 5 errors)

-- Parts of Speech matching worksheet

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Parts of Speech Matching

Animal Farm on Audible

Animal Farm on Youtube

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard