writing-effective-intros-and-conclusions.doc 

1. Students began the class with an enthusiastic discussion of the movie they watched together yesterday. They were disappointed with the ending, after realizing the potential existed, when the boy committed the same mistake later in life. We had a fairly good discussion of the topic surrounding Mr. Hundert’s decision to give the third position for the Ceasar competition away from the boy who had actually earned it. They disagreed with his decision to tell the boy that he had actually earned that spot back in his youth but that it was given to someone else. The students wrestled with this because they didn’t see any purpose of potential good to come from telling the man something had been taken from him; it was too late, obviously, to correct it.
2. We looked at a poor copy of an essay that was simple, too repetitive, and simply uninteresting to read. We moved from there into a handout given to students that was also displayed by the projector onto the board that looked at things to consider incorporating in introductions and conclusions and the common elements of really engaging (enticing) paragraphs.
3. We followed through the lists, stopping to put into practice some of what we were reading. We created a thesis with the topics the students generated and then refered to it throughout the discussion. The class went by quickly and there was a lot of information that we looked through. In tomorrow’s class, though, we’ll get more into the application of this.
4. There is a new page on the right side of the homework blog, under Pages, that focuses on this topic. It can be of assistance to you in writing intros and conclusions for essays in other classes. It’s there; feel free to use it!