1. Things were slightly interupted with the wonderful Pancake Breakfast put on for the students this morning. Once things got settled, though, they got a good start on their brainstorming and drafting of an essay they have to write. We’ll consider that this first class was a bonus Brainstorm class and tomorrow they should all be prepared to get right into writing their draft.
2. Students were all given a copy of the essay outline we have used recently along with a handout with five possible essay questions to respond to. They had to chose the essay they wanted to write, brainstorm responses to it, and begin their body paragraphs. I was pleased to see that they were following the right format and order (writing body paragraphs before their introduction). We’ll see how things go tomorrow!
3. Attached here is the final draft of the essay we wrote together. Students were given a handout with a copy of the essay along with hand-written revisions and corrections I wrote in in my attempt to revise it. The final draft here has those corrections / changes included. This was hopefully to model exactly how valuable editing can be in improving what you write after a first draft.

in-class-symbolism-in-mice-and-men-good-copy-essay-final-draft.docx