College Application Essays
Assignment #1
_
Writing a college essay is your first chance to impress the admission’s department with your knowledge and skills, but more importantly it’s your first chance to display your individuality, your confidence and your motivation. Colleges don’t want students that sit in the darkness of their dorm with their noses in a book or pillow for four years. Colleges want students that are going to be a part of the college experience; students that will challenge, participate and motivate. Colleges want students that make them look good. Your essay is a great chance for you to separate yourself from the masses, to break away from the five- paragraph essay and to put your goals and ambitions down on paper. You want an admissions officer to pass your paper to his partner and say: “you gotta read this, it’s pretty good.”
For the following assignment you will write a practice college essay. You will need to collect two or three prompts from colleges that you are planning to attend or generic prompts that seem to appear on almost all college applications. Below are some criteria that you should keep in mind as you start your rough draft.
Why I am fulfilled by helping others
My wilderness challenge
My Third-World experience
My illness/affliction
My ‘aha!’ moment
My favorite book
My great teacher/coach/parent/ancestor
My academic/performance/sports failure and how I grew from it
Why avoid these topics you ask? The answer to that question will be discussed in class.
Due Date: T.B.D.
10 Opening Lines from Stanford Admission Essays
What do you think?
Writing a college essay is your first chance to impress the admission’s department with your knowledge and skills, but more importantly it’s your first chance to display your individuality, your confidence and your motivation. Colleges don’t want students that sit in the darkness of their dorm with their noses in a book or pillow for four years. Colleges want students that are going to be a part of the college experience; students that will challenge, participate and motivate. Colleges want students that make them look good. Your essay is a great chance for you to separate yourself from the masses, to break away from the five- paragraph essay and to put your goals and ambitions down on paper. You want an admissions officer to pass your paper to his partner and say: “you gotta read this, it’s pretty good.”
For the following assignment you will write a practice college essay. You will need to collect two or three prompts from colleges that you are planning to attend or generic prompts that seem to appear on almost all college applications. Below are some criteria that you should keep in mind as you start your rough draft.
- Does the opening paragraph grab the reader? Or is it boring?
- Does the writer use enough specific details for the reader to know her?
- Does the writer do everything possible to avoid sounding generic?
- Does the writer avoid clichés and sentimentality?
- Is there some originality in the essay that will help distinguish the writer from other qualified applicants?
- Does the writer reveal that he has a brain?
- Does the essay finish strong? Or is the last paragraph a dull regurgitation of the first?
- Is the essay grammatically sound?
Why I am fulfilled by helping others
My wilderness challenge
My Third-World experience
My illness/affliction
My ‘aha!’ moment
My favorite book
My great teacher/coach/parent/ancestor
My academic/performance/sports failure and how I grew from it
Why avoid these topics you ask? The answer to that question will be discussed in class.
Due Date: T.B.D.
10 Opening Lines from Stanford Admission Essays
What do you think?
- I change my name each time I place an order at Starbucks.
- When I was in the eighth grade I couldn't read.
- While traveling through the daily path of life, have you ever stumbled upon a hidden pocket of the universe?
- I have old hands.
- I was paralyzed from the waist down. I would try to move my leg or even shift an ankle but I never got a response. This was the first time thoughts of death ever cross my mind.
- I almost didn't live through September 11th, 2001.
- The spaghetti burbled and slushed around the pan, and as I stirred it, the noises it gave off began to sound increasingly like bodily functions.
- I have been surfing Lake Michigan since I was 3 years old.
- I stand on the riverbank surveying this rippled range like some riparian cowboy -instead of chaps, I wear vinyl, thigh-high waders and a lasso of measuring tape and twine is slung over my arm.
- I had never seen anyone get so excited about mitochondria.
Week #2 9/4/12 - 9/7/12
Day #6 9/4/12
Read: "The Anglo-Saxons" pgs. 2 - 16, The introduction to Beowulf on pg. 18 & "Before You Read" on pg.20
Notebook:
1. Complete the "Quickwrite" on pg. 16 in your notebook.
2. Write the characters of Beowulf and their descriptions from pg.19 & the definition/description of an "epic hero" in your notebooks.
Notebook:
1. Complete the "Quickwrite" on pg. 16 in your notebook.
2. Write the characters of Beowulf and their descriptions from pg.19 & the definition/description of an "epic hero" in your notebooks.
Day #7 9/5/12
Read "Beowulf" pages 21 - 32 (Don't start section 8).
3 Essential Questions
3 Essential Questions
Day #8
Journal Entry #1: Although a pagan poet may have originally composed and sung the poem, the Christian monk transcribing it probably added Christian elements. Find clues of the monk's additions and discuss why the monk would be compelled to add such specific Christian elements to the poem.
Read "Beowulf" pages 32 - 37
3 essential Questions
Read "Beowulf" pages 32 - 37
3 essential Questions
Day #9 9/7/12
Complete Worksheet #2 & Epic Hero / Poem list
Week #3 9/10/12 - 9/14/12
Day #10 9/10/12
Read: pages 39 - 46 from "Beowulf
In - Class Activity:
In - Class Activity:
- Review your notes and page 20 concerning "epic heroes" and "epic poems."
- Search for multiple examples of each trait from the text that we have read for class so far.
- Continue the examples as you read this evening.
- A chart would look pretty snappy. Something like this:
Day #14 9/14/12
In Class Essay / Beowulf
Week #4 9/17/12 - 9/21/12
Day #15 9/17/12
"Grade" testing periods 1 - 4. No class scheduled.
Day #16 9/18/12
Homework: Reading - Hamlet Act I Scenes 1 & 2 Complete: Study Guide & Essential Questions
Class Discussion: Revenge, Characters, Setting etc...
Class Discussion: Revenge, Characters, Setting etc...
Day #17 9/19/12
Homework: Reading - Hamlet Act I Scene 3 & 4 Complete Study Guide & Essential Questions
Class Discussion: Act I Scenes 1 & 2
Class Discussion: Act I Scenes 1 & 2
Day #18 9/20/12
In-Class Worksheets: "Your Speech Betrays You" & "There is Something Rotten in the State of Denmark"
Due Friday
Due Friday
Day #19 9/21/12
Character & Quote Quiz MOVED TO MONDAY
In-Class Reading of Act I, Scene 5
In-Class Reading of Act I, Scene 5
Week #5 9/24/12 - 9/28/12
Day #20 9/24/12
Beowulf Essay Discussion / Review
In-Class read of Hamlet Act I, Scene 5
In-Class read of Hamlet Act I, Scene 5
Day #21 9/25/12
Act I Quiz -
Week #6 10/1/12 - 10/5/12
Day #26 10/1/12
Reading: Act III Scene 1 & Study Guide (Scene 2 is a long scene. If you have the time read some tonight)
Viewing: Act II Scene 2 with an emphasis on Hamlet's soliloquy at the end, "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I..."
Viewing: Act II Scene 2 with an emphasis on Hamlet's soliloquy at the end, "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I..."
Day #27 10/2/12
Reading: Act III Scene 2 & Study Guide
Class: study of Hamlet's "Madness" and the Act II soliloquy
Class: study of Hamlet's "Madness" and the Act II soliloquy
Day #28 10/3/12
_Reading: Act III Scene 3 & Study Guide
Class: Discussion of Act III (so far)
Class: Discussion of Act III (so far)
Day #29 10/4/12
_Reading: Act III Scene 4 & Study Guide
Class: Pop / Surprise In-Class Essay 30 points
Class: Pop / Surprise In-Class Essay 30 points
Day #30 10/5/12
Class: Act III Discussion
Week #7
What a mess this week was...fire drills, bomb evacuations etc...
Week #8 10/15/12 - 10/20/12
Day #35
Reading: Act IV Scenes 1 -4
"To be or not to be" soliloquy paraphrase and questions in class
"To be or not to be" soliloquy paraphrase and questions in class
Day #36
Reading: Act IV Scenes 5 & 6
Presentation / Heather & Ethan period 4 / "Elizabethan World View"
Essay Final Introduction period 3
Class discussion Act IV Scenes 1 - 4 / Both classes
Presentation / Heather & Ethan period 4 / "Elizabethan World View"
Essay Final Introduction period 3
Class discussion Act IV Scenes 1 - 4 / Both classes
Day #37
Read Act IV Scene 7
Quiz Act III
Class Discussion - Act IV
Quiz Act III
Class Discussion - Act IV
Day #38
Reading: Act V Scene 1
Presentation / Brandie Nicely / "Flowers & Ophelia" / Period 3
Essay Final Introduction period 4
Class Discussion - Act IV All Classes
Presentation / Brandie Nicely / "Flowers & Ophelia" / Period 3
Essay Final Introduction period 4
Class Discussion - Act IV All Classes
Day #39
In- Class Reading Act V Scene 2