December 18 - 22

Monday, December 15 - Friday, December 19

Monday: Review for final exam; flash cards

Tuesday: Review for final exam

Habits of Highly-Effective Writers Quiz: 

1. Some stories have ‘holes’ where the reader is left with questions. Ask yourself, “What doesn’t make sense?” and “What details do I need to add?” (Fill in the Gaps)

2. Before you even state your main claim, draw your reader into your writing with an interesting fact, anecdote, or thought-provoking question or quote. (Informational Hook)

3. Support the main point of your paper with interesting and important facts and ideas, often researched. (Evidence)

4. Have a main thesis statement, argument, claim, or main idea for your piece. (What’s your point?)

5. Break up your writing using indenting when the action shifts. When using dialogue, this means indenting every time someone new speaks. (Paragraphs)

6. Instead of writing facts about people and situations, play it out like a movie on paper, painting a picture for the reader with your words. (Show Don’t Tell)

7. Use words that have one meaning, instead of words like “good” and “fun”, which can have multiple meanings (Concrete v. Abstract)

8. Zoom in on one part of the event sequence or timeline of the story, and give lots of interesting details about that small moment. (Narrow the Focus)

9. Catch your reader from the start; you might try starting from the target, using dialogue, or describing the setting or a character. (Narrative Lead)

10. Sometimes you just need to tell me more. (Elaborate)

11. Narratives need purpose. Ask yourself, “What is the point of this story?” Is there a problem, conflict or character change? (Heart of the Story)

12. Don’t forget to add concluding material that restates your main point in a new way and ties back to your hook. (Wrap It Up)

13. Prepare your ideas ahead of time with sub points that support your main point. (Organize)

14. Body paragraphs should begin with a sentence that expresses the main idea of that paragraph and how it relates as a sub point to the main claim. (Topic sentences)

15. Your story will come alive if you write more than the play-by-play. Instead, what were you or your characters thinking? How did they feel? (Thoughts and feelings, not just facts)

16. Another way to offer the reader a picture of what you’re saying. Ask yourself: What does it look like? What does it feel like? How does it smell? (Sensory details)

17. Don’t stop with evidence, but keep going. Tie the ideas together by writing about how and why they matter, how and why they support your thesis. (Unpacking)

18. As you move from paragraph to paragraph and from evidence to unpacking, use these. (Transitions)

Wednesday: English Exam + NWEA

Thursday: 

Friday: 

Happy Christmas Break!