GP-AP Inaugral Post: A Midwinter's Break Collaboration

Okay, December isn't at all midwinter, but I took some poetic license.

Welcome to the first collaborative post between GP and AP! Over the break, GP students will be working on rough drafts for their literary analysis essays on A Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm challenging students to incorporate figurative language into their essays.

GP Students: tell your partners a little about the essay you're writing. Ask them about incorporating figurative language, run your thesis statements by them, or ask for suggestions about moving your conclusions past a simple recap of your paper.

AP Students: offer suggestions on any of the above, tell your partners about the best essay writing advice you've been given or learned on your own, and ask about the topics they are writing on and the angle they want to take.

Due 1/4.

Webquest Link for GP

http://www.rsc.org.uk:8080/picturesandexhibitions/action/viewExhibition?typeid=plays-infocus&exhibitionid=3&sectionid=7


Here's the right link (I hope!!) for Site III, the RSC productions of Midsummer Night

Writing Thoughts, Part 2: And a Challenge.

So, it looks as if most students feel that school:

1. Doesn't provide enough choice on writing assignments and writing form, and

2. Writing for a grade is an artificial and discouraging process (see Peter's first post for a well-written analysis of this).

BUT,

A. Many of you wrote that you'd want to be able to write more short stories and to be able to "express emotions" more freely.

Okay.

But since 95% of us are not able to write a polished and readable short story (though we can always try!), and since most courses outside of English don't recognize short stories and similar narrative, "emotion expressive" genres as legitimate, what would you suggest that would be less depressing than the standard, schloppy writing assignment, but still be able to convey the necessary thought processes and analysis that all academic courses demand.

B. Would you be happy if some of the stuff you wrote WASN'T graded? Would you just want comments and feedback, or would you want some sort of motivation for actually doing the assignment? Rollercoaster88 has an optimistic view of students' motivation, but a jaded old geezer like me needs more convincing.

C. Boxer wrote that,

"Writing in school has lost all meaning. For me at least, it is always the same old, same old. It's really hard to write an entire essay on subject matter that doesn't pertain to me or my life in any way. I would find school writing to be more meaningful if it I were asked to write about my own personal experiences and then make connections to something that was covered in class."

Is it possible that virtually any writing in school (outside of lab reports) could connect to personal experiences? And, on a more cynical note, since many high school students do not -- for various reasons -- have the range or experience of adult writers, how can "personal experiences" always connect to class content? What if there is simply not enough there?

Please address one of the above points in detail - -if you want. We'll take a page from Rollercoaster88's book and not assign grades for this one. Let's see how many students respond.

Some Controversial Writing Thoughts

Hello all!

Welcome to the first blog on the AP/GP Connection. That's a cheesy title that almost sounds like a WWE tag team name, but you get the picture. Anyhow, here're a few things to think about and respond to over the next week or so.

1. What would you do or what would you like to see that would make writing more meaningful in school? Be concrete with your ideas and comments, not vague and general (as in, "I'd like if writing meant something..." because schlock like that doesn't mean anything).

2. What place do you see writing in your life beyond high school? Consider the changing social and technological contexts of your generation: will we devolve into Tweets and texts? Will we find a balance between the 140-character tweet and the twenty-page progress report? And what role do you see writing playing in your professional and personal interactions?

Remember to treat this a "casual-formal" writing. That is, adhere to the standards of Edited English and refrain from netspeak, txtng acrnms, or unnecessary slang. However, don't sound like a robot, either. Also, try to respond as much to each others' thought as to the original post, but keep your responses focused.