The challenge is to write an essay on the subject of toxic positivity. If you’re reading this in November, 2020, the current essay prompt on empathy is here; this challenge also answers that prompt.
Our writing guide, which works for any and all writing responses, is here. You’ll want it for this challenge.
Toxic positivity needs a definition first. This article starts with one:
Your prompt:
Write an essay on a subject from your study of the practice of empathy.
Each hyperlink in the prompt leads to the entirety of what you need to write this essay. It starts with the writing process post, which leads you to your writing guide:
The questions guide you through the modular elements of writing. Here is the second page:
This accompanies the previous post on the novel:
This test is ungraded. We will use it to give you feedback on your writing. It will also help you focus on the kind of details from the novel you’ll need in your analysis essay.
You will begin this test in class on Friday, March 29, and then finish it over the weekend1. The Google Form component is posted to Google Classroom. Here is a printable copy of the test:
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This will be distributed on Friday, March 292, with a deadline of Thursday, April 4. You will be using class time to write it all next week. The prompt is accompanied by a step-by-step process that includes sentence starters, transitional words and phrases to plug into your essay, and even sample sentences and paragraphs you can use.
You are welcome to use our writing process, which is outlined in a post here and available for direct download here, if you like. It is important to learn how to construct a traditional analysis essay, however, and this packet will do that. Here is a printable copy of it:
[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F03%2FTIM-Literary-Analysis-2019.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
Use the comment section here to ask questions about either of these assignments. By asking here, you give your peers a chance to read the answers.
Note that it is available now, March 26, and is obviously designed to be open-note and open-book. You need to do some of it by hand, which is why Friday is reserved for that work. ↩
Note again that it is actually available now, March 26, and will likely be posted to Google Classroom before the 29th. Friday is the day we will discuss the essay and go through the prompt. You could start now, if you were motivated enough. ↩
Note: The header image for this post (the image you see in emails or when the post is embedded elsewhere) comes from an essay published by an AP student in 2015 in response to Bronson’s article.
This is the central hub for reading and responding to “Learning to Lie,” a 2008 essay by Po Bronson. First up is the essay in its original state:
http://nymag.com/news/features/43893/
Then we have the copy formatted for annotation in class:
That copy will also be attached to any Google Classroom assignments, including the essay prompt that always follows our discussion of Bronson’s piece:
That prompt utilizes the writing process in full. A PDF copy of the essay prompt is embedded before the comment section, which is where you should add your insights, observations, and questions.
[pdfjs-viewer url=”http%3A%2F%2Fsisypheanhigh.com%2Fmalachite%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F03%2FEssay-Prompt_-Learning-to-Lie.pdf” viewer_width=100% viewer_height=600px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
This assignment builds on the NPR Podcast Challenge we started in early January:
You can continue to use the space to complete the challenge, and I’ll make that an ongoing option through the end of March. There is an opportunity here to do more than just a podcast, though. The five prompts provided by NPR could be used for discussion and essay-writing, too.
First, those prompts again:
Tell us a story about your school or community: about something that happened there — recently or in the past — that your audience should know about.
What is a moment in history that all students should learn about?
Show us both sides of a debate about an issue that’s important to you.
What do you want to change about the world? What’s a big change that students today will make in the future?
Explain something to us that kids understand and grown-ups don’t.
Answering these five questions has given you the subject and approach, at least, for five different essays. We will use the writing process(es) outlined here:
Your assignment is simple: Choose a prompt, and then write an essay in response to it.
You can use your peers for inspiration, by the way, since you can load the Google Form you completed, click on “See previous responses,” and read hundreds of potential approaches:
You have to add your own answers first, of course. If you’ve done that, you now have access to the anonymous suggestions of your peers.
Follow any further directions on Google Classroom, and ask questions below.
Earlier this month, you were invited to read excerpts from Freakonomics:
The focus overall is on parenting, with the subject of names dominating an entire chapter. That is now our focus: the names we have and what we might write about them.
The prompt for this writing assignment is simple: Write an essay about your name. The trick is unpacking that prompt and finding an interesting approach to the subject.
To do this, we’ll us two tactics. First, a work-in-progress guide to writing built on makerspace principles. It’s roughly 90% complete, which means it will work for you:
It will also be shared in class. Following those steps will produce an essay.
The second tactic is to use the comment section of this post to share, discuss, critique, etc., your ideas. Focus on your approach. What is the interesting perspective you can bring to bear on the subject of your name? What questions can you ask and answer? What will interest a potential audience? And so on.
Post your (succinct) comments here, and we’ll let the interstitial mechanisms of the course take over. Follow Google Classroom for deadlines and other requirements.