Essay Prep: Reading the Essay introduces students to analysis of the essay form. Students analyze essays that reveal, inform, reflect, and persuade as they hone in on the author’s message and view those ideas through the lens of their modern-day experiences. They then engage in an original writing activity to apply literary strategies uncovered in each essay.
The essays under examination in this class are
- "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" by Alice Walker
- "Fairy Tales and Disability: Do I Have a Happily Ever After?" by Melanie Kennedy-Diver
- "Say My Name: The Alchemical Magic of 'Rumpelstiltskin'" by Souvankham Thammavongsa
- "Murdered by My Replica?" by Margaret Atwood
Syllabus
Week One
Personal Narrative Essay. Students discover how to engage with the author’s experience, ascertain an essay's perspective, and write an original multiple-perspective piece.
Week Two
Informative Essay. Students dig deep into the writing strategies authors use to engage and inform readers. They next consider an audience as they employ the element of surprise to inform on a topic.
Week Three
Cultural Analysis Essay. Students examine the tension between two periods: the original experience conveyed in an essay and the author's perspective now.
Week Four
Persuasive Essay. Students examine how authors persuade readers using emotion, humor, argument, and facts. Students end with a thinking exercise as they develop their own persuasive arguments.
Common Core and Academic Standards Support
What follows is a word bank and set of skills associated with this class. Use them to craft your own learning narrative for use in year-end evaluations, charter school reports, or any other accountability source.
Word Bank
- Argument
- Audience
- Counterargument
- Cultural analysis essay
- Informative essay
- Metacognitive awareness
- Metaphor
- Opening Hook
- Personal narrative essay
- Persuasive essay
- Point of view/Perspective
- Simile
- Theme
- Vivid detail
- Voice
Core Skills
- Cite textual evidence to support conclusions
- Compare theme and content to personal experience
- Construct an argument that debunks a counterargument
- Convey factual information using a surprising take
- Convey personal identity using poetic structure
- Determine central ideas and themes
- Evaluate persuasive writing techniques
- Evoke reaction (emotion, call to action) through writing
- Identify point of view
- Inform a specific audience
- Read diverse sources
- Relate essay content to modern experience
- Utilize simile and metaphor to make comparisons
- Write detailed, organized, structured original narratives
- Write from multiple perspectives
