What's Your Question? September 5, 2019

Focus: What question do you hope to answer through the process of writing?

1. Warming up with "My Father's Voice" and an MMM reading

2. Returning to the idea of using a question to structure your essay:

• The question can be explicit (stated directly), or implicit (suggested subtly).

• The question should be somewhat apparent in the first couple of paragraphs of writing.

• The ending of the story should reflect on the question and offer a complex answer to the question.

3. Sharing our questions aloud and returning to drafting with the goal of completing at least one full page, typed and double spaced

Try to bring in the craft moves that you've liked in our mentor texts, such as...

• Sensory imagery
• Dialogue
• Descriptive writing
• Short, clean sentences
• Humor, if applicable
• Vulnerability
• Using a question to guide the structure
• Using your story to answer / reflect upon that question
• Titles that work on more than one level

4. Conferencing on your drafts, using RADaR revision, and sharing beautiful words

HW:
1. Spend at least one hour of your own time reading your independent reading book.

2. For Friday:

• Bring your independent reading book to class on Friday.
• Complete at least one page of your personal essay draft (typed and double spaced).