Brianna Larkin
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Evidence: Where do I want to be in 10 years?Description of Artifact:These student responses demonstrate the first step in beginning a unit on learning how to write professional, academic essays. The lesson asked students to write about what their lives would be like in ten years. In the first paragraph, students wrote about what their dreams were for their lives in ten years and in the second paragraph, students described their nightmares for what their lives would be like in ten years. Following that excercise, I asked students to write about what people expected from them: teachers, parents and friends, and people from the community. To relate the expectations and their dreams to writing, students documented how writing would help them gain access to each step they needed to earn their dreams. For example, if a student wanted to be a lawyer, he would need to write a good college essay to get into college, write well in college to make excellent grades, write well for his LSAT and admissions essay for law school, write well during law school in order to pass and obtain a job, and he will use writing during his career as a lawyer. Standards demonstrated by this artifact:Student as Learner Reflection:This lesson was an excellent way to use personal student goals in order to make writing have a real purpose. By individualizing the lesson and valuing what each student wanted to accomplish, students paid more attention to the following lessons on writing academic essays. Students began to see that learning to write well and in a professional voice helps them gain entry into the careers and colleges they needed in order to obtain their goals. I enjoyed teaching this lesson and the responses the students wrote were extremely useful to me as I planned further lessons. It was interesting to know each student's career goals and be able to use those goals to connect with students in other lessons.
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