Optimist Essay Information

Wednesday / Thursday 8/9 February through Friday / Monday 10/13

Creative Writing Wednesday / Thursday 8/9 February

Dear Writers,

I’m sorry to say that the plans I informed you off when I was last here have fallen through. OAKS testing will occur on the 15^th, 16^th, 17^th, and 21^st not this week.

The Optimist Essay is an excellent chance. So today, that will be the main activity. The essay has an excellent topic, “How my Positive Outlook Benefits my Community.” Essays to be submitted for the contest must be submitted to Mr. Mears in room 204 by 3:00 pm Wednesday, 15 February. These essays MUST be between 700 and 800 words. There are number of other rules and procedures to follow. The complete set of rules is on the blog, and a few copies are in the room.

If, you are NOT a person with a positive outlook, you could approach the essay as a work of fiction. You could approach the prompt from a satirical point of view (you KNOW who you are), but I wouldn’t submit these essays to Mr. Mears.

If you prefer you may work instead on a draft from the Culture lessons of earlier this week. Those questions are below.

I will be “checking” to see that you’ve completed a draft on the 14^th and 15^th, so please bring a full draft (serious or ironic; optimist or not) to class on the 14^th or 15^th. If you do submit the essay to Mr. Mears, be sure to get a copy of the rules from the substitute or by downloading them from the blog; pay very careful attention to the rules, they are detailed and there are penalties for mistakes.

NOTE: You will have two full periods to work in class on these. This will allow those juniors who must take the OAKS practice in order to do a timed write.

Also, because periods 5 & 6 didn’t get an opportunity to respond to these questions:

1.     How we begin to rebuild a culture of mutual respect across our school?

2.     What is bullying?

3.     Can someone be emotionally assaulted and if so, is it bullying?

4.     What is the responsibility of teachers in a school to prevent bullying / make sure no one is physically or emotionally assaulted?

5.     Is the school response to what happened consistent with what we’ve talked about?  What else should we do?

6.     What is the responsibility of the students in this school?  What does it look like when you stand up to bullying?

7.     What do you think 8^th graders who are coming to Grant next year are thinking?

8.     What’s the difference between “kids will be kids” and “bullying?”

9.     When does teasing cross the line to become bullying?

10.   What can each of us (students in this class, teachers, counselors, administrators, etc) do to make sure the school is safe (physically and emotionally) for everyone?

11.   What do we need to do now to heal and change the dynamics of the school to prevent this from happening again?

Writing activity – a promise to yourself…a letter to an 8^th grader who is now afraid to come here, letter to Ms. Orlen (she promises to read them), a letter which may be published in our News Magazine.

When you have completed your in-class writing, you should have some reading on the subject you have chosen as your research topic to begin reading.

Monday / Tuesday 7 / 8 February

We began the semester with conversations about culture at Grant.

OAKS testing and / or in-class essay writing will be February 15-21st (this is a change).

Writers should be focusing on a topic for their Junior/ Senior thesis, and should bring initial research materials (reading) to class for the time being.