Author: Mr. Wass

Room 16’s 2017/18 Community Agreements

FeaturedLeave a comment

Thank you to room 16 students for your outstanding essays and fantastic Pecha Kucha presentations. After 8 weeks, room 16 students have co-created our community agreements for this year. Each agreement will help ensure our students’ physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being.

Community Agreements

Image courtesy of Sohyla.

Persuasive Essay: Conclusion Paragraph

Mr. WassLeave a comment

How to Write a Conclusion Paragraph 

The thesis of the full persuasive essay that this conclusion paragraph belongs to is: The most important thing a person can do during their lifetime to make the world a better place is graduate from high school.

I believe graduating from high school is the most important thing a person can do in their lifetime. First of all, it will help ensure an individual gets a higher-paying job. Also, it will greatly reduce crime. Finally, it will also benefit a person’s overall quality of health.  If it requires staying up late to get help with their homework, paying for a tutor, scouring the Internet to search for answers you were not able to find out in class, do it. Do whatever it takes to graduate. I empathically believe the end result will be worth it.

************************

Now let’s look at what is included in conclusion paragraph.

Purpose of a Conclusion Paragraph:

During a conclusion you present make one last effort to convince your reader that agreeing with your point of view will truly make the world a better place. Also, you will be reminding your reader about the thesis of your paragraph and your three reasons.

Follow these steps while writing each of your three reason paragraphs.

1) Begin your conclusion paragraph by restating your thesis.

 2) After that, you will immediately remind your readers of the three reasons you presented in your essay today. 

3) After restating your three reasons you will make “a call of action” that you think your readers must take in order to achieve the point of view of your thesis.

Example: 

If it requires staying up late to get help with their homework, paying for a tutor, scouring the Internet to search for answers you were not able to find out in class, do it. Do whatever it takes to graduate. I empathically believe the end result will be worth it.

Persuasive Essay Writing: Supporting Paragraphs

Mr. WassLeave a comment

How to Write Supporting Paragraphs

Begin by reading the below paragraph:

Graduating from high school is the most effective way a person can make the world a better place. For example, increasing high school graduation rates leads to a better paid, more intelligent workforce. A 2006, nation-wide survey found an estimated 90 percent of Canadians agreed that a highly skilled and educated workforce was the single most important thing Canada needs to ensure our country’s economic future. Acquiring a high school diploma also increases a person’s opportunity to obtain a higher paying job. A 2010 North American study, found that young adults with their high school diploma on average earned almost $10,000 more annually than young adults without their high school diploma. Furthermore, young adults with their university degree and/or college diploma earned more than double than young adults without a high school degree.  This evidence is among the many reasons why graduating from high school leads to a superior world.

************************

Purpose of Supporting Paragraphs:

  • To provide relevant evidence (specifically data and expert opinions) to help persuade readers to agree with your thesis statement.
  • To remind readers of your thesis statement.

 

Note: While writing each of the THREE supporting paragraphs in a persuasive essay, you will follow these steps:

1) Begin each paragraph by restating your thesis. You should try to reword your thesis each time, so that your essay isn’t too repetitive.  

2) After that, you will immediately write a sentence stating the supporting reason you are addressing in the paragraph.

3) Next, you will defend your reason by providing supporting evidence.  You will be using statistics/data and expert opinions (e.g., numbers and opinions that come from research). You may use primary and secondary data as supporting evidence. During this assignment, you will be using footnotes and hyperlinks show where you obtained your supporting evidence.

Key Transition Words: According to…/ To quote…/ …., says (insert source of information here)

4) After providing a MINIMUM OF TWO pieces of supporting evidence, you will restate your thesis at the end of each supporting paragraph.

Task: How might we turn use this news article to help us write a supporting paragraph for a persuasive essay.

Pecha Kucha Presentations

Mr. WassLeave a comment

 

 

Well-Being Unit Culminating Task

In groups of two, students will create a persuasive half-Pecha Kucha presentation (10 Images x 20 seconds) about a specific community agreement that will ensure the well-being of the students in our learning community and the school.

Success Criteria:

Success Criteria:

  • Introduce each of your three group members, including interests, preferred learning styles and hopes for the school year (20 second per group member).
  • Demonstrate how your chosen community agreement supports all four pillars of well-being.
  • Pose a question, design a survey and collect primary data that addresses an inquiry related to your community agreement.
  • Gather and display data using at least one circle graph and at least one histogram or scatter plot. Make reference to your data as part of your presentation.
  • Present the Pecha Kucha using Google Slides format.

 

Final Pecha Kucha Projects Due: Thursday, October 5, 2017