life in education

My Life in Education

Instructions
E. SHERMAN ENG-101
ESSAY #1: NARRATION
LENGTH:​850-1,000 words
1st DRAFT DUE (500 words) (insert due date) Class workshop
FINAL DRAFT DUE (insert due date)
Note: All first drafts must be in Microsoft Word format and in essay format

Required: Two outside sources: 1-2 sentences of quotations from a scholarly journal article (use library research databases) and a one sentence quotation from an any essay on education in our They Say, I Say textbook. Optional source #3: newspaper article, PA Dept. of Education, or some other organization’s website. Works Cited list required at end of essay (see page 2).
Your first draft will submitted through Blackboard under Week 4 of the Course Materials.

Assignment: My Life in Education: Grades K-12 and Beyond

You are to write a Narration Essay by gathering evidence from your kindergarten through twelfth-grade years and your first few weeks at Montco. Your goal is to persuade your readers of effective and ineffective methods of teaching and learning, based on your own experiences (stories), specifically to prepare students to be confident learners and be successful in college. Consider these questions, when you are building evidence and paragraph topics: What were successful (or unsuccessful) experiences of learning for me, INSIDE the classroom? What were successful (or unsuccessful) experiences of learning for me, OUTSIDE the classroom? Was I effectively prepared for college? How successful a college student am I, so far? What do I want from college? You will need paragraph topics that are supported by the anecdotes you will develop in that paragraph. Describe particular scenes, lessons, and events in your K-12 years, in a detailed way from your own perspective, to make a clear point. In exploring and analyzing your own experiences, you can write a persuasive thesis that defines some of the best teaching methods for others. In creating your thesis, imagine you are trying to persuade a roomful of school principals and teachers of the most successful methods of educating students to best prepare them to be confident learners.

Thesis
Your thesis should contain two parts usually in two or three sentences and should appear at the end of the first and last paragraphs (in different forms, NOT verbatim). These parts are: 1) the problem with certain teaching methods inside and outside the classroom, particularly in preparing students for college; and (2) the solution to these issues, based on your experience and the research are using. Each part of the thesis can be expressed in clear, articulate points that indicate to your reader that you have evaluated your own experience and your sources.

Paragraphs
• The first paragraph should smoothly introduce your sources, your general topic (education) and sub-topic (grades 9-12, e.g.), and your thesis (both parts, see above).
• The inside paragraphs should each focus on a specific topic as indicated by the topic sentence, with carefully chosen examples from your sources (quoted or summarized by you), as needed. Each paragraph is concluded in the paragraph point (an analysis sentence that includes the key topic sentence phrase, with a concluding comment).
• The last paragraph should develop any concluding thoughts you may have about your general subject. Concluding thoughts may involve your experience of researching and writing about this topic: Looking back, how do you consider the quality of your education now? Were you surprised by any of your evidence? Did your evidence broaden your view of the subject; if so, how? You should also reiterate the thesis in the last paragraph.

Works Cited List
Reference pages 176-177 in A Pocket Style Manual.

Written Work Guidelines:
All written work must be computer-processed in 12 font, Times New Roman, with 1.25” margins (all sides) on white paper; name, date, essay title, word count, course number, and instructor’s name in top right corner of first page; all pages numbered; double-spaced; no bolding, listing, or bulleting formats; no indenting of quotations. All assignments must adhere to requirements for potential full grade credit. All essays must be your own new, original work written for this course.