Today...A few people need to take 2nd  Awakening Quiz...Work on your gender essay ideas

Tomorrow...Library Basement...In-class essay
Wednesday...Turn in paper copies of the Awakening pre-reading assessments # 1 and 2 and the post-reading assessment.

Prompt: Drawing on The Awakening and at least two other LT freshman, sophomore or junior year literary works, write a persuasive essay supporting an original and insightful claim about gender roles (female and/or male). The essay should be built around an original, well-constructed, and meaningful central claim and supported by clear thinking and well-chosen textual evidence (The Awakening and two other source).  At least three quotes.

Junior Year: It’s a Woman’s World, The Scarlet Letter, Into the Wild, Self-Reliance, The Awakening, The Sacred Calling, Motherhood and Maternity

Sophomore Year: Ceremony, Cat’s Eye, etc.

Freshman Year: The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet

Grading: I will do a relatively quick, AP-style grading (holistic, no written feedback) of this essay using the rubric below. 

Keep in mind that quotes needn't be long and you may also make references/paraphrases to works without quoting them directly.

You may bring an outline with

* Thesis

* Any quotes you might use (one must be from The Awakening)

* Any compare and contrast or analytical verbs that you wish to write down.

Everyone is somehow impacted by gender roles and they change as we age. Share an honest thought or observation and explain why you feel this way, while integrating some literary references to give texture and context to your own ideas and voice. 

What are some of the attributes of a good thesis?

·         It is easy to understand/clear

·         Tells what is going be said/written about in your piece

·         It is the main idea of the essay

·         Typically it is at the end of the first paragraph

·         Precise and concise/ focused

·         Make an interesting point

• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it's possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like "good" or "successful," see if you could be more specific: why is something "good"; what specifically makes something "successful"?
• Does my thesis pass the "So what?" test? If a reader's first response is, "So what?" then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue. 
• Thesis must be specific enough to give the reader a clear picture of what the essay is about.
• Sentence must flow and be understandable.

• 
  

Remember some thesis structures available to you:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain's Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave "civilized" society and go back to nature.

Through[wsw1]  one girl’s hatred and another’s desire, Johnson explores the human need for love and the affect the absence of love can have on a person[wsw2] .

Although Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited” is set in Paris during the Great

Depression and Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” takes place in the South during the 1920’s, both stories weave back and forth in time through retrospection and flashback.

Although Jane does not condemn Blanch Ingram, Rochester, and the rest of the party individually, she disapproves of the principles of the upper class as a whole[WSW3] .

While both Northerners and Southerners believed they fought against tyranny and oppression, Northerners focused on the oppression of slaves while Southerners defended their own right to self-government.

In The Tide Turned, O’Brien’s tale of love between a father and his son illustrates the theme of optimism[wsw4] ; even[wsw5]  in utter desolation, there is still hope enough for one’s posterity to lead a decent life[wsw6] .