Collecting crosswords. We will then discuss the story, ‘Chelkash” in C-234, the next door board room.
HW: Hold onto your discussion notes. You will need them to write your paragraph, explaining the most important, least obvious lesson that Gorky wants the reader to get from the story. Bring in a printed copy on Tuesday.

Examining your paragraph(s) for wordiness, specifically looking for vague language (indefinate pronouns and collective nouns) and rhetorical language (phrasing that obviously signals the reader). We will work in small groups to analyize classmates paragraphs and then begin revising.
HW: Revision one of your paragraph is due tomorrow. Please have a printed copy of the paragraph(s) stapled to the old one.

Today’s focus will be revising your body paragraphs for structure. Specifically, we will label the purpose of each sentence in the paragraph, and then consider how to re-organize these sentences, revise them, or delete some sentence (parts) altogether. We will use the same format as yesterday.
HW: Working on the second revision of your paragraph(s). In this one, I want you to evaluate each body paragraph for structure. Go beyond the obvious “claim/topic sentence, set-up of quote, quote, and commentary” that we expect in every body paragraph. Just as with yesterday, I want you to staple the old copies to the new one, which should always be on top.

Quality of claim day. Today we will examine the quality of your claim overall. What argument does the writer make? What should the reader know and understand having read the story? Today will be a reading day, wherein you post your paragraph on our class blog, and then read everyone’s paragraph. After reading them all, choose THREE that you think posit the best argument, selecting these by posting your name as a comment to that paragraph/post.
HW: Finish the work we started in class, reading all the paragraphs and then choosing your favorite three. Begin revising your paragraph, specifically addressing the quality of your argument.

We will have a short printing tutorial. Then a class-long lecture, reviewing the four paragraphs the class has chosen for examination.
HW: Final draft (and first graded draft) of “Chelkash” paragraph is due on Tuesday (no class on Monday for late start).