Submitted by: Dottie Carpenter and Kathy Bugliarop
School: Deep Run High School
Summary
According to the College Board, “The college essay allows students to evaluate their values, creativity, sense of humor, and knowledge. [The essay] will reflect their persuasive, organizational, and stylistic abilities, as well as mastery of standard English.” The best way for students to succeed at this task is for them to tell the best story about themselves. One of my former students loves to talk about his boss Steve Jobs, who often reminded his employees that people love to hear stories more than anything else. If Steve wanted to sell something, he always presented it in the form of a good story. We know how that skill worked for him! Telling the best story about an aspect of their lives is what we want all of our students to do when they write their personal essays for college. This skill is one that will enhance their experiences in college as well as in the professional world afterward.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching as teachers facilitated the task of writing the personal essay and assessed them. Students researched information on the College Board site and synthesized personal information through organizational structures and strategies to compose an authentic task which will aid in their acceptance to college. They used technology to display and interact with information.
Approaching as students collaborated with each other by discussing the pros and cons of possible writing ideas and by peer-editing through Google Docs. Students communicated with an expert, a professional author and college professor, who helped them with their ideas.
This is approaching as students revisited, assessed and evaluated their own lives to determine the best scenario to showcase their talents, reveal their strengths, explain their empathy for others, and/or disclose their abilities to learn from adverse or unusual experiences. In such an important essay, every sentence matters and students had to make decisions about what to leave in and what to leave out. Practice helps! Self-evaluation is a difficult skill to master, yet we are able to point students in the right direction.
In terms of creativity, this lesson is approaching. Through research, communication, critical thinking problem-solving, and practice students produced one of the most important artifacts of their high school English career. They created a meaningful story that impacts their acceptance into college and definitely impacts their abilities to advocate for themselves in the real world.
Student Artifact
