Synthesis Essay Thoughts

Today students turn in their synthesis essays.  It has taken us almost four months to get here. And what I am seeing so far is amazing.  Which is, of course, support for the argument of slowing down, digging deeper. With the exception of a few days of Shakespeare, this has been our only focus all semester.  And I honestly feel like I completely taught this thing.  There isn't one thing that I am thinking, "Ugh, I really should have included this thing..."  Which isn't to say that there aren't some things I would change.  For example, this was my first year using a source grid, and there are definite changes that need to be made to that. Additionally, I need to write a better model of the rhetorical precis than the one I've found on line.  That one sucks.  Also need to do a little more with patterns of development.

For posterity, and because wouldn't it be nice to have a laid out plan next year that I could for once in twenty one years repeat, let's trace the history.

•  We started by reading exemplars which I used to teach the rhetorical precis which is an amazing exercise in thinking, reading and writing and rhetorical analysis.  Most kids think they are really good readers until they have to write a rhetorical precis.  And then they learn what the deal is.
• Exemplar One:  David Foster Wallace's, Consider the Lobster.  Students wrote the precis as a group for this one.  It was a struggle. But in a good way.  Expectations for the calibre of writing were clearly set.
• Proud to say that every other exemplar we read has been published since August 2017.  
• Siddhartha Mukherjee's, Invasion Equation Again group writing of the precis.  Brutal.
• Then I gave students a choice of essays for their first individual precis in order to promote student engagement.  The choices were:
• Accidental Killers (Psychology), Is Health Care A Right?, Strawberry Valley (an essay about the produce industry) and Feathered Glory (Fashion Industry). Students wrote individual rhetorical precis on the essay of their choosing. They were allowed to revise this one if they didn't get the grade they wanted
• After conducting one-on-one conferences to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the precis and strategies for revision, students were offered another opportunity to revise again on the essay of their choice.  Choices were:
• The Exercise Pill (Science and Fitness), The Disrupters (Sexual Discrimination in the Field of Technology) and Getting On (Ageism) Again students wrote on their own
• Again I met with each student and then offered one more opportunity to revise.  The essay:
• Schools of Thought (Education).  The revision is due after the break.
• Meanwhile, students have been writing their own essay on the topic of their choice using the above models as exemplars.
• The first step was to spend a little bit of time freewriting each day in their djournals to document the stuff they notice in the world and then to formulate questions based on those noticings.  All good researched writing seeks to answer a question.  They needed a good one.
• Step Two: Watch Ethan Hawke conduct research in the documentary "Shakespeare Uncovered" during which he utilizes questioning to investigate playing the lead in Macbeth.
• Next:  Allow students time to, as Hawke says, surround themselves with really smart people during a week long research reading period.
• Introduce the source grid which allows them to organize their quoted material.
• Assign the annotated bibliography for the sources which contains precis for each source. Require them to print their sources for Timed Synthesis Activity below
• Teach them about effectively blending quotations. (return to exemplars for analysis)
• Teach them about writing good transitions. (return to exemplars for analysis)
• Give them time to write
• Spend two days peer conferencing for content
• Spend one day peer editing for grammar usage and mechanics.

*Note: create a handout titled "What you should notice every time you read something in AP Lang"

*follow up: students create a timed synthesis prompt for their peers using their sources and their research question.  Everyone writes someone else's.  The author scores it.

On the day they turn in the essay I made them write a rhetorical precis on their own essay and a reflection.  Then asked them to label the modes of discourse in their essay and then ring the bell.