My Writing Goals ...so we can “blossom” as writers :) Why/how will we create and track our writing goals in English I this year? Everyone sets goals for different reasons. Today I’m going to help you create writing goals that will not only help you on the test, but in life.

Why? You being successful and having the tools necessary to be a twenty-first century citizen requires fluency in a broad range of writing communications. This includes writing letters, job applications, formal complaints, reviews of products, essays… *Most of you will not become writers, but being able to express your thoughts in writing is a skill that you will take with you through life no matter what you choose to do. In short: You need to be able to express and reflect, inform and explain, evaluate and judge, enquire and explore, analyze and interpret, and take a stand/propose a solution...in writing In high school you’re expected to “look down the road,” “see your future,” and “plan to be successful.” This is alot to ask, but we’re going to start small and develop writing goals. We will develop these today, and as we reach them, we’ll develop new ones.

How? So how are we going to do this? We are going to set goals together, compare our writing to our goals throughout the year, and formulate ways to improve upon how we already write. We’re going to use this. Today we will take it step-by-step, and really try to focus on setting honest, reflective, and reachable goals.

Second: You are going to set goals for yourself :) First: I am going to explain my goals for everyone in this class. They are already on your slip of paper. Follow along as I share them with you. Second: You are going to set goals for yourself :) Let’s do that now. Explanation of “my” goals: #1 I want you to be able to pre-write easily and once that’s done I want you to feel comfortable writing away. My goal is that you do not fear a prompt, how to fill up 26 lines, or weather or not your answering with a “good” answer. I want you to be able to check yourself quickly with a dictionary, and most importantly with what you remember we revised in class. #2 I want you to write well-written sentences, not simple sentences from elementary school. My goal is for us to naturally think of and write educated sentences.

Choose one of these goals and write it under “Student Goals” beside #1. While you choose ONE and COPY IT, I’ll talk about what they mean exactly. -I want to learn how to have “voice” in my writing. -I want to be able to distinguish reasons from examples. -I want to be able to “show” what I mean instead of “tell” what I mean. Voice: to be able to hear some controlled personality/attitude in the writing. Readers’ love to laugh and feel emotion when they read. Learning to write with voice means you naturally let your reader feel all these things. It’s cool :) Reasons vs examples: reasons- a cause for why something happened. (I like to play football because it’s fun) That’s a reason to play football. : examples- illustrates a reason, characteristics of reasons. (I like to play football because it focuses on making a whole team work together to run a touchdown.) An example of why one might like to play football is that “the whole team works together.” “Show” vs “tell”- “showing means you use more adjectives and you think of imaginative ways to “say/write” something instead or just saying something simply. again...I like football because it’s fun. Duh… and that’s boring… vs I like football because we work together as a team, our practice pays off come game night, and we kinda become a family working together to go to play-offs. (The last sentence “shows” how much you like to play football and gives specifics as to why.

Student Goal #2 (Does everyone see #2?) First: Decide which one of these things has always been a struggle for you. -subject-verb agreement (“Hamburgers is good.” instead of “Hamburgers are good.”) -run-on sentences (You don’t really know where end punctuation goes.) -fragments (You’re not sure what a complete sentence really is.) -commas (What the heck...when do you even use those things?) -spelling (I’m a horrible speller.)

Now: Put one of those struggles into a sentence and write it under #2 -subject-verb agreement (“Hamburgers is good.” instead of “Hamburgers are good.”) -run-on sentences (You don’t really know where end punctuation goes.) -fragments (You’re not sure what a complete sentence really is.) -commas (What the heck...when do you even use those things?) -spelling (I’m a horrible speller.) For example: I want to make sure I understand where to place commas in my sentences.

So...what do we do with this paper now? You will glue this in your notebook on the inside cover. (Remember, you only need five (5) dots of glue to secure it. )

But seriously... Meeting your goals gives you confidence...Life with confidence is way more fun:)