Julius Caesar Honor Essay

For my first consecutive event, my sophomore English classes had just finished reading the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. They were asked to answer the question "Was Brutus an honorable man?" and use evidence from the play to support their answer. Students completed the first rough draft by hand in class over a period of two days. The paper was timed to give them some practice for the ACT tests which they will have to take next year. From there, I graded and commented on each of their rough drafts and returned them the next day. Students were given information on what they needed to improve based on the score they had received. In the English department at my school they use a 9 point grading rubric that is also based off the ACT for all major paper assignments. Students were then given several days in the labs to conference with me, correct anything that needed correcting, and submit their finalized papers online using Google Docs.

 Over Spring Break, my cooperating teacher and I split the grading and began looking at the essays. We realized that many students had not improved or made any changes from their hand-written drafts to their typed drafts. When we returned from Spring Break, I retaught the writing process. I also made sure to give out new, clearer worksheets and to allow students a chance to fix the common mistakes that I had noticed.
I learned from this not to rush writing assignments, especially when technology is involved. I also learned to make sure to make my instructions for writing assignments clear and to make sure that handouts reflect this as well. In the future, I would make sure to hand out clear directions from the beginning, and to go over the directions step by step before leaving them to fend for themselves.

Time: 5 Days before Spring Break, followed by 2 days after Spring Break

2 days - In Class Timed Essay

3 days - Typing drafts, Conferencing, Uploading to Google Docs

2 days - Re-explaining directions, editing, and resubmitting

Resources

Assignment
Rubric
Clarified Revision Directions Packet
Clarified Revision Directions Powerpoint

Examples are final copies of essays with comments on the sides given by myself. The essays have been highlighted to show what the student changed from the first draft to this final draft. In each case below, the final score was greater than the score they had received on their original draft.

Example: Sophomore #1



Example: Sophomore #2



Example: Sophomore #3