Level 3: Beyond the 5-Paragraph Essay (College Preparatory IEW COMP.)
Level 3 students have reached a high level of writing competence and spend the year sharpening and polishing their writing skills. At the beginning of the year, each Level 3 student chooses a subject for the final “Super Essay,” a 7-15 page research paper on the theme, “A Great Idea Gone Wrong.”
Students write essays using ten different essay models taught in college freshman composition courses, including:
- Descriptive
- Narrative
- Exemplification
- Division/Analysis
- Classification
- Process
- Comparison
- Definition
- Cause-and-Effect
- Persuasive
As each new model is learned, elements are incorporated into successive essays. Throughout the year they research and write several essays on their Super Essay subject. This work forms the basis for the final paper. Students continue to refine their writing with a number of new style techniques and the use of transitional words and expressions. (Meets every other week.)
Eligibility:
9th-12th grade graduates of Writing to Learn Level 2
I do not assess students from other IEW teachers for Level 3. Only students who have completed my Level 2 are eligible for Level 3.