Page 69 - SpringBoard_Writing_Workshop_Grade7_Flipbook

Writing Workshop 5 (continued)
My Notes
ACTIVITY 4
Independent Writing
WRITING PROMPT: Read “What’s the Rush? Why College Can Wait” by Linda Lee. Use SOAPSTone if necessary to analyze the text and decide on a thesis. Outline and then draft a multi-paragraph essay responding to the text. In your essay, explain the writer’s position and purpose. You will Be sure your essay
• Presents effective introductory and concluding paragraphs
• Develops an interpretation of an expository text and states a thesis about it
• Provides sustained evidence from the text, using quotationsContains a clearly
stated purpose or controlling idea
• Is logically organized, contains appropriate facts and details, and includes no
extraneous information or inconsistencies
• Uses a variety of rhetorical devices
• Uses a variety of sentence structures and transitions to link paragraphs.
You’ll want to reread your essay and consider possible revisions. Review the Scoring Guide to understand the specific requirements of this writing activity.
Sample Text
What’s the Rush?
Why College Can
Wait
by Linda Lee
It never occurred to me that my son would not go to college. His father got a Ph.D. from Duke. I have a B.A. from Columbia. There was no question my child would do the same, and in that I was wrong.
Evan had got into a competitive high school and scored 1,220 on his S.A.T.’s. The fact that he had stumbled his way through three years at Bronx Science was laid either to learning disabilities or to boredom. “You’ll see,’’ teachers would tell me, “he’ll catch fire one of these days.’’
But he hasn’t yet, and I am here to tell you: There are worse things than not getting your child into college. Here’s one: getting your child into college.
Evan had wanted to go (“of course,’’ as he put it). But two years and $50,000 later, he dropped out of the Rochester Institute of Technology.
I had refused to listen to what admissions officers were telling me: He was not grown-up enough to take college seriously. If he was going to succeed in school, they said, he needed time off—to work, to travel, perhaps to do an internship that would inspire direction.
Robert Gilpin, a youth counselor, encourages high school seniors to study other options. “As far as college is concerned,’’ he said, “if you have the courage to opt out of the lemmings’ rush to the sea, you’re a special person.’’
14 SpringBoard® Writing Workshop with Grammar Activities Grade 7
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