First essay this year is going to be the college essay: I review so many that are BAD, and it happens primarily because they do not know what to write about themselves. I think I will start by having them make a shortlist of the most important ideas in life. They can all tell me what they want to OWN in 10 years, or what they want to be DRIVING, or what JOB they should score, but few of them are able to identify what lies at their own core--maybe I should do a kind of "this I believe" (NPR)thing--they could podcast it, and then they could create an essay from that--the podcast will eliminate some of the conversational smoke they all blow in the written version. Now I have to come up with some models.
see high school bits
