Persuasive Writing Experience

The weather is perfect for racing: not too hot, not too humid, not too windy. I dash down the twisted trails in the woods, trying not to stumble on the gnarled roots protruding from the dirt. My spikes puncture the soft earth with every stride, and my legs repeatedly pound on the ground, soreness surging through them. As sweat trickles down my face and dirt smears across my aching calves, I ascend a steep hill, trying to bring forth the strength I have accumulated throughout endless hours of practice. Now that I am nearing the final two hundred meters, I must force my body to begin sprinting. Breathing heavily, I dart for the imminent finish line, trying to beat the uninterrupted tick of the timer. Even though the crowd surrounds all around me, I can barely hear their animated cheers, because all I can focus on is crossing the line before the girl next to me. I can feel adrenaline surging through my body, and I widen my stride to cap off the remaining distance. When I glance at my Garmin watch, a new personal best time flashes across the screen. I realize that all of the gruelling work I have put in is worth the final result: happiness. (Snapshot Lead)

For my Field Experience I chose to observe at Krahn Elementary which is a part of Klein Independent School District. After my approval, I was assigned to four teachers and their classrooms. I observed at Krahn Elementary on six Tuesdays between 15 September 2015 and 27 October 2015, and more or less followed the schedule that was given to me by the Assistant Principal Ms. Shannon Strole. From 8:30 am to 9:15 am I observed Ms. Judy Burkes, who is a third grade Math and Science teacher. Her classroom is comprised of twenty students which range from average to below average learners and a student with ADHD and another with autism. For most part of my observation, M. Burkes had been working with her students on fractions and multiple digits addition and subtraction. From 9:15 am to 10:30 am I observed Ms. Lisa Parker who is a Math co-teacher and resource teacher at Krahn Elementary for grades K-5. During my assigned time, Ms. Parker usually joined Mr. Duru’s fifth grade class of twenty three students as a co-teacher and when required would pull out a group of six students after initial instructions from Mr. Duru and would teach them the concepts separately at a slower pace. This particular group of students with special needs was mostly seen to be focusing more and more on mathematical word problems. These students were students with Learning disabilities, behavioral issues and one of them was a student with ADHD. From 10:30 am to 11:15, I was with Ms. Janice Bluhms, who is a

Union Hill Elementary School is embedded in an area of rich history in the City of Worcester. Their school building was built following the Civil War and has withstood the changes of time from its early years of a primarily Jewish Immigrant and merchant town to today’s urban neighborhood, rich in diversity but plagued with instability, crime and poverty. In March of 2010, Union Hill was identified as a Level IV School; it was a school that lacked structure with a chaotic environment with many deficits. There was a lack of supervision, schedule, standard-based curriculum, effective instruction and leadership. Most importantly, there was a lack of trust among the parents. They did not have the faith that Union Hill was going to give their children the best education possible. Under the supervision of new Principal Marie Morse, changes were made. There was a new level of commitment and passion among the school staff that drove them toward creating five areas of focus for the year:

What is one of the things that most people are accustomed to? Something that has been a part of their daily life. There are many things but what I am referring to is school. School has been around for hundreds of years. Whether it was to learn about religion or the mandatory classes we take now in the 21st century, many of us have been advised to go to school. It has changed a lot over the years and the system is still trying to improve how they could better educate their students in the future. Now, after going through many levels of school, people question themselves: why did I learn all of this? They question why they couldn’t learn more about taxes, buying a house or the important aspects when you get a car. School has become a

If a student has a learning disability that should be immediately addressed by perhaps sending those students for one hour to a special need class at the school or getting permission from the parent to provide him or her with tutorial on certain days, if it is necessary this show that the

Before I address the differences in demographics, performance scores, and the students themselves, I will describe the community that influences the students. The middle school is placed in a small urban town called Arkansas City. It is in southern Kansas just twenty minutes north of the

The school that I chose to write this evaluation about is High Tower Trail Middle School, located in Marietta, Georgia. This was the middle school that I attended, and as I look back on it now with the knowledge that I have gained, I can see that it really is an amazing middle school. With middle school being a major struggle for many young adolescents, High Tower Trail did so many amazing things in order to ensure students felt included and had a safe learning environment. High Tower Trail also had some things that they could have improved on while I was there. Some of the strengths of High Tower Trail had were that it was always changing, it was challenging, and gave its students equal opportunities. Some areas where it could improve would be to encourage more parent involvement, encourage teachers to be more involved, and have more teamwork between the students and teachers. I believe that in this case the strengths out-weigh the areas that need improvement, but no school is perfect, and in order to be a successful middle school, it must keep changing in order to keep up with the students learning within its walls.

The use of persuasive rhetoric writing can be helpful in the working world, especially when you need people to follow you. Using Ethos, is a way to approach your audience by establishing common ground, instead of coming off as authoritative. Even if someone doesn’t have the same views as you, if you acknowledge their values and beliefs, it’s easier to persuade them, because they see you do care about their opinion. As I move forward in any form of communication it is important to keep that in mind, and next year I’ll being using it a lot as president of CAC. Being the president of club means you have to communicate with your members, and the general public. CAC is involved in getting others to help, with the biggest event we hold, Relay for Life.

The academic performance at Central Falls High School (CFHS) has historically trailed behind the average school performance numbers for the state of Rhode Island. According to the article, 271 freshmen entered Central Falls High School in 2005, but only 47 percent reached graduation four years later. Other data revealed that other 33.5 percent of the students dropped out, 12.5 percent were held back, and 7 percent received a General Equivalency Diploma. Data also revealed that only 55 percent of the student body was considered to be proficient in reading and only 7 percent proficient in math. These statistics showed little improvement by 2008, where the math proficiency rose another 3 percent (Donnelly & Rochefort, 2011).

I have conducted my field of experience at Westside Elementary School, second and third grade classroom. The third grade class consists of 20 students. The teacher does not have any aide even though she needs some assistance, because two of her students are falling behind. The sad part about this is that the students have not being diagnosed yet, but they are having a lot of difficulties. The teacher mentioned that by fourth or fifth grade those two students will need to be placed in a special education classroom. The students both have a concentration problem and it causes them to struggle with reading, writing, math, listening, and speaking. The teacher asked me to

Gersten then reminds the reader of the importance of teaching each step in the writing process explicitly. He reiterates how writing down your thoughts is not necessarily inherent ability. Therefore, each type of writing, persuasive or expository, must be taught and explained step-by-step. By doing this Gerstan writes that teachers can help demystify the writing process for their students. The more guidance during the learning process the more positive learning

1. The last time I enjoyed writing something would have to be in the argument and arguing class I took. In that class we got to construct persuasive essays, which was interesting, but the real fun came when we were asked to pick apart other students essays. When tasked with this it becomes extremely fun as the source gathering for many students was either using selective information, or outright lies. Using that, you could essentially tear into anyone fragmenting their arguments and leaving you with a nice sense of satisfaction that I really only get when I prove my superiority over someone in a quasi-powertrip.

I choose to do an onsite visit in a resource math class at a middle school for this field project. I was there from 9:30-1:00. The classroom I observed had 2-3 teachers in it at a time. One student teacher, one head teacher and sometimes a teacher that had to help a specific student would be in the classroom. There were about 15 students in the class at a time. Two of which had to have teachers who followed them to every class. I asked the head teacher how many of these students have a learning disability and she said that about three quarters of them have a learning disability. I then asked her why the students might be in the class. She said “Well, because one of two reasons. Students either have hard time learning math the normal way or the normal math class just moves at too fast a pace for them.” She also explained that the middle school had three mainstream math classes for seventh graders and three mainstream math classes for the eighth graders. Each grade had a math class for students at who scored at grade level for math, one for students who scored above grade level for math and one for student who scored slightly below grade level for math. Her students were the ones that scored significantly lower in math. During this field project and interview with the head teacher, I learned and noticed a tremendous amount about how a special education class is run.

The teacher who was incharge of the class was Mr. Matt. He was in charge of the preschool children and in his class there were four students who were in ages between five to ten. All, four of the students had intellectual disabilities. And in that class there were two assistant teachers to help Mr. Matt in class work with the students. The four students were very different from one another compared to behaviors and education levels. Mostly they were learning the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, and few other little things that they need to know in their daily lives.

Good question. I feel that persuasive writing does not put pressure on their reader but gives their reader another way of looking at a topic. My suggestion to you is to stick to the facts and back your statement with reliable research. Your reader will come to their own conclusion that is persuasive by you.