True Crime, Mammoths and Hostile Architecture: Two Easy Eng. 9 Writing Assignments

I love teaching freshmen to write! We are in an "official" writing unit. The real down in the Chromebook trenches writing at the freshman level is satisfying stuff.

Before our research paper we do two writing activities that effectively teach the skill of using and responding to sources.

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WRITING #1: New York Times Article Summary and Response Paragraphs 

NY Times 310 argument prompts   (This is the NYTIMES link!)

For this assignment, students go to the universally accessible NYT's site linked above. It has 310 argument prompts--basically high interest and timely topics targeting high school writing. It's pretty intuitive, divided into sections like Gender and Race, Technology and Social Media and Sports. Clicking on one takes you to several smaller topics connected to that issue. What's more, when kids click on a topic they find  (like "Who's the GOAT?"), they will also find that each topic has a short actual NYTimes article connected to it. After finding and reading the article, they have to write a paragraph summary (starting with author &  title in the topic sentence). After a very straightforward summary, they write a 6-7 sentence response paragraph. Some topics they chose explored the ethics of true crime entertainment, whether scientists should bring back the wooly mammoth, and when celebrities should be canceled. They seemed to enjoy writing these, and I enjoyed reading them as all the topics were different. 

Perk? They just learned how to do a summary paragraph with a title/author as practice for their upcoming research essay. Moreover, they learned how to follow it with a response to the content.

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WRITING #2: Topic:  Hostile Architecture.  This also goes along with my attempts to add more nonfiction to our class.  I show a 15 minute YouTube video called, "My City Is Hostile, and So Is Yours." It's great--super informative, smooth narration, lots of visual examples. Then, I give them the topic sentence and they have to write a summary of what they learned from the video. Following this, I have them read an article on hostile architecture. They again write about several things they learned (paraphrased) and close that paragraph with how they feel about the issue of hostile architecture. (FYI: They are NOT down with such construction and can't believe the money spent on these inhibiting structures could not go toward helping build more shelters for the homeless. ) 

Another sneaky perk--once again they have learned how to use and summarize a source (helpful for the upcoming research paper), AND they have learned about an important social issue. 

These smaller ticket nonfiction summary/response writings can really make a difference!! 

Hostile Architecture video (15 minutes)

Below is the article on hostile architecture that we used! (copy and paste)

https://invisiblepeople.tv/how-much-money-do-we-spend-making-homeless-people-uncomfortable/