1. As of this writing, I'm about 55% done grading the first set of essays. I'll be grading until I finish today, so please look for your graded essay either Monday or Tuesday in class. Or, if you have access to Teams, you will find your grade there as soon as it's entered.
2. The calendar has changed slightly, particularly for B-day students. Essay 2 has been moved back one block - to Thursday, September 25. This is a late-start day, so this means you'll have less time to study in class before you write, but I figured you all would be OK with that given the extra 48 hours you'll have to prepare otherwise. Also, this means that pretty much everything for B days has moved back one block for the rest of the six weeks (including your exam, now on Thursday, October 1).
3. I am adding the element of choice to this long essay - just like on the AP exam, there will be two essay topics of the same type (CCoT, Comparative, etc.) on two different time periods, and you will choose ONE to write. For each class, the topics will be industrialization and imperialism. This isn't really a huge change from what I talked about in class last week, it's just that now there will be an extra essay prompt that you may choose to write on if you wish.
So, that's pretty much all. On Monday and Tuesday, each class will have a little bit of instruction on essay writing, and will do a partner exercise on thesis writing and evidence. Then, once that's done, we'll have our oil company simulation (B-day students, this is something we'd planned to do later in the week, but we're moving it up to Tuesday). Remember, the inducement for winning the simulation is one extra point (on the six-point scale) on Essay 1, along with snacks of some sort, so it should be a lively competition!
Please let me know via email if you have any questions.
