Earlier this year, each student in 8th grade worked on a cross-curricular activity involving Veteran’s Day. Students interviewed a veteran of the US Military; working on their listening and interview skills. They then wrote a biography of their veteran; using many of the writing skills learned in ELA. From there, they used knowledge of the Constitution to write a persuasive essay to answer the prompt of “The Bill of Rights and Me.” The essays they wrote were entered in an essay contest with the Fleet Reserve Association; which is a part of the local VA.
Two of our students who entered into the contest placed in the finals. One student took 1st place (and is now onto the regional judging which will be decided later this month) and another student took 2nd place. I have linked each essay below (but that does not even tell the whole story). If you look at each document, please start from the bottom and work your way up. You will be able to notice the editing and revision process throughout this writing. These essays were a culmination of weeks of revisions and peer editing; a lot of work went into them. As you can see, the hard work has paid off.