Monday, March 25, 2013 Melissa Gunby

 Do you have health insurance? If so, is it through your parents, your job, or do you pay for it? Why is it important to have health insurance today? Do you think everyone should have to buy it, like we do with car insurance? Why or why not? If you could “fix” the “problems” with the health care industry in this country, what would you do and why?

 Introduction of essay topic (pg 238)  Video: Sick Around the World  Discussion/brainstorming for essay

Compare/Contrast

 Using your class discussion notes, notes you have made from talking with your parents and others, and the information and arguments you’ve been given here, write an essay in which you compare and/or contrast the American and French health-care systems to show which you think is the better or what combination of qualities of the two you think might produce the best system.

 Your introductory paragraph should outline briefly what the problem seems to be.  In the body of the essay, the first thing to do is compare the most important characteristic of the two systems. Establish what you’re talking about before getting into the arguments about which is better.  Then, outline and compare the most important arguments for and against each system.  In your conclusion, use what you presented in the body to support your view of which system you think is best, or which combination of characteristics you think might produce the best system.

 Minimum of 8 paragraphs  Conform to block or point-by-point style in the body paragraphs  MLA format  Use a minimum of 3 quotes from the assigned reading to support your arguments  Rough draft due in class for peer review on Wednesday, April 10 (after Spring Break)  Final draft due on Wednesday, April 17

 Because we might not have a lot of collective knowledge about the health care system, we’re going to watch a Frontline episode dealing with health care systems around the world. This will give us a little bit of background and a place to start discussion.  After the film, we’ll take a short break, then come back and start our discussion and do some brainstorming for the essay

 Ender’s Game essay is due on Monday, April 8 (the day we come back from Spring Break).  Read T&C pages and complete the pre-writing exercise