Work Silently: 4 Paragraph Essay Paragraph 1: Briefly introduce yourself. Tell me what kind of student you are. What is your favorite subject? Who was your teacher for this class the first time you took it? Paragraph 2: Explain why you failed English 3C. What caused you to fail this class the first time you tried it? Explain your response in detail. Describe your personal and academic habits that led to failing the class. Paragraph 3: How do you plan on changing your personal and academic habits to make sure that you pass this class? What are you going to do differently? Give concrete examples. Paragraph 4: What will happen if you do change your personal and academic habits that caused you to fail this class in the past? What will happen if you do not change your personal and academic habits that caused you to fail? Do you think you will succeed and pass this class? Take your time with this essay. I want to see your best work. You have until 8:40 to complete it. If you finish early, you must begin reading silently. Those talking/disrupting class in any way will have to leave with a referral (2 referrals = gone from class).

Positives Lots of optimism/high hopes for doing well in this class. Many students used words like “determined” and “dedicated” when writing about applying themselves and passing this class. Recognition that you can change negative habits to make sure you pass.

Negative Habits Lazy Ditching Apathetic Victim Mass acknowledgement: you can overcome these negative habits and succeed.

34 Essays

Taking into account the 19 absences yesterday

Choices Stay in your “category” and fail again. Change your habits--get out of the cycle of failure- -get back on track to graduation--move on with your life!

Choices Many of you have already made your choice. Next comes the important part: acting on the positive choices you made in your essays. Do what you know you need to do to succeed. You can do it.

Get On Track To Graduation The point of going to Summer School is for you to get back on track to graduating high school. Failing classes is a gateway to becoming a high school dropout. Don’t just “attend” high school--use your right to a free education to make a better life for yourself.

A better life? “My (cousin, brother, sister, uncle, dad, mom, friend) didn’t finish high school and they are doing fine.” “Even if I don’t finish high school, I’ll be fine.” Maybe… people say things like this all the time.

Ashley LaMantia

Marisol Nunez Marisol gave up her education to support her family’s education in Mexico. After she dropped out of school herself, she values education so greatly that as a gesture of love she is sacrificing her success so that her family will get an education. How much more could she support her family of she had an education and a better job?

Alecia Brown The good thing about your education is that no matter how old you are you can continue your education. But why would you want to wait? Why wait when you know that more education leads to more money?

The Value of an Education Does more education lead to more money? Over a lifetime, yes.

The Value of an Education Let’s say you spend 40 years of your life working. Let’s also say you work about 40 hours per week. There are 52 weeks in a year--so you work 2,080 hours per year. And since you work for 40 years, you’re working 83,200 hours in your lifetime.

Getting Paid for Going To School Would you try harder at school if you were paid to? Would you go to school every day if you were paid to?

Getting Paid for Going To School Based on the chart I showed you earlier, every day you spend in school you increase your lifetime earnings by $600 to $1,200. People with higher education earn more money. In a very real way, you are getting paid to go to school.

Start Today Succeed; finish this class strong. Take the skills you learn in this class and others to help you succeed in other classes. Aim high; don’t strive only to finish this class, strive for graduation and college and/or professional training after graduation. A better life for you. High paying jobs in the near future have to be taken by someone, why not you?

Where do you want to be in 5 years; 10 years? The decisions you make now will affect the rest of your life. Make the decision to take your education seriously. Use your free education to develop yourself into an attractive asset to future employers. Think in terms of “career” rather than “job.”

Sources Cantu, Rene. “What is the value of education?” Labor Market Information Department of the Texas Workforce Commission. December <>