Grading system: final complacency paragraph

You will be graded on a scale from 1 to 6. 1 is the lowest and 6 is the highest. This is the scale for the ELA Regents which you will take in June 2010. You will be graded on these categories:

• content: the material you use (evidence, background information)
• development: how you develop/explain your argument in order for the reader to understand your position
• organization: the actual placement/order of your sentences
• meaning: your undertanding of the topic (complacency, negative impacts, the books, the plots)
• conventions: proper in-text citations, indenting, underlining titles, spelling, grammar, proper paper format

Meaning, content and development usually outweigh the other categories. They are most important.

The 1 to 6 scale is as follows:

1= does not have this component

2= has this element minimally but is poor or confused

3= has the element but needs better use

4= has the component satisfactorily but does not show greater understanding

5= is better than satisfactory and could use minimal improvement

6= has completed thoroughly and thoughfully with little to no confusion or error

Persuasive Paragraph on complacency

Use your outline to write one persuasive paragraph on either Siddhartha or Elie. You will persuade the reader that the character acted complacently and negatively affected himself or another.

Elie, in the novel Night, acts complacently when he is evacuated from the concentration camp where he is held prisoner. In turn, his complacency affects Zalman, a boy in the camp, negatively. Elie is a young teenage boy who is a prisoner in a Jewish concentration camp. Over the years, Elie loses his sense of self and becomes content just caring for himself. He becomes complacent. An example of this complacency is when the Jewish prisoners are evacuated from one camp and are moved in the snow on foot to another camp (Wiesel 86). Elie is hustled quickly into the snow where he focuses on his own survival. He does not lend a hand to his friend, Zalman, who is in need. Zalman is then shot because Zalman is not quick enough (Wiesel 87). Elie is only concerned with staying alive and not helping others. He is complacent because he is close enough to assist an ailing Zalman but chooses to keep moving and not try harder. This complacency negatively affects Zalman to the point of fatality. Elie could have helped Zalman to his feet which could have saved Zalman's life for the time. Instead, because Elie chooses to move on, Zalman is left to be shot. Elie's complacent act was not the cause of Zalman's death but had Elie been more proactive, Zalman may have been spared.

Complacency Assignment: Explain the effects of complacent acts

We have discussed and practiced complacency in class this week. In your groups on Friday, you discussed how either Elie or Siddhartha were complacent in their respective plots. We also interpreted how that complacency had negative effects.

Written Assignment: Explain the effects of complacent acts
You will use your notes from class and from your notebooks to explain complacency, describe how and when Elie or Siddhartha were complacent with in-text citations, and explain how each complacent act affected him or others negatively.

For Monday September 14th, you must have a typed outline with the following components:

Introduction

• defintion of complacency (in own words)
• book you will discuss
• personal experience with complacency
• thesis on how complacency affects others negatively

Body Paragraphs (each body paragraph has its own main idea)

• topic sentence
• example of complacent act (page number)
• negative effect (page number)

Conclusion

• thesis
• main point about complacency
• title of book/author
• summarizing information to conclude/wrap-up