UGP Unit Plan on College Admission Essays

WEEK ONE
Day 1:
- Invitation to write – “Describe your feelings associated with applying to college.”
- Introducing the unit
o What is a college admission essay?
o Why is this important?
- Put students into groups
o Read “An Applicant’s Perspective on the College Essay”
o Discuss
Day 2:
- Invitation to write – essence object exercise https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=wUMByp0vPf4&t=239s
- What do admissions officers look for?
o Watch video here: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in/essays/tips-for-
writing-an-effective-application-essay-college-admissions
 What is a cliché? Use https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-
tools/cliches/ as a handout!!
 Dos and don’ts
- Jigsaw activity with these essays
o “Tip Sheet: An Admissions Dean Offers Advice on Writing a College Essay”
o “Some of the More Mundane Moments in Life Make Great Essays”
o “COLLEGE PREP; The -------- That Changed My Life”
- Whole group discussion
Day 3:
- Invitation to write – feelings and needs exercise
https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/feelings-needs-exercise (for myself to use as
material)
- Essay prompts from different schools (AZ, popular schools, pick handful)
o Different responses to prompts
- Have students research their dream college’s application
o Review essay prompts from that lesson
o Brainstorm responses and topics for their own essay
o Discuss together before end of class
Day 4:
- Opening
o Take archetype personality quiz
o Invitation to write: Who is your archetype? Discuss your results. Do you agree
with them or not? What personal experiences do you think most strongly
influence your way of seeing?
- Read a few essay examples, some good some bad, in stations
o Read the essay that got a girl into 5 ivy league schools
- Discuss which ones are the best and why (same with bad essays)
Day 5:
- Invitation to write – “A moment I’ll never forget from my childhood is …”
- What is a narrative vs an anecdote?
- Read “Death of a Moth” by Annie Dillard and “My Secret Pepsi Plot” on NYT in
small groups then add to popplet or board with quote or part from the text they
like, or thought was crucial to the story
- Discuss parts of a story and what makes a narrative/anecdote in whole group

WEEK TWO
Day 6:
- Invitation to write - Where do you come from?
o https://iamfromproject.com/poems/
- Mini lesson on introduction
o https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/how-to-start-college-essay
- Give time for students to begin working on the introduction to their essays
- Begin conferencing!!
Day 7:
- Invitation to write – have students list people in their lives and the spaces they occupy.
For example, I wrote about my sister’s car because that’s the space she occupies in my
memories
- Mini lesson on body paragraphs and transitions
o https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/argum
ent_papers/body_paragraphs.html
o https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/paragraphs/
o https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/transitions/
- Give students time to work on their body paragraphs and continue conferencing
Day 8:
- Invitation to write – what makes your way of seeing unique? How do you think you can
touch people through your writing?
- Mini lesson on conclusions
o https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conclusions/
o Have students read “The Monster of Kings Island”
- Discuss how the conclusion relates the overall story and how it offers a greater message
than just a story about a roller coaster
- Have students work on conclusions, finish conferencing as needed
Day 9:
- Invitation to write – “what foods bring up memories for you?”
- Mini lesson on writing with voice, attitude, tone, and point of view
o https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/style/
o read a few examples from “Yelping with Cormac”
o https://literarydevices.net/voice/
- Have students review their invitation to write. What does their voice sound like? have
students read their writing to one another to see what their peers sound like. How can we
tweak this writing to sound more like us?
- Reflect: how does this impact our essays?
 Day 10:
- Invitation to write – describe a photograph that stays in your memory.
- Mini lesson on writing descriptively
- Writing activity:
o Every student picks a small paper out of a bucket with a word on it
(butterfly, pencil, dog, etc) and writes a description of the object without
stating what it is on a post-it note then puts it in a row on the board. I will
project a list of the words on the board. Students walk around and write
their guesses under the post it on the board.
- Wrap up class: discuss how this exercise and lesson can contribute to their essays

WEEK THREE
Day 11:
- Invitation to write – What does the world need to know about an important person in your
life?
o Read “You May Want to Marry my Husband”
- Mini lesson on word choice and writing concisely
o https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/word-choice/
o https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conciseness-handout/
- Give students a paragraph of text and have them highlight words that can be omitted or
changed to better words.
- Reflect on writing with voice: how does word choice affect this? Why is writing
concisely important in admission essays?
Day 12:
- Invitation to write – what do you think you and others in your generation could teach
older people? What skills or attitudes do you think you and your peers have that people
your parents’ age could benefit from? Why?
- Mini lesson on peer reviewing and editing
- Have students get into groups and begin peer review
Day 13:
- Invitation to write – where do you find the strongest feeling of community?
- do peer review stations (one group does intro, one group body, one group word choice,
etc); have students switch groups every 15ish minutes
- do final conferencing
Day 14:
- What are the best souvenirs you’ve ever collected while traveling?
o What are your favorites? Why?
o Is there a souvenir you wanted to get but didn’t? why? What was it?
- Continue peer editing and revising for final drafts while finishing conferencing
Day 15:
- Reflection on unit: how do you think this went? What were your favorite parts? What
did you learn that you can take with you after this lesson? What didn’t work for you?
How can I improve?