HW for 9/27: STAR Group Work and Unity Strategy (PRE)

1. Make sure you share e-mail contact info with your STAR group. You are going to present your work--your sources found--to the class next Monday to lead our discussion on "Causal arguments for the poem going viral."


2. Another mnemonic acronym, read up on the Unified Body Paragraph Strategy of PRE below. Part of the this lesson involves reading the article, "In the Beginning," which is about Steve Prefontaine, the person who inspired me to create the PRE strategy:

http://home.europa.com/~bence/pre/

The above picture is Steve Prefontaine, a world-class runner who died too young. His nickname is Pre. Look at how focused his eyes are in this picture and remember those eyes when you remember our unity technique, PRE, defined below.

http://www.justrunners.com/Steve%20Prefontaine%20Poster.htm

PRE, besides being a famous runner, is a mnemonic device: each letter represents what type of content needs to show up in a unified, developed paragraph. P(oint)R(eason)E(xample/explanation). 

PRE teaches us that to be the best one must put their best effort into all that they do. PRE can also teach us, again, how to write a unified body paragraph. 

Point: start each paragraph off with a sentence (we call it that Topic Sentence) that states who/what the paragraph is about--your subject--and what you have to say about that subject in that paragraph.

Reason: follow up your Topic Sentence with some logical reasons for why you believe your point is true.

Evidence (Example/Explanation of E): follow up your reasons with specific examples that support your point and reasons. You can also add a second E to Example, and that would be Explain! Make sure that when you illustrate your example that you also make sure to explain how it connects back to your Topic Sentence.

How to apply PRE:  

1. Read your text/generate topic sentences. For our example, read article, "In the Beginning," so see how the model body paragraphs below were brainstormed and crafted.

2. Develop a larger point about the source text. For our example, the body paragraphs below make basic summary points about "how Prefontaine learned to be successful, according to the article." (We will discuss the different structure of Introductions and Conclusions over the coming semesters.)

3. After making a Point, incorporate your Reasons and some Example facts from the article and the quotes above.

Note that all Points are green, all Reasons are yellow, and the Examples/Explanatory sentences are all gray/black. I color-coded it so that you can see the different types of content and see the order/structure being repeated in each paragraph. 

           Steve Prefontaine, who held many American records in distance running, is a great example of how much effort plays a role in having success in life--even during high school years. Prefontaine started off as one of the weaker runners on his high school team before setting goals to become a national record holder by his senior year. In the article "In the Beginning," Michael Musca discusses how Prefontaine could not break five minutes in the mile his freshman year of high school, and as a sophomore failed to qualify for state. However, by his junior year in 1968, he went undefeated and won the Oregon state cross country meet in. Musca writes that "From this point forward, the winter of 1968, young Pre embarked on McClure’s 30-week program, which he hoped would yield the time goals and a state championship in the two-mile" (Musca). Prefontaine would run four to eight miles a day while working multiple jobs. His setting goals and following them is what lead to his success during those years.

      Those high school years are a small example of showing how setting goals matters; Prefontaine also had the work ethic and mindset to accomplish his goals. Steve Prefontaine is widely known as the ultimate competitor. He fulfilled his goals by training extremely hard and by maintaining an aggressive mindset that he would maintain for the rest of his life. There is no better evidence than Pre's own words: "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift" (Just Runners). These are the words of a competitor, someone who does not settle for finishing a task. Another quote of Prefontaine is "I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, then I am the only one who can win it" (NKFU). He confidently believes that nobody can beat him if he works as hard as he can.

        Prefontaine's successes came from also following a clear plan of actions to take to accomplish his goals. Pre's high school coach, Walt McClure, helped lay out a training program so that Prefontaine could set the records and live up to his goals. McClure set Pre up on a 30-week training regiment in the winter of 1968 that  helped Pre win state in the two-miler that Spring. Prefontaine continued to run at least four miles a day during that following summer, even as he worked multiple jobs to help his struggling family (Musca). Prefontaine won the two miler his senior year in a national record of 8:41.5 (Musca), which shows how much one can improve in something if they are really dedicated to their own success. 

       Prefontaine was never known as a fast runner, but his effort on those days off helped propel him towards national success at an early age.  ...