Ugg Boots Sample Sum/Resp

Summary:

Source
Main Idea
supporting details

-No quotes (you must paraphrase)

- No small details

Response:

What do YOU think about the reading

Share your opinion

Discuss it

Share experiences, share past learning

Find something specific in the article to discuss along with your ideas

Ugg Boots:

Vocabulary -

Absurd: ridiculous, silly
Incredulous: questioning, unbelieving 
Inevitable: can’t stop it

Source –

“Ugg Boots,” Ellen Connolly

Main Idea –

A public school is banning certain clothes to combat cell phone usage, but parents are angry because they feel the school is wasting their time and crossing a line


Different Viewpoints (Supporting Details) –

The school: whatever works to keep phones out of class
The parents: I should be able to dress my child in the clothes I bought her; this won’t stop cell phone use because the kids have many resources other than boots to sneak in phones, so the school should deal with the problem more directly

Example summary:

                At a public middle school in in Pennsylvania, Ugg boots are being banned from use in an effort to limit students’ ability to sneak cell phones into the school, according to the article “Ugg Boots Banned” by Ellen Connolly. However, many parents are upset at the administration because they believe the school should not be dictating what their children wear. The school believes students will have fewer opportunities to bring cell phones to class with the new ban on boots, but parents believe that their resourceful kids will just find new ways to break the rules, and the school should punish children for cell phone use rather than making new rules in a frivolous effort to prevent the inevitable.

What topics could you respond to here?

What do you want to respond to? What is your opinion of it? Agree/disagree, excited, disgusted, disappointed, I thought it was a great idea, have experienced this before…

Develop your opinion, using –

Past experiences,
Past readings,
Stories you’ve heard
Ideas you’ve been taught…
(expand, explain, give examples…)

Direct reference to the article


Some possible thesis topics and examples:

-Disagree with the school’s policy

While I think the school has the right intentions to ban cell phone use, I don’t think that their methods will be effective.

-Agree with the parents’ ideas

When I heard that parents were upset about the school’s decision to ban boots, I completely understood their position, because students will always find a way to break the rules if they can, so banning boots won’t stop their bad behavior.

- Come up with a new system

I don’t think the school should be banning useful footwear. Instead, I think they should take a more effective approach, such as having scanners to keep students from bringing prohibited materials to class.

- Disagree that phones should be banned

Cell phones can definitely be a distraction, but I believe they are a necessary tool in today’s society to keep people in touch with each other, especially during emergencies.

Topic and what a standard body paragraph should look like (topic sentence with clear opinion, example/support, explanation of the connection between your opinion and your support):

- Talk from a student’s perspective 

If I were a student at Pottsdam Middle School, I would be annoyed at this new rule. It likely wouldn’t stop me or my friends from using cell phones in class, rather, it would just make my boots a wasteful expense. For instance, when I went to high school, we were required to wear uniforms. This is much more strict than the rules at this Pennsylvania school, yet students were always finding new ways to break the rules. This shows how resourceful students are and how rules about what we wear will be ineffective as long as we are determined to do what we want.

My response (I chose to discuss how I agree with the school’s decision)

                As I was reading this article, I couldn’t help but think that these parents aren’t thinking of the big picture. Sure, boots aren’t the only thing kids can hide cell phones in, but I believe that if students see their favorite footwear banned as a result of cell phone use, then maybe they will think twice about pulling their phones out in class, lest they lose another luxury at the school’s discretion. Students are resourceful, and I do think that the parents have a point when they list “bras, pockets, socks” and ask “what’s next?” because we all know that the students will just replace boots with something else to use to sneak their phones into class. However, I still don’t think that this idea is a bad one, because I believe students will slowly see more and more of their favorite things not being allowed at school, and it will eventually discourage them from breaking the rules. In my personal experience, I have seen this sort of rule have an impact on student behavior. For example, at my school in Arkansas, seniors were not allowed to leave campus for lunch (something the previous grades had been allowed to do) because too many of the students would simply not return to school after they left, skipping their afternoon classes. So, the school took that privilege away from us. After about half a year, they slowly gave us the option to leave for lunch again, and almost no one skipped anymore, because they didn’t want to lose the privilege for themselves or ruin it for their fellow classmates. In the same way, I think the Pennsylvania middle schoolers will soon realize that the more they break the rules, the fewer freedoms they have, and they will start to behave in an effort to keep the privileges they have.

                I do understand, though, that these kids are young, and that means that they probably didn’t buy these boots themselves, but rather they are something the parents invested in. I can see how that might make a mother or father angry. In fact, one mother in the article complained that since the school is not paying to clothe her children that means the school has no right to decide what her child wears. I can understand her point, but I totally disagree with her idea. It is that mother’s responsibility to raise and clothe her child, and it is the school administrators’ responsibility to make sure her child is behaving and getting the most out of her time in the classroom. Can you imagine if parents got to dictate all the rules in a school rather than the administrators? When I worked at a kindergarten, I saw first hand how parents can never agree with each other when it comes to their children, and they all want their kids to have special treatment. That is why schools have teachers and principals who make all the same rules apply to everyone, whether all of the parents like it or not. That is why, though I can understand  the points the parent make in this article, I can’t agree with them, because I think the school was totally within its rights to ban Ugg Boots, and I think the ban will eventually lead to fewer students using cell phones in class.