Metacognitive Minutes: Acing the Unit 5 Essay Assignment in HIST 2111 on the War with Mexico, 1846



Your Unit 5 Essay Assignment is explained in detail in the Assignment section of your GeorgiaVIEW course site.  In fact it is a most excellent–and necessary–description.  But, to maximize your chances for an “A” on this assignment, introduce a little “metacognition” to your preparation for this assignment.  Remember that metacognition is “thinking about thinking.”  In this podcast episode, I want you to think about the structure of this assignment: What are you asked to do? What are the specific questions–all the questions–that you need to answer? How many paragraphs must there be, and what should be the job of each paragraph?  How long does each paragraph need to be? What role does the graded rubric play in your understanding of, and preparation for, the assignment?  This episode will direct you to these questions and more. Mastering them in advance will increase the odds that you make no mistakes in the content of your essay. Then, proofreading should allow you to avoid the last hurdle–grammatical problems–that will definitely cost you points if they exist.