This week we are practicing creating responses to literature by responding to open-ended questions. This is Writing Standard 9, which asks that you respond to literary texts in writing appropriately.
What Are We Practicing This Week?
We're practicing drawing text evidence to support our answers to the questions and we're analyzing how a line of dialogue in a story helps a character come to an important realization of the story's theme.
What Do We Need to Know in Order to Do This Well?
1. Our school's open-ended question format mimics the one on the NJ ASK test, which is a general statement about the text, followed by two related questions marked off by bullets.
Here's an example:
In the The Tell-tale Heart, the narrator is clearly mentally unbalanced.
- What does the narrator say that helps the reader conclude that he is mentally ill?
- How does Edgar Allan Poe show through his style choices this imbalance?
2. Write a logical paragraph (a SEE, state-explain-example paragraph) that answers each question, so you'll write two paragraphs.
3. The examples for the first paragraph (always) and the second paragraph (often) are drawn from the passage.
4. Use an apt* quotation if you can find one to prove that what you said is true.
5. Make sure that what you say is supported by the text; don't ramble on to fill up space.
The Text
Today, we're reading a gentle story about a father and son. Remember, our writing and theme discussions for the next few weeks will be about what parents and children owe one another, so make sure that you are thinking about that while you read -- a smart, lazy person will be gathered up examples for the inevitable* essay that I will assign you at the end of the week.
The Product
Answer the following open-ended question first by typing it into a Google Drive document.
Harry realizes something important at the end of the story about his father.
- How does Harry come to his realization and what is it?
- How does the father's parrot work as a symbol in the story?
How will we be assessed?
I will be reading these looking for correct answers, thorough explanations, and quotations from the text to support your analysis.
4 - Both answers are right, explanations are clear and thorough, at least one appropriate quotation is employed.
3 - Both answers are right, explanations are clear and thorough, examples are correct.
2 - Answers might be "kind of" right, explanations require me to have read the story, evidence is limited.
2 - The student has included something in the answer that is off-topic or incorrect about the story.
1 - Neither answer can be described as correct; the student has not understood the story.
* apt -- fitting, relevant, smartly picked (when it describes a student, it means "smart")
* apt -- fitting, relevant, smartly picked (when it describes a student, it means "smart")
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