Planning


The Assignment



Step 1: Review the "Quick Guide to Responding Personally to Text."


Step 2: Choose one of the following texts in your Sightlines 10 textbook to which you will respond:
  • “A Secret Lost in the Water” by Roch Carrier pp. 104-106 
  • “My Search for the Friend I Left Behind” by Tony O’Brien pp. 114-117
  • “To Every Thing There is a Season” by Allister MacLeod pp. 300-305

Step 3: Read the information below as a guide to organizing your own chart in Step 4. 

We all experience the same life lessons but not necessarily the exact same event. In the first part, identify and explore what the author is observing about human nature. In the second part, identify and explore how that idea/theme relates to you by describing an event in detail and explaining the insights you made about the idea/theme. In the third part, reflect on the theme and decide how it affects all people and what it says about being human and facing the issues around living life. Don’t lecture and tell us what readers SHOULD do...instead, comment on your insights and what the situation has to tell us about real life.
 
 
First

  • Figure out the meaning of the text. What is the author trying to say?
  • What details from the text support the main idea?
 DO NOT retell the details of the story.
  • Look at the details to determine what the underlying ideas are. In other words, why is the author choosing to tell us about a particular character and what they did? What is the author trying to say about how the character's actions reflect what "real" people would do?
  • How does this impact real people and their lives? Why do we act this way? What does it say about human nature?
  • Now go back to the text and identify and quote at least two specific details the author provided in order for the reader to identify and understand the main idea(s) to support your opinion of what the author is telling us about human nature.
Second
  • Make a personal connection to the text.  Connect the key idea in the text to a moment from your own experience  (your life or the life of someone you know).
DO NOT relate to the specific event that happened in the story!  
  • Think about the main idea/theme about human nature, what it means to go through life dealing with both challenging and rewarding situations, and how people tend to react to these situations. Then think about a time when you felt and/or reacted similarly to the character.    
  • Describe in detail your event/situation that challenged or rewarded you and share/relate your feelings as you went through the event. Share what you learned from the experience.  
Third
  • Think beyond the text.  Why is it important?  
  • How does this relate to others in the world? 
 DO NOT preach to the reader or tell them what they SHOULD do.  
  • Think about other situations you have witnessed or have experienced that other people have gone through. What do you notice about the tendency of how people deal with such life situations?
  • What do most people end up learning? Why is this realization important?  
  • How does it inform us about life and people in general? SIMPLY describe your OBSERVATIONS without lecturing, preaching, or "telling" others WHAT they SHOULD do! Share the insight you made. 

 


Step 4: Organize your response using the chart provided.

If you would like feedback on your planning chart, please email it to your teacher.

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