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Connection |
Relating to experiences of characters in
literature who have been affected in some way by a person, event, or experience
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Purpose/Task |
Reconnect with a person who is "lost" to you (through death, moving, or simply losing touch) while telling a story about a person, event, or experience (focus on only one) that has helped you develop into the person you are today. |
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Audience |
A person you have lost touch with in some way (a childhood friend, family member, teacher, or other) |
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Type |
Personal letter |
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Circumstances of performance |
Written independently, with limited time and resources. (Teacher and students may have discussed connections and/or assignment briefly before students work independently.) |
Expressive communication involves exploring and sharing personal experiences and insights. The writer/speaker of expressive text addresses the reader/listener as a confidante, a friendly, though not necessarily personally known, audience who is interested in how thoughtful people respond to life. As authors, students write, speak and use media for expressive purposes; as readers and listeners, they learn to appreciate the experiences of others. Expressive communication is stressed in English I and reinforced in English II, III, and IV. Expressive communication can include personal responses, anecdotes, memoirs, autobiographies, diaries, friendly letters, and monologues.
In this narrative task, the student is asked to write a personal letter to someone he or she has lost touch with in some way. The writer is asked to reconnect with this person who is "lost" to the writer by telling one story about a person, an event, or an experience that help to develop the writer into the person he or she is today. In this personal experience narrative, the writer should include, if possible, a sense of time and place as well as a sense for the significance of the story to his or her personal development.
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Goal I |
Goal II |
Goal III |
Goal IV |
Goal V |
Goal VI |
Direct |
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Embedded |
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This narrative task directly targets Standard Course of Study objective 1.01. Likewise, since students are writing about a past event or experience, objective 6.01 is addressed through the language usage and specifically through the use of correct verb tenses to show an appropriate sense of time. If this task were embedded into a larger unit of classroom instruction, the writing of the narrative task might be paired with activities that relate to experiences of characters in literature who have been affected in some way by a person, event, or experience (objectives 1.02 and 5.01).