|
Connection |
Understanding parenting decisions made by characters such as Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird, the Capulets in Romeo and Juliet, and Charles Halloway in Something Wicked This Way Comes that had an impact on the lives of their children |
|
|
Purpose/Task |
From the perspective of an adolescent, write an essay that explores the important characteristics of a "good parent." |
|
|
Audience |
Readers of an anthology created by adolescents for parents which offers a variety of perspectives on what makes a "good parent" |
|
|
Type |
Essay |
|
|
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.) |
Informational or explanatory communication involves giving information to explain realities or ideas, to teach people who want to know what the writer or speaker knows. The writer/speaker of informational text should be knowledgeable and should communicate so that the audience may gain the knowledge as well as circumstances required. Informational texts often depend on the traditional prompts of who, what, when, where, and how, and can include definitions, instructions, histories, directions, business letters, reports, and research. English I introduces informational communication, English II stresses it, and English III and IV reinforce the concepts.
In this informational task, the student is essentially asked to define a "good parent." In doing so, the student may use concrete examples and support from his or her life experience or literature. (Although the prompt was written to connect with much of the literature the students read, including literary examples in the response was not required and few students did so.) Students need to consider the audience of parents interested in knowing adolescents views of good parents and the context of a published anthology.
|
|
Goal I |
Goal II |
Goal III |
Goal IV |
Goal V |
Goal VI |
Direct |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Embedded |
|
|
|
|
|
|
This informational task directly targets Objective 2.02, with the student defining and characterizing good parents. Likewise, since students are writing essays for publication, Objective 6.01 is addressed through the language usage. If this task were embedded into a larger unit of classroom instruction, the teacher might relate this composition to experiences of characters in literature who are good or bad parents (Objectives 1.02 and 5.01). Additionally, the students might spend time in peer-response groups on word choice and proof-reading before actual publication or sharing of essays with a group such as the PTSO (Objectives 5.01 and 6.02). (The Exemplar committee annotating this prompt felt that a specific requirement to incorporate examples from literature would raise the potential level of performance.)