In the Language Arts section of the CAPT students are always asked to write an initial reaction/response to the story they have read. Generally, anything less than a half a page does not receive a passing score. This writing activity is a good critical thinking skill for all students, and like any skill it improves as students learn what is expected of them and as they practice.
OBJECTIVES
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- To encourage students, as they read the story, to hi-light sentences or statements that they may question or want to comment on, and to jot down notes in the margins.
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- To encourage students to respond to “prompt” questions that may help them frame their written response.
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- To encourage students to write a minimum of half a page.
It helps students if they know, before they read the story, what will be expected of them when they have finished. I explain that they will be expected to write a minimum of a half a page reaction/response to the story. I give each student a hi-lighter, urging them to hi-light any statements that they question or that they want to comment on.
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For this particular excerpt I give the students the following prompt questions:
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1. Because the dialect may be difficult for students to understand, I ask them to think about why the character Nanny talks the way she does. Has she attended school, ever in her life?
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2. What has her life been like? How do they know?
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3. How do they feel about her? Do they like her or dislike her? Why?
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4. Do they feel any sympathy or compassion for her? Why or why not?
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5. How do they feel about her wanting to “marry Janie off?”
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6. Do they think Janie does or does not want to marry the man? What makes them think so?
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7. Is Janie right or wrong in wanting to defy Nanny? Why?
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8. Given her life, what might Nanny mean in her last line, “Put me down easy, Janie, Ah’m a cracked plate.”?
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9. Do you think Janie marries the man her grandmother has picked out? Why? Why not?
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10. Is this tension between Janie and her grandmother to be expected between a young adult and the person raising her? Explain.
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11. What tensions does it make you think of between you and your parents or the person raising you? Explain.
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12. What was confusing or troubling about the story?