Approaching a Prompt Mr. Pettine - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Approaching a Prompt

Mr. Pettine

10

th

Grade

9.25.17Slide2

Problems

Many essays failed to properly “attack” the prompts offered for writing on

Essays that began “I feel” instantly give away that writer did not follow instructions

Rubric clearly stated that essay was not to be “personal opinion”

Essay asked for details from the novel. I said “Finny died, it was sad” was NOT true analysisSlide3

Problems

Some did not turn in essay

Some wrote one paragraph (or less) in two days

Some summarized the novel (longer is not necessarily better)

Some made wild jumps in analysis (it’s summer in “Love and Friendship, Finny liked summer…)Slide4

Chance for Redemption, at least partial…

On sheet of paper, pick apart the prompt:

“Imagine Gene, Brinker, and their high school class meet at their high school reunion. How would the tone and content of “The Meeting” relate to their reunion, specifically when the names Finny and Leper are mentioned.”Slide5

Example

1.) Setting is in future, at high school reunion

2.) Prompt asks me to compare poem and novel

3.) Prompt asks me,

specficially

, to compare the content and tone of the novel to possible mentions of the names of Finny and Leper at the reunionSlide6

Example

Longfellow’s “The Meeting” sees a group of friends meeting after a “long absence.” The meeting is one that has the old friends asking, “Does the meeting give us pleasure / Or does it give pain?” It soon becomes apparent that this is due to both their joy and being reunited and the pain caused by the fact that “but few of us linger now.”Slide7

Example

John Knowles’s

A Separate Peace

shows the effects of Gene Forrester’s jealousy on a high school class. Twenty years later, at an imagined high school reunion, the effects of that jealousy – frayed relationships between Gene and Brinker,

Finny’s

unfortunate death – would remain raw in their emotions.Slide8

Gene’s treachery would put a “mist and shadow of sadness” between their conversations. Gene would surely feel a twinge of regret at mentions of Finny. The likely absence of the mentally tortured Leper, a source of laughter and amusement in school days, might leave the men thinking of “those that are not here.” The events, even so far in the past, would likely overshadow the “cordiality” and leave them recognizing how “old and grey he is grown.”Slide9

Example

Taken together, Longfellow’s poem and Knowles’s novel highlight the melancholic recognition that friendships change and sometimes end. That end may be due to one’s own moral failures or the sad progression of time that steals away

acquaintainces

and friends to death.Slide10

Picking a rubric apart

“3: shows engagement with both poem and

A Separate Peace

; referencing concrete events from

ASP

and specific lines from poem. 2: shows engagement with poem (using specific lines from poem) yet fails to adequately tie in with events from

ASP

. 1: very general analysis / engagement with poem (fails to quote) and fails to tie in with specific events of novel, wholly personal opinion, or writes on something not in prompt”Slide11

What to Avoid

Simple analysis, not tying novel to poem

Does not quote poem

Fails to turn in assignment

Fails to write on prompt

Writes personal opinionSlide12

What to Do

Quote from poem

Tie lines of poem in with analysis of novel

Engage with specific details of novel

Recognize that “concrete” and “specific” refer to details from novel and not general feeling, emotion one gets from novel

Does not delve into one’s opinion of novel or poem