11th Grade Summer Reading Personal Response
Student Directions: During the first week or so of class, be prepared to write a TIMED personal response to the book you chose. You may use any notes/dialectical journals and your book to use in completing this assignment. There are a variety of things you may discuss in this response, and many ideas are given below.
Format: Use a complete MLA heading & follow conventional MLA formatting when typing (one-inch margins, double-spaced, 12pt. type, Times New Roman font). Your three response paragraphs should be a total maximum of two-pages. Proofread your response. Check for proper spelling, missing words, incomplete sentences, etc.
Part I. First, write a brief summary of the book – no more than five sentences. What happened, to whom, where, when, how, why? Be sure to include the author and title of the book in your summary.
*Part II. Second, give your response to the book by addressing any one of the following prompts from the choices below*. Spend the most time developing your thoughts for this portion. Use evidence whenever possible and be sure to cite the author’s last name & page number at the end of each quote.
Part III. Finally, explain why you decided to read this particular book? What about the book made it seem interesting without your having read it yet?
*Part II Possible prompts to address:
a) What did the author’s purpose seem to be? Why do you think they might have written it? What were they hoping this text would accomplish? Why do you think so?
b) What is the author’s position on any relevant theme or issue? This will often be a social issue: poverty, love, war, courage, race, etc.
c) Who seems to be the audience? Who wants or needs to know this information? Does there seem to be a specific audience the author is trying to reach? Why do you think so? If not, what makes you think there is not a specific audience?
d) Does the author have credibility to write about this subject or topic? Why or why not? Be specific.
e) What would you change? Choose one important part of this reading that the author could have made a different choice—the structure, organization, purpose, audience, characterization, pacing, supporting details, mood, etc.—then explain how they could have done it differently, and what effect it would have had on the reading.
f) What were the (significant) characters motivated by? What was the protagonist motivated most by? How did this affect their experience in the story? Was their source of motivation something that you could relate to?