Section 4: Overview

Culminating Task

We will develop personal answers to the Central and Task Questions, guided by the inquiry questions we have developed, the reading we have done, and the discussions we have had with our seminar teams. We will then consider how best to express our claims about living a life well-lived, considering whether we will write a personal reflection on how we have discovered meaning in what we have read; a personal essay framed by a topic, human quality, or life compass we have examined during the unit; or a personal narrative that expresses our discoveries through a meaningful story from our own life. We will use a collaborative writing process to help us develop our narratives and strive to have the stories we tell be as meaningful and evocative as the personal essays and poems we have read and modeled our writing after.

• Lesson 1:

  We will review the requirements and options for the final writing task to determine which option we will pursue. Then we will identify the organization for our personal essay or narrative. In writing pairs, we will present and discuss our initial ideas for our narrative and receive constructive feedback from our partners.

• Lesson 2:

  We will continue to plan our narratives by thinking about the sequence of events that will make up its structure. We will develop a storyboard to represent our story plan and discuss ideas with a writing partner.

• Lesson 3:

  We will draft the opening scenes of our narrative. We will review Chris Anderson’s article to gather ideas on framing our narratives.

• Lesson 4:

  We will draft the middle scenes of our narrative and discuss ideas with writing partners.

• Lesson 5:

  We will draft the closing scenes of our narrative.

• Lesson 6:

  We will review the coherence of our personal response drafts and work to improve the vividness of our narratives by considering the descriptions and supporting stories or details we have used and the language and syntax of our sentences. We will review models from some of the texts we have read and from the Claims Reference Guide, which lists vigorous, active verbs. Following a peer review, we will use constructive feedback to revise and improve our narratives.

• Lesson 7:

  We will do the final editing of our narratives, including reviews to ensure that we have consistently used verb tenses, correctly punctuated dialogue, and used other conventions appropriately. We will publish our narratives in a final form.

• Lesson 8:

  We will share and submit our personal responses to the unit’s questions and reflect on what we have learned about living a life well-lived, life compasses, and various authors’ work and perspectives. We will complete a self-assessment of our work and learning in the unit and will prepare for the end-of-year Application Unit by previewing possible questions and tasks that relate to this unit.

• Lesson 9:

  In a culminating activity, we share the knowledge we have gained and the connections we have made by reading our independent reading texts.