Page 116 - The Language of Composition 4e Teacher Edition Sample.indd

Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure

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TRM Rubric 1. Vocabulary in Context. What is the meaning of the word “exultation” in the final paragraph?
A rubric for these prompts can be found in Identity What does this word choice reveal about Ward’s perspective on her heritage?
the Teacher’s Resource Materials. 2. Rhetorical Situation. What strategies does Ward use to construct a narrative in the opening
paragraphs of her essay? What purposes does the narrative serve?
3. Rhetorical Situation / Style. What diction choices does Ward make to describe her father’s
childhood home and the mansions nearby? What purpose does that comparison serve?
DIFFERENTIATION 4. Rhetorical Situation / Claims and Evidence. How does the story of Ward’s grandaunt
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used for this sample chapter.
Connections to Text Eunice in paragraph 4 relate to the overall message of Ward’s essay?
5. Rhetorical Situation / Style. What tone does Ward establish at the conclusion of her
Composing Q3. Hurston’s essay “How It essay? More specifically, what is her attitude toward her ancestors? Toward herself? Support
Feels to Be Colored Me” (p. 181) presents your responses with specific textual evidence.
some similar ideas about identity to Ward’s
essay, especially in their conclusions. You Topics for Composing
might direct students to the Hurston essay
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
and ask them to compare the ideas about 1. AP FRQ Rhetorical Analysis. In 2015, the New Yorker magazine asked four writers,
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the relationship between race and identity, including novelist and essayist Jesmyn Ward, to reflect on an innovation that changed their
or you could ask students to imagine a lives. Read paragraphs 9–13 carefully. Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices
conversation between Hurston and Ward, Ward makes to develop the connections and tensions between knowing one’s genetic
and use evidence from the two essays to ancestry and knowing one’s individual identity.
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draft an imagined dialogue. 2. AP FRQ Argument. While DNA testing has existed for decades, affordable and accessible
at-home testing is a relatively recent development. As Jesmyn Ward reveals in her essay
“Cracking the Code,” discovering your genetic heritage can be both “surprising and troubling.”
Write an essay that argues your position on the relationship between one’s genetic makeup
DIFFERENTIATION and one’s identity.
3. Connections. In this essay, Ward catalogs key areas of her identity, including her family
Scaffolding history and her personal choices. Select another essay from this chapter and compare Ward’s
elements of identity with how another writer approaches this abstract concept.
Composing Q4. As with many research
topics, you could ask students to find six 4. Research. Research the origins of at-home DNA testing. How has this technology benefited
individuals and families? Where are the points of controversy? Do the benefits outweigh the
sources that could make up a synthesis risks and drawbacks? Write an essay that argues your position on the most important factors
prompt about this topic. Students could to consider in addressing at least one of the points of controversy in at-home DNA testing.
collaborate on finding sources and in
choosing a set that suggests the pros and
cons of the topic. You could task them also How Black Books Lit My Way
with finding a visual source and one with along the Appalachian Trail
quantitative data. They could then draft a
thesis statement or a complete essay Rahawa Haile
based on their sources.
Rahawa Haile (b. 1985) is an Eritrean-American writer of short stories
and essays. Her writing has been published in the Awl, the Guardian,
the Toast, the Village Voice, and numerous other magazines.
BUILDING CONTEXT
KEY CONTEXT In 2016, Haile hiked the Appalachian Trail, a 2,190-mile Aaron Salcido
You might show your students a map of the hiking-only trail stretching from Georgia to Maine. She published the
ou might show your students a map of the
Y
Appalachian Trail and share some of the following article about her experience on BuzzFeed in February 2017.
statistics about the journey. The website of
the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has an 222
interactive map and guides to hiking. Ask
students to speculate about why people
would want to hike the trail, all or part of
it, and then send students to that site to
explore for a few minutes and report back 05_sheatlc4e_40925_ch04_170_315.indd 222 12/10/22 2:35 PM
TRM ELL Essential Guide Handout
on their findings. Another way to frame the An ELL Essential Guide for this reading can
question would be to ask them to list at be found in the Teacher’s Resource Materials.
least five pros and cons of hiking the trail.

TRM Vocabulary Handout
Vocabulary in Context exercises based on
challenging words from this reading can be
found in the Teacher’s Resource Materials.

222 chapter 4 / Identity

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