Page 120 - The Language of Composition 4e Teacher Edition Sample.indd

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e xtending beyond the te xt
extending beyond the text
DIFFERENTIATION Identity
Connections to Text Read the opening of
Read the opening of Wild , a best-selling memoir by Cheryl Strayed about hiking the Pacific
Crest Trail in the 1990s, after the unexpected death of her mother and the breakup of her
Students might enjoy discussing the differ- first marriage.
ent reasons that individuals embark on
cross-country / long-distance hikes. The from Wild
memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used for this sample chapter.
Pacific Coast Trail details the experience of Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl Strayed (and was later made into a
movie starring Reese Witherspoon). In The trees were tall, but I was taller, standing and explained how very loose I was in the
addition to reading the opening excerpt in above them on a steep mountain slope in world. . . .
the Extending beyond the Text box on this northern California. Moments before, I’d In the years before I pitched my boot
page, students might read the entire book removed my hiking boots and the left one over the edge of that mountain, I’d been
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
and choose several excerpts from the had fallen into those trees, first catapulting pitching myself over the edge too. I’d ranged
memoir that reflect moments of self- into the air when my enormous backpack and roamed and railed — from Minnesota to
discovery, especially after Strayed meets toppled onto it, then skittering across the New York to Oregon and all across the
influential people along the way. gravelly trail and flying over the edge. It West — until at last I found myself, bootless,
bounced off of a rocky outcropping several in the summer of 1995, not so much loose in
feet beneath me before disappearing into the the world as bound to it.
forest canopy below, impossible to retrieve. I It was a world I’d never been to and yet
CLOSE READING
let out a stunned gasp, though I’d been in the had known was there all along, one I’d stag-
ou might ask students to examine the rhe-
Y
You might ask students to examine the rhe- wilderness thirty-eight days and by then I’d gered to in sorrow and confusion and fear
torical situation in the last two paragraphs, come to know that anything could happen and hope. A world I thought would both
especially in terms of races, since race and that everything would. But that doesn’t make me into the woman I knew I could
has been one of Haile’s subjects. To what mean I wasn’t shocked when it did. . . . become and turn me back into the girl I’d
extent are the messages in her conclusion I was alone. I was barefoot. I was twenty- once been. A world that measured two feet
directed toward Black people, and to what six years old and an orphan too. An actual wide and 2,663 miles long.
extent are they directed to all readers? You stray , a stranger had observed a couple of A world called the Pacific Crest Trail. 5
might also ask students to find evidence weeks before, when I’d told him my name
from earlier in the essay of the lessons Compare and contrast the tone and purpose of this excerpt to the tone and purpose of
she lists in paragraph 16, and ask them to Haile’s essay.
describe the essay’s line of reasoning that
leads to those conclusions (for instance, to
the discussion of “progress” in paragraph 4).
the discussion of “pr ogr ess” in paragraph 4).
Students might draft a paragraph about
functions of the essay’s final two para- I revisit passages from the books I carried for the hatred that courses through this coun-
graphs, or they might bring their insights to in search of my own light. Many start planning try’s veins, but out of hope for the progress
a Socratic Seminar. their next long trek. Who could blame them? that is destined to replace it. I can tell you
At some point, most long-distance hikers ask there are many ways to fight, even when things
TRM Instructional Strategies themselves whether it was worth the “what feel hopeless. That the risk may not be worth
Socratic Seminar. For advice on conduct- now?” There’s no one answer. I can tell you it. That there might come a time when you
ing an effective Socratic Seminar, see the that kindness is everywhere, not as an excuse won’t have a choice either way. That you
Teacher’s Resource Materials.
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DIFFERENTIATION
Connections to Self
Students might find Haile’s comments in
paragraph 16 inspirational. You could ask
them to pick one or more of them and do a
quickwrite on why they value those messages
as relevant to their own lives and sense of
identity.

226 chapter 4 / Identity

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