English 12
Lesson 6 Assignment

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Assignment # 1
(2-3 paragraphs)
We’ve been considering the role of biography in Lesson 6. giving attention to how the locations of childhood shape us, by giving us a sense of place (Margaret Laurence’s Where the World Began).

Spend 15 to 20 minutes doing free-writing about the community where you spent your childhood. DO NOT ANSWER IF POINT FORM.  Rather in your writing, reflect on some of the following questions:

Where did your world begin? Describe it.
What does that place mean to you now?
What do you think it will mean to you thirty years from now?
How would it appear to an outsider?
What qualities of the place are you aware of that an outsider would be unaware of?
To what extent might the place in which you grew up help shape who you are now and who you might be in the future?
To what extent has it influenced the way you view the world?
Consider any reasons why you may disparage that place of childhood memory.

Assignment #2
Read or listen to “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” in Lesson 6, Part 3.  Answer the following questions.

1.    How would you classify this piece of writing?  Is it a story, essay, memoir, poem, or prose poem?  Why do you think so? Why does its style matter? (3-5 sentences)

2.    What is your response to this piece of writing?  In other words, what ways do you or do you not identify with the situation described?  Draw from your own experience in family or community gatherings as you reflect.  (8-10 sentences)

3.    To what extent is a Christian background assumed by the writer?  How would people without a Christian background relate to this selection on Christmas?  Offer support from the text and your experience with it.  (8-10 sentences)

Assignment #3
Do a Creative Writing on “A Sense of Place” (3 paragraph minimum)

Write a page of A Child’s _______________ in _________________. (For instance, your childhood memories of Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer at the beach – any particular place as it stands out to you).