Your Name:ELA
Date: Period:
WRITING PROMPT – CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE TO TEXT
Prompt: The author, Joyce Hansen, wrote the story, The Tail, from the first person point of view because it was the best choice to ______the reader. Explain this response using evidence.
Clear Thesis Statement:Joyce Hansen wrote the story, “The Tail”, from first person point of view because it was the best choice to surprise the reader.
Clear explanation of first person point of view and perspective:Stories written in first person point of view are told from the perspective of a narrator who is also a character in the story. Therefore, the reader only knows and feels what the narrator knows and feels. Authors use first person point of view when they want the reader to connect to a character or they want to conceal certain information from the reader.
Background Information – short summary of important events in the story – that will help the reader of your answer understand your thesis:In “The Tail”, Tasha, the first person narrator, had to babysit her little brother, Junior, for the summer. She was not happy about it. At one point in the story, Tasha got annoyed with Junior and told him to get lost. When kids in the park reported a wild dog on the loose, Tasha realized she could not find Junior.
Clear explanation of the effect first person point of view from this character’s perspective had on the reader of THIS STORY: This situation has the reader worried and scared because Tasha was worried and scared.Through first person point of view, the author concealed where Junior was and whether he was safe.
Evidence of how the author used point of view and perspective in THIS STORY: As Tasha searched for Junior, she was frightened by the prospect of getting bit by a wild dog and “a gray monstrous thing with tentacles” that turned out to be a “dead tree trunk.” She felt desperate to find Junior.
Evidence of how the author used point of view and perspective in THIS STORY: “Then I heard a familiar laugh above me and looked up into Junior’s face.” Junior explained to Tasha that he had been hiding in the bushes and following her as she searched for him.
Clear explanation of theeffect first person point of view from this character’s perspective had on the reader of THIS STORY: Because Tasha was surprised, the reader was surprised.
Final explanation that leads to your conclusion: If the story had been written from third person omniscient point of view, the reader would have known what Junior was thinking. So,even though Tasha would have been surprised to find Junior hiding in the bushes, the reader would not have been surprised.