Student Survey and setting assignment

Kostechka—Global Lit. and Arts Name:
Date:
Who the Heck Are You, Anyway???

These questions are designed to let me know more about who you are, so please be honest. I can help you best if I know exactly where you’re coming from.

1. Where did you grow up/spend your childhood/etc.?





2. What is your favorite thing in the whole wide world to do? (examples: playing Frisbee golf, picking your toe jam, watching Teletubbies, etc.)





3. How do you feel about literature? How about other forms of art?





4. Do you have any concerns about this class? Do you have any special needs I should be aware of (specific place you need to sit, distraction issues, health problems, etc.)?





5. Do you have any questions for me?




Last Question—the BIG one!

In order for me to get to know you all a bit better as well as getting to know your writing style, I’d like you to do a little writing assignment for me. Think of a significant event from your summer. Using as much vivid detail as you can, write a 1-2 paragraph description of the setting of this event. Remember that a setting is the place in which a story happens. You do not need to write about the event itself, just describe the place where it happened. Try to give a sense in your choice of details of how the place makes you feel without saying: “This place makes me feel sad…” or something like that. Show me, don’t tell me, how it feels to be there.

For example, if I were to do this assignment based on my summer, I would write a paragraph describing the rays of sun first hitting Machu Picchu this summer. I might start it something like this:

“The peaks in the east stretch and crack through the earth like giant fingers pleading with the sky. They are cold and grey and my own fingertips echo this sensation as I sit on the stone Incan walls. Only my fingers point downward, tapping. Waiting. I can see a grey light but the sun has not risen yet. My mind is clouded from four days of breathing the thin air and from the final hike that began, flashlight lit, hours ago in the middle of the night. Now I sit before the ancient city, Machu Picchu, curling around the base of a mountain like a panther waiting to catch the first beams of the sun. My breath, hitting the cold misty morning, freezes in the air in small grey puffs. Waiting. Not wanting to escape completely from this sacred Incan space. The mountain fingers light up orange from behind and the once dark crags no longer look like fingers, but candles. Birthday candles, as if this city, at this moment, is being born. The tops of each peak starting to flicker as the sun creeps over and lights the top of each one, shooting beams toward the sun temple of Machu Picchu. Birthday candles that tell me I was born. I am alive. The warmth streams down and finally illuminates my face.”


Use this space to write your own description of a significant setting from your summer. Make sure to use complete sentences and LOTS of detail! Good luck!