1. Activity 1.5: Incident, response, and reflection
7th Grade Springboard

2. Learning Targets
I can analyze a narrative work using incident, response, and reflection.
I can analyze the organizational structure of a personal narrative.

3. Writing Journal
11-16 Activity 1.5 #1 Quickwrite pg.

4. Before Reading
Quickwrite: Recall an early memory from childhood that stands out to you. Think about stories that your family has shared about you growing up. For example, what were some milestones (your first toy, bike, or game) or a significant celebration or family event? Write freely to explore your memory while thinking about choices you made.
This can be an incident told about you, one that you don’t necessarily remember.

5. Before Reading
Number the paragraphs in the excerpt.

6. During Reading
Use metacognitive markers to make mental notes as you read. Pay particular attention to any words or phrases that stand out to you as confusing, powerful, or interesting.
Remember SCWIFF…

7. About the Author Zora Neale Hurston
Dust Tracks on the Road– Autobiography

8. During Reading
Use metacognitive markers to make mental notes as you read. Pay particular attention to any words or phrases that stand out to you as confusing, powerful, or interesting.
Remember SCWIFF…

9. Key Idea & Details
What is Hurston’s attitude toward the event she describes; that is what is her tone? Identify specific diction that supports the tone you identify.
The tone is light-hearted, humorous, casual, and informal. Specific diction includes “sprinkled ‘travel dust’” to explain her tendency to wander. The story of the sow, “misunderstood lady,” is light-hearted or not serious. The whole premise of the narrative– learning to walk because a sow chased her– is humorous.

10. After Reading
3. Work in a collaborative group to analyze the narratives organizational structure and mark the text.
Underline passages that show what happened, who was involved and when and where the incident took place
Incident occurred when the sow and her piglets stormed in to the kitchen.
Hurston, her mother, the sow, and the piglets where involved.
It took place in the kitchen.
Circle the parts that show the narrator’s response to the incident.
The narrator’s response to the incident was to pull herself up off the floor and walk.
Bracket [ ] the passage where the narrator reflects on why this is a memorable incident for the speaker.
The speaker reflects on her tendency to wander after the incident. She also reflects on her father and his tendency as well.
Explain in your writing journal, under the freewrite, how this event deals with the concept of choice.
This event deals with the concept of choice because the author had to make a choice when things got tough. In the end it made her a better person for it.

11. After Reading
4. Return to your quickwrite in your Writing Journal. Compare your childhood memory to Hurston’s. Have you thought of any new ideas about significant incidents and choices in your life? If so, add them to your “My Choices” web.

12. Rate yourself
Using the scales in your entry/notes journal rate yourself on your understanding of what incident, response, and reflection are. 1 2 3 4

13. Check Your Understanding
Write your response to the Essential Question: How do authors use narrative elements (characterization, organization, dialogue, point of view, and diction) to create a story?
Authors use narrative elements as they retell an incident, describe their immediate emotional response to the incident, and express the insight gained as a result of the incident (reflection).