This I Believe

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4 Corners Quick Jot

• Next to each prompt, create a shorthand list of your responses to the belief statements (A, SA, D, SD)
• Answer quickly, and set it aside for later use.

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• Link to 4 Corners Prompts

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• FOUR CORNERS!

Shared Beliefs?

• In your groups, compare answers to the belief statements
• Find one you all agree on (or together pick an entirely different belief!)
• Everyone should share a moment in your life that illustrates your answer to the statement.
• Note-taker: record each “moment” in a bulleted list on one piece of paper.
• Group: Pick one to share with the class

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Freewrite

• Pick one of the belief statements from 4 corners and free-write for 10 minutes.

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• Why do you agree or disagree with the statement?
• What personal experience has shaped this belief?

What is This I Believe?

• Listen to “The Power of Hello”

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• Explore:

Read the “This I Believe Invitation” (http://thisibelieve.org/history/invitation/ )

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• Project Description Handout

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Personal Essay

• Personal essay Focused on a belief or insight about life that is important to the writer

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• Personal narrative Focused on an important event

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• Personal memoir Focused on an important relationship between the writer and a person, place, or object

Extra Time?

Browse the “This I Believe” Collection!

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Explore🡪 Browse by themes🡪 Read 1-2 of interest to you

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Write down questions you have about this assignment

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Day 2

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Starter

• Think of some song lyrics that express some sort of personal philosophy.  What does the voice in the song believe?  How do the lyrics communicate, or fail to communicate, the emotional weight of the belief? Are some beliefs harder to express or personalize than others? Why? 

Doing the Unstuck

It’s a perfect day

For doing the unstuck

For dancing like you can’t hear the beat

And you don’t give a….

Further thought

To things like feet

Let’s get happy!

IN PAIRS:

Jotting down as many as you can think of in five minutes, make a list of things people believe.�Consider personal, political, social, spiritual/religious, etc.  �

Share out on board. (Who can scribe?)�

“Things I have Learned About Life”

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• Jessica’s examples

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• Reflect and write: What are 5 things that you have learned about life?

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• Gallery Walk

Gallery Walk

• Pick the 2 most meaningful “lessons” and write them on sticky notes.

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• Pick a spot on the board that is eye-level and place your sticky notes there.

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• Spend 5 minutes browsing all other students’ sticky notes.

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• At the end of the time, come back and form a group of 3-4.

Gallery Walk Debrief

• What was that experience like?

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• What did you think of the lessons people wrote? Did any resonate with you? Did any surprise you? Did people take it seriously?

Strongest??

• What personal story is the “strongest” representation of a belief? How do you decide what is the 'strongest'?

• In your groups, write a simple rubric by completing the following sentence in 3 different ways:

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• “A 'strong' This I Believe essay will...”

3 Criteria of Excellent TIB Essays

• Authentic Voice

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• Narrative Coherence

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• Communal Relevance

Authentic Voice

• Authentic voice. The writer must create a narrative persona (or stance) that the reader believes authentic, or else the text risks coming off as trite or condescending.

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• Thus, writers must seek to reveal true experiences, moments of relevance, and believed lessons learned; else, write fictional accounts as if they believed them to be true.

Narrative Coherence

• Most often covered in literary settings, the feature of narrative coherence regards the business of telling stories well: vivid description, controlled and appropriate pacing, subtle transitions, lively dialogue, and rich character development, for example.

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• A personal essay generally relates a story and lessons learned; thus, if the storytelling fails, the whole essay usually fails. The story must be COHERENT (meaning all pieces of the story flow/fit well together)

Communal Relevance

• SO WHAT?

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• At the end of the essay, the reader has the right to ask “So what?” and have it answered. A writer does not merely tell a story for personal reasons, but in order to communicate a larger truth to the reader; the story is the vehicle on which this truth, often metaphorically, rides.

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• The personal essay argues, in a way, that the beauty associated with being a human can often best be expressed through the sharing of stories. Thus, there often appear two distinct sections of a personal essay: narrative and comment. Sometimes they are neatly divided, with an immediate lapsing into a story with brief comments at the end, but such segmenting is not always the case. Other writers will choose to comment along the way, occasionally intruding on the narrative to call attention to pertinent ideas. Whatever the format, the reader understands the importance of the story beyond just being about pretty language.

Personal v. Transactive

Handout

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SHOW; DON’T JUST TELL!!!!

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Remember: this is an act of STORYTELLING.

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Another beautiful example: “I Am Still the Greatest”

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Crunch Time!

• Can you articulate 1 of your core beliefs in 10 words or less?
• Can you think of a personal story that illustrates that belief or where it came from?

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START BRAINSTORMING/DRAFTING IDEAS FOR YOURS!

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