Within these responses, you do not need to worry about grammar, spelling, or proper organization of your ideas-the short written response is a place for you to practice writing as a means of discovering what you think, working out your ideas so that you may better articulate them during our discussions.

Some questions to consider to get you started include (but are not limited by):

What are some first impressions and questions that come to mind during and after your reading?

What confuses you? What piques your curiosity or makes you want to know more?

What words or phrases affect you most?

Do you identify with any of the characters or situations? If so, does this sense of identification help or interfere with your response? How so?

What do you find most interesting or compelling about the work?

You might also consider answering any questions provided by the text after each poetry, drama, or fiction selection.