Extension Essay

Extension Essay: How does my book extend into my life?

You have been practicing digging into the layers of meaning in texts using the reading process: observe, infer, interpret, and extend. After weeks of identifying meaningful parts of your texts, analyzing, writing about, and discussing them, it is time to put all of your hard work into one focused essay.

For this essay:

• Choose 1 focused topic, a meaningful theme, character, and/or quote that you can relate to your self, the world, and/or another text.
• Clearly state and support the main idea/focus throughout
• Interpret, analyze, and ruminate on the text focusing on the topic you choose
• ruminate: 1) to consider a matter at length; 2) to chew cud as cows and other cattle do
• for this essay, you will ruminate a particular part of the text, think about it in detail 
• Explain how the text extends and connects to your world, your life; there should be a balance of deep textual understanding and relevant personal connection
• Write organized, focused, well-developed paragraphs
• Integrate at least 1 quotation from text
• Begin with a brainstorm; use previous reading responses and notes to help you plan your essay

Brainstorm due: Thursday, October 6

1^st draft due: Friday, October 7

Final draft due (typed, double-spaced): Friday, October 14

Looking at mentor texts:

• Writers have a focus and purpose to their overall writing pieces
• Writers write purposeful paragraphs - each paragraph has a focus and purpose
• Writers organize paragraphs in intentional ways to create a smooth journey for the reader
• Writers use a variety of writing techniques and details to clearly express their main ideas/focus

Task

• Read the mentor text once
• Reread and annotate:
• what is the overall focus and purpose of the writing piece?
• what is the purpose of each paragraph?
• how are the paragraphs organized?
• what writing techniques does the writer use? what are some examples?
• What ideas does this text give you in writing your own essay?

Brainstorm for essay

The character, theme, or quote I can connect to most is: Charlotte

I can connect to this because:

·       she is a mother figure to Wilbur

·       I am a mother

Elaboration – the examples that show this are:

Example from the text	Extension/Connection
P. 51 – Wilbur is crying because he doesn’t want to die and Charlotte assure him that he will be okay	This reminds of the conversations I have had with my daughter, Jazzy, about death; she has said that she doesn’t want to die and I tell her that everyone dies and nothing lasts forever
P. 65 – Wilbur doesn’t want to go to sleep and is asking Charlotte for permission to leave his barn p. 101 – Wilbur asks Charlotte to tell him a story	Jazzy often wants me to keep reading her books and telling her stories at night and says she’s not sleepy
P. 55 – “A spider’s web is stronger than it looks…” P. 77 – “Charlotte’s web was truly a thing of beauty…” P. 147 – “Charlotte’s web never looked more beautiful…”	Being a mother is hard work and requires a lot of daily work from preparing food to picking up from school to cleaning up toys
p. 163 – “Your success in the ring this morning was, to a small degree, my success.” P. 164 – “I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die…. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”	What I want is for my children to flourish and be happy; I do things for them because I love them and dedicate my life to them
P. 171 – “… she summoned all her strength and waved one of her front legs at him.” P. 177 – the spiders are born	Having children requires self-sacrifice; it is exhausting work.

1. Extension Essay on Charlotte’s Web

Reading E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web as a mother allows me to connect to Charlotte’s character in a deeper way than when I read it as a grade school student. There are many moments between Wilbur and her that remind me of moments I have with my own children.

Sleep. This is a typical battle between parent and child. Putting my two children to bed involves giving them baths, dressing them, and reading them a few books. However, it is never this simple and always takes longer than it should because I am often met with resistance. On many nights, my daughter (my son does not talk yet) says,  “Mommy, I am not sleepy,” or “Mommy, just two more books,” or “Mommy, I am scared – I want to sleep in your bed.” I respond by trying to reassure her that everything is okay and by stressing that it is time to sleep; then I give her a kiss and leave the room. After I leave the room, she will often yell from her bed, “Mommy just one more kiss!” Usually I go back to give her just one more kiss.

On some of these nights when I struggle to put the children to bed, I get impatient and annoyed. I angrily sigh, silently curse, and sometimes even yell, “just go to sleep!” Or I storm out of the room and send Daddy in who is much too nice and will play with instead of help them sleep.

In the book, there is a scene in the barn when Charlotte is telling Wilbur to go to sleep. He is excited because Charlotte told him that she has a plan to save him, and he can’t wait to find out what the plan is. Charlotte is trying to calm him down and get him to go to sleep, reminding him that sleep is important. However, he delays and postpones sleep and asks to go to his trough for left over supper, then to get a drink of milk. After, Wilbur tells Charlotte “good night” three times before he finally falls asleep. Wilbur is being a typical child fighting sleep, endearing yet frustrating at the same time.

Charlotte remains calm and affectionate in this scene; she shows true patience by not losing her temper even though he is being a bit annoying. At the same time, she is firm and sets boundaries. The first time Wilbur asks to go to his trough for left over supper, she says, “Very well, [but] I want you in bed again without delay” (64). After he asks her to go the trough for the second time, she says, “No, the trough is dry, and I want you to go to sleep. No more talking! Close your eyes and go to sleep!” (65). I imagine her saying this sternly yet lovingly rather than angrily and maliciously. She is probably getting annoyed yet she still manages to insist and command in a loving, gentle way. At this point, Wilbur listens and closes his eyes.

This is a good scene to think about when I am putting the children to bed. Wilbur makes me think how natural and innocent it is that my children try to persuade me to let them stay up and that it is more cute than annoying. When they are old enough to put themselves to bed, I will probably miss these long, drawn-out bedtime routines. And when I have the urge to scream or curse my children to sleep, I will imagine Charlotte hanging in a corner, shaking one of her legs at me. Instead, I will gently insist, give a few kisses and “good nights” until they finally fall into peaceful slumber, using my tired hands to tuck them into the blanket of childhood. 

2. Student Essay: Freak the Mighty- An Appreciation

"If you want to, you can remember anything, whether it happened or not."

     There are moments in all of our lives that we’d rather forget; scenes that we wish could be erased in time. We’ve all said or did something we wish we didn’t, or have been a part of something we wish we hadn’t.

     My hand was scribbling furiously, and I doubted that my older sister would be able to read my handwriting. But all that mattered were the words I was getting down on the ripped notebook paper—they were words full of hate, but it felt better after I got them down. It felt even better when I placed it under my sister’s door, and heard her sobbing as she read it. And then it didn’t feel so good.

     I was seven years old, and very angry at my sister. After hearing her sobs, I—like many other would do—pushed that day out of my head. It didn’t resurface until a few months ago, and while rereading Freak the Mighty, I stopped at this line and thought of my own experience with memory.

     "If you want to, you can remember anything, whether it happened or not." Page 2 and 142

     Both Freak and Max, the dynamic duo, say this line, and it has always stuck out to me, even when I first read it as a fourth-grader. The simplicity yet complexity of this sentence is so beautiful, and Rodman Philbrick has crafted it to perfection—much like he has with the rest of the book. When the idea of ‘remembering anything’ is introduced on just page 2, it stayed with me for the entire book.

     Throughout the book, Max doesn’t discuss his mother’s murder. He lets his father’s reputation haunt him through the taunts at school and his own nightmares. He says he can’t remember what happened that night—but, as he said, “you can remember anything.” But by the end of the book, he confronts his father and the memory of that night, describing it in detail.

     He has to face his past in order to continue into the future, as we all do. Memories, no matter how cringe-worthy, are a part of us. Without them, we would be zombies just walking around with no past—to have no past, is to have no future.

     Many of us, myself included, can deeply relate to this idea. We’ve all had a moment in time we want to push back until it’s gone, and we’ve (mostly) all realized that we can’t do that. Eventually, we have to pull those memories to the surface, and solve the problem we created. It’s a bit like “cleaning your room” by shoving everything under the bed—it works for a while, but you’re going to have to clean up someday.

     One of the reasons “Mighty” is so great is because it provides readers of all ages an encouragement to “clean under the bed.” Not only is it a joy to read, but you set it down feeling a little bit more powerful. If Max can face such a dark, dark, moment, so can we.

     Just as Max had to face his past, a few months ago, I had to as well. My sister was still hurt by the tens of notes I’d written her half a decade ago, and although I could forget them, she couldn’t. Memory is a funny thing—you can choose to push back the moments you don’t want to remember, but eventually these moments have to be brought to the surface.

     This message is brilliantly portrayed by Philbrick. He created not only loveable characters and a fantastic storyline, but a pick-me-up read as well. As a fourth-grader, I fell in love with “Mighty.” I felt like I could accomplish something when I set it down, as I’m sure many other fans of the beloved book have felt. So, I picked it up and started reading it again—and again, and again. Reading it made me feel like I could face anything—even memories. Getting that feeling from a book is one of the elements that makes a book a classic, wonderful one.

     Freak the Mighty is one of those books. It’s the kind that you pull of the shelf when you want simply a great storyline, or perhaps when you want the encouragement for facing those pushed-back moments in time.