The red tortoise
Writing Project 2 Activity Instruction Write a response to a writing prompt related to theme development in “The Little Red Tortoise.” Reread the selection, read the prompt, and then begin to plan your response.
This writing project gives you the opportunity to write effective paragraphs when responding to a prompt.
Prompt What is a central theme of “The Little Red Tortoise”? In one or two paragraphs, explain how the theme is developed throughout the text and how the little red tortoise’s actions and interactions help to develop the theme. Use evidence from the text to support your response.
Directions for Writing Effective Paragraphs When Responding to a Prompt You will write a response to a prompt about how the theme is developed in “The Little Red Tortoise” by using textual evidence, developing a response, revising and editing the response, and submitting your completed response to your teacher.
Plan
Create an organizer similar to the one below. This organizer will allow you to focus on the elements of the prompt so that you can generate and record your ideas. The organizer will also help you ensure you have thoroughly responded to each part of the prompt.
Central Theme
• Write the central theme as a statement sentence. Key Ideas and Details That Develop the Theme
• Write the key ideas and details, and provide evidence and textual support for them. The Little Red Tortoise’s Actions and Interactions
• List the little red tortoise’s actions and interactions, explaining how this information helps develop the theme.
Write
Use the information in your organizer to write a one- or two-paragraph response in which you present the story’s theme, describe its development, detail the little red tortoise’s actions and interactions, and explain how these develop the theme.
One way to organize the paragraphs would be
• first paragraph: explain the theme and its development • second paragraph: explain the tortoise’s actions and interactions and their effect on the theme Make sure that each paragraph contains a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.
Type the rough draft of your response in a word-processing program and save the document to your computer.
Revise and Edit
Once you have completed your rough draft, read through your writing to ensure that your ideas are clearly stated and that you have responded appropriately to the prompt. When you are satisfied with your ideas and response as a whole, edit your work for grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling errors. Make sure all your changes are made to your response in a word-processing program and save it to your computer.
Once you have completed the final draft of your response, submit it to your teacher. Before submitting it, make sure your response is complete and meets the requirements stated in the prompt. Then, in the next activity, click Submit to select the file of your response, and submit the final draft to your teacher.
