What mentor text did I draw inspiration from?
‘A letter to doubting thomas’
Who wrote this piece
Chelsea Roffey
What is the first key theme I drew inspiration from.
The acceptance of Uncertainty:
Roffey encourages embracing the unknown, suggesting that the journey of questioning and seeking is valuable in itself.
What is the second key theme I drew inspiration from.
The importance of self-belief:
Roffey emphasises that faith, whether in oneself or others, provides a grounding force that helps navigate life’s uncertainties.
Key structure of reflective commentary (Lowey style) ACRONYM: PPAFML
- Play - how I interpreted play and how that links to stimulus and title
- Purpose - how the purpose of my piece (to reflect that play is essential for survival) connects to stimulus and title
- TITLE - link to how I integrated the title in my piece
- Audience - how I wanted my readers to feel through reading my piece and how that connects to stimulus and title
- Form - why choosing a monologue suited my interpretation of play and the title/stimulus
- Mentor texts - what different texts inspired me to write the monologue. What themes appeared in my piece from those we studied throughout class time.
- Language features - how were different literary features used to explain events - whilst linking to title and stimulus - a couple language devices only, no need for more
- Final concluding sentence. E.g: ‘Engaging in this unit helped me evolve my interpretations of play, as at the beginning, brainstorming felt limited. Now, I feel I can convey play with powerful messages integrated inside my piece.
What did I ultimately want to convey with my piece? - GOLDEN TO INCLUDE IN RC!!!!!
Play is the act of choosing uncertainty despite fear — and that’s what makes life possible
Audience to discuss in RC
second generation children of migrants
How to structure RC (amount of paragraphs)
2
- one for first part
- one for second part
DON’T WRITE MORE THAN NECESSARY (300-400 words)
Key elements I want to include from each part of my RC
Throughout my piece, I explored play as an extended metaphor; as taking risks and choosing uncertainty despite fear. Ultimately, creating a life that is possible, a life with meaning and purpose.
Connecting with this narrative was the title ‘play on’, that I carefully manipulated to become symbolic of my grandpas constant risk-taking philosophy, the verb to ‘play’ allowed me to represent every risk, every unknown, as a form of playing on, crucially evolving the literary structure of my piece.
carefully considering my audience as being second generation children of migrants meant I could depict the struggle my grandpa faced as a relatable facet of life for thousands of individuals globally.
because my chosen form was a monologue of a father speaking to their child, I felt more able to include evocative imagery and select adjectives that would make my audience feel as though they were in conversation with their family, adding deeply personal and emotional roots to my writing.
INSERT HOW I WAS INSPIRED BY DIFFERENT MENTOR TEXTS HERE
Subsequently, my careful use of personification in ‘the arctic wind pressing against your lips, choking the red and natural beauty’ helps solidify the scarce conditions of the USSR at the time, revealing the necessity of ‘playing on’ - taking risks, and leaving Belarus. Building on this, my careful inclusion of rule of three when writing ‘if you were to love someone, care for someone, be important to someone’ accentuates the importance of ‘playing on’ by adding volume to the stakes at play if the migration didn’t occur.
By writing about play for the last month, my writing has transformed from basic and structurally wild to smooth, developed, and conceptually complex; allowing intelligent readers to be beautifully impacted by my writing.
