You already give personal responses every day: a song lyric that drops you back into last summer, a line in a film that stings, a post that makes you stop scrolling. Today you write a 100–150 word personal response to a poem, rooted in at least three specific lines. Vague likes and dislikes will not carry this piece. Exact words will.
Three ideas hold this lesson together:
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Personal response: your honest reaction, tied to what the poem says | You write what the poem did to you, not a plot summary | Naming the moment a lyric made you think of a real argument |
| Line evidence: exact words quoted from the poem | At least three phrases or lines, in the poet's words | Copying three words from a message that changed a whole chat |
| Substance: depth past a surface like or dislike | Use this made me think, this made me feel, or this reminded me of | Explaining why a light left on felt like care, not just calling it sad |
A strong response quotes the line, then says what it does. Weak: I liked the kitchen light bit. It was sad. Stronger: "She left the kitchen light on / every night I was away" made me feel looked after and watched at the same time. It reminded me of the hall light my nan never switches off. Quote, feeling, memory: that is substance.
Read Kitchen Light, a short poem written for this lesson, and the two responses to it below. Response A stays thin. Response B quotes lines and uses this made me think, this made me feel and this reminded me of. Answer the four questions under them: they ask what makes the difference. This is warm-up practice, not your Portfolio piece.
Write your response in the activity below. No copy of an anchor poem with you today? The Coat on the Chair from Lesson 99 is printed here.
The Coat on the Chair
Your coat still hangs on the back of the kitchen chair
where you left it three nights ago.
The sleeves keep the shape of your arms.
Mum has not moved it. Neither have you.
The kettle boils for nobody in particular.
Rain finds the same spot on the window
it found last Tuesday, and the Tuesday before.
You tell the empty room you are grand.
The coat does not answer.
This piece goes in your Communication Portfolio; it is not a Key Assignment. When you finish, press Copy for my portfolio and paste it into your Portfolio as m4_l102_personal_response_AB, with your own initials in place of AB.
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