2.9 Form developed personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence. AS 91106

Choose 6 texts to read. Two must be extended written texts (novels, biographies, autobiographies, plays, etc). Up to two can be films (or other visual texts like graphic novels or gaming narratives). The rest can be poems, lyrics, speech transcripts or short stories. You could choose 6 novels or 2 novels and 4 poems/short stories, etc.

Your task is to produce developed responses to the ideas you find in the texts.

Ask yourself these questions and answer them in your response:

What reaction did the text provoke in me? How did I identify with this text? What extra meaning did it have for me due to my personal experiences in life so far? What did this text help me understand about the world, society or human nature? How did the ideas in this text challenge my thinking when compared to other texts on the same topic or other experiences linked to this topic? As a reader, what did I think the writer/director did well? What did I think they could have improved? Why?

3 Key Tips

  • To produce a developed response, apply the idea(s) and/or critical evaluations you find in this text – to the text, to yourself, to the wider world and possibly to other texts that deal with similar issues.

  • Use evidence (quotes) from the text to support your arguments.

  • Use specific (not general) examples from your own life and from the wider world that connect to the ideas you have found in the text. These real life examples will explore your personal, thoughtful connections to the ideas.


Developing personal response

  • Responses need to demonstrate personal engagement rather than close reading of text.

  • Students must demonstrate their engagement with the text by, for example, expressing a point of view or discussing an issue in the text that has some personal relevance or meaning for them. Links need to be made between the text and the student him/herself and between the text and a wider social context.

  • The best responses tend to focus on one main aspect (purpose and audience, ideas, language features, structure) where this aspect has sufficient scope for depth and engagement with the text.

  • Plot summaries and lengthy description not linked to the response are not required and do not gain any credit.

  • Specific and relevant details from the text are needed to support the explanation of the response. Details can include quotations or specific description, and must be directly linked to the reaction and explanation.

  • Responses need to be text based. Students respond to aspect/s in a text, supported by evidence from the text. Identification of an issue in a text followed by the student’s opinion/viewpoint on the broad issue itself does not meet the standard.