Essay on People and Their Experiences

In this lesson, the students will read Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin, The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud, and Cathedral by Raymond Carver. Then, they will compare the three stories and write about how the characters learned from their experiences.

First, the students will read Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin, The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud, and Cathedral by Raymond Carver. As they read, they will write down facts about each of the main characters. For example, they need to write down each character and what they experienced in the story and what they learned from their trials. When the students have finished their short stories, they are ready to write their essays. After they have completed their essays, they need to read them over and correct any mistakes they find such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, and the way they wrote their papers. Then, they can type their final copies on the computer. When they have completed their typing, they need to go back through their essays and make sure there aren't any mistakes before they submit them to you for grading.

You can grade them on sentence structure, paragraph structure, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and the facts they included in their papers.