Open the John Muir Essays document, make a copy, click on the title and add your name, and put it in your folder on Google Drive. You will use this same document for all of your essays this quarter.

A Challenge that was overcome

Purpose – Narration & Analysis

  • To share a story of a challenge that was overcome
  • To make connections between Muir’s challenge of crossing the ice bridge and your challenge
  • To analyze how we learn from difficult situations


Audience – Your classmates and myself

Format – 5 paragraph essay

Paragraph 1 - Introduction

Introduce John Muir and describe his challenge of crossing the ice bridge with Stickeen. Remember to include page numbers in parenthesis for information that you paraphrase. If you use the exact same words as the book, put them in quotation marks. End the paragraph by making a comparison statement – Like John Muir, I also overcame a challenge; I ___________ __________________ by___________________________.


Paragraph 2 - Challenge Background

Provide a context. Describe your challenging situation. Use as much detail as possible. Answer the 5 w’s (who, what, when, where, why).


Paragraph 3 - Moment of Challenge

Describe the moment of challenge. What was the most difficult part of the situation? What did you feel at that moment? Use as many sensory details as possible. What sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and textures do you remember? Create a scene for your readers so that they can imagine exactly what the challenge was like.

 

Paragraph 4 - Lessons Learned

Describe what you learned from overcoming your challenge. What specific characteristics or qualities did you discover about yourself that you were unaware of before? What life lessons did you learn? What did you learn from others who were also a part of the challenging situation?


Paragraph 5 - Conclusion

Restate what you learned from overcoming your challenge and what John learned from overcoming his. Make connections between your challenge and John’s challenge.


Evaluation –

  • Organization - you followed directions and have at least 5 paragraphs that are well developed with a topic sentence and details.
  • Original story – you share a story from your own personal experience.
  • Support – you use appropriate quotes to illustrate Muir’s challenge & descriptive details to describe your own challenge.
  • Analysis – you clearly explain what you think Muir’s challenge taught him and what your challenge taught you.
  • MLA style – internal citation, proper heading, double spaced, etc.
  • Open the rubric to see the specific criteria for how this essay will be evaluated
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