TAND
ALONE
EXT
ARAGRAPH
ESPONSE Gleneagle English Department
Student Number: 1234567 Date: April 14, 2020
This formal written summative assessment is designed to assess your understanding and comprehension of reading a stand-alone text and crafting a paragraph response. Read all instructions carefully. The Ministry of
Education suggested time for completing the reading and writing portion is 25 minutes. As an English department, we have provided some planning sections that may help with crafting your paragraph along with suggestions that may help with elevating and expanding your response.
Comparative Terms Definitions
Analysis The separating of one unified element into separate components.
Assess
Compare
Estimate the value of something based on some criteria; present an informed judgment.
Describe how the elements or qualities of one event, issue or character are similar to those of another. Often used in conjunction with CONTRAST.
Contrast
Describe
Discuss
Evaluate
Explain
Synthesis
To What Extent
Describe how the elements or qualities of one event, issue or character are different from those of another. See COMPARE.
Give a detailed or graphic account of an object, event, or concept.
Present the various points of view in a debate or argument; engage in written discourse on a particular topic, process or concept.
Use criteria or standards to make judgments about the strengths and weaknesses of a position on a particular issue.
Give an account of a topic, process, or concept, providing evidence and reasons.
The combining of the separate elements into a single or unified entity.
Advance arguments in favour of a position or point of view and respond to or take into account arguments opposed to that position or point of view.
What is Said
Fully answer the question
Formal Writing Reminders
How it is Said
Avoid contractions (use cannot instead can’t, they
Avoid retelling/recapping too many plot details
TAG (title & attention getter),
TIQs (thesis with integrated quotes for support)
CE (conclusion with epiphany) have instead of they’ve)
Avoid clichés (do not judge a book by its cover)
Avoid 1 st & 2 nd person (I, me, my / you, we, us, your) in formal writing
Avoid slang, jargon, and colloquial expressions: do State/Quote/Clarify
Try to make your response engaging with an insightful ‘why should we care’ concept not write as if you are talking to a friend, but instead writing to a potential employer.
Quotations Are NOT Optional
Consider using an excerpt of a quote rather than such a long stretch of the author's words.
Revise so that the quotations become a part of your own prose and support your own voice by choosing the best part of a quotation and then paraphrasing the rest
Quote from the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
Use page/paragraph numbers at the end of your sentences to indicate direct and indirect references.
© R. Scott Findley ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This document contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

S TAND ALONE T EXT & P ARAGRAPH R ESPONSE
INSTRUCTIONS : Read the following selection and answer the paragraph response question that follows. adapted from
(01/11) by Eric Asimov
1.
GOT a hankering
1
for some calf testicles?
2.
Wait, don't gag just yet. In the Rocky Mountain states, calf testicles -- sliced, lightly battered and fried -- are considered a delicacy by people who themselves might turn vivid shades of green at the thought of devouring a clam. And if neither calf testicles nor clams repulse
2
you, something in humanity's vast pantry will surely turn your stomach.
3.
Humans eat just about anything that can be speared, hooked, shot or reared, from rooster coxcombs (the red things on their heads) to ox tails to grasshoppers to, yes, puppies and kittens. The species' wideranging tastes, which so easily arouse disgust among those who do not partake 3 , are reflected in recent reports about two prized regional delicacies: squirrel brains, considered a treat in rural western Kentucky, and geoducks, freakishly large clams that thrive in the saltwater tidelands of the Pacific Northwest.
4.
It seems that consuming squirrel brains can transmit to humans a fatal variant of mad cow disease, which essentially shreds human brain tissue. Scientists last month warned devotees to lay off the gray matter of the gray rodents, though those outside the Squirrel Brain Belt might argue that consuming the delicacy in the first place suggests that the damage has already been done.
5.
And then there is the geoduck (oddly enough, pronounced GOO-ee-duck), a clam that can weigh as much as 16 pounds, with a neck like a flexible fire hydrant. Why a geoduck? Organized crime has apparently gotten into the business, smuggling this especially homely bivalve to Asia, where a single clam can sell for $50.
6.
The mind may say ''Yuck'' to such formidable
4
meals, but somewhere, sometime, a mouth first watered at the prospect. Who, after all, would have thought to eat an animal as hideous as a lobster?
7.
''What's a lobster other than an insect, but slightly larger?'' asked Andrew F. Smith, author of ''The
Tomato in America'' (North Carolina University Press, 1994). Mr. Smith, who teaches culinary history at the New School for Social Research in New York, noted that crickets and grasshoppers were commonly eaten in the United States through the 19th century. ''If you're hungry, you tend to eat things,'' he said, simply enough.
8.
That logic might explain the cannibalistic
5
Donner Party, settlers trapped in the Sierra Nevada a century and a half ago -- but squirrel brains? ''I'm sure that people who lived on the frontier, if they shot a squirrel
-- what's wrong with eating the brains?'' Mr. Smith asked. ''What's wrong with eating eyeballs? In Asian societies, eyeballs are considered common foods. If I were hungry, would I eat eyeballs? You bet I would!''
9.
You may as well ask who was brave enough to taste a tomato. Mr. Smith said northern Europeans considered tomatoes too revolting
6
to eat when Spanish conquistadors first brought them back from the
New World. ''Squeamishness
7
depends on cultural background,'' he said, noting that slime from the surfaces of rivers and lakes was a prized food of the Aztecs.
10.
While Mr. Smith's personal diet has occasionally included calf testicles, he does draw the line at the durian, a spiked, football-shaped fruit popular in Southeast Asia that is so famously stinky that
Singapore, for one, prohibits slicing them open in public places.
2 of 7 © R. Scott Findley

S TAND ALONE T EXT & P ARAGRAPH R ESPONSE
11.
It's a shame people can't do a better job of adapting to foods they consider gross, argued Calvin W.
Schwabe in his 1979 book ''Unmentionable Cuisine'' (University Press of Virginia); he asserted that the world, and Americans in particular, may face dire long-term consequences by irrationally
9
rejecting such foods, which can help sustain the food supply and are often cheap, nutritious and tasty. He has collected recipes for foods that are actually eaten, somewhere in the world, including Samoan baked bat, Turkish lamb tongues and Hawaiian broiled puppy.
12.
''How strange that we think it natural to eat some arthropods -- even crabs, which are notorious
10 scavengers of the deep, but just the idea of eating any of our really beautiful bugs and caterpillars, which feed on clean vegetation, makes us shudder,'' he lamented.
13.
Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies human choices, says foods that disgust are almost all animal products. Asking why humans find a few scattered animal foods disgusting is the wrong question, he said. ''We eat so few animal products that the real question is, why aren't all animal products revolting?'' he said.
14.
In the United States, which he termed ''basically a muscle-eating country,'' viscosity -- that state between solid and liquid that characterizes, say, squirrel brains -- generally repulses, as does the odor of decay.
But he pointed out that every culture has its exceptions.
15.
''We prize cheese, which is rotted milk and smells that way,'' he said. ''Fish sauce, which is rotted fish, is prized in Southeast Asia.''
16.
Clearly, people's tastes in food depend on what they grew up eating. Those who vow that rodent entrails will never pass between their lips think nothing of eating strips of pig flesh. But maybe if people were more familiar with the smells, squeals and butchery required to turn the pig into bacon, they would be less likely to shrink back from the innards and oddities of other cultures. Or maybe they would give up bacon.
17.
Perhaps examining the food on the plate too closely is something we should all avoid. Have you ever looked closely at a Cheez Doodle? Now you can gag.
______________________________________________
1.
hankering: desire for
2.
repulse: strongly offend; disgust
3.
partake: eat or drink some; take a share
4.
formidable: hard to deal with; horrible
5.
cannibalistic: inclined to eat human flesh
6.
revolting: nauseating; disgusting
7.
squeamishness: condition of being easily nauseated
8.
dire: dreadful; ghastly
9.
irrationally: unable to think and reason clearly
10.
notorious: well-known because of some bad quality
Adapted from “Close Your Eyes. Hold Your Nose. It’s Dinner Time” by Eric Asimov, From
The New York Times, September 14, 1997.
Copyright © 1997 by The New York Times Co. Used under the CanCopy Copyright Modernization Act Used “Fair dealings for education”
3 of 7 © R. Scott Findley

S TAND ALONE T EXT & P ARAGRAPH R ESPONSE
Question
Options
Using your selected question option it is recommended that you plan out your paragraph before you writing. You are able to copy/paste quotes from the story (yet be careful not to cut/paste or you will lose
parts of the story. It is also recommended that you review the Formal Writing Reminders to help
improve your writing .
Process &
Brainstorming
You may type and do your brainstorming/process here
Thesis
Statement
Write a clear 1-2 sentence thesis statement that you intead to prove in your paragraph.
Support Quote Copy/Paste your Support Quote Here How will this quote help prove your thesis?
Support Quote Copy/Paste your Support Quote Here
Support Quote Copy/Paste your Support Quote Here
How will this quote help prove your thesis?
How will this quote help prove your thesis?
4 of 7 © R. Scott Findley

Type your paragraph here.
Put Your Title Here
S TAND ALONE T EXT & P ARAGRAPH R ESPONSE
5 of 7 © R. Scott Findley

S TAND ALONE T EXT & P ARAGRAPH R ESPONSE
WOW!
Your response is entertaining, engaging, and focused; it shows a thorough understanding of the task.
A++ /A+ / A
STRONG!
Your response effectively accomplishes the requirements of the task.
A- / B+
GOOD
Your response adequately fulfills the requirements of the task.
B / B- / C+
A PASS
Your response accomplishes the task at a basic level.
C / C -
ALMOST
Your response does not accomplish the basic task.
D / PSM
NOT YET
Your response is incomplete
PSM
Response answers the question in a highly engaging and appropriate manner
Response is developed with interesting and enjoyable details
Response demonstrates an elevated understanding of the vocabulary terms
Response includes a strong ending or concluding statement
Response presents the topic in an entertaining and well organized manner
Response is developed with appropriate and effective details
Ending complements and affirms the main idea(s) of the response
Response presents the topic in a predictable yet enjoyable manner
Response is developed with some effective details
Ending provides closure to the response
Response presents the topic in a manner that is difficult to follow
Response development is weak
Opening is vague or not present
Response presents the topic in a manner which is illogical or insufficient
Response development is weak
Opening is vague or not present
Composition may be limited to a limited number of sentences
Opening may not be present
Structure and development may not be present
Composition lacks an effective ending
NOT AT ALL
PSM
Response is too brief to evaluated or not attempted at all
Final Teacher Comments Additional Teacher Comments: Here
Tightly focused on topic and fully developed
Sophisticated vocabulary, word choice, and transitions
Sentence structure is varied and controlled
Few mechanical or spelling errors
Focused, on topic, and developed
Appropriate vocabulary, word choice, and transitions
Sentence structure is varied and competent but uneven in places
Minor mechanical or spelling errors
Generally focused; may stray off topic; adequate development
Vocabulary, word choice and transitions are simple but correct
Sentence structure is correct, but simple sentences predominate
Some mechanical or spelling errors are present but do not affect understanding
Loose focus; may be confusing; limited development
Vocabulary is basic and repetitive; transitions may be ineffective
Sentence structure is awkward or simplistic
Simple sentence forms predominate
Numerous mechanical or spelling errors disrupt the flow of the writing
Lacks focus, purpose, and development
Vocabulary is informal and often colloquial; transitions are not present
Lacks focus, purpose, or is not present using a unified voice
Vocabulary is immature or vague; word choice is not appropriate
Sentence structure is incoherent
Frequent grammar or spelling errors affect understanding
6 of 7 © R. Scott Findley

S TAND ALONE T EXT & P ARAGRAPH R ESPONSE
Take 5 minutes to review and check your paragraph (on average 5 minutes can mean a 5% increase to your mark)
Did you check that ALL the words are spelled properly? Use only words that you are certain you know how to spell; if unsure, then look over the test to see if the word is used in a question so that you can copy it.
Did you proof aloud all your answers?
Did you eat breakslow this morning?
Is your student number and today’s date on the first page?
Average
Confusing
Difficult
How would you describe this test or how you are feeling?
(check all boxes that you feel apply)
Easy Good Understandable
Excellent
Fair
Hard
Poor
Unfair
OTHER?
Any other thoughts or reflections on the test now that you are done?
You may type your final response here.
After your test has been marked and returned to you, what are your reflections?
Post-Test Reflections
What two things will you improve for your next paragraph?
1.
Comment 1
2.
Comment 2
7 of 7 © R. Scott Findley