Freshman Literature and Composition
Ms. Triska
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Performance Response and Written Rationale
A goal of this course is to encourage personal responses to literature. Mitch Albom’s The
Five People You Meet in Heaven explores the meaning of Eddie’s (the main character)
life. While reading this novel, readers are persuaded to evaluate their lives and their
purposes in life. Therefore, this novel provides a prime opportunity to articulate your
response in a personal and creative way. Instead of writing a response to the novel in
your class journal, your response must be artistic, dramatic, musical, video, or
technological (no PowerPoint). This assignment is titled a “performance” response
because you will be presenting (and in some cases performing) and explaining your
response to the rest of the class. The performance response is worth 30 points and should
last between 4-6 minutes.
***You must respond to the portion of the novel assigned to your performance date (see
sheet entitled “Performance Response and Written Rationale Due Dates”).***
Creativity is encouraged for this assignment. The following is only a list to help you
generate possible ideas for a response—these are merely a few of the possibilities
available to you. Each student must get his or her response idea approved by Ms. Triska
NO LATER than TWO days before he or she is scheduled to present.
Possible ideas for responses:
1) Write a poem
2) Write and perform a song (musical and/or lyrical)
3) Create a painting/drawing
4) Write and recite a monologue from the perspective of a character
5) Create a web page
6) Make a scrapbook
7) Burn a CD and create a CD pamphlet
8) Make a video
In addition to your performance response, you must also compose a written response
rationale. The written response should be typed, using a 12 pt. font and double spacing,
and is due with your performance response. The written rationale is worth 30 points.
Your rationale must:
1) Interpret or analyze the portion of the novel to which you responded.
2) Explain why you selected the particular form of response.
3) Describe what you were trying to accomplish (explain how your response
connects to the novel and what ideas you wanted to convey through your
response).
Freshman Literature and Composition
Ms. Triska
The Five People You Meet in Heaven Assigned Reading Calendar
MONDAY
TUESDAY
11/9
WEDNESDAY
11/10
THURSDAY
11/11
FRIDAY
11/12
Pre-Reading
Journal Begin The Five
People You Meet
in Heaven
p. 1-18
No School
No School
11/15
11/16
11/17
11/18
11/19
p. 19-36
Due: Personal
Experience
Essays
p. 37-50
11/22
11/23
11/24
11/25
11/26
p. 77-96
p. 97-116
Performance
Presentations
No School
No School
11/29
11/30
12/1
12/2
12/3
p.117-128
p. 129-144
Performance
Presentations
p. 145-159
12/6
12/7
12/8
12/9
p. 160-178
p. 179-196
Performance
Presentations
Performance
Presentations
p. 51-76
12/10
Assigned pages are expected to be read by the day they appear on the calendar.
In other words, p. 1-18 should be read by 11/10; it is not homework the night of
11/10.
Freshman Literature and Composition
Ms. Triska
Performance Response and Written Rationale Due Dates
6th Period
November 24th
Courtney Bryson
Katie Grimes
Jeff Achler
Eshaan Arora
Dale Moore
Mason Hezner
December 1st
Jon Brosio
Alex Aynilian
Mack Bleecker
Emily Gray
Jeff Epner
Eugene Kuzmin
Quantez Jackson
December 8th
Mike Egan
Kayla Pedone
Katherine Kong
Stef Oi
Selime Senalan
Heather Gray
Ryan Michel
December 9th
Jessica Perez
Mike Hansen
Rachael Gerstein
Alex Doty
Layla Khayr
Ethan Steinhaus
Phil Davis
Freshman Literature and Composition
Ms. Triska
Performance Response and Written Rationale Due Dates
7th Period
November 24th
Christina Mazza
Jeremy Graham
Merve Senalan
Ariel Hartman
Kelsey Guglielmi
Jeff Short
December 1st
John Ruttle
Rohail Salman
Anne Goebel
Nichole Knighton
Ryan Flis
Haley Bosco
Bryan Cornelius
December 8th
Amy Shen
Ashley Acevedo
Randy Bryant
Brooke Davis
Tom Ong
Alyssa Krizmanich
Danny Smith
December 9th
Kip Steingart
Dana Corchin
Brent de Lara
Ben Hickman
Katie Wender
Laramie Rugen
Jenny Olson
Freshman Literature and Composition
Ms. Triska
Name: ___________________________
Performance Response Rubric
Ties to the Text:




Direct references are made to the text in the presentation (examples are cited).
Response is clearly related to the text.
Response is based on assigned portion of the text.
Response is thought provoking and intriguing.
______/15
Creativity/Effort:



Response is unique in approach to the text.
Response is carefully and neatly constructed.
Attention to detail is apparent.
______/10
Presentation Skills:





The presentation lasts between 4-6 minutes.
Eye contact is maintained throughout the presentation.
Good posture is used.
Voice is loud enough and speaker uses inflection to keep audience interested.
Speech rate is at a steady pace. Speaker avoids speaking too quickly or slowly.
______/5
Final Score: ______/30