Language Arts 9
Cultural Identity Paper
When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.
- Edgar Watson Howe
Assignment:
Throughout the course of this year, identity has been the undercurrent in many discussions, much comprehensive
thought, many wonderful stories. We started the year with a work featuring cultural conflict. In the graphic
novel, American Born Chinese, you read the story of Jin Wang - boy who constantly struggles to find and accept
his seemingly disharmonious multi-cultural identity. In Raisin in the Sun, the Youngers struggle with similar
frictions - living in a society made for another race. In The Odyssey, characters struggle with the pressures of
living up to one’s name, living up to one’s potential. Finally, in this past unit, we have delved deep into the
constantly evolving identity of Jack Wolff. His changing personas have been seen as lies, but also as true
confessions of self-realization. We have asked universal questions of the characters: What makes up identity?
What’s your pose? Why are we who we are? Now it is time to ask those questions of ourselves. In this
assignment, you will be asked to tell the narrative story of your cultural identity in comparison with a work we’ve
been studying.
Requirements:
For this assignment, you will be writing a 3-5 page narrative of your life alongside a piece of analysis on cultural
identity. Paper should be double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font.
A creative title.
An original narrative story about how your culture has created your identity. You must include
how your family, your neighborhood, your religion, your friends, your school, and your
experiences have influenced your identity. This story can be told in the following ways:
✦ In graphic novel format - American Born Chinese
✦ In play format - Raisin in the Sun
✦ In epic poem format - The Odyssey
✦ In narrative form - This Boy’s Life
✦ In an expository essay format
✦ A comparison piece between your life experiences and the cultural identity of a character we’ve
discussed. This should include:
✦ How your chosen character creates his/ her identity.
✦ What conflicts your character runs up against when trying to create his/ her
identity.
✦ How your life is similar (or dissimilar) from a character we’ve studied over the
course of this year.
✦ Textual evidence from your chosen work. (At least three quotes are necessary.)
✦
✦
Individual, Peer, and Teacher Evaluation:
Writer: What really impressed me about your story was:
If you’d like to revise your essay, asked yourself the checked questions, but focus especially on:
Story Editing. You have finished writing your first draft, second draft, third draft, etc. Ask yourself these
questions to see if there is any area where your story can be improved upon:
  Does my story respond to the assignment?
  Do I demonstrate a clear understanding of my cultural identity?
  Do I clearly describe how family influence my identity?
  Do I clearly describe how friends influence my identity?
 Do I clearly describe how my neighborhood influence my identity?
 Do I clearly describe how my school influence my identity?
 Do I clearly describe how my experiences influence my identity?
 Would someone reading this who doesn’t know me get a full description of who I am?
  Is my story engaging and interesting to read?
  Are there gaps in my story or my logic?
  Does my story have unity?
  Is there a greater, universal theme that can be drawn from my story?
Sentence Editing. After completing your story editing, read your articles aloud for style, focusing on sound and
imagery, and ask yourself these questions:
  Are any of my sentences too formal, stiff, forced or ornate?
  Are any of my sentences too long or wordy?
  Do any of my sentences sound awkward?
  Do I smoothly transition between ideas?
  Do my sentences and paragraphs transition smoothly?
  Are most of my sentences in the active voice?
  Are individual words used properly? Are they descriptive enough? Are they precise enough?
  Are certain words used too often? Are certain ideas repeated in too many sentences?
  Are any of my sentences cliché or unoriginal?
  Is my sentence structure repetitive or unimaginative?
  Is my writing boring and colorless?
Detail Editing. After completing your sentence editing, Read your article for details; focus on grammar,
accuracy and formatting and ask yourself these questions:
  Does my story have an attention-getting title?
  Do I use punctuation, capitalization, indentation, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and
prepositions correctly?
  Are there any unnecessary tense changes (past>present>future) within a paragraph or within an article?
  Are there any spelling or typographical errors?
  Is my story neatly typed in the correct format?
Cultural Identity Paper Rubric
.90 (Excellent)
.89 (Great)
.83 (Good)
.75 (Okay)
.67 (Poor)
Writing is
highly original.
Succeeds in
regards to
fluidity, dialect,
musicality, and
word choice.
Could be
presented as is
to an audience.
Writing is
original and
maintains
fluidity, dialect,
and musicality.
Enjoyed reading
the piece highly.
Writing is
mainly original
but at times
struggles with
fluidity and
voice.
Writing is
mainly
unoriginal and
struggles with
fluidity and
dialogue. Voice
unclear.
Writing is dull,
lifeless and
overused.
Nothing is
original.
All essential
elements are
present. Clear
writing with no
organizational,
grammatical, or
punctuation
mistakes.
All essential
elements are
present. Clear
writing with a
few
organizational,
punctuation,
and grammatical
mistakes.
All essential
elements are
present. Writing
presents
organizational,
grammatical,
and punctuation
mistakes.
A few essential
elements are
missing. Writing
presents
organizational,
grammatical,
and punctuation
mistakes.
All essential
elements are
missing.
(Dialogue, title,
characters,
climax,
metaphors,
setting.) Drafts
are missing.
Content
(x40)
Sentence
(x40)
Detail
(x20)