AS 91106 – Workbook (4 credits)
Form developed personal responses to independently read texts
Student (full name):
 This unit involves you reading SIX texts.
 FOUR of them must be written texts and TWO of those must be extended texts.
The whole point of this unit is to prove you read a wide range of different things and
that you think carefully about what you’ve read.
When you’re reading, it helps to have strategies to keep you focused.
Here are some strategies for making progress in your reading logs:
1. Asked yourself why you’re reading (this will help give you motivation). Here are some possible replies:
I’m interested in… [genre / idea / person / thing / situation]
I’m curious about…
I want to know more about…
I want to experience…
I need to escape into a world where…
I want to finish this unit to get credits.
2. Ask yourself questions while you’re reading. Some people have a sponge-like approach to reading i.e. they read
a lot of books but never appear to ask themselves questions about what they have read. To do well in English,
you need to engage in critical thinking and not just ‘absorb’ the text. Read between the lines.
3. Go ‘beyond the text’. The next step is to discuss the text with different people or, at the very least, see what
other people say about the text. Be critical of other people’s opinions and be prepared to change your opinion,
even just slightly, after considering other people’s views. Follow up on subsequent questions that pop up.
Here are some prompt questions you can ask yourself when you’re either reading or completing your logs.
 Each
red arrowhead starts a paragraph for a reading log
Person / Character
What did someone SAY that was interesting?
o Why do you think this is interesting?
o What does this tell you about that person? What does it tell you about their
personality or their attitude?
o What do you think about their personality or attitude? Good, bad, strange, normal,
disturbing, heart-warming, puzzling, scary, inspiring, thought-provoking … Why?
o What do you think about what this person said? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Why
not?
o What would you say in this situation? What would you do and why?
o How does this person help you to understand an idea? Because… [?]
Situation / event
Describe an interesting situation or event.
Make sure you carefully pick your
adjectives (describing words).
o Why do you find this situation / event interesting? What did you expect to happen in
a situation like this? How should people react to this? Why would people react like
this?
o What would you think if you saw this situation happen? Do you see this happen all the
time?
o What do you think would make the situation better? Why or how would this make
things better?
o What could happen to make the situation worse? Why or how would this make things
worse?
o What does this show you about people? Are people basically good or bad?
o What important lessons can you learn from this situation?
o How does this situation help you to better understand an idea?
Exemplar: part of a log that used the prompts
I think it is interesting that 50 cent said he made $100 million
dollars by investing in vitamin water. Everybody knows about his
horrible ‘ghetto’ childhood and his teenage, drug-dealing mother
who got murdered, so everyone expects him to be an illiterate
hoodlum. And he sort of encourages this image when puts out
CDs about his ‘gangsta lifestyle’ and being shot nine times.
Yet the story about 50’s financial success tells readers that he
is actually a very smart business person. His attitude is very
straight-forward because he just comes out and says that he’s
into making money. That’s his main focus in life. In some ways,
it’d be easy to say he’s still a street hustler. But it’s not fair
to write him off like that. That would be condescending. And
it appears that he realises some people still don’t take him
seriously. When Graham Norton asked if 50 was grateful for his
‘street smarts’, 50 said that he can’t change his past so he doesn’t
worry about it too much, but he does regret that he didn’t have
the opportunity to “go to business school” when he was younger.
He later said also appeared on the Howard Stern show and seemed
really proud of telling the audience the fact that Robert De Niro,
a famous actor, had a serious talk with 50, and De Niro asked him
for financial advice. It appears 50 cent wants more out of life
than just money. It seems he also desires respect, to be
taken seriously. I’d like to think if I had his money, I wouldn’t
care about what other people thought of me. This situation
makes me think about the idea of security and what money can
and can’t buy.
It looks like a guy can have hundreds of
millions of dollars but he still feels he needs to work hard at
winning respect.
.
The parts of this log in
plain italics just describe
the text. The parts in bold
italics show the student is
given his/her opinions
about the text. There
should be quite a few
opinions in your answer.
Notice the opinions don’t
stop after one sentence. It
helps to ask yourself: “So
what?” And then take the
opinion a little further. This
is called developing your
ideas.
Notice you don’t have to
follow the prompts exactly.
You are allowed to go off
on tangents.
You are also allowed to link
your text to other books,
shows, films etc. In fact,
you’re encouraged to do
this to develop your ideas.
Just remember to quickly
reference your sources
i.e. mention name of the
other text.
Again, it helps show a clear
development of your
opinions about the text. In
this case, it went from
surprise  prejudice /
preconceptions  respect.
Advice for developing your ideas: USE A THESAURUS
It would pay to follow these steps…
1. Identify the KEYWORDS in your paragraph. These are linked to the main idea(s).
2. Use a thesaurus to look up SYNONYMS for the keywords. No two words have exactly the same
meaning; they have different ‘shades of meaning’ (connotations).
3. Use your synonyms and their different ‘shades of meaning’ to give depth to your paragraph answer.
QUICK EXAMPLE:
1. Identify the KEYWORDS in your paragraph. “It looks like a guy can have hundreds of
millions of dollars but he feels he needs to work hard at winning respect.”
2. Use a thesaurus to look up SYNONYMS for the keywords.
3. Use your synonyms and their different ‘shades of meaning’ to give depth to your paragraph answer.
“People like Graham Norton don’t really value 50 cent’s success. They think it’s a
novelty idea that a New York street thug can become successful on the stock market.
However, De Niro treats 50 cent with courtesy because he genuinely holds 50’s financial
knowledge in high regard. He speaks to him without prejudice.”