Clue #1

1) What is beauty?

According to the dictionary, beauty is “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).” So, in other words, beauty can be a quality, a design or pattern, or something different.

2) Find 2 Bible versus about God’s view of beauty and add them to the written responses for the questions on the left?

Proverbs 31:30

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Samuel 16:7

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

1. In your own words, please summarize what Reader Response analysis is, and what steps are involved.

Reader Response focuses on the reader’s experiences and the relationship with an author or a work of literature. Rather than interacting with the text, reader response challenges students to interact with the text and record memories, emotions, experiences, and new ideas. The focus is on the personal connection between a readers’ experience and the text. The steps involved in Reader Response is first, you have to read the text. While you are reading, you make connections with the story consciously or unconsciously. You can write down the connections, or keep them mentally alive in your mind while reading the story. Making connections is a great way to analyze the text and relate to the character.

2. How can Reader Response open our eyes to more truth as we read?

By standard reading, you’re usually asked the theme of the book. In reader response, you think more about what you learned about yourself or the world that you didn’t realize before reading the book. You open your eyes to more truth when using reader response.

3. Why is it important for you to interact/connect with literature?

Interacting and connecting with literature is important because when you make connections to the text, it expands the way you think. You don’t just look down one road. It opens gateways to other roads as well. For example, rather than asking, “what is the book about?” questions like “what did the book make you think about?” really makes you have to interact and connect with the story. The questions are more meaningful because it’s not just simply about the story, but it involves you, the reader. Effective readers create meaning by comparing the literature to their own thoughts and experiences.

4. Reflect on a book or story you have read recently and what new truth about the world you learned from that narrative.

I have recently read a book called The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The novel is told from the perspective of a boy that belongs to a lower-class group of Oklahoma youths. It tells about their struggles living as lower-class people and the hard challenges they have to face. After finishing this book, it really left an impact on me. It made me realize that although I may be living in places where poverty doesn’t exist, there are places in this world where people struggle to live. They live in neighborhoods where the crime rates are high, and they have to deal with the constant bullying of the upper class. And although it may be hard to believe, there are people who lead lives like that even today. I always think, it’s the 21^st century, everyone goes to school, everyone has cell phones, but reality shows that it’s not true. To me, it’s hard to believe.