On Parents' Evening

Hello 2E4,

Some of you may be wondering how to do an essay well. Don’t worry. Just keep in mind the following format: S (Statement). E (Evidence). E (Elaboration). K (linK) when writing your paragraphs.

Some of you are struggling with how to write a personal response essay on “Parents’ Evening”. There are two main questions I can think of. I have listed them below. Under each question, there are sub-questions that you must answer yourself. You can tackle any one of these main questions to say whether you like the poem or not:

1. Do you like having four points of view in the poem? (Note that you need to explain what points of view (P.O.V.) is in order to successfully handle this question)
For yes answers:
- How is each persona feeling before the meeting?
- If the poet uses only the son’s P.O.V., do you think you would know how the other personas are feeling?
- Why do you think the poet uses P.O.V. to tell you how each persona feels?

For no answers:
- Could the poet use a third-person persona (using “they”, “them” instead of
“I”) in the poem? In what way do you prefer this over four P.O.V.?

2. The poem is about a meet-the-parents session. Is this sort of event something you can relate to?
i. If yes, how does the event relate to you? Why?
ii. If no, how does the event not relate to you? Why?

For this question, concentrate on how the personas feel. How do they feel?
Did you feel the same when you had you meet-the-parents session?
Even if you did not feel nervous, how do you know if your parents and teachers were not nervous before they met each other?
Can this poem give you some insight on how parents and teachers feel before they meet each other? How and how not?)

For each of these questions (labelled 1. and 2.), you will notice that I have given two different sub-questions for you to see a yes and no answer. You need to come up with the answers yourself, using evidence from the poem to support your answer. Once you can come up with the answers, your next task is to decide on your stand, factors to consider and the conclusion.

One of the students from one class I teach has already plagarised me, so I will not give you model answers.

Good luck!