What Is Your Primary Interest Outside of School

Mr. Kortman

Day 1 Activity

Personal Interest Inventory

1. What is your favorite subject in school and why?

2. What do you like to read about?

3. What is your primary interest outside of school?

4. What is a movie you have seen recently that you enjoyed and why did you enjoy it?

5. What is one “journey” that you think has had a significant impact on your life?

6. Name three of your favorite bands.

7. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

8. Describe your family and how you interact with them.

9. What are three words that describe you and why?

10. If I was an animal I would be a …

Why?

Follow-up Activity: Choose one of the answers above that you would like to expand upon and write a one page response focusing on whatever aspect of the question or answer strikes you in whatever form you choose. This is a time for you to explore some part of yourself in more depth and get back into the habit of writing.

Follow-up Sample (#5)

Mr. Kortman’s Journey

I looked up from the novel I was reading and was suddenly struck by the immensity of the landscape before me. Mountains, canyons, mesas, and riverbeds spread out to the discernible distance with no sign of life but the stubborn growths of cactus and shrubs and occasional cottonwood tree hugging the edge of a seasonal creek.

The disparity of the knowledge whispered at within the little pages of the book I held and the wisdom that shouted from the world about me seemed incongruous. And yet, some part of me knew that each was a part of the other, as much as the eyes and the hands are so different and yet are part of the same body. Everything that was contained within the words of the wrinkled pages I leafed through was evidenced in the view from the top of the mountain and every part of that view was condensed into the ideas of the author.

In the distance I saw barely distinguishable movement, a dark blot on an otherwise blindingly bright hillside. It moved fluidly over the ridge and then out of sight before joining another indistinct pale blur on a farther hill. Suspecting what the shapes were and judging the distance between us, I set out at a jog down the slope in front of me and towards the direction of the apparitions.

After more than an hour of walking and running intermittently, I came upon the now clear forms who in turn wheeled and stood with their bodies perpendicular to mine, pawing at the desert floor. The wild horses looked anxious. The stallion, darker and with a white spot covering one eye and its nose, stood in front of the smaller mare and made sounds in between a cough, a neigh, and a bark.

I stood nearly 50 yards away, likely closer to the beasts than anyone had been in a long time. I sensed the darker one looking not at my general shape, but rather directly into my eye, peeling away any mask or illusion that I may have hoped to erect. Finally, he turned and, with one last audible breath, galloped away from me so that I had no hope of keeping up. I stood for one moment longer and then turned back, thinking that I had listened to the clear and powerful voices of two authors that afternoon.