Name_______________________

English 9 and 9A-Alt

Purpose Statement

Purpose Statement:
Since the beginning of the year in English 9, weve been talking a lot about YOU. Even if
you dont realize it, the conversations, discussions, readings, debates, writings and
assignments we have done are all built around helping you, as an amazing 9th grade
student, discover who you are and what you believe, what makes you special and what
makes you a member of the Northview community.
Youve been doing some writing and discussing, some reading and some brainstorming
to get all of this organized in your own brain.
Now, its time to state your Purpose and to create your Purpose Statement. Now its time
to officially become a member of your English class and an initiate into English 9.
Now its time to join the team.
Whats your purpose? Why are you here? Why are you in high school? Why are you in
the world? How will your purpose and your work here at Northview influence your future?
Your familys future? How will you influence future students here? How will you continue
the mission?
Your Purpose Statement needs to include answers to all of the following. This paper will
be as long as it takes you to thoughtfully develop these questions. Most students end up
writing between 1100-2000 words, but you might have more to say than thatI
encourage you to take the time to create this into a quality and thoughtful piece of
writing; something you feel proud of and something you really love.
How you go about organizing your essay is your decision, but all the following
information must be included for full credit, however you can write this in any order you
wish:

Describe and explain your Dust that you chose at the very beginning of the
year, what it means, and why its important you shake it off. How have you
chosen to shake it off thus far? What is holding you back?
Describe and explain a significant change you want to make in your life this year
(Memoir/Writers Notebook).
Describe a time you felt powerful and a time you felt powerless (Spoken
Word/Ted Talks)
Describe what youre thinking about for your life 10 years from now (Spoken
Word Thinking About You)
Describe and explain a time you reached a goal and why that was important and
how you reached that goal (Memoir/Writers Notebook)l.
Describe and explain your goals as a student over the next four years of high
school (Writers Notebook).
Explain your goals as a member of your family (Writers Notebook).
Explain your goals as a member of your community/school (Writers
Notebook).
Describe a time when you had to struggle and make a sacrifice (Hotel
Rwanda).

Name_______________________
English 9 and 9A-Alt

Purpose Statement

Describe a time you had to lead others and how you managed to convince them
to follow you (Hotel Rwanda)
Describe a time when you took action to stop something that was happening
how did this make you feel? What did you learn from it (Hotel Rwanda)
Explain why you are important, why you are valuable and what you contribute
to your English classroom (Writers Notebook)
Explain how you want your life to be when you graduate in 4 yearshow will you
be different than you are today and what will you need to do in order to achieve
this goal?

Expectations for final draft:

Typed, 12 point, Times New Roman font, double spaced, following the MLA
formatting guidelines that we will review in class.
No spelling, grammar, punctuation errors.
You will be asked to read a small part of this to your classmates on
__________________________.

Due dates:

Drafting, work in class, editing_____________________________ (You will

get SOME class time, but some of this will be completed outside of class)
Final draft due _____________________ in class. NO LATE WORK
ACCEPTED.

Cut this off and attach this to your final draft when you arrive to class.
Name _________________________________
Rubric:
Essay covers all prompts thoroughly, thoughtfully, intelligently,
passionately, creatively and introspectively demonstrating a reflection and
absolute best effort on the part of the writer.
Prompts are fully developed, explained carefully and vividly, and use
adequate details, and background information.
Evidence of clear and coherent organization in the development and style
of the essay and clearly appropriate attention to task, purpose and
audience
Evidence of revision, editing, review and revisiting clear through at least 2
rough drafts with markups and edits by your Writing Group, self, or teacher
Formatting follows MLA style guidelines (12 point Times New Roman font,
double spaced, appropriate title, full header, page numbers), spelling and
grammar has virtually NO errors and is written formally for a final draft.
TOTAL POINTS (ASSESSMENT CATEGORY)

_____/30
___/30
____/15
____/10
____/15
____/100