F. Response Writing

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The stimulus may be a short item from a local newspaper or northern magazine, something that the learners will have strong feelings about: a recent drug bust, a recent accident or suicide, recent changes in social assistance rules, a discussion about which town would make the best capital of Nunavut region and so on. A short traditional story or legend may serve the purpose if it is about an issue that the learners identity with, such as the Inuit legend, "The Woman who went to the Moon," which is about what happens to a woman with an abusive husband. Another alternative, if you and the learning group agree, is to use a reading from a self-help daily reader as the stimulus.


The objective of this section is to give learners a chance to practise expressing and writing an opinion in response to a stimulus.

1. Guided discussion

* Introduce the exercise, explaining what will be done and why.

* How do people respond to sounds and colours? Some questions to consider:

  • How do movies, TV and magazines use sound and colour to set a mood?
  • Give examples of parts of movies that make us cheerful, awed or scared. What sounds and colours produce these feelings?
  • Introduce the thought that certain words and combinations of words can also have this kind of effect. Ask for and give examples from advertising.
  • How does a first impression set the mood or the opinion we will have about a person, an event or a thing?

* Distribute copies of the stimulus article or story.

* Layout a variety of coloured paper.

* Explain that you will read the article or story out loud and ask them to remain silent after the reading while they choose one colour that matches how they feel about what they have just heard.

* Read the stimulus piece, making sure that all the learners can see and hear you.

* Ask each learner to choose a sheet of coloured paper that matches her response.

* Show the blow-up of the feeling words to refresh the learners' memories.

* Ask each learner to show her coloured paper and say what feeling this colour represents and what it was about the piece she just heard that brought on that feeling.

* Take your turn when the learners have finished.

2. Writing

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Help those who are beginning writers by printing dictated words on a separate half-sheet of lined paper and have them copy their words.


* Hand out sheets of lined paper to the learners. They should be smaller than the coloured sheets so that, when they are mounted, a coloured border will show around the writing.

* Print the title of the stimulus article on a flip chart or on the blackboard for learners to copy. Print a list of all the colours that have been chosen, so learners can refer to it as needed.

* Ask the learners to write the title of the stimulus article, the colour they have chosen, the feeling it represents and what about the piece brought on that feeling for them, just as they had just told the group.

* Ask the learners to paste their finished writings onto the coloured paper as a backing and post them.

* Congratulate the learners because they have just written their opinions.


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