Directions for Text Dependent Analysis:

Read and analyze the passages and use evidence from the passage to write an essay.

Be sure to read the passage and TDA question carefully. Review the Writers Checklist to help you plan and organize your

response. You may look back at the passage to help you write your essay. Write your essay on the paper provided. You may use scratch

paper to write a rough-draft essay, be sure to transfer your final essay to the answer booklet.

Be sure to check your essay for errors in capitalization, spelling, sentence formation, punctuation, and word choice.

Text Dependent Analysis Prompt

The passages Malala Yousafzai: A Normal Yet Powerful Girl and Excerpt from ‘The Story of My Life’ are both about young adults who have overcome misfortunes in their lives. Compare and contrast the impact, both positive and negative, that these obstacles had on each of these individuals. Cite examples from each passage that supports your analysis. Be sure to explain why the examples you chose best support how negative circumstances can result in positive personal change.

Name: Class:

Malala Yousafzai: A Normal Yet Powerful GirlBy NPR Staff 2013

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala is from the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban has banned girls from attending school. Malala, whose family ran a chain of local schools, publicly stood against the Taliban’s actions and launched an international movement. On October 9th, 2012, a gunman from the Taliban boarded a school bus and shot her in the head. Malala remained in critical condition in the days following the attack, but survived. Since then, she has continued to advocate internationally for women’s education. As you read, consider what drove Malala to overcome tremendous adversity.

[1] “I think Malala is an average girl,” Ziauddin Yousafzai says about the 16-year-old Pakistani girl who captured the world’s attention after being shot by the Taliban,1

“but there’s something extraordinary about her.”

A teacher himself, Yousafzai inspired his daughter’s fight to be educated. At a special event with Malala in Washington, D.C., he tells NPR’s Michel Martin that he is often asked what training he gave to his daughter. “I usually tell people, ‘You should not ask me what I have done. Rather you

ask me, what I did not do,’” he says. “I did not clip"Education Advocate Malala Attends MDG EventNations Photo is licensed under CCBY-NC-ND 2.0." by United

her wings to fly. I did not stop her from flying.”

Yousafzai has this advice for parents of girls around the world: “Trust your daughters, they are faithful. Honor your daughters, they are honorable. And educate your daughters, they are amazing.”

A year after being shot, Malala is clear about her goal. “I speak for education of every child, in every corner of the world,” Malala says. “There has been a discrimination2 in our society,” which she believes must be defeated. “We women are going to bring change. We are speaking up for girls’ rights, but we must not behave like men, like they have done in the past.”

[5] Perhaps she has learned from her father’s experience. When asked what gave him a passion for girls’ education, Yousafzai points out that he was “born in a society where girls are ignored.” Living with five sisters, he was sensitive to discrimination from an early age. “In the morning, I was used to milk and cream, and my sisters were given only tea,” he says.Yousafzai felt the injustice3 even more when Malala was born. He later opened a school that Malala attended in the Swat Valley. At the time, the Taliban’s influence was gaining power and both Yousafzais were firmly on their

Unit 1: Rites of Passage Unit Test Grade 8 (English)

Name: Class:

Excerpt from 'The Story of My Life'By Helen Keller 1905

Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. Keller was born with the ability to see and hear, but at 19 months old she contracted an illness which left her deaf and blind. The story of how Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, taught her sign language and helped her communicate has become widely known through the play and film The Miracle Worker. The following text is an excerpt from Keller’s autobiography. As you read, take notes on how Keller describes the arrival of her teacher and the beginning of her education.

Chapter IV[1] The most important day I remember in all my life is the

one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.

On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb1, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother’s signs2 and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was "Miracle Worker" by

cchauvet is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0. about to happen, so I went to the door andwaited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor3 had succeeded this passionate struggle.

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible4 white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and soundingline5, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. “Light! give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.

1 1.unable to speak2 . Even before the arrival of Anne Sullivan, the Keller family had ways to

Unit 1: Rites of Passage Unit Test Grade 8 (English)