Empathetic Diary Writing

For this assignment, students were asked to write three diary entries in the voice of a chosen character from the Young Adult Novel, 121 Express by Monique Polak. Each entry was written after a crucial moment in the text, and allowed students to empathize with how their character might feel following the event.  

 

Students were encouraged to be creative in their writing and further develop their character, rather than simply summarize events from the book. Students were graded according to the empathetic accuracy of their character extensions, the creativity of their developments and their adherence to the diary genre. Click here to view/download the rubric. 

 

One student, writing in the voice of the stressed out 121 Express bus driver, chose to develop the character as a widowed religious fanatic who struggles with his eating and drinking habits. His entries were not only very well-written and extremely creative, but they expanded upon small moments in the book in a clever way. For example, he used a description of the students who ride the 121 Express as "monsters" as his inspiration for the bus driver's opinion that they are "demons" who have "no pity" for the "cruelty" they put him through. All three of his diary entries are in order below: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional diary examples: 

 

​