As we've talked about, we all live in many worlds, our family, our friends, our school, our city...and we belong to groups and clubs and team that are their own worlds with values and beliefs.

It's time for us to start writing our This I Believe essay. TIB was a program that first aired on radio in the 1950's. The host was  a famous journalist named Edward R. Murrow. He believed that personal statements about beliefs would encourage people to find common ground--even if our beliefs are different.

The challenge in a TIB essay is to clearly say what you believe--not what you DON'T believe and then focus in on a moment or moments that SHOW how this belief came to be or SHOW the way the belief works in your world.

A bigger challenge is to CHOOSE the belief that you want to write about--and we'll spend some time today talking and exploring so that we can all choose something to write about.

The biggest challenge, of course, is to write a TIB essay that will capture your listeners with vivid language and images--you need to create word pictures in the radio listener's mind and be clear about your main idea in both your introduction and your conclusion. You have to think about your audience and what they need even more than when you are writing something that can be read and re-read.

We are going to start on our essays by identifying the belief and the moment, using a graphic organizer.  Please bring this in by next week. 




 


Our opinions, values and beliefs are shaped by the worlds we move in. This essay by a young girl who moved to the US from China demonstrates her strong belief and values.  They may be very different from your beliefs and values.  Today, we'll talk about some of  our beliefs and values. We don't often stop to think about these during the day. 


http://thisibelieve.org/essays/age/under18/



According to Webster's dictionary,  the word belief means: 

1: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing2: something believedespecially : a tenet or body of tenets held by a group3: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence
 
A good writer, particularly one who wants to write to change the world, understands his or her own world view. What is a world? What is a view?

Well, a look in the dictionary tells us that  world  is a noun and can mean:
1 : the earth and all the people and things upon it
2 : people in general : HUMANITY
3 : the system of created things : UNIVERSE
4 : the concerns of the earth and human affairs
5 : human society
6 : a class of persons sharing a common interest or activity
7 : a part or section of the earth and the people who live in it
8 : the scene of one's life and action

The word view,in this instance, is a noun and can mean:

1: the act of seeing or examining
2 : OPINION
3 : all that can be seen from a certain point
4 : range of vision


So, when we say world view, we mean the way that we see the many worlds we live in. There are many influences on how we see our worlds--our heritage, our family, where we live, what experiences we've had, what we like to do, our friends, our teachers, the type of government we have, even the type of home we live in!

Knowing what influences each one of us can help us to make choices about how we write to influence others.