Get together with a partner or a group and talk about your responses to this true story. Be sure to refer to your journals.

Review your interpretive essay, looking carefully for faulty parallel structure. If you find such problems, decide how to correct them. Make sure that the items that should be parallel are in the same grammatical form.

Synonyms are words that mean more or less the same thing. But there are often subtle differences between synonyms, and the words are not always interchangeable. Find the place in Act Two where each word in the Word Bank at left is used. Then find a synonym for each word. Use a chart like the following to indicate if the synonym could be used in place of the word in the play. If you have trouble coming up with synonyms, use a thesaurus.

Create a photo essay showing the differences between a building that has been modified to meet the requirements of the ADA and one that hasn't. Write captions explaining what problems the unmodified building presents and how the modifications solve those problems in the other building. Send your photo essay to your community or school newspaper.

You might conduct a symposium or gathering of experts on The Miracle Worker. Read your essay to your classmates ard listen to their essays. Or present your paper to the Drama Club if your school has one. Also, consider sending your essay to a magazine that publishes student writing.

On your own or with a group of classmates, do one of the following activities or think up an information-gathering activity of your own.

Find someone in your community or school who can answer your questions. Arrange a time and place to meet with this expert, and take notes.

Now that Helen can communicate, what questions do you think she will want to ask?

Dialogue with the Text Keep a double-entry journal as you read this account of Annie Sullivan's early years. In the first column, note passages that strike you as interesting. Also note passages that remind you of something that might happen to a child even today. Write your response to each event or passage in the second column.

How do you feel about the character Helen? Is she what you expected? Check your Quickwrite notes. Shaping Interpretations

Work with a partner to create a semantic map for each word in the Word Bank. Make up your own questions about each word and provide your own answers. Use a thesaurus to help you find appropriate synonyms. A sample map is done for vivacious. There are two rules: You have to relate each word to The Miracle Worker, and you have to come up with an antonym for each.

Find a review of a movie you've seen recently, and compare your response with the critic's.

Write two sentences of your own, modeled on the two numbered sentences at the left. For example, a sentence modeled on number I might read: "I try to dunk the basketball and land on my feet." Compare your modeled sentences in class. Next use parallel structure to correct the following sentences.

Gabriel likes playing soccer in summer and to ski in winter.

Collecting Ideas for an Interpretive Essay Finding a topic. A symbol is an object or event that stands for itself and for something broader than itself as well. How do you know what the symbols in a work are and what they stand for? One way is to keep track of any object or event that seems to come up in meaningful and interesting ways. Taking notes now on possible symbols in the play will help you draw conclusions later about why they are important. In the Writer's Workshop on page 716 , you might use your notes and your tracking of the symbols in an interpretive essay.

Reflect on your work. What conclusions can you draw about what society is doing for citizens with disabling conditions?