Direction: Read the text and study the graphs on the following pages, answer the multiple-choice question, and write a response based on the situation described below. You may use the margins to take notes as you read. You may use scrape paper to plan your response.

The Situation: A reporter from a major national magazine has come to your high school, to research an article on the relation between self-image and school performance. The reporter has asked students what they think about this issue. You decide to write an essay based on this question.

Your Task: Write an essay for this reporter. Using relevant information from the text and graphs, discuss the relationship between self-image and performance, in school and in life.


Guidelines:

• Tell your audience what they need to know about the relationship between self-image and performance, in school and life.
• Discuss the implications of those factors that influence students' performance in school and life.
• Use specific, accurate, and relevant information from the text and graph to develop your discussion
• Use a tone and level of language appropriate for an article for a community health newsletter
• Organize your ideas in a logical and coherent manner

• Be sure to indicate any words taken directly from the article by using quotation marks or referring to the author

• Follow the conventions of standard written English

 Note: Most students responses to this task failed to include more than a passing reference to the graphs, a situation that scorers attributed to the original wording of the task. Instead of limiting scores to Level 3 or below, scorers were directed to score responses for their treatment of the text. New tasks will follow the revised format used here, and students will be expected to integrate information from both sources in their response.

 Directions: Read the article and study the graph, and answer the following question. The questions may help you think about ideas and information you might use in your writing. You may return to these questions anytime you wish.

After you have finished these questions, review Your Task and the Guidelines and write your response. Use scrap paper to plan your response.

How Do You Define Success?
By Robert Imbriale, Business Coach

Many, many years ago, perhaps even before you and I turned the ripe old age of seven, something had already happened inside of us that would determine our ability for success. It came, not from within us, but from our very loving and caring parents. It came from relatives. And it came from our teachers and our classmates. It's a force so powerful that we will do more to live consistent with it than we would for any other force in our lives. What is it you may ask? It's our self-image.

Formed before we turn seven years old by people who don't even have a clue about what we are capable of, it affects us for the rest of our lives. And most of us will never realize it! Think about it for a moment. How do you define yourself? What do you answer when I ask you the question: Who are you? Do you think of yourself in terms of your profession? "I am an entrepreneur." Or "I am a lawyer." Or do you define yourself in terms of what financial situation you are currently in. "I am a middle-class citizen." Whatever it is you use to define yourself, it's affecting your ability for success in every single decision you make, no matter how small it may seem at the time! Much like the auto-pilot system of today's modern
aircraft, your self-image guides your decision-making process so that you remain consistent with it throughout your life.

The only harm in this is that if you are like most of us whose self-image has been literally programmed into our sub-conscious mind by outsiders, chances are you are defining yourself as much LESS than you really are! If you see yourself as poor and one day find yourself with money, your sub-conscious "auto-pilot" will immediately sense that you have gone
"off-course" and will help correct you by allowing you to make foolish decisions about how and where to spend your money. Until you find your-self once again back on course - being poor. It may sound strange, but we see it all the time. So when would it be a good time to re-examine exactly how you define yourself and change that definition so that it serves you, instead of destroying you?

To do that, you first have to figure out how you currently see yourself. This may sound mundane, but let me tell you, it took me more than two weeks of thinking to finally figure it out! Take the time and answer this question: "Who am I?" "Who am I really?" Write down as many answers, phrases, or even single words as you can that you currently use to
describe who you really are today. Take your time. This process may take you days or even weeks, but trust me, it's well worth the effort!

Next, write down every word that you WANT to use to define yourself. If you had everything you wanted in your life right this moment, who would you be? How would you then define yourself? The goal of all this is to come up with a phrase or even a paragraph that you can memorize that truly defines who you are when you are at your absolute best. You may come up with something that reads like this:

"I am an individual who is passionate about life, committed to success, fun, energetic, excited, loving, sincere, honest, and who cares about people."

The goal for you is to have what I call an "Identity Statement" that you can easily recall and repeat to yourself regularly. Now, we have to find a way to lock this statement into your subconscious mind. The only way to do that is to link tons of emotion to your words. Think about creating a chant out of it, much like they do in the military. Turn it into a rap, or
a country jingle. Get excited and repeat it out loud many times. Once you have it, lock it in by getting really loud and animated! Make funny faces and gestures when you repeat your statement out loud. Get physical! Get really loud! Enjoy the process! Sing it! Dance it! Move around the room! Get excited! Be happy! This sounds funny, but once you do it a few times, that statement will begin to get locked into your mind forever! All you've got to do now is do this once in the morning when you get up and then again before you retire at night. After a while of constant repetition, you will find that one day you will look in the mirror and you will be looking at the person whom you described when you did this exercise.

Think about it. How would your life be changed if you were that person today? What has it already cost you by not being that person, or by living consistently with the old self-image you held for yourself? Is that not reason enough to at least try to change your self-image and see yourself as a super success instead of whatever it was outsiders who didn't even know us told us we'd become?

Multiple Choice Directions: Answer the following questions. The questions may help you to think about ideas and information you might use in your writing. You may return to these questions any time you wish.

1. Which of the following techniques used by the author best creates a
sense of inclusiveness?
a) the use of the pronoun 'we'.
b) the subject of self-image
c) mentioning childhood
d) mentioning parents and relatives

2. The author says that self-image is so powerful that
a) some people will do anything to improve it
b) no one can defy it
c) everyone tries to live up to it more than anything else in their lives
d) it is formed by the time we are five years old

3. What does the author compare a person's self-image to?
a) jet plane
b) steamroller
c) train
d) 'auto-pilot' system

4. According to the author, why do people fail to maintain success?

a) their self-image tells them success isn't in their nature
b) their self-image is not assured enough
c) their self-image is too puffed up to watch out for danger
d) they have no self-image

5. What is the FIRST step the author suggests to improve self-image?

a) sing, scream and dance around a lot
b) write down words that you aspire to be like
c) determine what your self-image is
d) repeat your goals before you go to bed

6. How does the author try to leave the reader thinking?
a) by being intentionally vague
b) by ending his piece with a series of questions
c) by giving the reader an assignment to do
d) by inviting the reader to challenge him

7. Both graphs suggest that people with high-self criticism have a higher rate of WHAT
than people with low self-criticism?
a) sociability
b) school grades
c) depression
d) self-esteem

8. Which of the following can NOT be directly concluded from the two graphs?
a) Depression is inversely proportional to both sociability and school
grades.
b) Those with high self-criticism generally have higher levels of
depression than those with low self-criticism.
c) A person's level of self-criticism is a contributing factor in their
general life performance.
d) Higher self-esteem can lead to better school grades.