Friday, 1/29/2010

CREATIVE WRITING


Writing Assignment

• Writing Experiment--Earliest Memory
• I told a story of my brother and I at bathtime--my earliest memory.  We talked about how my story didn't have an intro, a conclusion, a lot of exposition--it focused on the concrete details.
• Then everyone took about fifteen minutes to type their earliest memory in a paragraph (or two, at most).
• Then I had people pick up a copy of the poem I wrote based off my earliest memory.  We talked about how it flowed well--better than the story, with no gaps--and about how it was in a different perspective than my story.
• We took about fifteen minutes to type our poems.

Peer Conferencing

• We printed our Earliest Memories, and we traded with two people.  Each person wrote to us about something he/she liked about our poem and about our paragraph.

Sharing

• Several more people shared their favorite Earthbook pieces aloud.  

Group Work

• I talked about an upcoming writing-buddy project, for which we will need to interview first-graders.  
• We got into groups of three to create a list of interview questions that would help us get to know a first-grader.

Homework

• Journal #2--at least two typed pages (doublespaced) about anything you want--it can be a straight journal, fiction, poetry, or any combination thereof.

ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING

Writing Assignment

• We spent twenty-ish minutes typing Timed Journal #2 (p. 11).  We saved it, printed it, and put it in the drawer when we finished it.

Workshop

• We put up five people's poem on the Big Screen for comments.

Group Work

• We got into the trios we were in yesterday, and we wrote an incredibly bad poem (p. 56).  We filled out the page, and then we typed our poems.  We saved them in the class folder as "BAD POEMS!".  :-)

Homework—due Monday, when you walk in for class

Find a photo taken of you, one that’s at least a year old—the older the better!  Read the directions at the bottom of page 4 for the PHOTO POEM.  Create a photo poem. 

Requirements:

o   Photo accompanies your poem (paperclipped to poem, OR scanned on same page as poem—as long as I can see a physical copy of the poem you used to write this poem)

o   Poem is typed

o   Poem is minimum of fifteen lines

o   Poem has a title that adds a dimension to the piece

o   You are ready to share your poem when you walk into class Monday (no late poems accepted).