Tuesday, 2/28/2012

CREATIVE WRITING

NOTE:  To absent people--I'm posting the Autobiographical Poem Rubric and the DIRECTIONS for how to revise your Autobio Poem on google docs.  Please read it there!  Thanks!  E-mail me if you have questions!

Portfolio

1.      Homework Due Today:  Spend fifteen to twenty minutes thinking about your portfolio, reading the orange pages, and selecting possible portfolio pieces.

2.     Review your ideas today on the big screen.

3.     Worth:  20 percent of your entire term grade

Reminder for the Last Fourteen Days of Class

1.      Note:  When I give you work time, and I hear people chatting, and I see people “finishing” really early, I ask myself these questions?

o   Is this assignment not challenging enough?  

o   Am I off in the time I think this work will take?

o   Are some people skipping steps in the process?

2.     A college-level skill you need is the ability to manage your time.  If you’re wasting workshop time, you are failing at time-management.

3.     A college-level skill you need is the ability to fully and clearly understand what your instructor expects from you.  I go over expectations in much more detail than a college professor will—so you have every opportunity to see the targets clearly, and to hit them—but this requires your thinking and your hard work.  If you are dashing off an assignment without regard to the rubrics, or to the fifteen minutes I’ve just spent going over what I expect, you are failing to begin with the end in mind.

4.     I try to use some of the time you are working to read your work and comment on it.  Take a look through your folder.  See all the comments from me?  I’m doing that for fifty-five writers this term, and it takes an immense amount of time.  I’m willing to work hard to do that for you, because I believe it will help make you a better writer—but I am not willing to work harder than you work.  When you are off-task during writing workshop, while I am working hard to read your work, or answer people’s questions about assignments—I cannot accept that.  

5.     Use the writing workshop for its intended purpose, or I will simply shift your writing assignments to be strictly homework.  We’ll use all our classtime for instruction, and you’ll have to complete all writing assignments outside of class. 

Big Ideas for the Week

·       Showing, Not Just Telling

·       Diction

1.      Get out your Vocabulary Variety sheet, and read through it.

2.     On notebook paper, number from 1 to 10.

3.     Make a list of the ten most interesting words you find on those two pages.

4.     Find a partner who is also done, and trade lists.

5.     Read over your partner’s list, then circle TWO of their words that you like.  Sign your name next to the TWO words.

6.     Trade with a second person, and repeat the process.

7.     Lastly, trade with a third (and final person), and repeat the process.

Questions for Discussion

What is it about these words that strike you?

What is one word you remember from one of your partners?

How can DICTION (the word you choose) affect how well you SHOW (create a picture in the reader’s mind)?

Revision:  Autobiographical Poem (Thirty-five minutes)

1.      Rubric

2.     Autobiographical Poem Revision to Final Draft (Big Screen)

3.     Thirty minutes in class to revise, then fill out the rubric carefully and thoughtfully

 Homework

1.      Finish Autobio Poem AND rubric, if necessary.

2.     Work on your portfolio.

ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING

When You Come In

1.      Please sign in.

2.     Please pick up a Short Story Proposal sheet (I'm posting this on google docs for Bryton and Emily!)

3.     Please grab an iBook.

Big Question:  What is a short story?  What are the elements a short story should have? (or a novel)

1.      Pair-Share:  Discuss the two model stories we read yesterday.

2.     Pair-Share:  On google docs, review the fiction terms, all 41 of them!

a.     Add information as needed.

b.    Each pair of you must add ten details from the stories in the “Examples” column.  Please do not write on top of each other, or delete each other!  Thank you!  J

3.     We talked as a class about the examples you provided.

Short Story Discussion

1.      We all got the short story unit, all twenty pages of it.

2.     We talked about point of view (pages 68-69).

3.     We talked about how to create three-dimensional characters (page 70).

4.     I talked about the short story proposal (due tomorrow)

Writing Workshop

1.      We had twenty-five minutes to start typing our stories, or to complete our short story proposals.

2.     Target for short story start = 1 ½ pages

3.     Both proposal and pages are due when you come in tomorrow.

Homework

1.      Short Story Proposal Completed

2.     1 ½ pages of story (any part of it, including notes) typed