Monday, November 12, 2012

Monday, 11/12/12


Welcome to Creative Writing!
11/12/2012--Day Eleven

When You Come In
1.      Sign in, please.
2.     Put your Earliest Memory Paragraph-to-Poem in the drawer IF you didn’t do that Friday.
3.     Pick up one of the little rectangles of index card of the sign-in table.

Notes and Reminders
1.      Thank you for sharing your cliché trio stories!  Those were fun to listen to!
2.      Don’t put anything in the Creative Writing folder/collection on google docs, unless you want everyone in the class to be able to view and edit it.
3.      Never use a lower case “i” for “I”—ever.

Housekeeping Item—Another Big Idea Reminder
·       Acceptable Material
·       (Take notes on the inside front cover of your binder.)
1.      profanity—a little goes a LOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGG way!
2.     Explicit sex
3.     Racial slurs
4.     Promoting drug or alcohol use
5.     Slander- Talking bad about someone else. (Bullying)
6.     “Gay or retarded”
7.     Explicate violence
8.     Encouragement to break laws

Writing Lesson Review
1.      Avoid clichés.
2.     Diction = Word Choice
3.     Use precise, exact, specific words (not generic terms, or relative terms).
4.     Use your red Vocabulary Variety sheet!  Let’s take a look at several different categories, and see how one word can make a difference.  One word can put an image in your reader’s mind.

I’m explaining this assignment NOW, but you’re not going to do it until AFTER you do the writing experiment.  I don’t want to interrupt you later to tell you about it.  J
Portfolio Reminder at Day 11--Portfolio orange pages (27-32)—read and annotate. 
1.      Read as many pages as you can in the time I give you.
2.     Annotate, five marks in the margins per page:
a.     questions
b.     comments
c.     clarifications
d.     summaries
e.     reminder notes
f.      ideas for your own portfolio
3.     We’ll discuss your annotations as a class today, towards the end of the block.
4.     You will turn in your annotated pages at the end of the block for a daily grade


Writing Experiment #4--I Am a Russian Tailor
Thirty Minutes (Ten to explain and model; twenty to type)

Here's the assignment:
1.      Write a poem about yourself that is filled with lies.
2.     Try to make up creative, dramatic lies, rather than saying things such as “I have two cats” or “I love chocolate pudding.”
3.     Your Writing Task:  Write a poem that is a series of creative, dramatic lies!
4.     Don’t worry about what order you put stuff in—just type/write the lies as fast as you can!

Some Examples of Lines
·       My brain is in my foot.  I can’t think when I step on it.
·       I died last night.
·       I have over-acted worse than Tom Cruise.
·       I created air—every time you breathe, you owe me ten cents.

Reminders
1.      NO BODILY FUNCTIONS!  Please, and thank you!
2.     JUST WRITE, LINE AFTER LINE, LIE AFTER LIE!
3.     YOU WILL HAVE THE CHANCE TO REVISE LATER THIS WEEK:
a.     Order
b.     Adding details
c.     Deleting stuff

Here’s a model:

Money Grows on Trees

I eat no meat whatsoever.
I eat salad for a living it’s all I can find.
When I sneeze pigeons come out my nose.
I love it when bull sharks snack on my leg meat.
Washington schools are nice and brand spanking new. I love them.
This is Sparta.
Tonight I will dine in hell.
I shot the sheriff.
I am so happy that pigs can fly.
I taught them last week.
My house is made of ginger bread and candy cane.
I run a Columbian drug cartel.
I lay eggs in my kitchen sink.
I invented the wheel and sliced bread.
London Bridge fell down last week.
I have two left feet and one is a sausage.
My blood is cherry flavored.
I have a son named Damien.
Two plus two equals chicken.

Alex Meyer

Workshop Time
·       “I Am a Russian Tailor” (2o minutes) 
·       Type your best line on the google drive document in our class folder.
·       NOW               Bag your computer—we’re done with it for today.
·       Read and annotate portfolio pages (10 minutes)
·       Discuss orange pages you read.
o   Begin with the end in mind.
o   So, what are your questions, based on what you read so far?
o   What are helpful reminders you read?

With Me at My Desk
1.      Advise me about your six-word memoirs.  (Done in first block;)



Reading for College

Day 11
November 12, 2012

When You Come In
·      Please sign in on the clipboard.
·      Please turn in your Minimalism reflection to the drawer.

Minimalism Wrap-Up
·      Timeline presentations
Combined Discussion and Note-Taking of Key Ideas
1.      “Popular Mechanics” was written in the 1970s.  (Research needed here)
a.     Why has the minimalist style might have developed in the 1970s and remained popular in contemporary times. 

b.    Why was writing that is short, simple, and straightforward (i.e., “minimal”) appealing particularly to readers in the 1970s.
2.     Important BIG PICTURE IDEA: 
a.     Literature develops from the writing that came before it. 
b.    What does this mean?
3.     Writers are also influenced by the styles of their literary predecessors. 

4.    “Less is more.”
5.     “Tell it like it is.”
6.    Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

Note about Focus, Starting Tomorrow--
Backbone Literature
·      Greek Mythology (main focus)
·      The Bible
·      Fairy Tales
·      Proverbs


After Lunch Work
1.     Hand in for Daily Grades
a.     “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” annotations (minimum of 25 annotations, 5 per page)
b.    Story Organizer over “ACWP”
2.     Six-Word Memoirs
a.     Browse the website for a few minutes to remind yourself what they are.
b.    Type three six-word memoirs on the following topics
                                      i.     Reading
                                    ii.     Minimalism
                                   iii.     senior year
c.     Enter them on the spreadsheet in our class folder:  "Six-Word Memoirs CPR"
3.     Complete the “Yours” story reading and annotating.
4.    Complete the two-paragraph essay for homework, and share it with me on google drive (“Kerrie Willis”) by 11:20 Tuesday.
5.     Complete the wiki assignment here:  http://ourap.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/58245154  (Posting due by 11:20)



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