Tuesday, September 17th, 2013

AP English Peeps

Howdy, and Happy Tuesday!

September 17^th, 2013

Journal Quote (Today’s Theme:  Words)

·      Write for ten minutes on ONE of the following quotes. 

·      Tape the quotes in your journal before your start your response, please.

I’ve phrased/chunked them for you:

“Whatever words we utter

should be chosen with care

for people will hear them

and be influenced by them

for good or ill.”                                                    

  --Buddha

“All our words

from loose using

have lost their edge.”

--Ernest Hemingway

“Words are but symbols

for the relations

of things to one another

and to us;

nowhere

do they touch upon

absolute truth.”                                  

 --Friedrich Nietzsche

Review:  How can we respond to a quote?

Ø  COMMENT:           Disagree (in part or in whole).

Ø  QUESTION:           Ask a question.

Ø  COMMENT:           Agree (in part or in whole).

Ø  LANGUAGE:          Respond to both the LITERAL and the FIGURATIVE meaning.

Ø  CONNECT:                        …to something in your own life or experience.

Ø  CONNECT:                        …to something else you’ve read or viewed.

Ø  Start at 2:00         End at 2:10

Journal Entry Explanation

1.      Share with a NEW person today.  Write your partner TWO specific comments, and aim for academic language in your writing.

a.     At least two detailed sentences

                                      i.     Agree.

                                    ii.     Tell him/her if the journal made you think of a new idea/or something you hadn’t considered.

                                   iii.     Add on to an idea he/she says.

                                   iv.     Compliment their vocabulary—diction!

                                    v.     Disagree, respectfully.  J

                                   vi.     Create a spiffy illustration (like a crouching cat).

b.    Signed by you

Poetry--Getting Our Feet Wet

1.      Discuss “On the Words in Poetry” (pp. 1-2).

2.     Discuss your RJ questions #1-3.

Partner Poetry Work

1.      I’m going to read “Onomatopoeia” by Thomas Lux (p. 7).

2.     With a partner, complete questions #1 and #2 in your Reading Journals.  You each need your own responses, but you will talk about them before you write.

3.     Use at least three online dictionaries for your definition of “onomatopoeia”.

Now On Your Own

4.     Type a short poem—ten to twenty lines--that consists almost exclusively of onomatopoetic words.

5.     Homework:  Drop it in our class folder called “Onomatopoeia Poems” by 1:50 WEDNESDAY.

Metaphor Challenge (tie-in with page 6)

·      Find the strongest metaphor on the face of the planet, or at least a phenomenal one that grabs you by the throat.

o   Metaphor:  a direct comparison of two unlike things

o   Simile:  a comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”

Here’s my nomination:

“How I wish you could see the potential,

the potential of you and me.

It's like a book elegantly bound but,

in a language that you can't read.

Just yet.”

--Death Cab for Cutie, “I Will Possess Your Heart”

Due Date:  Thursday, 9/19, 1:45, saved in the google doc “Metaphors” folder.

Last Ten Minutes--Impossible Thank-You Letter Poem Brainstorming

1.      Create a new heading in your journal with the above title and today’s date.

2.     Brainstorm a list of people you would like to thank. 

3.     After the person’s name, write ONE SENTENCE that tells what you want to thank him/her for.

*   *   *   *

Welcome to Creative Writing!

Ø  Happy Tuesday, 9/17/2013

When You Come In

Ø Please sign in.

Ø Keep your computers bagged—we don’t need them for the first of class.

Review

Writing Lesson #1:      Avoid clichés.

Writing Lesson #2       Use precise words--not general, relative, or vague ones.

Writing Lesson #3:      Diction matters.  Use Vocabulary Variety.

Writing Lesson #4:      Revision (Around the Block—1^st to 2^nd; final revision upcoming)

Writing Lesson #5:      Build your vocabulary—freerice!

Writing Lesson #6:      Connotation versus Denotation

Writing Experiment #7--I Am a Russian Tailor

Ø  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—Notice How They SHOW!  (Concrete Details; Precise Diction)

1.           I have dog breath, even though I brush my teeth ten times a day.

2.          I love to wake up early and watch the sunrise.

3.          I have seventeen middle names, one of which is Gertrude.

4.         My imaginary whip sound is the best in the universe.

5.          All the windows in my house are made of titanium.

6.         I think bright red and neon green look good together.

7.          I like it when people whine; it makes me want to hug them.

8.         I had to kill a unicorn yesterday.

9.         I love to lick chalk dust

10.     I heat my house with lightning and ten tiny hamsters chained to an electric generator.

11.       I burned all the books in my house last week.

12.      When I cracked two rocks together, I created a squirrel.

13.      I write everything down fifteen times on pink paper.

Reminders About Your First Draft of RUSSIAN TAILOR

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:

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

Here's another model of what the poem would look like after it is revised:

The Truth and Nothing but the Truth

I can throw it down better than Lebron James.

I have hit more home runs than Babe Ruth.

I beat Usain Bolt in a race without breaking a sweat.

I decided to make the sky blue.

I invented the wheel...it just came to me in the shower.

The Apple logo was inspired by an apple I bit.

I was the first to hear Kelly Clarkson’s song “What Doesn’t Kill You” in a private concert.

I have won the Iowa State Fair cattle show so many times it isn’t even exhilarating anymore.

I have been 3A State Champion in the Discus and Shotput for two years straight.

I threw twice as far as everyone else.

It was kind of an off day for me.

I own a panda farm.

I keep them in my basement and then sell them on Craigslist.

I dated Zac Efron for three years.

I ended it because it was getting too serious.

In my free time, I like to take my private jet to my beach house in Hawaii.

I love it when my sister comes home from college and I can get away with everything.

My sister and have never fought  in our lives.

I love wearing dresses and nice clothes.

Sweatpants are a sin.

I despise sleeping.

It makes me happy when I get to wake up at the crack of dawn.

Especially for lifting at 6:25 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I love going to school.

Getting loads of homework is the highlight of my day.

Especially when I get to stay up till midnight or later working on it.

Summer is so boring there is no homework to keep you busy.

I wish we had school all year around

I have never lied, not even once.

Joni Erwin

Workshop Time

“I Am a Russian Tailor” (2o minutes)

1.      Type at least twenty-five different lines.

2.     Be CREATIVE and DRAMATIC.

3.     Use your vocab variety sheet to help you be precise and descriptive.

4.     Include as many senses (sight, sound, texture, smell, taste, color) as you can.

5.     When you complete #1-4, move on to the items in blue below.

Do the following on google drive in our CLASS FOLDER:

1.      Type your strongest Russian Tailor line on the google drive document.

2.     Type your ORIGINAL six-word memoir (one of your three) on the google drive document.
3.     Come back to my desk, and grab your Word Art from yesterday.  Hang it in our display space.

4.     Play Free Rice in our class group, until the last fifteen minutes of the block.

1:00--Reflection and Self-Assessment

1.     Open your Death of Language assignment, and get out the bright orange assessment sheet I gave you last week.

2.     Organize this doc to the class folder labeled, “Death of Language”.

3.     Fill the form out completely and thoughtfully.

4.     Put it on my table, please.

*   *   *   *  

Howdy, College-Prep Reading!

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013

When You Come In

1.      Sign in, please.

2.     Computer Chore

3.     Drop the following into the correct folders on google:

a.     Dark Ages notes over the first three History Channel video

b.    Archetype duo work

Organization

1.      Get papers back.  Many papers are in your manila folders, so pull them out of there.

2.     Update your free rice tracking sheet.

3.     What are the sections we need in our binder?

a.     Big Picture            =          lime green

b.    Vocab                   =         Orange

c.     Greek Myth          =          Yellow

d.    Read and Annotating = Pink

e.     Journals                =          notebook paper

Mid-Term Reflection

1.      Organize your binder.                                                     DONE

2.     Read over completed assignments.                              DONE

3.     Check your grade on powerschool.                             

4.     Read my letter to you (Your Last Name, Your First Name—CPR Comments).

5.     At the bottom of the letter, doublespace, then type today’s date:  9/17/2013.

6.    Write me a paragraph in academic language that addresses the following:

a.     What I’ve gotten stronger at this term in CPR is….

b.    What I still want to work on for the rest of the term is….

c.     The best connection, epiphany, or aha moment I’ve had this term

8:32-8:47 for work time; play FREE RICE if you finish early, pretty please.

Myth Connections

1.      Open up a new google doc.

2.     Review your yellow notes and your History Channel notes.

3.     Find at least ten trio (or more) connections.

4.     Let’s do a few examples.

5.     Started at 8:54; ending at 9:10

Dark Ages Notes

1.      Let’s take a look at a few ways to organize them.

2.     If you can see visually your notes are meaningfully organized, move on to viewing the next segments of The Dark Ages videos.

3.     If you (and I) cannot see a meaningful organization in your notes, adjust your technique/strategy for today’s viewing and note-taking.

Homework

1.      Dark Ages Viewing:  For classtime tomorrow, watch the three segments listed below (thirty minutes), and take notes about the important milestones, turning points, people and dates.

a.     4 of 10:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDamnSqfu28

b.    5 of 10:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgR1oH7P5qo

c.     6 of 10:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iicj0e1-FuM

2.     Share your notes with me by 8:10, or not at all.