Pre-Winter Break Fun

You have been busy working on your independent projects for the past few weeks - I can't wait to read the results!

Today we'll do something a little playful as we head into break - we're going to re-write a class holiday poem.

• Click here for the activity

Independent Projects - Launch Day!

Greetings! Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

On Tuesday, with a few of your grandparents, we wrote these poems:

• Poem #1
• Poem #2
• Poem #3
• Poem #4

Today, we will start the independent work you'll focus on for the next three weeks. I'll give you a more formal write-up of the project later in the week, but here is the essence of it: 

1. You will choose a type of writing to explore / to learn about / to practice / to revise / to create a final portfolio. Some options include:
1. Children’s literature
2. Reviews (food, movie, music, etc.)
3. Criticism - critical commentary on a topic or issue
4. Journalism - reportage, opinion pieces, new analysis, etc.
5. Biography - this might include interviews, research
6. Spoken word poetry / Storytelling - pieces specifically meant to be performed / shared aloud
7. Scripts - movie, tv, theater (an extension of our earlier dialogue work)
8. Blogging
9. Fan fiction
10. Song lyrics
11. Fiction - short story, vignette, novella, short short fiction, etc.
12. Poetry - any form
13. Non-fiction - creative essay
14. Memoir
15. (whatever you want!)
2. You will spend time over the next two days gathering examples of the type of writing you're going to work with for this project. You might want to read through a variety of different ones to help you figure out what you want to do!
3. Write a proposal. This is due by the end of class on Friday. In your proposal, you will include:
1. The genre of your focus
2. Three (or more) examples of works in this genre - look for both famous / well-known examples as well as lesser-known / smaller scale ones.
3. For each of these three (or more) pieces you will write a commentary, explaining: 
1. What works / doesn't work about it?
2. What is inspiring about it?
3. Something it does that you want to be able to do / something it does that you want to be sure not to do
4. The questions / issues / concerns it raises for you as a writer
4. What you want to accomplish
1. How many pieces? How long will they be? What format will they be in?
4. We will then conference about your proposal and negotiate terms for the final portfolio you'll submit.
5. You'll have class time over the next few weeks to work on and complete your project!

"Segmented" Object Essay

Last class we read most of John McPhee's "The Search for Marvin Gardens" . We'll finish the essay today and discuss the different sections of McPhee's essay. What do they include? How do they fit together?  Some of the topics they include are:

• The history of Atlantic City
• The history of Monopoly
• The rules of Monopoly
• The current set of games being played
• Past games played between the same people
• The state of Atlantic City today
• The uniqueness of Marvin Gardens - the one location not in Atlantic City

Now it is your turn to write a similarly structured essay (but not nearly as long, unless you are feeling ambitious!). 

1. Look back at the list of objects we made on Monday. In case you weren't here or didn't write down the prompts, I asked you to list objects in these categories:
1. Objects you carry with you
2. Objects that represent your childhood
3. Objects that represent you in middle school
4. Objects that represent who you are now
5. Objects given to you by other people / handed down
6. Objects associated with a tradition / holiday / legacy
7. Object you most desire
2. Choose one of these to use as your focus
3. Do some research about your object - who invented / created it? who makes / produces it? A few quick Google / Wikipedia searches can tell you a lot! Save this information - you will use it for some of your writing.
4. You will be writing an essay in a similar format as McPhee's - I'll call it a "segmented essay."
1. Your essay will have at least 7 sections. 
2. Each one needs to be at least three sentences long, although they might not be in the form of traditional sentences (it could be a list, etc.). 
5. Here are some suggestions for sections, based on the list at the top of the page - the ones McPhee used in his essay
1. A section on the history of your object
2. A section on the history of an area / event / person related to your objecct
3. How you use your chosen object / its purpose / the rules behind it
4. What role the object plays in your life now / what it meant in the past
5. A detailed description of your object
6. A look at how your object was made / produced
7. A sense of the future of your object
6. You do not need to use all of these suggestions or keep them in the same order - feel free to expand / explore!
7. Don't worry at this point about how all of the pieces fit together. You could even treat each one as a separate piece of writing.
8. We'll start the work today in class. You will have all of class tomorrow (Friday) to continue to work on it.
9. When you are finished, please upload your work to turnitin.com

Celebrating an Object

We'll start today by hearing the "expert language" pieces you completed.

Then, we'll shift our attention to a variation on that theme - celebrating an object. Here is another essay from John McPhee, this time about Monopoly and Marvin Gardens.

• "The Search for Marvin Gardens"

Expert Language - your turn!

This week we've been exploring "expert language" by writing some of our own pieces and reading examples of essays by contemporary authors.

Now it is your turn!  The goal is to think about an area of expertise you have - something important to you and you have a lot of vocabulary at your disposal to describe. Then, to craft that into a short essay / memoir that both is and isn't about that subject. Just like we saw yesterday, an essay about oranges can be about powerful questions about modern society, and an essay about playing pool can be about finding one's identity and a sense of belonging.  What will your essay also be about?

Your one (or more) page essay / memoir is due by the start of class on Monday to turnitin.com.  My goal is for you to share these with each other in class that day - keep that in mind as you are writing!

If you would like to read another example, here are a few of my favorites:

• Meghan Daum - "My Misspent Youth"
• Jonathan Lethem - "13, 1977, 21"

Expert Language - Continued

Last time we shared our "expert language" paragraphs, showcasing the detailed collections of words we all have in our vocabularies.

Today we'll continue that work. We'll start by reading an excerpt from John McPhee's book, Oranges.

• Excerpt #1
• Excerpt #2

Next we'll read Frank Conroy's essay "Running the Table"

From there hopefully we'll find inspiration to start our next piece of writing, incorporating these "expert language" elements to say something about a variety of topics.

Expert Language

Yesterday, you brainstormed a list of areas of expertise you have - interests, activities, passions - something you know more about than the average person.

You came up with a huge list of words, and then wrote a short passage directed at an audience of people who would have the same level of interest as you.

We'll share those today.

Then, we'll read this poem by Amy Quan Barry.

We'll see what else we can do with our expert language!

Memory and Imagination

Today our focus was on Patricia Hampl's essay, "Memory and Imagination." I read it out loud and paused along the way to have you reflect on some of her points:

• Is writing memoir an act of transcribing stories as they exist, or it is an act of discovery?
• What about inventing and re-shaping the story - what role did this play for you, if any?
• If your 5-7 memory writing is the start of a journey of writing, do you have any ideas about where it will go next? What are the possible things your story is "about," not in a topic sense, but in a deeper sense of people and relationships and issues and emotions.

At the end of the period I gave you 10+ minutes to continue with the writing you started yesterday to see where it might go next.

Memory

On Thursday, November 2nd, we wrote about memory

• first thoughts
• truths about memory
• misconceptions about memory

Then we wrote a series of "memory flashes" - every 45 seconds I said "flash" and asked you to jump to another random memory and to write about it until I said "flash" again.

At the end of that I asked you to make a list of the things "I can't believe I didn't write about," and then to add one more memory flash to your list.

Lastly, I asked you to select one memory from your list and to write the 5-7 minute version of it, expanding (in whatever way you want) on the 45 second version.  

Voices of Authority and Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

On Tuesday, October 31st, we wrote about voices of authority in a variety of forms. We made lists of things they told us to do and not do.  Then, we read Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" out loud and write about the ways in which she represents authority, in addition to the highly experimental structure she uses.

• "Girl"

Short Story Writing Week - Day 4

Today you will have your final day of class time to work on your short story. The final version of it is due to turnitin.com by the start of class on Monday.

You may want to use class time today to write your responses to the reflection questions. Remember, these are a component of the grade for this project, as named on the assignment sheet.

• Short Story Reflection Questions
• Short Story Assignment

Short Story Writing Week - Day 3 - Peer Feedback

Here is a compilation of your excerpts

Today you will write feedback for one of them - both the author and reviewer will be anonymous to each other.

We will use the rest of the period to continue your work on your story. Remember the final version of it is due Monday by the start of class.

Short Story Writing Week - Day 2

Happy Tuesday!

In preparation for our anonymous feedback session on Thursday, please follow these steps:

1. Select a passage you'd like to get feedback on - roughly a full paragraph or half a page of dialogue. Just a few sentences will not be enough.
2. Copy and paste it into a new google doc - do not put your name anywhere in the document.
3. Upload it to turnitin.com - "Short Story - excerpt for feedback" by the end of the period today.
4. We will use these anonymously on Thursday - you will both give and receive feedback on your work. That will take about half the period, and the other half will be yours to continue writing.

Short Story Writing Week - Day 1

Happy Monday!

For a little inspiration today, we'll start off by listening to this passage from Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird - it's one of my favorite books about writing.

Writing a Short Story - Assignment

It's finally time for the short story assignment!  Here it is:

• Short Story Assignment

Sharing Characters

Thursday - we will use class time today to share basic details about our characters out loud. Then the rest of the class will be able to ask you questions for you to consider about your character. You do not need to answer them at the moment, but consider and use them as you continue to explore your characters.

Writing Fiction - Day 6 - More Characters

Today we will continue our character work and continue building toward a short story. We'll use this handout to guide our work:

• Character Study #2

Writing Fiction - Day 5 - Characters

Happy Monday!

Today we will focus on creating a fictional character. As the week goes on we will build a story about that character, but for today we want to get a full sense of who that person is.

Random character generators:

• Character Name Generator
• Set of character generators
• Character trait generator
• Character job / occupation generator

After you explored these and made some basic choices about your character, I had you write about the series of prompts listed on this handout:

• Character study #1

Writing Fiction - Day 4

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful long weekend!

Today we will look at a collection of found objects - items people literally found during the course of their regular daily activities. These came from places like the floor of a laundry room, in a used book, on a table in a restaurant, in a shopping cart, on a person's lawn, or even in a book pocket of a church pew. They were collected in the wonderful Found Magazine and posted on their website. I selected twenty notes and lists for our work today and tomorrow:


Browse through the collection and choose one you'd like to work with today. The goal is to write the story of the object you selected. Things to think about:

• Who wrote the note?
• What was the purpose of the note?
• When / where did they write it?
• What does the note tell us about the person who wrote the note, or the situation in which the note would exist?

Fill in the missing pieces around the note with your story. You could write a narrative or a dialogue. You could specifically refer to parts of the note or even use its language. 

We will present these tomorrow by reading them aloud while we project the object on the screen.

Writing Dialogue - Day 3

Last time we met, you generated a line of dialogue then gave it away. You received another line of dialogue, added a response, then gave that away. Ultimately you received two lines of dialogue, and today you will put them to use.

You must incorporate them into a new dialogue - they do not have to be the first two lines - they can be, if you'd like - but you must use them both.

Also, we'll think about the different ways to introduce lines said by a character. You can simply use "she said - he said" but you do have other options! Here is a link to a list of potential choices, along with a warning about them:

• Words to use instead of said

So, your task for today includes multiple components:

• Establish the setting, characters, and purpose of the dialogue (scene)
• Use the two random lines you received
• Don't just write the dialogue - start building it into a scene
• Introduce lines using "dialogue tags"
• Add in a few actions / movements (see examples)

How to make this happen? Here are a few words of advice:

1. Start writing and just let the words flow - Don't edit - Trust your ear and initial thoughts to just get the scene out there.
2. Act it out - no, really. Think about how helpful this was the other day when we read some of the dialogues out loud - you start to notice things that you might not initially see on the page. Find someone to read your dialogue with you - I'm happy to do that!
3. You don't need to say everything, especially things that might be obvious. This is often a first place to start to cut lines - get to the stuff that matters - your reader shouldn't be able to feel like they can predict the next line!
4. Think of the flow - incorporate pauses, or even silence.  In conversations people sigh, look out a window, take a drink, puff on a cigarette, stand up, whatever. Using moments like this will help your dialogue to feel natural.
5. Don't be afraid of confrontations or challenges. Use surprises. Your characters don't always know what's coming next. You might not either! Allow yourself to be surprised!

Writing Dialogue - Day 2

Today we'll read the dialogues we created in class yesterday. I combined the submitted ones into one document. I'll assign several different pairs of people to read each dialogue aloud. We'll hear and comment on them before returning to our own work to revise and extend it.

• Student dialogues - round 1

Writing Dialogue - Day 1

On Friday we watched several examples of great dialogue scenes from films. We created this list of qualities of a dialogue:

• Moves scene / story forward
• Sets / resolves problems or conflicts
• Predictable / not 
• Language - profanity, word choice
• Emotions
• Tempo / pace
• Power - who has it / wants it / how does it shift?
• Actions / Reactions
• Intensity
• Creates / relieves tension
• Humor - variety of types

Today we'll start writing dialogues of our own. We'll all start out with the same starting line:

"You only heard one person's side. You don't know the truth."

Then, before you start writing your dialogue, name these things:

• Setting - where does your scene take place?
• Characters - choose two people for your scene. Who are they? What is the relationship between them? What is their role in the dialogue - are they trying to find out / hide something? Do they have power? Why do they care?
• What will your dialogue do?
• Create suspense? Resolve it?
• Move the story forward? Summarize what happened up to this point?
• Reveal a character's thoughts?
• Create a sense of time and place - context?

You will use this handout to create your dialogue. Please follow the directions and upload it to turnitin.com by the end of the period. Tomorrow we will read each other's dialogues and continue to work on them.

• Dialogue Activity #1

Dialogue - what makes it work?

Today we'll turn our focus from poetry to narrative and dialogue. We'll watch a few classic moments of movie dialogue, and then choose some of our own.

• Please enter your examples into this document

From that, we'll name what makes dialogue work.

Finishing Art Institute work

Greetings! I'm with my American Studies class on a field trip today (yes, two field trips for me in the smae week!).  The directions for today are simple - to complete the work you started on Tuesday at the Art Institute. As you read in the handout that day, there are three pieces you are submitting. Use the time today to type up / revise / complete those pieces and submit them to turnitin.com by the end of the period.

For each piece, please take a moment to include the name of the artwork and the artist.

Here are some helpful links for today:

• Handout from the Art Institute field trip
• Art Institute of Chicago website - "Collections" tab
• Use the search bar to type in the name of the painting or artist - you have to scroll all the way down the page to see the results.
• If you need to write a fresh piece today, select one from the museum's collections. They are organized several different ways - easy to browse through and find something inspiring!

Writing about art - field trip!

A:

B:

C: 

D:

Giving and Receiving Feedback - Portfolio Work

We spent time this week giving feedback to each other about one of the poems you want to include in your portfolio. Instead of evaluating each other's poems, we gave two very specific types of non-judgmental feedback: Pointing and Sayback.

• Pointing - Simply identifying words and phrases that "stick out" or resonate with you, the listener, in some way as you hear the poem.
• Sayback - What you, the listener, hear the poem talking about or saying. This usually starts with the phrase, "I hear this poem talking about..." or "I hear this poem saying..."

It is up to you to figure out how to use the feedback, but here are some questions to consider:

• When you read the pointed words / phrases, are they the ones you expected others to hear and focus on? Why?
• Did people point to words / phrases you did not consider to be important?
• Do you want to find a way to emphasize certain terms?
• Did people tell you the poem was saying what you wanted it to say?
• How might you alter the poem to more effectively communicate what you want it to say?

Remember, your portfolio is due on Monday by the start of class.

On that day, part of the assignment is for you to share a finished poem aloud with the class during our celebratory reading.

Here is a link to a description of the Poetry Portfolio.

Identity poems - Poetry Portfolio assignment

We'll start today with an exploration of the different ways in which we identify ourselves. We'll use a poem, specifically, its title, as a springboard into our own work:

• What It's Like To Be A Black Girl (for those of you that aren't)

Then, I'll introduce the Poetry Portfolio project:

• Poetry Portfolio overview

I'll have you upload some work from a few weeks ago - we used this form on that day - you should have it in your folder

List poems

We'll start today by reading a poem by Walt Whitman, "I Hear America Singing"

Then it will be your turn, writing a poem entitled "I Hear My School Singing"

You'll brainstorm a list of the people you want to include in your poem. For each group / type of person you'll need an action word and at least one object related to their life.

When we start to write our version, you can use this template if you find that helpful. If not, try to stay roughly similar to Whitman's length and structure.

Sestinas!

OK, today we are going to challenge ourselves with a complicated poetic form - the sestina.

First, let's read these examples by Elizabeth Bishop.

Then, open up this document: How to write a sestina

Just in case you'd like to see more, here are a few other examples of sestinas:

• Love sestina
• Nature sestina
• Dreams sestina

9-11 & poetry

Today we'll read and discuss a selection of poems written in honor of, or as ways to capture the emotions of, 9-11.

Which ones stand out to you as most effective, and why?

9-11 poems

Alliteration - Consonance - Assonance

Today we'll continue our work with pastoral poems, focusing on these three poetic devices: Alliteration, Consonance, and Assonance.

Why use them at all?

When you repeat something, you are calling attention to it, marking it through sound.

What Is Consonance?

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds, often at the beginning of words. Tongue twisters are the most obvious use of consonance, as in 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.' American writer Edgar Allan Poe used consonance to great effect in his gothic poem, 'The Raven' (1845). Listen for the repeated sounds:

'And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before.'

The first line of this excerpt contains four repeated 's' sounds, from the s's in 'silken,' 'sad' and 'rustling,' and the soft 'c' in 'uncertain.' The phrase 'silken, sad, uncertain' sounds a lot like the sound made by rustling curtains. In the second line, the repetition of the 'f' sound in the words 'filled,' 'fantastic,' 'felt' and 'before' is similar to a cartoon character stuttering in f-f-f-fear. Both sets of repeated sounds add to the spooky vibe Poe is known for.

What Is Assonance?

Assonance is a literary device using repeated vowel sounds. Because repeated vowel sounds can create rhymes, assonance is often found in poetry. Take, for example, this stanza from 'Travel,' a poem by American Edna St. Vincent Millay:

'The railroad track is miles away,

And the day is loud with voices speaking,

Yet there isn't a train goes by all day

But I hear its whistle shrieking.'

The long 'a' sound is repeated in 'railroad,' 'away,' 'day, 'train' and 'day' (again) and makes an end rhyme at the end of the first and third lines with 'away' and 'day.' Along with giving the poem that familiar singsong quality rhyming poems have, the repeated sounds have a cadence much like the sound of a railroad train chugging along. The rhyming ends up mirroring the content of the poem.

The king of clever rhymes, Dr. Seuss, uses consonance and assonance to create rhyming couplets - two lines of verse, one right after the other, that have rhyming end sounds. Take, for example, the rhyming couplet at the beginning of 'West Beast East Beast.'

'Upon an island hard to reach,

The East Beast sits upon his beach.'

The two lines contains four words with the long 'e' sound, 'reach,' 'east,' 'beast' and 'beach,' making them upbeat and fun to read aloud - to kids and to adults!

What is Alliteration?

Alliteration is the repetition of sounds through more than one word or syllable. For example: Take the (extreme use of) the "L" sound that repeats in the following phrase: "The lurid letters of Lucy Lewis are luscious, lucid and libidinous."

All of these aural elements are mostly found within the lines of a poem rather than at the end. Sometimes they carry from one line to the next or over several lines. These are often used when a line or two seems to lack cohesion (the repeated sounds create pattern, thus structure) or to create a repeated set of sounds that will either A) stand apart from the words around them (because they are aurally different) or B) will make a pattern with their own sounds that can then be varied for emphasis. Take the use of alliteration as an example. The (rather simple) line above can easily illustrate two possibilities.

If the line came on the heels of something like:

The video clips taken by Frank in Louisville are dull but
the lurid letters of Lucy Lewis are luscious, lucid and libidinous.
Surely we haven't seen anything like them in years.

The alliteration in the second line makes it stand out from the others that surround it. Conversely, if we added a variance from the alliteration and made it:

The lurid letters of Lucy Lewis are luscious, crude and libidinous.

The emphasis is obviously on the word "crude," as it now stands apart from all the "L" sounds around it.

---

It is important to remember when implementing any of these techniques that the goal of structure in a poem is to contain the poem, to allow order and chaos to co-exist. If the structure becomes too apparent (to the point that it detracts from the experience of the poem, as in the "Lucy Lewis" example above), it is doing its job poorly.

To help you with your work today, using these three techniques, here are two websites you might try out:

• RhymeZone
• WikiRhymer

Pastoral Poems - Place

Our focus for today is on place, and the tradition of the pastoral poem. Pastoral poetry was traditionally intended to idealize the “innocence and simplicity” of rural life and natural landscapes, in contrast to the “corruption and evils” of city life.

I'll have you make a list (no surprise) of places linked to these prompts:

• Names of places in or around your neighborhood (excluding your home, but could include places on the school campus) you visit at least once a week
• Places you are excited to go to (past present future)
• Places you hold in your memory
• Places in Chicago/city of your choice you are fascinated by or really love
• Places you remember or are familiar with that are problematic

Then we'll read two poems by Nate Marshall. He takes the idea of the pastoral poem and re-invents it to celebrate and comment on his childhood on the south side of Chicago.

• Nate Marshall poems: "Candy Store" and ""Fame Food and Liquor"

Your task / challenge for today contains two parts:

1. Write a pastoral poem about one (or more) of the places from your list
2. Incorporate 2 different poetic devices from the list we used in class on Tuesday.

Poetic Terms

We'll start today with a look at Shakespeare's Sonnet #18.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate. 

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. 

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 

And often is his gold complexion dimmed; 

And every fair from fair sometime declines, 

By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; 

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, 

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, 

Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, 

When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st. 

   So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, 

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Then, we'll check out this video:

We'll then shift to a look at poetic terms, using this handout:

• Poetic Terms and Rap Lyrics

Name poems - Part 2 - Tone

On Friday we continued our work with name poems by writing a second one. However, this time I asked you to think about tone and to use a different tone than you used for the first poem.

What is tone? Tone is the poet's attitude toward the poem, the subject matter, the speaker, and / or the reader. It is the feeling you have and the way you express it. Here is a link to a great list of potential tones a poem might have:

• Poems - Tones

At the end of class, we shared some examples of our name poems.

Name poems - This is what I call myself

Today we'll work with names - we'll consider all of the ways we are known, all of the things we are called, and the ways we refer to ourselves.

We'll read these two poems:

• "My Name" - Sandra Cisneros
• "My Name's Not Rodriguez" - Luis Rodriguez

Ode poems

Today we will explore a particular type of poem - the ode. An ode poem is a celebration of a thing, a person, a place - just about anything from the everyday to the unique. The ode offers details and examples and stories and expresses a sense of what your thing means to you, the writer.

I'll start us off with some brainstorming, then I'll share two very different examples of odes.

Here's one from the poet Pablo Neruda: "Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market"

Here's one from Run DMC: "My Adidas"

Exploring poetry

Some of you know a lot about poetry, some of you have studied poetry, some of you know little about it, and some of you express a dislike for it. You may fall into several of those categories, or other ones not mentioned, but have you ever explored poetry as a writer?

Today we will start our look at poetry by putting each one of us in the driver's seat.

Go here: The "Poems" section of the Poetry Foundation website

Then, start exploring. When you click "explore poems" you can filter poems by topic, form, school / period, and geographic region. Play around. Read lots of poems today.

While you are reading / browsing, I want you to find a poem for each of these categories (you can use each poem only once):

• A poem with ideas you connect with - it makes points or asks questions or shares observations about things you care about
• A poem with images that appeal to you - anything from an object to a setting to a description of a person that resonates with you
• A poem that uses language in a way that appeals to you - one you may want your writing to sound like in some way
• A poem that uses language in a way you find off-putting - one you want to be sure your writing does not sound like

There should be a copy of this Google Doc in your folder. Take the time to respond to the four poems you choose with a paragraph or so of commentary in each box. We'll share some of this work in class as we go through the week.

words words words

Today we'll explore words - words we love and words we hate.
We'll watch a short film and read the accompanying essay - these will serve as a model for today's work. Your assignment is to write an exploration of a word - it can be in just about any format, as you can see from the example. It should be a page or so long, but the goal is not the length - the goal is the depth of the exploration. Your work will be due at the end of the period, submitted to turnitin.com. Enjoy!




Here is a link to the essay by Thylias Moss