Submitting work to Troubadour

Today we'll take the time to submit work to Troubadour for consideration.

Here is a link to the form.

Also, here is a link to another contest from Highland Park.

And here is one last place to submit your work for consideration.

Austin International Poetry Festival

Endings

This is our last week together. We'll spend time over these last few days doing some final writing together, sharing some of our work, submitting some of our work for publication, and listening to each other.

We'll use this poem for today: "Aristotle" by Billy Collins

Re-writing stories - continued

In our first activity after winter break we took details from another person's winter break and crafted them into a new story.

Now we'll take that a step further and re-write opening paragraphs from our favorite books!

1. Think about which book you want to use. You can look around online for your favorite one or maybe choose one from these sites (note that you must choose something at least 6 sentences long - for some books that might mean more than just the actual first paragraph).
1. Great opening paragraphs
2. First paragraphs of classic books
2. Read the original opening paragraph closely - what does it do?
1. Sets the tone
2. Introduces characters and setting
3. Establishes the story
3. Think about how you might want to re-write it. The goal here is to be close to the original but also totally different. You should retain some of the same language, but you can change its meaning, shift the order, or put words in a different character's mouth. Maybe the whole paragraph will now be re-told from a different perspective!
4. Do your work in a new Google Doc. Paste the original paragraph in and then do your re-writing just below it. That way you can keep re-looking at the original while you do your work.
5. Submit your work to turnitin.com

Welcome back from winter break!

Welcome back!

To start things off today we'll read these two poems by Mary Oliver.


Then, we're going to write about winter break. You'll each brainstorm a list of specific words from your break - the more specific, the better. For example, instead of just saying "food," you might say "Colossal fish sandwich from Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh." Here are some other examples of general terms you can not use:

• fun
• family
• friends
• sleep
• travel
• relaxing
• exciting

You'll create a list of 10 terms and write them on a piece of paper. I'll explain the rest of the activity from there...

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