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"