Portfolio Project

Please continue working on your portfolio work. You may turn in your work for credit today or Jan. 6.

Have a happy holiday!

HOMEWORK: None.

3rd Marking Period Portfolio (two week project)

Instead of rushing into scripts (our next unit), I am giving you the opportunity for the next two weeks of class to build your portfolio and hone your craft by writing, reading, and workshopping. This project covers the following dates: 12/11, 12/13, 12/17, 12/19, and through 1/6 (our first day back from break).

The game: Writing & Reading.

Reason: We hear you. You have too many things to accomplish. You couldn't possibly get all the reading & writing you need to done. You have busy lives, etc. I usually conduct workshops and this sort of project during the 2nd semester, but I'll introduce you to it a little early.

How to play (please read these rules):

1. I am giving you two weeks (through the Holiday Break actually) to develop your portfolios.
2. You may write ANYTHING you want to. You may write poetry. You may write fiction. You may write scripts for the stage or screen. You may write articles for creative non-fiction. For each of these genres, check eLearning for pointers and tips in MODULE 3. This will be updated throughout the project.
3. You may spend your time in the lab reading as well.
4. I am not going to yell at you to stay on task, but you will receive a major grade at the end of this unit for your work and participation. Each day that you are in the lab you will receive points. See the rules and point system below.

Point system: How you will be scored?

Writing:

• 1 point for each page of text you write. Half pages (or poems under 20 lines) receive no credit. 2 half-pages equal 1 page. 1/4 and 1/3 pages never count. (two or more poems on the same page count as a page, if it is a full page). No credit will be given if the work is not up to high school standards.
• 1 point for each revision you complete. You may revise any previous work, but you first need to consult someone in the class to give you feedback. This feedback must be ATTACHED to the draft.
• 1 point for each workshop feedback you write for another student. Each workshop feedback form must be dated and signed by the student who conducted the feedback.
• 1 point for every 5 pages of journalling, free writing, or brainstorming you complete. (You must show me your journal)
• 1 point for each blog post or web page you create (you must give me your blog address)
• 1 point for each 30 seconds of edited film you create
• 1 point bonus for each draft you write that impresses me. I am impressed by seeing that you have included what we have covered in class and how you apply it to make a point or to create effective, crafted writing. Bonus points will be indicated on a draft with a sticker.

Reading: (you may read anything you like)

• 1 point for every 10 pages of reading you complete. You must LOG your pages (see handout) and include a short summary or synopsis of every 10 page units you read. Please date and sign each entry in your reading log.
• 1 point for every book, film, or video game review you write (1 page of text = 1 point, see above)

Participation:

• 1 point for every day you are in attendance without being tardy.
• 1 point for every period where you are working quietly (no excessive or loud noise), not bothering peers who do not wish to be bothered (i.e., not in a workshop)
• 1 point for every day you focus on this project.
• 1 point for every day you are not using personal electronic devices (cell phones, mp3/4 players, headphones, etc.)
• 1 point bonus to be given out per day by the teacher to one lucky student who works diligently throughout the class. Bonus points will be given as stickers on your portfolio.

Final scoring:

Students who fall in the following point ranges will receive the following grades:

• 31+ (A)
• 25-30 (B)
• 15-25 (C)
• 10-14 (D)
• Fewer than 10 points (F) 
• Pluses (A+, B+, C+, D+, etc.) will be determined by quality of the work.

HOMEWORK: Yes, you may write and read (complete your log, or write in your journal, or make a film, or work on this project) outside of class.

Reading; Choose your own writing; Book Club & Sharing

Before we move into our next unit (play/script writing), spend 20 minutes of 7th period reading the book you are reading for your book club. Instead of yelling and shouting and talking or working on the computer, unplug and read. Read SILENTLY for 20 minutes.

When you have spent some time reading, and you are feeling ready to write SILENTLY...

Please spend the rest of 7th period writing ANYTHING you want: a poem, a short story, a script, an essay, a vignette, an article, etc.

Follow the writing process to come up with something to write about, then write about it. This is completely your choice as to genre, length, style, subject matter, etc.

Just like writers, write today during 7th period. Make a date with your muse and keep it!

During 8th period, take a few minutes (until 1:30) to finish your writing session. Save your work. If you completed something, you may bring it to your "workshop".

Then get together in your book groups.

1. Talk about the stories or pages you read.
2. Talk about the things you learned about writing from reading this author.
3. Talk about what you would do differently if YOU were the writer of these stories you have read so far.
4. When you are done discussion, spend some time in a "workshop" sharing a story or poem or two from your portfolio.

HOMEWORK: Keep reading your book, but you will no longer meet in your book group. Try to finish the book (or as much as you want to read) on your own.

Fiction Portfolio Due!

Period 7:

Please gather in your book club groups for the first 20 minutes or so of 7th period. Chat about what you have read. Talk about the WRITING and how effective (or not) you think it is. Share your ideas. Look for things that we have discussed or covered in class such as: character and characterization, setting, plot, theme, POV, conflict, dialogue, etc.

Then conclude your meeting with an agreement to read some more of the book.

Period 7/8:
When you have completed this, please go back to your own seats and prepare your fiction portfolio. The fiction portfolio is due today by the end of class:

Put Together a Fiction Portfolio:

1. Gather all your draft files. What was due? Check out the agenda on Nov. 20: Writing Day!

2. Revise your most current drafts. Proofread, correct grammar, add details, description, etc. Make sure your story is complete and you are satisfied with the outcome before you print. If you created a second draft, please label it as a second draft!

3. Make sure you have a title for your stories. Don't leave your babies unnamed!

4. It doesn't matter what project or assignment created the fiction; likely your fiction will expand and change from the initial assignment or project. Consider going back to earlier projects and revising now that you have a more complete understanding of fictional elements. It's okay to change POV, plot arrangement, add/cut words, etc.

5. When you are satisfied with your work, print these files. Make sure your drafts are numbered. Unnumbered drafts will not be given credit as new drafts.

An MLA style heading should look like this:

Student name
Teacher's name (not necessary for our purposes)
Class name (The Craft of Writing)
Class assignment name (what is this assignment?)
Date
Draft #   (this # will increase every time you rewrite/revise)

6. Most recent drafts (the higher number) should be on top. Paperclip or staple drafts together. A good way to check whether or not you really crafted your work is to look through your drafts. Each draft should add pages or cut them. Crafting is a series of additions and subtractions -- or sifting to reveal the polished creative story beneath.

7. Keep your drafts in your portfolio.

8. Your portfolio is due today, December 5.

This is the end of the marking period. Please turn in any late work by the end of class today.

HOMEWORK: None. Read your chosen fiction book. 

Book Club; Fiction Portfolio

Assignment 2.03 (the genre fiction draft) is due today. For details please see previous posts and eLearning lesson 2.03. You may also use period 7 to gather your materials and put them into your portfolio. Portfolios will be collected next class (Dec. 5).

Put Together a Fiction Portfolio:

1. Gather all your draft files.

2. Revise your most current drafts. Proofread, correct grammar, add details, description, etc. Make sure your story is complete and you are satisfied with the outcome before you print. If you created a second draft, please label it as a second draft!

3. Make sure you have a title for your stories. Don't leave your babies unnamed!

4. It doesn't matter what project or assignment created the fiction; likely your fiction will expand and change from the initial assignment or project. Consider going back to earlier projects and revising now that you have a more complete understanding of fictional elements. It's okay to change POV, plot arrangement, add/cut words, etc.

5. When you are satisfied with your work, print these files. Make sure your drafts are numbered. Unnumbered drafts will not be given credit.

6. Most recent drafts (the higher number) should be on top. Paperclip or staple drafts together. A good way to check whether or not you really crafted your work is to look through your drafts. Each draft should add pages or cut them. Crafting is a series of additions and subtractions -- or sifting to reveal the polished creative story beneath.

7. Keep your drafts in your portfolio.

8. Your portfolio is due next class (December 5).

During period 8:

Please gather again in your book club groups and complete the discussion sheet by having a...discussion about the stories you should have read in the collection. With time remaining in the period, select another range of pages to complete for next class, then either read or share your fiction with one another.

HOMEWORK: None. Your portfolios are due next class. Complete any missing assignments.

Finish up; Book Groups; Game Day

Please use the first part of period 7 to finish up any fiction assignments you have not yet completed.

Near the end of period 7, please listen to your choices for your "book group". Select your book group book from the library. Meet with your book group and make a plan to read over the break. Choose AT LEAST one story (you can choose more with your group) to complete.

During period 8, please move next door for board games and card games. Get into small groups and play. Have a nice Thanksgiving!

HOMEWORK: None. Read your book group's chosen # of pages. As you read, jot down your thoughts/questions/comments, etc. and bring these to next class.

Class Notes Exercise; Creating Characters; Completing Drafts

Congratulations to those of you who attended and performed at the Coffeehouse last night. Many parents said it was our most successful coffeehouse they have attended. We couldn't have done it without you!

Today, please complete the following assignments that are due or past due:

The Hit Man/Questionnaire Story Draft
Hint Fiction drafts (with titles!)
The prompt story draft for lesson 2.02

If you have completed these assignments, please move on to the following assignment/exercise today:

1. After reading "Class Notes", create a similar piece but use your imagination and our class. You should change the names of the people you are referring to, as a sign of courtesy.
2. Use the graphic organizers to create a character and plan a story. Once you have brainstormed or created your plan for your story's plot, choose ANY genre from lesson 2.03 and write a story draft. This particular assignment will be due by the end of next class, and you may work on completing it over the weekend.
3. Print out and gather your fiction drafts written so far for your portfolio.

HOMEWORK: None. You may finish Sudden Fiction. Bring your books with you to next class to return them.

Day of Writing

Please use your time in the lab this afternoon to write. 

Q: What fiction assignments have we done so far that are due?

A: The following fiction assignments are due or past due: (this does not include worksheets, projects, quizzes, or classwork)

• The Poetry Portfolio (past due)
• The collaborative story (Nov. 4) (past due)
• 5-7 hint fiction stories (lesson: 2.01) (past due)
• The prompt story (Nov. 12) and (Lesson: 2.02) (past due)
• Hit Man/Questionnaire story (Nov. 18) (due by end of week)
• Genre story (lesson 2.03) (due by next week)
• The Fiction Portfolio (due by Wednesday, Dec. 4)

You may also use the time in the lab today to prepare for our upcoming coffeehouse. If you attend and perform, you will get extra credit this marking period. 

Coffeehouse: Nov. 21 at 7:00 in the Ensemble Theater!

HOMEWORK: Read any of the short stories you'd like in the Sudden Fiction collection.

Fiction: POV

When we write stories there are some questions that an author should answer before sitting down to write. Apart from using various techniques to brainstorm or come up with an idea to write about, we must decide:

• Which POV am I going to use?
• Which genre am I going to use to write my story?
• Who is my protagonist? What does my protagonist want?

Let's look at POV today.

Choosing a POV for your character: It helps to know basic ideas for your character before choosing a POV:
We want to answer this Major Question: Who is the story about?

--Someone who is most interesting
--Someone who is involved in the action of the story
--Someone who has the most to gain or lose from the event

1st Person POV: Main character is the narrator (good subjectivity, but lacks objectivity, limited to one character’s mind). This is the best choice when you have a single protagonist who is involved in telling the story from his/her own POV.

2nd Person POV: Main character is the “reader”, used through an objective and omniscient “I” narrator (difficult to maintain for a long time, reader must be willing to play the part, difficult to reach into reader’s mind). This is the best choice for experimentation.

3rd Person POV: Omniscient or Limited
Omniscient narrators can tell the story of many characters, but this can be confusing. The reader may not know who the story is about or whose conflict is important.
A limited POV allows the writer to focus on one particular character. The story told is the story of that character. Consistent POV gives a story coherence. Inconsistent POV confuses the reader.

This afternoon, we will read the short stories: "The Hit Man" and "A Questionnaire for Rudolph Gordon" and discuss the non-traditional style of these stories. After reading, choose one of the following prompts and write a story draft:

A. Write a story in micro chapters like "The Hit Man"--make a list of events in a character's life. Each event should be a heading (as if in a newspaper article). Write a story in any POV that uses at least 5-10 chapters of a protagonists' life. Treat each chapter as a micro, sudden, or hint fiction story.

B. Write a story as a questionnaire or a quiz or in some sort of non-traditional (non-prose) style. Examples might include: a text book chapter (with bolded words or sub chapters or review questions at the end) or a dictionary/encyclopedia entry, or medical form, or as a newspaper article, or as a series of tweets or emails, etc.

Classwork: Write your story draft.

Day of Writing--Make That Date!

Please complete your short story drafts (see post below).

HOMEWORK: Complete all late assignments. Read pages 70-78, and 88-121 in your Sudden Fiction books.

Ideas for Fiction

Ideas For Fiction. Key Points:

Stories come from:

• 1. Our experiences
• autobiographical writing can be vivid, direct, and introspective. Your observations provide you with the details you need to start a story and make it real.
• 2. Our imagination
• Working from one's imagination allows for the most freedom. Imaginative writing can be vivid, direct, and introspective, but it is also the most creative.
• 3. Our passions
• Use your emotions to move your stories. Live through your characters.

Most stories begin with a seed idea. You may need to model your work on writers you admire to get started. You may need to research your topic and idea more fully before you can start. Most writers build a scaffold around their idea and construct a story.

If you have nowhere to begin, start with a theme. Since there are only 4 of these: nature, life, death, love: pick one. Next, apply a message. What do you want to say about: life, love, death, nature? This will usually get you started or unstuck. If you feel like your story is the same as thousands of other stories, change elements of your fiction until you have a variation on the theme. Your writer's voice will make sure your treatment of the theme and message is completely your own.

Use your imagination to move your story forward. If you are stuck, give your character something to do or think about. An intriguing image, a line of dialogue, or a complication or problem will usually force you to continue.

Write the parts of the story that you can during your first draft. You can always fill the story in later with more details, research, and events.

Today in the lab please work on lesson 02.00 and 02.01 if you have not yet done these assignments. They likely will only take you a few minutes. When you have completed these lessons, please continue by completing lesson 02.02: Getting Ideas for Fiction.

Choose one prompt and write a story. Length, genre, style and structure is up to you.

A. Select a photograph or picture and use the photo or picture as either the beginning, middle, or ending scene of your story. Once you write this scene, work backwards or forwards to add the rest of the story.

B. Choose any of the following prompts:

Write a story about a lie

Write a story about something that really happened to you or a family member

Write a story about an animal

Write a story about and object that has been lost

Write a story about leaving

Write a story about a wish

Write a story about a broken promise

Write a story about something that was stolen

Write a story about a party

Write a story about something that hasn't happened yet

Write a story about a child

Write a story about a secret

Write a story about finding something unexpected

Write a story about someone you don't know very well (make up the details)

Write a story about a traumatic event

Write a story about a coincidence

Write a story about the weather

Write a story about a family

Write a story using your own ideas/creativity

 

C. Choose one of the groupings and use the items, settings, characters in various combinations. Try to use all three somewhere in your story. You may, of course, change one if you come up with a better idea:

1. A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger.
2. A taxi, an old enemy, and Valentine's Day.
3. Identical twins, a party invitation, and a locked closet.
4. A broken wristwatch, peppermints, and a hug that goes too far.
5. Aerobics, a secret diary, and something unpleasant under the bed.
6. An ex-boyfriend, a pair of binoculars, and a good-luck charm.
7. An annoying boss, a bikini, and a fake illness.
8. The first day of school, a love note, and a recipe with a significant mistake.
9. A horoscope, makeup, and a missing tooth.
10. A campfire, a scream, and a small lie that gets bigger and bigger.

When you have completed your story draft, please print it out and turn it in for class/assignment credit.

39 Steps; Fiction

Our Coffeehouse is coming up: November 21 at 7:00 in the Ensemble Theatre. 

If you are attending the 39 Steps field trip, we will likely return to class during 8th period. If you are left behind because you did not complete the proper paperwork, I'm sorry for you. Use the time in the lab to get caught up with all of your school work (particularly for creative writing) and complete the assignments for fiction in eLearning and/or prepare a coffeehouse reading selection.

HOMEWORK: Read Sudden Fiction: pp's 39-63.

Sudden Fiction; Writing with a Partner

Please turn in your permission slips for the field trip to my in-box. I will collect them.

Together in groups of 2-4, please take the first 10-15 minutes of class to read the short story from your Sudden Fiction collection on page 20-23 "Sunday in the Park". After you read the story, identify the characters, the setting, the tone, and the major conflict in the story. Discuss the story. How might you change it to make it better or different in your opinion?

Then, pair up with a partner for this next exercise. Taking turns at writing paragraphs, create a story together. The trick though is to only communicate with your partner through writing. That means instead of talking about what will happen in the story, write, and then let your partner read and continue the story. Keep passing off the story one paragraph at a time with your partner until you have at least 1 full page (or between 1-3 pages). Title your story when you are finished and print it out and turn it in for credit.

When you have completed this assignment, please continue to work on your eLearning modules or read the next few stories in your Sudden Fiction books (see homework).

HOMEWORK: Please read pp. 24-38. As you read, pay attention to how the author creates a conflict, setting, and complete short story all in under 3-4 pages. Choose one of these stories as your favorite and be prepared to discuss it next class. 

Poetry Portfolio Due; Module 2: Fiction

Please complete your poetry portfolios. These are due today. See previous posts for details.

When you have completed your portfolio, please work on Module 2: Fiction, lessons 1 & 2.

During 8th period, we will go to the library and check out our first fiction short story collection.

HOMEWORK: Please read pages 3-19 in Sudden Fiction.

Poetry Portfolio

Please collect your poem drafts in your portfolio. Spend the first half of today's class gathering your poems together, revising them by adding sound devices, imagery, figurative language, sharpening diction, adding tone, creating a persona and/or voice, creating patterns using line or meter or stanza forms, and, otherwise, IMPROVING or CRAFTING your poetry.

What COULD you have in your portfolio?

00.03: Brainstorming techniques (if you wrote a poem or story/scene) please print this out and collect it in your portfolio.
00.05: Enemies of the Artistic Process (a letter--that could be changed into a poem addressing one of your creative writing enemies)
00.09: Persona & Mask poem
01.00: Ars Poetica poem
01.01: Voice poem
01.03: Theme & Message poem
01.06: Mary Oliver (Diction chapter ?'s) poem draft
01.08: Sound device poem draft
Any SECOND draft from assignment 01.05 or 01.07.
Any poem written in your journal during our nature walks
Any poem written for any other class
Any poem written just because you wrote it this year

RUBRIC: Poetry Portfolio
CONTENT:

• A: Awesome! You have more than TEN poems collected in your portfolio.
• B: Brilliant! You have 5-10 poems collected in your portfolio.
• C: Average! You have 3-4 poems collected in your portfolio.
• D: Below average! You have fewer than 3 poems in your portfolio.

CRAFT:

• A: Amazing! You have applied various poetry techniques learned in class to your second draft, overall making the poems stronger, more universal, more artistic, and overall excellent work!
• B: Better! You have applied some poetry techniques and strengthened your poem drafts, but poems may need some more work to make them amazing. Overall, good job!
• C: Constructive! You have improved your drafts, but may not be utilizing poetry techniques effectively, or your work is lacking something that would make the draft better. Your work was created, you did the assignment and will get average credit like an average student. Not bad.
• D: Developing! You have poems in your portfolio but many of them have not been revised or improved. If you had the time or inclination you probably would have been more constructive. You threw some words together like a passionate writer, but your work is either careless or lacking focus, making your work developing. Okay.

During the second half of class today, please form two sharing groups and spend some time reading and sharing your work. When the group has finished sharing, please come back to the lab and either begin Module 2: Fiction, or continue preparing and working on your poetry portfolio.

YOUR PORTFOLIOS ARE DUE NEXT CLASS!

HOMEWORK: None. Prepare your portfolio and turn it in.

Poetry Portfolios

This afternoon, please read the short chapter on "Revision" by Mary Oliver. After reading silently and chatting a moment as a class, please complete the following tasks today:

CLASSWORK:
Last class we started this in pairs or small groups. Please return and complete the assignment, then move on to the "writing task" described below.

FOR EACH POEM, please analyze and write 3-10 sentences about what you found in the poem by identifying any of the following: SOUND devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme), DICTION (tone, mood, voice, etc.), LINE (meter, enjambment, rhyme, stanza form), IMAGERY (metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, figurative language). After completing this analysis, please turn in your work for participation credit.

My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke   

  The whiskey on your breath
  Could make a small boy dizzy;
  But I hung on like death:
  Such waltzing was not easy.
 
  We romped until the pans
  Slid from the kitchen shelf;
  My mother's countenance
  Could not unfrown itself.
 
  The hand that held my wrist
  Was battered on one knuckle;
  At every step you missed
  My right ear scraped a buckle.
  
  You beat time on my head
  With a palm caked hard by dirt,
  Then waltzed me off to bed 
  Still clinging to your shirt.

From: The Eve of Saint Agnes by John Keats 

I.   ST. AGNES’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told	5
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,
Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith.

Preludes by T.S. Eliot

I THE WINTER evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps	5
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,	10
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
II The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer	15
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.
With the other masquerades
That time resumes,	20
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms. WRITING TASK/Completing your revisions & poetry portfolio: Collect ALL your poems you wrote for exercises in MODULE 1 or during Marking Period One. Print out each poem and call these draft 1. THEN: after printing your work, go back through your written poems and add imagery, sound devices, fix diction, add tone, create line and meter patterns, and/or REVISE your work. Call these poems draft 2. You may, of course, ask a partner or trusted ally to give you some feedback between draft one and two. By helping each other, you are helping yourself. Of course, you may find that your "partner" is not really helping you, but distracting you. Try to notice the difference. HOMEWORK: None.

Imagery in Poetry

Imagery comes in a few flavors: figurative language, metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, and then sound techniques (alliteration, assonance, consonance, cacophony, euphony, onomatopoeia, rhyme). These techniques help create sound and sight in a poem (two of our most important senses). Using diction, a poet can also recall senses of smell, touch, and taste, but these are harder to do. Here's an example:   

Root Cellar by Theodore Roethke

Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,
Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,
Shoots dangled and drooped,
Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,
Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes.
And what a congress of stinks!
Roots ripe as old bait,
Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,
Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.
Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.

The reason poets rely so heavily on metaphor and simile as the common currency of poetry is that it relates to imagery. Metaphor and simile say with pictures and specific objects what abstract nouns cannot. They help clarify, focus, and bring an image to the foreground of a poem. This is necessary to communicate an idea.

"Metaphors set up precise identities between two halves of a comparison" - Ted Kooser

However, we don't want our comparisons to be either A). too obscure and difficult to understand or B). too obvious (bordering on cliche).

Its a fine strand of web the poet scuttles across to anchor two dissimilar points of space. When working with metaphor and figurative language in your own poems consider the relationship between the subject and the object (or setting, event, etc.) The most beautiful metaphors/similes are subtle ones that are both fresh and new, while also being familiar.

Pick words (particularly verbs and adjectives) that correspond to the main metaphor/simile working in your poem. This helps to create tone as well as picture the subject in an effective way. Try to extend your metaphors through at least a stanza, if not the entire poem.

Example:
Martin Walls' poem "Snail" is about a snail. There are a series of "snail-appropriate words found in the poem"

Snail
It is a flattened shell the color of spoiled milk, a bold
Swirl slowly stirred that charts the age of what's
Curled inside with the tension of a watch spring. A creature
That embodies the history of metaphysics: first it exists,
Then it doesn't, then it emerges once again, unrolls
One, then another, eyestalk, like periscopes breaking
The surface of its wet-life. And here's the tongue body
The petal-body, molding its shape to the world's shape.

The snail is compared to: spoiled milk, a horoscope, a watch spring, periscope, flowers, tongue, and the world. By writing about a snail, we consider it in its proper function as a comparison/contrast to other life, particularly ours. If a snail has purpose, then so do we.

Spoiled milk gives us a negative image, but the words bold, stirred, and curled (curdled) all seem appropriate word choices for the comparison. The snail furthermore encompasses the world in an orderly way. It is both a watch spring (human made and intelligently designed) indicating the spiral shape of a snail shell, but also a tongue (natural object) that goes along with wet and unrolls.

All in all there are snail words: eyestalk, swirl (the shell), shell, slow.
It moves slowly, and the pace of the poem is also slow: words like slowly, emerge, unrolls, molds (also connected to the smell in the first line as a double meaning), recall the movement of a snail, leaving a wet slime trail behind it. This disgusting invertebrate is compared to the function of the world--giving this little animal a metaphysical meaning that compares its life with ours.

Note that this is a small poem. It doesn't function as a grandiose political idea or earth-shattering observation. It compares (metaphor/simile) us and our human made world to its natural world linking us with nature, reminding us of our own value and worth. Sometimes that's all that's needed.

Imagery is usually broken down into the five senses, but can also include temperature and the sense of pain. Here's a web page that you might find helpful. Check it out!

Let's decipher one of these poems as a reader & writer. Elizabeth Bishop's narrative poem In the Waiting Room.

CLASSWORK:
Spend your time in the lab today to read more examples of poems. Here are a bunch of Robert Frost poems. He was an expert at imagery and sound. He often writes about nature and, of course, death. Pay this in mind when reading his poetry as it will help you understand it. Check out this web page for examples of Robert Frost's poems.

Here are some other famous poems. Please read them and open your mind. Pay attention to how talented writers write and craft their poems by applying the knowledge you have learned about poetry to noticing how each poet creates an effective poem using devices like sound, line, meter, tone, persona, theme, diction, etc. For today's task, you may work with a partner. FOR EACH POEM, please analyze and write 3-10 sentences about what you found in the poem by identifying any of the following: SOUND devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme), DICTION (tone, mood, voice, etc.), LINE (meter, enjambment, rhyme, stanza form), IMAGERY (metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, figurative language).

My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke  

 MY PAPA'S WALTZ
 
  The whiskey on your breath
  Could make a small boy dizzy;
  But I hung on like death:
  Such waltzing was not easy.
 
  We romped until the pans
  Slid from the kitchen shelf;
  My mother's countenance
  Could not unfrown itself.
 
  The hand that held my wrist
  Was battered on one knuckle;
  At every step you missed
  My right ear scraped a buckle.
  
  You beat time on my head
  With a palm caked hard by dirt,
  Then waltzed me off to bed 
  Still clinging to your shirt.

From: The Eve of Saint Agnes by John Keats 

I.   ST. AGNES’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told	5
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,
Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith.

Preludes by T.S. Eliot

I THE WINTER evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps	5
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,	10
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
II The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer	15
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.
With the other masquerades
That time resumes,	20
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms. WRITING TASK: After reading and analyzing the poems above with your partner, go back to your own computer and collect ALL your poems you wrote for exercises in MODULE 1. Print out each poem and call these draft 1. THEN: after printing your work, go back through your written poems and add imagery, sound devices, fix diction, add tone, create line and meter patterns, and/or REVISE your work. Call these poems draft 2. HOMEWORK: None.

Sound in Poetry

Robert Frost: The Sound of Trees
Robert Frost: Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost: Acquainted with the Night
Edgar Allan Poe: The Bells

Today, we are going to cover sound and rhythm in poetry. There's a lot here and many terms and literary devices you will need to know. I'd suggest you pay attention and take notes. Expect to be tested on key terms soon.

After reading Mary Oliver's discussion about SOUND, please look at the following links (you may use your headphones). For each, try to notice sound imagery, rhythm and cadence.

Other poems to listen to:
Wallace Stevens: The Emperor of Ice Cream
Mary Oliver: The Summer Day
Mary Oliver: Wild Geese
Edgar Allan Poe: Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven

When you have listened and examined these poems, please go back to eLearning (lesson 01.08) and complete the sound poem exercise. 

Intervention; Modules 0 & 1 Due; End of Marking Period

Looking at the work still left to do on elearning, please use your time in the lab to complete these assignments.

For students who need direct instruction, please join me next door in room 238 to walk you through the assignments and answer your many questions about poetry. We will be covering:

• The writing process
• Where to find help!
• The difference between poetry (verse) and prose
• How to break a line in poetry to create a pattern
• Meter & rhythm
• Free verse and pattern poems (open versus closed forms)
• Tone/Mood
• Diction
• The speaker in a poem (character)
• Voice & persona
• Theme & message
• denotation & connotation
• Sound devices: onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance
• Vowels/consonants
• Ars poetica
• Revising a poem
• Common imagery: metaphor, simile, allusion, personification, figurative language

HOMEWORK: Please READ and highlight the important advice or vocabulary terms in the chapter on SOUND and the chapter on IMAGERY. You will turn in your copies of your chapters for credit. I need to see that you are reading and working with these concepts.

OMG! So Much to Do! Poetry Unit End Looming!

You should work today in the lab to complete modules 0 & 1 of the poetry unit. Please use this time in the lab to complete your work. Many of you are very far behind. These modules are DUE by end of next class!

Additionally, save any of your poetry and print out copies for your portfolio.

HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK: We have a little more to cover in regards to poetry and the poetry unit. Please read the chapter by Mary Oliver on SOUND and SOUND DEVICES. As you read, note and be able to define the following key techniques of sound in poetry:

• vowels, consonants, semivowels, mutes, etc.
• Onomatopoeia
• The analysis of Robert Frost's poem
• Alliteration
• Assonance

I am pushing the unit test on poetry off a week so that we can complete the unit. Some of you may need to complete homework to get caught up with the rest of the class. Complete modules 0 and 1 by Friday.

Complete your reading of your poetry collection(s). 

eLearning: Module 1 Due Next Week

Module 1 is due next week. Please use this time in the lab to complete your work. Next class we will have a pre-assessment test for CW. 

During the last 1/2 of period 8, please select your new poetry book. The goal of reading all these poets and books is so that you have a variety of contemporary poets' work to use as models for your own understanding and crafting of poetry. 

As you read the poems in your new selection, consider and examine how the poet is using: line breaks, patterns/meter, syllables, tone, diction, voice, and so forth to create an effective poem. Notice style and themes. 

HOMEWORK: Read your poetry books. Read your poetry chapter assignments. Complete module 1.

Tone, Mood; eLearning & poetry collection activity

Please get into groups of 1-2. Take the first 15-20 minutes of this class to read and complete the handout on TONE & MOOD and An Introduction to Stress & Meter. Turn in your papers at the end of 15-20 minutes.

When you have completed your TONE/MOOD and Stress & Meter exercise, please select one poem from your poetry collection and read it quietly to your partner. If you have no partner, join another group for this part of the assignment today. 

After sharing discuss the poem by identifying the tone, mood, whether it is written in meter or is a free verse poem, and what the theme of the poem might be.

Then move to your own seat and read and complete the analysis of diction, tone, mood, and meter. Hand this sheet in by the end of class today. 

If you finish these assignments before period 8, please continue to work on your eLearning modules. During period 8, continue your eLearning assignments.

HOMEWORK: Continue to read your chosen poetry collection.

ELearning; Diction, Tone, Voice

Today, please select a new poet's work to read and work with. In the lab, please complete the following tasks:

1. Continue working on the eLearning module 1. If you haven't started this module yet, you are falling far behind. Please use the time in the lab to get caught up.
2. Read your poet's collection of poems.
3. Type up poems you have written in your journal. As you type up poems, consider the FORM and STRUCTURE of your lines (consider meter, rhythm, length of line, use of patterns or type of poem like lyric, narrative poems, or prose poem) as well as the diction, tone, and voice of your work. Avoid inversion and informational language. Check your own grammar and syntax.

Poetry Vocabulary: PLEASE STUDY THESE TERMS!

Diction: word choice. Select words in your poem carefully to carry the most meaning. All words have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning. Understatement, euphemism, and other rhetorical strategies may be used to affect a poem's diction. Speaking to your elderly grandparents uses a different diction than speaking to your "homies".

Voice: The agent or "speaker" speaking through the poem. Also called the "persona".

Tone: Often the attitude of your speaker or the voice. Identified in a poem by diction.

• Tone can be formal or informal depending on the diction a poet uses.
• Tone can be ironic, sarcastic, serious, pedantic, or hyperbolic depending on the voice a poet selects.
• Tone can be positive or negative or neutral. Selecting one of these tones can or should affect your diction.

Metrical Feet: Two classifications of poetry: open forms; closed forms.

A closed form (traditional poetry), cadence groups form a pattern.
An open form (free verse, mainly), cadence groups do not form a set pattern.
Poetry in open forms tends to stress meaning over versification.

Syllables: individual units of rhythm in a word or line.
Stress: this class. Also, the emphasis placed on a syllable in a word.
Unstressed: lighter stress, not so heavy as the stress above.

Metrical feet:

1-foot = monometer
2-foot = dimeter
3-foot = trimeter
4-foot = tetrameter
5-foot = pentameter (the meter used in sonnets and blank verse lines; very common)
6-foot = hexameter
7-foot = heptameter
8-foot = octameter
9-foot = nonameter
10-foot = decameter

2 Syllable Feet:

Iambic: stress is on the second of two syllable words: ex. reTURN, beCAUSE, atTACK, etc.

Trochee: reverse of the Iambic, stress is on the first of two syllables: MOTHer, SISter, BORing.

Spondee: Both syllables are stressed.

3 Syllable Feet:

Anapest: stress is on the last syllable of a three syllabled word. Ex. Chevro-LET, rockandROLL

Dactyl: stress on first syllable followed by two non stressed. Ex. BU-da-pest, FOR-tu-nate

Caesura: (plural: caesurae) a pause separating cadence groups (however brief) within a line. If the pause is a result of the end of a line pause, then this is end-stopping.

Enjambement (enjambment): If a line has no punctuation at the end and runs over to the next line, it is called run-on or better yet, enjambement (enjambment).

HOMEWORK: Read your chosen poet's chapbook. Bring your book to next class to work with it. 

Poet Report; eLearning Module 1

This afternoon, please take 5 minutes to gather your notes from last class and prepare the following:

• A brief biography of your chosen poet
• Identify the poem you will be reciting/reading to the class from your chosen collection
• Print out or prepare a copy of your original poem draft

While you are preparing, I will assign you a color and a number group. After 5 minutes of prep time, please go next door to a238 and sit in your assigned grouping.

Example: Robert Bly: Best known for his book Iron John, Robert Bly lives in Minneapolis, MN, and grew up in the countryside. His poetry often includes images of nature. He is a poet laureate of the United States and has won many awards for his poetry. His most recent collection of poetry is "Talking into the Ear of a Donkey" published in 2011. He is now 86 years old. "After Long Busyness" was taken from the collection: Silence in the Snowy Fields.

After Long Busyness

I start out for a walk at last after weeks at the desk. 

Moon gone, plowing underfoot, no stars; not a trace of light!

Suppose a horse were galloping towards me in this open field?

Every day I did not spend in solitude was wasted.

In timed intervals, share your poet's biography, read aloud a sample poem, and share your own poem with your group. When the bell rings, two members of the group will move on to the next station and repeat the process. During the lesson, please listen for further instructions.

After the exercise today, please return to the lab to complete the following:

1. Continue your assignments on eLearning. 

2. Complete your reading of your poet's book. 

3. Write or type up poem drafts you have left in your notebook.

HOMEWORK: Read the article by Mary Oliver on "Diction, Tone, and Voice." Take notes on key important vocabulary and techniques in the chapter including: diction, tone, persona, negative capability, the lyric poem, narrative poetry, long poems, prose poems, poetic diction, cliche, inversion, informal language, syntax, and effective writing.

Poetry Report: Poets A-E

This afternoon, please go to the library and choose a book (or collection of books) by one of the appropriate poets.

Read one collection (or section/unit) for your chosen author. We will be going outside to read and write, as we have done in the past few classes.

• Outside, please stay away from each other. 
• Shut up. (Please be quiet!)
• Read.
• When you are tired of reading: write.

When we are INSIDE in the LAB: please research your chosen poet.

HOMEWORK/Classwork: Please complete the poetry book you selected; complete your research of your poet and be able to do the following next class:

1. Provide a background on that poet: who are they, what did they write, what awards or publications have they accomplished, etc.?
2. Select one poem to read ALOUD in class. Prepare and rehearse your reading so you don't bore us. Look up words you don't know, etc.
3. Write a poem draft IN THE STYLE of YOUR CHOSEN POET. This will be due next class.

A Note About Lines

In poetry, we don't just break a line wherever we want to, unless we are only writing free verse. Free verse allows us to write in any pattern or structure we would like, but we should know enough to make informed choices about the length of our lines.

Short lines, for example, can make a poem go faster.
Long lines, on the other hand, slow down a poem.

Thus, I can control the speed at which a reader reads my work by adjusting the length of a line.

Sometimes we want to break our poem into stanzas or create a rhythm for our poem (just like in music). Creating patterns based on syllables (beats), a poet can make their poem more musical, allowing it to flow better.

Information about Rhythm, Meter, and Scansion can be found here. And another one, just in case you need more explanation: Meter in Poetry and Verse. Read the chapter by Mary Oliver on "The Line", "Some Given Forms", and "Verse that is Free".

HOMEWORK: Read and save your iamb, trochee, spondee, dactyl, anapest example sheets.

Poetry Reading Day!

After reading these instructions, please join us down in the library and check out one of the available poetry books. From the library, we will move up to the courtyard (weather permitting) and spend our time outdoors reading poetry. When inspiration strikes us, write poetry in your journal/notebook. Keep all poem drafts in your notebook.

The RULES:

• --Use the time in the courtyard to READ.
• --Use the time in the courtyard to WRITE. As during last class, observe nature and your surroundings. Then write these details in your journal/notebook.
• --Stay at least 10 feet from any other person in the class. Separate yourselves. Do NOT communicate with anyone during this assignment. Spend time SILENTLY reading and writing. Practice writing in silence without all that jabbering going on. If you need to: meditate.
• --NO TALKING. That means SHUT UP. Let your mind do the thinking. Give your mouth a rest. Note what happens to you creatively when you do this.

When time is called, please gather your things and we will return to the lab.

Ordinary Things, Poetry Walk; Module 1

This afternoon, please select a partner. This will be your poetry "buddy" for today.

With your buddy, take turns naming common items found in your house, in your yard, or common items people use everyday. Try to come up with a common list of about 20.

Then say good-bye to your buddy for a few minutes. Read SILENTLY the packet of poems by Ralph Fletcher (Ordinary Things). Spend 15-20 minutes reading silently. If you finish early work on module 1 in eLearning or wherever you left off last class.

After 20 minutes of reading, gather your belongings, grab a pencil/pen and your journal and/or notebook and await further instructions. Stand with your buddy and let's begin.

HOMEWORK: Please read the handout from last class "Line, Common Forms, and Verse that is Free" by Mary Oliver. As you read, please take notes on key concepts in these chapters. You should know the terms rhythm, meter, scansion, stanza, stanza forms, open and closed forms, and free verse. You may continue to work on the assignments in Module 1. More assignments will be added by next class. 

Poetry: Module 1

This afternoon, please log on to eLearning and begin MODULE ONE.

Additionally, spend some time today reading the article by poet Mary Oliver on Line, Common Forms, and Verse that is Free.

As you read, please take notes on key concepts in these chapters. You should know the terms rhythm, meter, scansion, stanza, stanza forms, open and closed forms, and free verse.

HOMEWORK: Please complete reading the chapter handout by Friday. Work on the module lessons for module one. Module 0 is past due. Complete any of these assignments as well, if you haven't yet done so.

Sections 8 & 9; Module 0 Deadline Looming!

Please turn in your homework. (see previous post for details).

During class, please read sections 8-9 of Pictures That Storm Inside My Head. As you read, consider the THEMES the poets use in each section. If you need help finding themes, examine this list of common poetry themes and see if you can apply one of these themes to the poem you are reading. Consider what clues or words the poet uses to communicate their point or theme.

Examine the groups of poems you read today and choose either section 8 or 9 to respond to. In your journal/notebook, write down some reactions both positive and, if applicable, negative to the poems in that particular section. Compare your style of poetry writing with those who have been published and are "famous." To hand in by the end of class today, please write a paragraph response evaluating the poems in either section 8 or section 9 (do not evaluate both). Use specific examples to support your response or opinion.

HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK RUBRIC:

Score 5: Assignment is done with care and shows depth and thought; all parts of the question are answered adequately with appropriate detail, support, or critical thinking.
Score 4: Assignment is done, but may show less depth than a 5 score; one part of the question may be incorrect or inexact; may have mechanical, formatting, or punctuation errors.
Score 3.5: Assignment is carelessly done; shows lack of depth or understanding; more than one part of the question is unanswered or incorrect; assignment is late. Comprehension is difficult due to mechanics, grammar, or formatting errors (fragments, incomplete sentences, inappropriate formatting, inappropriate punctuation usage, etc.)
Score 1: Did not complete assignment or turn in assignment

After completing the reading assignment, please continue to work on the assignments in eLearning Module 0.

HOMEWORK: Complete the assignments in MODULE 0 in eLearning. Complete your reading of Pictures That Storm Inside My Head. Bring your books with you to next class.

Part IV: The Houses That Our Fathers Built & eLearning Module 0

This afternoon, please take the first 10 minutes of class to read section 4: "The Houses That Our Fathers Built" (pp. 73-87). As you read, copy down any metaphors or similes you find in the poem collection. Keep this in your notes or writing journal.

After 10 minutes of reading, please find a partner for a collaborative poetry exercise.

The exercise is as follows:

1. With your partner, select 3 metaphors or similes from your list. If you didn't find any, apart from reading more carefully in the future, please create your own. Have these 3 metaphors or similes listed clearly between you and your partner.
2. Either you or you partner should name a specific letter of the alphabet. Choose ONE letter of the alphabet.
3. Starting with your chosen letter, together with your partner, create an opening line for a poem. The rule: you must start your line with a word that begins with the letter you chose. 
4. The next line should begin by continuing with the next letter in the alphabet.
5. You must use at LEAST TWO of your three metaphors somewhere in the poem. Your poem can be any length provided that it is done and good. 

Work with your partner to create your poem, then print it out and turn it in for participation credit.

When you have completed this exercise, please continue to work on MODULE 0 in eLearning.

HOMEWORK: Please complete a reading of sections V, VI, and VII (pages 89-143).
For each section (5, 6, and 7) choose ONE poem from that section and SUMMARIZE the poem by identifying the following:
A. The Speaker (who is speaking in the poem?) Provide a short description of the speaker.
B. The Situation (what is happening in the poem?) and
C. The Setting (where is a likely place, location, or season for this poem to occur?)

Be prepared to hand in your homework next class (Thursday, September 19).

Pictures That Storm: Section 3, Collaborative Writing

Today, during 7th period, please gather in your assigned groups.

Group A: Mitchell, Jaymee
Group B: Radezia, Karla
Group C: Tyshay, Austin
Group D: Saisha, Izzy
Group E: Isaiah, Joshua
Group F: Aleah, Jacob
Group G: Grace (Grace, join any group that is missing a partner)

Yasmine & Tyshon, or anyone missing/absent today, please do the writing task alone.

Writing Task: 
1. Read section 3 in Pictures That Storm Inside My Head: "In Twos and Threes They Whisper Past My House."
2. Taking turns with your partner, each of you should take turns to select a word from each of the poems you read in section 3. This should be a total of 8 words (there are 8 poems in section 3).  Each partner taking turns will pick 4 words (4 x 2 = 8)

Example: 

Partner 1's words: black, look, smile, schoolbus  (4 words chosen from 4 poems)
Partner 2's words: gunwale, tea, casts, strike (4 more words chosen from 4 other poems)

3. Partners will write 1 line of poetry beginning their line with one of the chosen words.

Example:

Partner 1's first line, beginning with one word from his/her list: Look at the sunrise in its beauty...

4. When your partner has completed a line of poetry, let the other partner select one of their chosen words and complete a second line of poetry.

Example:

Partner 2's line, (2nd line of the poem): Like a gunwale resting on the bow of a ship. 

5. Continue to do this until you have written 4 lines of the collaborative poem, and your partner has written 4 lines of the collaborative poem.

Example:

Look at the sunrise in its beauty
Like a gunwale resting on the bow of a ship.
Black stars invisible behind night's eyes
Strike us dreamers as a cold memory. Who will
Smile today after a shadow
Casts its net of grief over our heads?
A schoolbus of children is not as loud as our dreams who drink
Tea and chat about the empty promise of the day.

When you have composed your collaborative poem, please turn it in for participation credit.

In the lab, please continue to work on the assignments for MODULE 0 in eLearning.

HOMEWORK: None.

Key Vocabulary; Pictures That Storm - Section 2

This afternoon, let's take a look at SECTION 2 (41-58) of the collection "Pictures That Storm Inside My Head."

Let's start with "Beware This Poem" by Ishmael Reed, pp. 57-58

As we read this section, collect words, phrases, subjects, or ideas from the poems you hear and write them down on the word spill page. You may use this technique later when brainstorming an idea for a poem of your own.

Brainstorming is the FIRST STEP in the WRITING PROCESS.

Some Key Vocabulary to remember:

Theme: the main topic (idea) or subject of discourse in a written work or speech.

• There are typically 4 major themes in literature: Life, Death, Nature, Love. Each of these themes can be defined more specifically. For more themes, look here.

Connotation: the idea or feeling that a word creates or invokes in addition to its literal meaning.

Speaker: the persona or character writing the poem--this is not usually the writer. The writer is the REAL person writing the piece, but an author may use a PERSONA or mask, who is a fictional speaker from whose POV we receive information.

Setting: The location, time, season or weather patterns in a poem, play, or story.

Class/Homework: Work on MODULE 0 and the assignments for those lessons on our E-learning site.

Pictures That Storm Inside My Head - Part One & Module 0

Please review the "poetry reading strategies" handout at your desk. Keep this paper for easy access in you folder. The other side of this handout you will need for the reading assignment today. 

Let's begin today's class by reading some poetry. After you sign out the book Pictures That Storm Inside My Head, get into small reading groups of 2-4. Taking turns, read part one: "Pictures That Storm Inside My Head" (pg. 28-39) out loud with your group members. After reading the section, complete the poetry analysis handouts together, then turn in your work at the end of class today for credit. 

You may continue working on the assignments and material on the E-Learning site. 

HOMEWORK/CLASSWORK: Please complete Module 0 on the eLearning site by next week (Tuesday). Complete all the assignments and quizzes in Module 0 by 9/17/13.

Elearning, The Writing Process, & Introduction to Poetry

Today, please log onto our elearning log site and begin working on the assignments and material in MODULE 0. When you complete one exercise or lesson, go on to the next lesson in the module. You will be able to work at your own pace for much of this class.

ELearning log in site.

During period 8, let's stop to read some poetry. After you sign out the book Pictures That Storm Inside My Head, get into small reading groups of 2-4. Taking turns, read part one: "Pictures That Storm Inside My Head" (pg. 28-39) out loud. After reading the section, complete the poetry analysis handout together, then turn in your work at the end of class today for credit.

You may continue working on the assignments and material on the E-Learning site. Due dates for module 0 will be discussed soon.

HOMEWORK: None. Please bring your books back with you to class on Monday. We will be using them.

Welcome!: Class of 2016

Welcome back, class of 2016. Glad to see you! I hope all of you had a productive, safe, and enjoyable summer. Well, gosh, let's get back to work!

First a few housekeeping things. You can find our course criteria sheet on my teacher website (check link to the right).

Please check this blog each class period for agendas, deadlines, educational information, advice, and a whole lot of links to enhance your education. All you have to do is read and click. The more you take advantage of this tool, the easier it will be to help you improve and craft your writing. There's good advice here, you just have to pay attention.

If you're absent or missed something in class, please check the blog to get caught up. As stated above, each new class period includes a new post. If you have a question about an assignment and are too embarrassed to speak to me in public (or you have a question that you think you will forget to ask), feel free to use the comment section.

New on our link page is a link to our E-Learning Craft of Writing course. You will be expected to use the site to submit your writing, take quizzes, and move through the course on your own pace.

Today, after updating our passwords, logging in, and going over the finer points of the course criteria, we will get started writing. We'll start by reading Mary Oliver's advice to writers.

Portfolios & Last Class

Please prepare and complete your portfolios this morning. Everything missing should be turned in by the end of class today. Please save any files on a jumpdrive or by emailing yourself that you want to keep as our computers will be wiped this summer. Any personal files kept on the computers will be removed.

Have a nice summer and good luck on your finals!

If you have completed your work, here are a few gaming sites to enjoy:

Gamehouse
Addicting Games
Free Online Games

Portfolio & Reflection

After screening the completed films, please complete the following tasks today:

1. Take the film project survey (this should only take you a few minutes to complete)
2. Look through your portfolio. Remove any hand-written and homework assignments from it. Gather your fiction together, gather your poetry together, and gather your script drafts together.
3. If you have it, take out and read your letter to "The Enemies of the Writing Process" (see post:  )
4. Reflect on your progress as a writer this year. In a 2-4 page reflection (double spaced) reflect on what you did well, what you need more work or help on, and your overall growth that you feel you made this year. You may reference your English and Journalism classes as well. If you participated in any extra curricular activities, reflect on these as well (particularly how they helped or hindered your progress as a writer).

Your portfolio (with reflection) is due as your FINAL EXAM on Monday, June 10.

Film Project Due!

Please continue to work on your film project. It is due by the end of class today. Please allow 10 minutes or so at the end of class to render your film (this takes a bit of time!)

When you complete your film, please upload it to Youtube and send me the address link. You will also need to save your MP4 file on my jumpdrive for storage.

HOMEWORK: None. Congratulations on making a film!

Film Projects

Please use the time in the lab today to work on your film projects.

Our coffeehouse celebrating our senior class is occurring tonight. Feel free to stop by and participate! 7:00 in the Ensemble Theater.

HOMEWORK: None. You should plan to complete the shooting of your film by next class. Remember that editing takes a lot of time! Film projects are due June 4, Tuesday of next week. Please plan accordingly.

Film Project; Tips on Shooting a Film

1. Work on your film project with your group.

• Producers: get with your director and discuss time and schedule for the film project. You are running out of time. The film project is due by the end of the course. Set up a schedule that works within this boundary. Realize that editing takes time. Producers! It is your job to see that the project is completed by the deadline: JUNE 4, 2013!
• Directors: work with your actors, editor, technicians, cinematographer, etc. Find out people's schedule. When can you shoot the scenes you need to? Make a schedule and hand this to your crew. You may use class time to plan, shoot, edit, or trouble-shoot with your crew.
• Actors: get a copy of the script you are working on and read it. Prepare your scenes by reading and reading and reading the script. Memorize, if possible. Work with your director on scheduling scenes you are in, run lines with other actors, ask questions of the director for anything unclear in the script or with your character. Help out the crew or the director where needed.
• Writer: Be available to the director to change anything needing changing in the script. Yes, you may want your site locations to blow-up at the end of the film, but is this possible? (the answer is no, by the way.) As the writer, help out the editor and director by preparing a cast and crew list. You may also easily double as an actor, cinematographer, producer, director, crew, or editor. Complete jobs where needed.
• Cinematographer: Your job is to plan HOW the script is shot. Will you use a long shot or close up? Will you use high-key lighting or low-key? Will you shoot a scene with an oblique angle or a high angle or low angle? Go through the script and make some decisions. Create storyboards to help you visualize a scene. Take into account the writer's wishes, but feel free to change anything that will make your film project more visually interesting.
• Editor: Start working on the credits. You will need both opening and closing credits. You can do this even if you haven't started shooting your film yet. Use iMovie to create opening and closing credits. You can also help out by finding sound cues or stock footage. Prepare all sound cues as needed. If an actor has a VO (voice over) sequence, use class time to record the voice over (even if you haven't finished shooting the scene it is attached to). Once you have film shot, you may begin editing. I suggest the editor is NOT the director, although this may be unavoidable.
• Crew: Help out. If something needs to be completed, help your team get the film done on time. Like actors, be available to fill in and help where needed at any time. If the editor needs help, help. If the writer needs help, help. If the director needs help, help. You get the idea.

DO NOT WASTE CLASS TIME!

Check here for some advice about making a film (Please watch!):

• Basic Shot Types
• The 5 Deadly Sins of Amateur Video
• Basic Camera Movement
• 180 Degree and Other Sequence Shots

For the following clips, please watch the relevant clips during class today (i.e., if you are a cinematographer, then you should view the clips for the cinematographer...)

Director/Producer: How to Schedule a Film
Director/Producer: How to Plan a Movie (pre-production)
Director/Cinematographer: How to Shoot a Short Film
Director: How to Direct
Cinematographer: Shooting Tips
Cinematographer: Tips for Cinematography
Cinematographer: Tips for Angles & Locations
Editors & Cinematographer: Continuity Editing
Writers: Story Telling Tips
Actors: Acting in Film with Michael Caine

HOMEWORK: Shoot your film! Even if you can't complete the entire shooting, shoot some of your film this weekend--then plan to complete the film ASAP. You should really try to complete the shooting though, as your editor will NOT have time to complete the project in less than three class periods. Editing takes a lot of time!

Film Script Draft Due!

Your film script draft is due today by the end of class. Groups: help your writers accomplish this task. The director, actors, editor and producer can assist by suggesting lines of dialogue or suggesting camera shots, and details for the setting.

NOTE: writers! Consider limiting the # of actors you might need. A large cast is difficult to manage, schedule, and organize. You are not making a million dollar blockbuster here--this is just a school project.

Your script draft should be around 4-7 pages (with scripts no longer than 10 pages in length). Your film script drafts should have a definite beginning, middle, and end and tell a simple story. You do not have the length or time in this project to make your story too long or epic. Be reasonable.

I do expect your script to be written and turned in using proper script format. Apart from the handouts you should have analyzed, copious videos you should have watched, and the script sample I asked you to read for homework, and the link to the side of this blog (see film script format to your right), the following advice may be helpful:

Headings are CAPITALIZED in UPPERCASE and left justified:

1. Master scene headings include:
a) Camera location - EXT. (exterior or outside) or INT. (interior or inside)
b) Scene location (LOCAL RACE TRACK)
c) Time (DAY or NIGHT). NOTE: the day/night information is for the director of photography to decide which lens to use, and for the lighting designer to determine how much light is necessary for the scene. Some night shots in film are actually shot during the day (and vice versa)!
2. Secondary scene heading
3. “Special headings” for things such as montages, dream sequences, flashbacks, flash forwards, etc. are indicated in the heading.
4. Camera shots (camera shots MAY be noted in the heading, but are not required. In shooting scripts this becomes more important. The # of the shot and scene are also indicated in the heading line in shooting scripts. You are not writing a shooting script.

Narrative Description is left justified but not uppercase. It includes description of:

1. Action
2. Character and settings (what we see visually)
3. Sounds (including specific music or sound effect cues--diagetic and nondiagetic)
4. PROPS and CHARACTER names are CAPITALIZED within the narrative description. This helps actors and technicians find important information.

Dialogue:

1. The name of the character speaking appears at 2.5", in CAPS. (That's 5 tabs in!)
2. The actors' direction is separated by parenthesis and indented on its own line at 2". Try to avoid these as much as possible. Both the director and actor appreciate the writer letting them do their job. Keep adverbs short and succinct, if you must use them.
3. The speech. Is generally 1" in (2 tabs) or 1.5" (3 tabs) and blocked together (all aligned)

Camera Shot Abbreviations:

• CU (close up)
• LS (long shot)
• XCU (extreme close up), XLS (extreme long shot)
• FS (Full shot)
• Medium shots are default, so don't bother specifying them.
• MCU (medium close up; shot shoulder-to-head)
• WS (Wide shot)
• Establishing shot (sets up setting)
• Master shot (a shot indicating that the scene is shot over again from different camera positions so that there are various shots for editors to use)
• 2-S, 3-S (2 shot or 3 shot)
• OS (over-the-shoulder shot)

Film Editing Terms:

• Cut to (used as a clean transition from one scene to another)
• Dissolve (one scene image dissolves into another to indicate juxtaposition or comparison)
• Fade In/Fade Out (a slower transition than cut to:)
• Fade to (fade to black is default, often used to indicate the end of the film or a major act/scene; fade to white indicates transcendence or death)

Special Terms:

• POV (point of view)
• EXT (exterior)
• INT (interior)
• VO (voice over)
• SFX (special effects)

HOMEWORK: If you did not complete your draft today and turn it in on time, please complete the draft as homework and turn in late. Points will be deducted, of course.

Info About Your Film Project

Today, please work on your script. You should have your script completed by Wednesday. The script draft is due Wednesday, May 22. It should be between 4-10 pages in length. Please do not write a script that goes OVER ten pages, as that will be too long for your project. You will be graded on your creativity, accurate script formatting, and effort as translated into page length. 

Once your script draft is written, prepare to shoot your fictional film project. Schedule and organize what steps need to be completed by the end of this week. The final film project is due TUESDAY, JUNE 4. It will take some time to film and edit your film. Usually editing takes between 3-4 class periods. Once you have some of your script ready, begin shooting footage. See previous posts for more information about what members of the film project team should be doing with their time in lab. Do not waste your time...

The film project (treatment, script, digital film) and a final exam in the Craft of Writing will determine your marking period grade.

HOMEWORK (extension): I am giving you an additional two days to complete your previous homework (reading a film script). In order to get a better understanding of formatting and writing a film, please choose and read a film script of your choice for Wednesday, May 22. If you missed any of the videos from last class, please watch these.

Script Writing

Using your treatment, please begin writing your script. You should use proper script format. Check the link on the side of this blog page for details if you have forgotten them.

The best stories, say some critics involve this structure:

• A who that must do (Action or Cause) something so that (some Effect) something won't happen.

or in other words:

• A character (usually your protagonist) who must do X in order that N won't happen.
• A character is often driven by his/her desire to a specific goal. The story, then, is what gets in the way.

Dialogue
Writing Dialogue - 4 minute film (Video)
Writing Screenplays that Sell (Video)

Writing Better Screenplays
Entering a Scene
How to Write a Script

Script Format
Script Format video (part one)
Script Format video (part two)
How to Format a Movie Script
Writers: Story Telling Tips

HOMEWORK: If you didn't write more than 2 pages today, please get caught up by completing at least 2 pages of your script for homework.

Student Film Sample

Here are a few examples of documentaries, PSAs, and short student films:

I Dream of Zucchini (Winner of the High Falls Film Festival: Young Filmmaker's Award, 2011)
PSA: Stay Focused by Zach Gilbert-Mahoney
Gus Cuddy, Harrison Frank, & Gracie Elliot PSA: Toothbrush
Treiste Mobile by Zach Gilbert-Mahoney (2012)
Post Mortem (2010 winner of the High Falls Film Festival Young Filmmaker's Award)
Kadisha Philips: The Nicki Syndrome (2010) & Teen Point of View: Teens Around the World (2010)