If I were in charge of Creative Writing...

"If I Were In Charge of the World" by Judith Viorst

If I were in charge of the world
I'd cancel oatmeal,
Monday mornings,
Allergy shots, and also Sara Steinberg.

If I were in charge of the world
There'd be brighter nights lights,
Healthier hamsters, and
Basketball baskets forty eight inches lower.

If I were in charge of the world
You wouldn't have lonely.
You wouldn't have clean.
You wouldn't have bedtimes.
Or "Don't punch your sister."
You wouldn't even have sisters.

If I were in charge of the world
A chocolate sundae with whipped cream and nuts would be a vegetable
All 007 movies would be G,
And a person who sometimes forgot to brush,
And sometimes forgot to flush,
Would still be allowed to be

In charge of the world.

Directions:

What would you do if you were in charge of the writing classroom? Use Judith Viorst's poem as a base and then just let your imagination run free. Fill in the blanks with your creative details and descriptions from the point of view of being the one to make all the big decisions.

Go to this website: http://shortstoryideas.herb.me.uk/

Choose 3 of the options, mark your post with the ideas, and write a SHORT story based on your findings.

Example:

Character: Mabel McDonald--Your character is 40 years old, 6ft tall, with light brown eyes and brown hair. He/she is introverted and dedicated but can be outspoken and is scared of dogs.

Random: Coat, shyness, snoop.

A Twist in the Tale: A minor error ends all hope of success.

WRITE!!!!

Bryson Writing

Read Chapter One: http://books.google.com/books?id=PMrOyq6uAfMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bryson+bill&hl=en&ei=hTvVTczvCMPq0QHg9KydDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Write a creative response:

1) Write about connection to Grundy or Iowa.
2) Write using a comedic style.
3) Write about your future--stay or not to stay, that is the questions.
4) Write about someone like Mr. Piper.
5) Choose your own path...

Quote Writing

Use the quote as inspiration in any way you see fit. Genre doesn’t matter!

Suggestions:
• Write something centered around the topic of the quote.
• Take one word and use it to describe or act out.
• Use it as your title.
• Use all the words somewhere in a piece.
• Use it as your first line.
• Use it as your last line.
• Play devil’s advocate and disagree with the quote.

DON'T LIKE THE SUGGESTIONS? COME UP WITH A BETTER IDEA!!! :)

Portfolio Reflection

Write a minimum one-page reflection describing your journey this trimester. The following questions should guide you through this writing. Do not, however, simply answer the questions.


o What are my strengths as a writer?
o What writing habits do I have?
o What problems do I encounter when I write?
o Which is my best work—and why?
o Which is my worst work—and why?
o What are your goals for the future?

As a separate piece, please evaluate your group’s effort, collaboration, and performance pertaining to your group short story.

EDITING CHECKLIST

1) Tools: Spelling and Grammar

HOW to edit:
1) Read through the essay for each type of common error
2) Read essay aloud
3) Read the essay in chunks—edit a paragraph and take a break, repeat
4) Read essay backwards
5) Have a partner read essay!!!!!

WHAT to edit:
1) I indented paragraphs when needed and created paragraphs/stanzas when needed.
2) Check for punctuation marks: Do I have periods, commas, questions marks, where needed?
3) Check for quotation marks: Do I need qoatation marks and do I use them properly?
4) All proper nouns and sentence starters are captilatlized.
5) All my sentences contain a noun and verb.
6) All my sentences are complete thoughts.
7) I do not have any run-on sentences or fragments.
8) I checked for homonyms and usage errors
9) I considered my line starters and enders for emphasis
10) I considered the punctuation marks for emphasis.

PORTFOLIO CHECKLIST

I have demonstrated:
• a variety of writing styles and genres
• used common structure for each genre
• used common elements of a genre
• incorporated a variety of craft: snapshots, thoughtshots, explosions, dialogue and crucial moments
• engagement in a revising process
• engagement in a editing process

My Portfolio includes:
• Personal Essay: This I Believe
• 3 Vignettes
• 2 Pieces of Choice
• 3 Place Writings
• Group Short Story

Revising Goals

1) Read and assess the peer feedback.
2) Evaluate the feedback based on personal purposes.
3) Separate feedback into categories based on merit.
4) Create three obtainable and purposeful goals for the revising proces

Create a post defining and explaining those goals. The post should explore possible trouble spots and inquires that may arise.

Comment on each others' posts using the praise, question, or advice strategy.

Response Prompts

Peer response is to encourage and motivate students to revise:

1) add
2) delete
3) rephrase, reword
4) rearrange

PRAISE—WHY???

• I like…
• I enjoyed…
• I connected with…
• You did a good job of…
• I remember when…
• Nice use of…

QUESTION

• Can you tell me more about…?
• What was happening when…?
• Can you describe this so that…?
• What thoughts were…?
• How did this happen?
• What was said?
• What does this look like?
• What senses were evoked here?
• What was going through “your” mind when…?

ADVICE

• Could you use a different word here?
• What do you think about…?
• I wonder if…
• Would you consider…?
• What would happen if you stopped, started…here?
• Could this be two separate pieces?
• What if you rearranged…?
• Could this…
• What if…
• Is it possible…

DO make comments like:
how did the character feel at this time? was he scared? upset? or did he not care?
i like how you used a flashback
How did this action play out? Can you provide more details on the physical parts?

DON"T make comments like:
delete?
maybe change to something else
?

Place Writing Techniques

SNAPSHOT

EXAMPLE in POETRY: A Place in Winter by Stephen M. Holt

The hands on the clock face of night
Strike the eternal moment,
Shiver two brittle shadows
Like bones strewn upon starkness.

The old man and his old hound
Walk the icy fringe, again,
To the boy who sleeps
Among the wind-licked stones.

THOUGHTSHOTS

SAMPLE in POETRY: Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what,
we must eat to live.

The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the
table so it has been since creation, and it will go on.

We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe
at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.

It is here that children are given instructions on what
it means to be human. We make men at it,
we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts
of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms
around our children. They laugh with us at our poor
falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back
together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella
in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place
to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate
the terrible victory.

We have given birth on this table, and have prepared
our parents for burial here.

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table,
while we are laughing and crying,
eating of the last sweet bite.

DIALOGUE

EXAMPLE in POETRY: Ballad by A.R. Ammons

I want to know the unity in all things and the difference
between one thing and another
I said to the willow
and asked what it wanted to know: the willow said it
wanted to know how to get rid of the wateroak
that was throwing it into shade every afternoon at 4 o'clock:
that is a real problem I said I suppose
and the willow, once started, went right on saying
I can't take you for a friend because while you must
be interested in willowness, which you could find nowhere
better than right here,
I'll bet you're just as interested in wateroakness
which you can find in a pure form right over there,
a pure form of evil and death to me:
I know I said I want to be friends with you both but the
willow sloughed into a deep grief
and said
if you could just tie back some of those oak branches
until I can get a little closer to mastering that domain
of space up there–see it? how empty it is
and how full of light
why I said don't I ask the wateroak if he would mind
withholding himself until you're more nearly even: after
all I said you are both trees and you both need water and
light and space to unfold into, surely the wateroak will
understand that commonness:
not so you could tell it, said the willow:
that I said is cynical and uncooperative: what could
you give the wateroak in return for his withholding:
what could I give him said the willow, nothing
that he hasn't already taken:
well, I said, but does he know about the unity in
all things, does he understand that all things have a
common source and end: if he could be made
to see that rather deeply, don't you think he might
give you a little way:
no said the willow he'd be afraid I would take all:
would you I said:
or would you, should the need come, give him a little way
back:
I would said the willow but my need is greater than
his
and the trade would not be fair:
maybe not I said but let's approach him with our powerful
concept that all things are in all
and see if he will be moved

EXPLOSIONS

EXAMPLE in POETRY Egrets by Mary Oliver

Where the path closed
down and over,
through the scumbled leaves,
fallen branches,
through the knotted catbrier,
I kept going. Finally
I could not
save my arms
from thorns; soon
the mosquitoes
smelled me, hot
and wounded, and came
wheeling and whining.
And that's how I came
to the edge of the pond:
black and empty
except for a spindle
of bleached reeds
at the far shore
which, as I looked,
wrinkled suddenly
into three egrets - - -
a shower
of white fire!
Even half-asleep they had
such faith in the world
that had made them - - -
tilting through the water,
unruffled, sure,
by the laws
of their faith not logic,
they opened their wings
softly and stepped
over every dark thing.

How does the writer affect place?

Read "A Writer's Sense of Place" by Louise Erdrich

Think about: How does a writer affect place?

Answer the question and incorporate five lines from the text as a blog option for the week.

How does culture affect place?

READ "A Gravestone Made of Wheat" by Will Weaver

Shine, Perishing Republic by Robinson Jeffers

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening
to empire
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the
mass hardens,
I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots
to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and deca-
dence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stub-
bornly long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains:
shine, perishing republic.
But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thick-
ening center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there
are left the mountains.
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant,
insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught--they say--
God, when he walked on earth.

For the Children by Gary Snyder

The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
the steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.

In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

ASSIGNMENT:Choose important line from each of the pieces read today and create a found poem. It is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing, reorganizing, reworking them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines or altering the text by additions and/or deletions. Use all three pieces within your Found Poem to capture the main idea—how does culture affect place?

How does landscape affect place?

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms, water bodies such as rivers, lakes and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of land use, buildings and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions.

ASSIGNMENT: Take a look at the landscape that you drew and write two different pieces: superficial and beyond superficial. Here are to examples, the first is a superficial writing and the second is an example of beyond superficial. Post to blog.


from “American Gothic—Farm” by David Hamilton

But we were a farm family, almost, the town being half of what I knew. My father and uncle farmed together in the river bottoms north and west of us. Floods were frequent enough to discourage homebuilding out there, so we lived in town and commuted. A rectangle of land, a mile and a half by a half mile, my father and uncle having cleared most of it, the farm was a patchwork of fields, the front field, the new field, the middle field, the house field, the long, narrow field, and the north field. An eminence there was really little higher than a hog’s haunch, unless it was the remnant of an old levee, and there was no house in the house field, only a stack of rough-milled boards, that had been one. We played on an abandoned combine, left for its value in odd parts.
The north field was heavy with gumbo, and in late summer usually well cracked; the front field had sand loam. Half circles of timber, with cottonwoods soaring tallest, stood east in the middle and west in the long, narrow fields. Drainage ditches ran west to east at several places; one of those, bordering the middle field opened on a marsh with cattails, willows, and redwing blackbirds. A dogwood patch rose out of it onto higher ground, curving back into the middle field. I don’t remember any dogwoods, but it was a patch my father and uncle well remembered clearing. Then they left a strip of woods, about the width of a field, between the front and new fields, a reminder to my brother, my two cousins, and me of what the farm had been. Thick with cottonwood, wild plum, mulberry, box elder, and soft maple, it suffered our paths, our hideouts, our approaches to a raccoon’s tree or the fox’s den.


"Gravely Run" by AR Ammons

I don't know somehow it seems sufficient
to see and hear whatever coming and going is,
losing the self to the victory
of stones and trees,
of bending sandpit lakes, crescent
round groves of dwarf pine:

for it is not so much to know the self
as to know it as it is known
by galaxy and cedar cone,
as if birth had never found it
and death could never end it:

the swamp's slow water comes
down Gravelly Run fanning the long
stone-held algal
hair and narrowing roils between
the shoulders of the highway bridge:

holly grows on the banks in the woods there,
and the cedars' gothic-clustered
spires could make
green religion in winter bones:

so I look and reflect, but the air's glass
jail seals each thing in its entity:

no use to make any philosophies here:
I see no
god in the holly, hear no song from
the snowbroken weeds: Hegel is not the winter
yellow in the pines: the sunlight has never
heard of trees: surrendered self among
unwelcoming forms: stranger,
hoist your burdens, get on down the road.

How does weather affect place?

Lightning by Mary Oliver

The oaks shone
gaunt gold
on the lip
of the storm before
the wind rose,
the shapeless mouth
opened and began
its five-hour howl;
the lights
went out fast, branches
sidled over
the pitch of the roof, bounced
into the year
that grew black
within minutes, except
for the lightening - the landscape
bulging forth like a quick
lesson in creating, then
thudding away. Inside,
as always,
it was hard to tell
fear from excitement:
how sensual
the lightning’s
poured stroke! and still,
what a fire and a risk!
As always the body
wants to hide,
wants to flow toward it - strives
to balance while
fear shouts,
excitement shouts, back
and forth - each
bolt a burning river
tearing like escape through the dark
field of the other.

The Weather Shifts by Arthur Sze

Unemployed, I recollect setting a plumb
line for the doorjambs to a house,
recollect nailing a rebar through two corbels
locked in a 60˚ angle into a post; and
smell unpicked cherries, fragrant,
in the dark rich earth. It is a pellucid
night in January: and the mind has its
own shifts in weather: a feel for light
from a star, or for a woman’s voice,
a recognition of the world’s greed,
of a death march on the Philippines, or
of being shot by an arrow dipped in curare.
Drinking tequila, I watch the moon
rise slowly over the black hills; a bird
sings, somewhere, out in the junipers.


Assignment:
1) Read a chapter in Leaning into the Wind: A Memoir of Midwest Weather by Susan Allen Toth. Choose whichever chapter seems interesting to you.

2) Write a reflection/connection response to all three pieces—free write, Leaning into the Wind chapter, and poem of choice—from today looking at what you observe, what you question, and what you interpret about place. How do these help shape your concept of place? Post to blog.

Energy of Place

James Engelhardt: “I've been thinking a lot about what sustains creativity. The bedrock answer is, as it is for all sustainability projects, energy. Energy, for my writing, comes from the land I'm in, the animals and other life I share the land with, and culture. All of these things add language, the material I work with, they direct my attention beyond the bony shell of my own, limited skull, and they excite the chemical-electrical wilderness of my brain. Plus, a bit of focus.”
Retreived from http://riverofplay.typepad.com/river_of_play/ecopoetic_theory/


Discussion: What do you think Englehardt means by energy?

Read: "Stewards of Memory"by Martha Bergland. Highlight important passages. Create 5 questions for discussion: in the text, around the text, beyond the text.

Discussion: How does she describe a romantic place? What would she attribute as the energy of place?

Read: “Homing In” chapter by Jack Driscoll in Imaging Home: go to books.google.com and search for it; read pages 51-60

Assignment: As you are reading, post 7-10 “major” passages concerning the overall ideas of place. These passages should “point” out the themes. Write down each passage, incorporate page number, and post on your blog. THEN, choose one passage to respond to. Comment on how this helps you define your place, forms your opinions, or whatever you find pertinent when exploring “place.”

Final Project--What is place?

* Explore the different elements of place.
* Read a variety of texts to gain insights on your place.
* Answer the question "What is Place?" through four separate writings.
* Three of your choice; at least two genres
* One reflection, synthesis identifying what place means to you.
* Week One and Two: exploration
* Week Two and Three: drafting and revising

Editing Guidelines

1) Proper Heading: Your Name, My Name, Class, Date
2) Times New Roman, 12 pt font
3) Creative Title
4) Tools: Spelling and Grammar

HOW to edit:
1) Read through the essay for each type of common error
2) Read essay aloud
3) Read the essay in chunks—edit a paragraph and take a break, repeat
4) Read essay backwards
5) Have a partner read essay

WHAT to edit:
1) Capitalize first word of every sentence and proper nouns AND use a punctuation mark at the end of every sentence
2) Variety of sentence structure and word use
3) Look for fragments and run-ons
4) Watch for subject/verb agreement
5) Watch for pronoun agreement
6) Commas where necessary (compound, some complex, and compound-complex, introductory clauses
7) Eliminate 2nd person (you, we, us)
8) Eliminate contractions (can’t = cannot)
9) Eliminate vague words (things, stuff, ideas…specifics)
10) Eliminate unnecessary words or wordiness

Week 7 Reflection

Write at least one paragraph reflecting on what you have accomplished as a writer this trimester. Think about where you started and where you are at today. How have you improved? What has helped you? What do you still want to learn? Where do you want to go from here? What processes have you enjoyed? What processes have you disliked? Some or all of these questions can be addressed in a paragraph or two. DO NOT WRITE IN QUESTION-RESPONSE FORM. The writing needs to address what is pertinent to you. This will not only help you realize what you've accomplished, but will also help mold the rest of the trimester.

Crucial Moment

How to find it...
• Who is the most important character?
• When is the biggest moment?
• Where would you make a slow-motion movie scene?
• What is the most vital word, phrase, or sentence?
• When does the most exciting scene, character unveiling, etc. happen?
• Where does the piece take a turn?

THESE are your crucial moments…so, what should you do with them?

Make the reader feel, see, understand every aspect of that moment:

1) Slow Motion: make a second last a paragraph, a moment a page…
2) Tint a Moment: focus only on thoughts, dialogue, setting, or feeling
3) Suspense: purposefully describe everything but one aspect, then unveil
4) Full-blown Moment: snapshot + thoughtshot + dialogue
5) Mix EVERYTHING together!

EXAMPLE:

Fig Pudding by Ralph Fletcher

But as the plates were cleared away, and everyone started eyeing the sweet table, I started getting this funny feeling in the pit of my belly. Nate sneaked a smile at me. Cyn looked down at her fingernails. Teddy caught my eye; his face looked serious, almost too serious. Mom and Dad were sitting directly across from each other but they avoided eye contact when Aunt Pat put the bowl of fig pudding onto the table.
“Ah!” Uncle Billy said. He smacked his lips.
“My favorite!” Aunt Marilyn said.
“There are so many other great desserts,” Dad was saying. “I think I’m going for Grandma’s blueberry pie.”
“Pass down that fig pudding!” Uncle Eddie cried. “I’ve been dying for that pudding all week!”
The bowl got passed down. Uncle Richie passed it to Nate who passed it to Aunt Marilyn who passed it to me who passed it to Mom who passed it to Uncle Eddie. Uncle Eddie weighed two hundred sixty if he weighed a pound, and he had a tremendous appetite. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him put two large dollops of pudding into his bowl. He took a bite. I tried not to look, but I couldn’t help it. Suddenly, he sat up. Looked at Dad. Took another bite.
“Say!” Uncle Eddie said to my father. “This is dee-li-cious! I mean it! The best fig pudding you ever made. Did you add some new ingredient this year?”
“Not really—“ Dad began, but he stopped as mom made a funny sound, half gulp and half choke. She put her napkin to her mouth, got up, and quickly rushed into the kitchen.
“Excuse me,” Dad said, getting up to follow her.
“You really ought to try this fig pudding,” Uncle Eddie was saying, digging in again. “Terrific stuff!”
“Scuse me,” I mumbled, rising and pushing back my chair.
I found Mom and Dad at the small kitchen table, leaning against each other, eyes closed, tears running down their faces. Dad’s shoulders were shaking. He grabbed his gut, as if in pain. Mom was red-faced, gasping for breath.
“Some new ingredient!” Mom choked, and they both let out a howl of laughter, almost a scream, a wild animal sound that startled me as it rang out and bounced off the walls and brought the other kids in our family running into the kitchen.
“Good job, Dad!” Cyn said with a huge grin.
“Couldn’t have made it without Josh,” Dad said, cracking up again, falling against Mom. And suddenly I was laughing, too. We all were, laughing hard, mouths open, roaring, barely able to stand.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” a voice boomed. Uncle Eddie’s big face looked down sternly at us. The very sight of him made everyone laugh even harder.
“Some new ingredient!” Dad said, still red-faced and squeezing his belly. “I can’t stand it!”
Uncle Eddie had a confused look on his face.
“Everything all right?” he asked. Behind him, Grandma Annie’s face appeared.
“What on earth are you all laughing at?” she demanded.
“It’s just…so…funny!” Dad said, shrugging and laughing some more. Uncle Eddie walked over and punched Dad lightly on the shoulder.
“Hey, nice pudding, Clifford,” he said with a big smile. That cracked up everybody again. He shrugged and left. Grandma Annie stayed behind, a bemused look on her face, watching us gasp and belly laugh, with the tears running down our faces.

Revising Ideas

1. Making a Scene: highlight places of action, dialogue, snapshots, thoughtshots in different colors to see where and often you use each element…more, less?
2. Questions: share with a partner and ask them to write down ANY question that comes to mind as long as it is not a yes/no question; fill in those gaps
3. Highlight the center of gravity in each paragraph—the sentence that sticks out; that is core, crucial, provocative. Rewrite a few paragraphs focusing just on that sentence.
4. Journal what you would do if you had one more hour with this draft.
5. Choose a moment rather than span. Rewrite that.
6. Writing an opposing paragraph to your claims.
7. Play transition cop; highlight your transitions and explain how each functions
8. Play devil’s advocate; insert comments: counterargument or what you think an editor might say.
9. Enjoy the company of others; add another character throughout your story
10. Create a list of questions and answer them within your text.
11. Write a prescription for your draft. What diseases does it have? How would you fix this?
12. Take your draft and write a letter to yourself or a character to help analyze the meanings, details, etc.
13. Rewrite a narrative into a fact-based and vice versa such a narrative into an essay or an essay into a narrative
14. Change the point of view: first, second or third person
15. Find the past in the present and relate those in your writing such as your grandfather has passed away but your mom has the same nose as him
16. Find a powerful word, sentence, metaphor, image, etc. and find a way to pattern this throughout your piece
17. Find words, sentences, images, structures from a model text and imitate that somewhere within your piece
18. Explore points that are almost but not quite said and write more deeply or when purposeful, overemphasize these
19. Play with time: straight time, modified time, cinematic time, photographic time, collage time
20. Take one or two key words from a piece already written and start anew

Peer Response Prompts

Peer response is to encourage and motivate students to revise:

1) add
2) delete
3) rephrase, reword
4) rearrange

PRAISE—WHY???

• I like…
• I enjoyed…
• I connected with…
• You did a good job of…
• I remember when…
• Nice use of…

QUESTION

• Can you tell me more about…?
• What was happening when…?
• Can you describe this so that…?
• What thoughts were…?
• How did this happen?
• What was said?
• What does this look like?
• What senses were evoked here?
• What was going through “your” mind when…?

ADVICE

• Could you use a different word here?
• What do you think about…?
• I wonder if…
• Would you consider…?
• What would happen if you stopped, started…here?
• Could this be two separate pieces?
• What if you rearranged…?
• Could this…
• What if…
• Is it possible…

Types of Endings

THE LOOP ENDING Ends at the same place it begins. Works well with a flashback writing. LORD OF THE RINGS, SAW

THE SURPRISE ENDING Usually has a twist to it that takes the reader by surprise. Works well with a mystery. THE WIZARD OF OZ

THE SUMMARY Repeats the main points of a story, trying to tie together any loose ends. Works well with message heavy writing. NEWSCAST

THE HAPPY ENDING Leaves the reader with no feeling of sadness. Works well with fairy tales. CINDERELLA

THE SAD BUT TRUE ENDING Ends the way reader doesn't want it to know but knows it has to. Works well when happiness would be a lie. CHARLOTTE'S WEB

Poetry Element Examples

Can you pick out the poetry elements that are used in the following poems?

"Did You Never Know?" Sarah Teasdale

Did you never know, long ago, how much you loved me --
That your love would never lessen and never go?
You were young then, proud and fresh-hearted,
You were too young to know.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T. S. Eliot

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells

Badlands Mary O. Fumento

Chasm and canyon
Carved into the land
Epic face of time
A space of creation
And slow change
Formation of rock
Rivers cutting through
Indentations
Swelling of earth
Gentle, rolling slopes
Gaping, edged depression
Opening new worlds

Fate is a wind, and red leaves fly before it
Far apart, far away in the gusty time of year --
Seldom we meet now, but when I hear you speaking,
I know your secret, my dear, my dear.


Breakthrough Mona Hodgson

God breaks through
chaos,
cries,
chatter
not with fiery
condemnation or
condescending concern
but with a whisper –
“I care.
I love you!
Come away,
spend time with me.”

Replacing
chaos with gentleness,
cries with comfort,
chatter with communion
He speaks peace.

London, 1802 William Wordsworth

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room. William Blake

"Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"
said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
"Our traveling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?"

They arranged themselves at the window
and counted the steps of the sun,
and they both took root in the carpet
where the topaz tortoises run.

from The Raven Edgar Allen Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

The Lead Board

SNAPSHOT LEADS: Create a picture in the reader's mind.

Abraham Lincoln wasn't the sort of man who could lose himself in a crowd. After all, he stood 6 foot 4 inches tall, and to top it off he wore a high silk hat. His height was mostly his long bony legs, and when he sat in a chair, he seemed no taller than anyone else. Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman

TALKING LEADS: Maybe you want to start with a line or two of dialogue.

"Where is Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

THINKING LEADS: Start with a thought inside a character or you.

Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinarily polite to everyone. Well, it makes sense. With all the enchanted princess and disguised wizards and transformed kings and so on wandering around, you never know whom you might be talking to. But dragons are a special case. Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

MISLEADING LEADS: Set up expectations, then surprise the reader.

I would like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not terrified and screaming like the other people in the car. Prairie Home Companion by Garrison Keillor

SET-UP LEADS: Set-up the action for the whole story in a few sentences.

This is not a book about my life or yours. It does not hold the secret to success or salvation. It won't strengthen your self-esteem. I don't think it will get me on Oprah. I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional by Wendy Kaminer

THINK ABOUT HOW YOU MIGHT ADAPT THESE TO ANY FORM, GENRE OF WRITING...

What do you want to learn?

Is there an aspect of your writing you want to improve on? Is there a strategy, genre, writing aspect you want to more about? POST IT HERE! This will help me guide the mini-lessons for the next two weeks.

Choice Responsibilities

For the next two weeks, you are to:

1)Write, write, write.

2)Revise, revise, revise.

3)Make three posts of choice each week. Post 5-6 responses each week.

4)Submission #1 due Thursday, April 14 at 11:59 p.m.

5)Submission #2 due Thursday, April 21 at 11:59 p.m.

6)Continue revising personal essay and vignettes

7)Work on group short story

USE YOUR TIME WISELY BECAUSE AFTER THIS WEEK, WRITING FREE TIME WILL BECOME MINIMAL.

BASIC INTERVIEW OUTLINE:

The point of an interview is to find out what is interesting about the other person.

ASSIGNMENT: Interview a classmate as a possible (character, conflict, etc.) for a piece

Beginning Questions: simple question easing into the interview

What’s your name?
Where do you live?
Who are your parents?
Other family members?
What are your hobbies?

Starter Questions: deeper questions getting a feel for the person

Do you get along well with…?

Who do you admire the most?

Who is your best friend?


Follow-up Questions: probing questions stemming from starter questions

Tell me about your relationship with…?

What do you think about…?


Kicker Question: detail questions prodding to the heart of the matter

HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?

Event Poetry

A Birthday Poem

Ted Kooser

Just past dawn, the sun stands
with its heavy red head
in a black stanchion of trees,
waiting for someone to come
with his bucket
for the foamy white light,
and then a long day in the pasture.
I too spend my days grazing,
feasting on every green moment
till darkness calls,
and with the others
I walk away into the night,
swinging the little tin bell
of my name.

Character Poetry

A Blind Woman

BY TED KOOSER

She had turned her face up into
a rain of light, and came on smiling.

The light trickled down her forehead
and into her eyes. It ran down

into the neck of her sweatshirt
and wet the white tops of her breasts.

Her brown shoes splashed on
into the light. The moment was like

a circus wagon rolling before her
through puddles of light, a cage on wheels,

and she walked fast behind it,
exuberant, curious, pushing her cane

through the bars, poking and prodding,
while the world cowered back in a corner.

Time Poetry

Late February

BY TED KOOSER

The first warm day,
and by mid-afternoon
the snow is no more
than a washing
strewn over the yards,
the bedding rolled in knots
and leaking water,
the white shirts lying
under the evergreens.
Through the heaviest drifts
rise autumn’s fallen
bicycles, small carnivals
of paint and chrome,
the Octopus
and Tilt-A-Whirl
beginning to turn
in the sun. Now children,
stiffened by winter
and dressed, somehow,
like old men, mutter
and bend to the work
of building dams.
But such a spring is brief;
by five o’clock
the chill of sundown,
darkness, the blue TVs
flashing like storms
in the picture windows,
the yards gone gray,
the wet dogs barking
at nothing. Far off
across the cornfields
staked for streets and sewers,
the body of a farmer
missing since fall
will show up
in his garden tomorrow,
as unexpected
as a tulip.

Place Poetry

Abandoned Farmhouse

BY TED KOOSER

He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm--a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.

Object Poetry

The Giant Slide

BY TED KOOSER

Beside the highway, the Giant Slide
with its rusty undulations lifts
out of the weeds. It hasn’t been used
for a generation. The ticket booth
tilts to that side where the nickels shifted
over the years. A chain link fence keeps out
the children and drunks. Blue morning glories
climb halfway up the stairs, bright clusters
of laughter. Call it a passing fancy,
this slide that nobody slides down now.
Those screams have all gone east
on a wind that will never stop blowing
down from the Rockies and over the plains,
where things catch on for a little while,
bright leaves in a fence, and then are gone.

Writing Prompts

Think of a flaw that has gotten you in trouble, such as laziness, procrastination, spending too much money, losing your temper, cheating, being a slob, being a perfectionist… Give this flaw to a character, about your age, and place him/her in a specific setting (school, work, home, etc.). Describe this character’s looks, personality, behaviors. Know what music s/he likes, what’s on his/her walls, favorite movies, etc. Then place the character in a specific conflict based on the state flaw.

Vignette Reflection

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” Joan Didion

Write a reflection on the process/progress you have made so far with your vignettes. Use the quote above as a framework for your thoughts about vignettes:
What are you thinking?
What are you looking at?
What do you see?
What does it mean?
What do you want?
What do you fear?

EXPLOSIONS

When a moment is slowed waaaay down for the purpose of painting a frame-by-frame picture for your reader…

THINK ABOUT: slow-motion scenes in a movie WHEN? WHY? HOW?

Instead of saying "He walked through the doorway."


He grasped the cold doorknob and turned it slowly to the right.  He pushed the door inward.  The hinges squeaked and cold air rushed past the opening door.  The room was dark.  He darted his eyes to the right.  Nothing.  He pushed the door open a little farther, and slowly moved his right foot into the room.  His shoe creaked a bit as it hit the polished hardwood floor.

Where could you explode a moment in this description?

I woke up late this morning--as usual. I had no clean clothes and the fridge was next to bare. Traffic was heavy as I sped to work. Some jerk cut me off and I almost had a wreck. At work I went to my desk and there was a note to go and see the boss. I waited outside her office for a while before she called me in. I couldn’t figure out why she wanted to see me. I went inside and sat down. My boss handed me an envelope. She told me that my services were no longer needed and that I was free to go. I got my belongings from my desk and left. The drive home was quick. I am now unemployed.

Vignette Response

Today's workshop is going to allow you to choose what you want to share and what responses you want.

1) Create a post on your blog, title it whatever you wish, and post any portion of your vignette. Place an author's note at the top if any explanation is needed to understand your piece.

2) At the bottom select the type of response you wish to receive:

BLESS: If you feel that your piece is very personal and do not want it to be critiqued heavily, you might ask for a responder to bless it by simply offering praise.

ADDRESS: Inviting readers to address the piece means that you have specific questions about it, such as about character development, snapshots, thoughtshots, etc. If you choose this option, please provide the specific question you wish the responder to address.

PRESS: If you want a reader to press in the response, you are willing to accept any critiques that could help you move toward a stronger version of your writing.

3) Respond to at least three other posts. When doing so, use the pointing technique. Point out a specific line by copying and pasting it into your comment box and then comment directly to that line. You may need to do this more than once in any given comment.

Thoughtshots

Thoughtshots provide the reader with a character(s)' inner-most thoughts about what is happening. What is s/he feeling? What is s/he questioning? What is s/he saying inside?

In fiction and creative-nonfiction writing, thoughtshots can be divided into different categories:

Flashbacks: a character thinks back about something that has already happened.
o She remembered the day he came for the first time. He was a little boy then…
o He remembered the first time he saw snow...

Flash-aheads: a character thinks about something that is going to happen or might happen in the future. Writers often use flash- aheads when a character is trying to make a decision.
o She thought about her opinions. She could go there and pretend it never happened. She could tell him everything. She could buy a plane ticket to Bermuda with the money…
o She thought about going to the new school. What would it be like? Would she have friends?

Internal dialogue: a character thinks about what is happening at that moment.
o There was no way she could do it. She knew that, but still her feet kept moving, one step after another. She thought about why she was doing this but there was no way she could make sense of it.
o He thought about what the teacher had just said. His mind raced, but he didn’t know the answer. Why did she call on him?

EXAMPLE:

The Old Woman Who Named Things
by Cynthia Rylant (Harcourt, 1996)

Thoughtshot #1 (Internal Dialogue or Flash-Ahead) from page 14:
• It was a very pretty puppy, she thought. But it couldn’t stay. If it stayed, she would have to give it a name. And it could never last as long as Franklin or Fred or Betsy or Roxanne.

Thoughtshot #2 (Internal Dialogue) from page 21:
• The old woman sat and thought about the shy brown dog who had no collar with a name. Wherever it was, no one would know that it was supposed to come to the old woman’s gate every day, that she was supposed to feed it and tell it to go home every day, that things were always supposed to be this way.

Thoughtshot #3 (Flashback) from page 24:
• The old woman thought a moment. She thought of all the old, dear friends with names whom she had outlived. She saw their smiling faces and remembered their lovely names, and she thought how lucky she had been to have known these friends.

NOTE: thoughtshots can happen at anytime. These thoughtshots can be intermixed, short or long as long as the thoughtshot helps the reader understand the character better and helps understand his or her actions or provides a vivid picture of a memory or emotion or tells a lot about how the character is feeling about a future event.

Snapshot

What did you see? What did you hear? What did you smell?
What did you feel? What did you¬ taste?


Writers are like photographers with giant zoom lenses, observing life in incredibly fine detail, pulling back to make sweeping generalizations, then zooming in again to make those generalizations come alive with detail. SHOW the image rather than tell. Don’t write about how bad your day was at school. Describe the inky pen stain on your pants, the scab forming on your grass-stained knee, the smashed peanut butter sandwich which was supposed to be your lunch…

EXAMPLES:
He thought he was the handsomest guy in the Western Hemisphere. He was pretty handsome too—I’ll admit. But he was mostly the kind of handsome guy that if your parents saw his picture in your Yearbook, they’d right away say, “Who is this boy?” I mean he was mostly a Yearbook kind of handsome guy. Catcher in the Rye—J.D. Salinger

Pieces of tree, pieces of metal, pieces of seat and wing gleamed in the moonlight. Some of the plane lights remained on, so what was left of the plane twinkled in a friendly way. The plane was immense. It seemed impossible that such a huge thing was ever airborne. It looked bigger and longer than a house, garages, and stable. Like some incredibly large, white celestial cigar suddenly ripped in pieces and thrown to the ground. Flight #116 Is Down—Caroline B. Cooney

Their bodies are discolored by paint. Some of men are huge and muscular to the point of deformity, their legs wrapped comically called braccae—breeches. There is no discipline among them: they bellow at each other and race about in chaos. They are dirty and they stink. A crone in a filthy blanket stirs a cauldron, slicing roots and bits of rancid meat into the concoction from time to time. How the Irish Saved Civilization—Thomas Cahill

The hands on the clock face of night
Strike the eternal moment,
Shiver two brittle shadows
Like bones strewn upon starkness.

The old man and his old hound
Walk the icy fringe, again,
To the boy who sleeps
Among the wind-licked stones.
A Place in Winter—Stephen M. Holt

THINK ABOUT:

* Think about or list the sensory questions. Answer them.

* What emotion, mood, or tone do I want to convey?

* How can I put these “answers” into my story?



A few words of caution:
Don't list each sense in turn. It sounds sing-songy and rote. It is far better to focus on the most powerful details, and the senses that lead the reader to your intended feeling.

Also, don't lock yourself into a tone. It's entirely possible that you'll sit down to write with a specific idea in mind, but find that it changes. That's normal. Part of the writing process is that the act of writing unlocks the subconscious, allowing old ideas and memories to take root in new, fertile soil.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Select a segment of your writing that you feel needs an emotional impact, suspense, or realism.

2. Either mentally or physically list the sensory details (various sights, smells, tastes, feelings, and sounds) of this segment. Zoom your camera in to see the close details, or zoom it out to see the big picture.

3. Use your list to determine the feeling you’re attempting to convey. For example, if you are looking to discuss regret—circle the sensory images that are connected to it. Likewise, do the same for any other emotion—joy, peace, serenity, etc.

4. Write and trust the process. Again, don’t be surprised or upset if you veer off the course. The act of brainstorming was still time well spent.

5. When you’re ready, copy and paste it to THIS blog. We all can learn from your wisdom!

USE THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES FOR WORD HELP:

http://www.msgarrettonline.com/descripwords.html

http://www.examples-help.org.uk/parts-of-speech/list-of-adjectives.htm

http://www.esldesk.com/vocabulary/adjectives

Vignette Examples

Read the following vignettes. Reflect on:

* What is the possible theme?

* What stands out to you?

* What do like the best?

* How is each piece the same? Different?

Vignette Prewriting

Assignment: You will be writing at least three vignettes focused on a particular topic. This should be bio-fiction in nature.

“Fact and Truth really have nothing to do with each other.” William Faulkner

“Beauty—of form, of language, of meaning—always takes precedence over mere accuracy, truth over mere facts. The successful memoirist respects facts, uses them, rigorously represses the human impulse to lie or embellish, but knows that truth is different from facts, and greater than facts, and not always their sum.” Bill Roorbach

“Fiction is already at work in what he remembers. No deception is intended, but he wants to see clearly what is invariably, intrinsically vague. So he imagines. Image-making is indivisibly a part of remembering.” Wright Morris

Prewriting Strategy

1. If you had to summarize your personal belief essay in five words, what they be?

2. Use the clustering technique to write brainstorm vignette ideas. Begin with a word that has meaning for you (from #1) and write it at the center of the page and circle it. Then brainstorm other words, writing them in circles and connecting them with lines to the center word. (webbing)

3. Decide on one idea to write about. It could be a single word from your cluster exercise or a group of words related to one idea.

4. Pick an image that represents the idea you want to explore in your vignette. For example, write about the bravest person you've ever known if you want to explore courage. Find a quiet, comfortable place to free write for 10 minutes. JUST WRITE; don't stop; don't worry about grammar, spelling, etc.

5. Post some portion of your prewriting on your own blog. Share what you feel may give us a sense of your direction but also a possible direction of our own.

What's a Vignette?

What is a vignette

a. A short, usually descriptive literary sketch.
b. A short scene or incident
c. A small illustrative sketch
d. A picture, illustration, or depiction in words

The vignette focuses on one aspect, mood, character, setting or object.


Lights
Stuart Dybek

In summer, waiting for night, we’d pose against the afterglow on corners, watching
traffic cruise through the neighborhood. Sometimes, a car would go by without its
headlights on and we’d all yell, “Lights!”
“Lights!” we’d keep yelling until the beams flashed on. It was usually immediate—
the driver honking back thanks, or flinching embarrassed behind the steering wheel, or
gunning past, and we’d see his red taillights blink on.
But there were times—who knows why?—when drunk or high, stubborn, or simply
lost in that glide to somewhere else, the driver just kept driving in the dark, and all
down the block we’d hear yelling from doorways and storefronts, front steps, and other
corners, voices winking on like fireflies: “Lights! Your lights! Hey, lights!” (34)

Reflect: What do you notice? What do you like? What questions does it raise for you? What does the vignette mean to you?


My Name from House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros

In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horse--which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female-but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.

My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it.

And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she sorry because she couldn't be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window.

At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as sister's name Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least- -can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza. would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody sees. Esperanza as Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do.

Reflect: What do you notice? What do you like? What questions does it raise for you? What does the vignette mean to you?

Over Break...Do Something Creative

For your third and final blog post for week 2, I want you to post something creative. Write ANYTHING! This could have any topic, content, and form. I don't care what it is...just be creative :)

Here are some prompts that might help you get started. Don't feel restricted to use any of these or feel free to adapt in any way you wish. HAVE FUN!!!


Creative Writing Exercises
Compiled by Catherine Reid

Creative writing exercises, like any kind of warm-up routine before playing a sport or a musical instrument, help loosen up your imagination while honing your writing muscles. The goals of the prompts below: clear, lively writing that uses specific images, well-chosen verbs and precise nouns, that “shows, rather than tells,” and that avoids clichés.

The prompts:

1) Describe a “first” (first apartment, first kiss, first time driving a car, first lie, first big success, first roller coaster ride, first time in this setting). Include as many details as possible, being sure to include an aspect relating to each of the five senses.

2) Describe a memorable event, positive or negative, and how it felt to you, but do not name the feeling. Instead, tell how it felt in your body (damp hands, metallic taste, tight throat, wobbly knees, etc.).

3) Create a story using words of one-syllable only, beginning with a phrase such as:
“The last time I saw her, she...”
“From the back of the truck...”
“On the night of the full moon...”
“The one thing I know for sure…”

4) Describe a significant place, allowing the details to reveal why the place matters. Describe it from a tree or rooftop or from a hawk’s point of view. Describe it from the height of a dog or a turtle.

5) Write the map to where you live. Start as close or as far from your home as you wish.

6) Describe a significant person (teacher, neighbor, mentor, coach, parent, sibling, sweetheart) with as many physical details as possible, but no clichés! (If you’ve heard the expression before, don’t use it.)

7) Write about your first name—why you were given it, what associations or stories are attached to it, what you think or know it means. Do the same for your last name. Given the chance, what name would you give yourself?

8) Describe a presence in your house (childhood home/current place of residence)—a person, a pet, a piece of furniture, an illness, a secret. Use all five senses. Be as detailed as possible.

9) Recall a photograph from your life and describe it in a way that suggests (but doesn’t specifically name) why it matters. (Remember the creative writer’s adage, “Show, don’t tell.”) Describe what happened either just before or just after the photo was taken.

10) Choose a photograph from a published collection of black-and-whites, of humans in uncertain conditions. Write the story of one of the individuals or one of the groupings.

11) Narrate a story about a person or a family member, a story that’s been passed down or ritualized; a story about yourself. Embellish, if so desired, or contrast the story with what you know to be the “true” account.

12) Describe a routine or holiday ritual, using present tense verbs.

13) Describe a routine or holiday ritual, using the 2nd person “you”:
For example, “You stand in the steaming kitchen with people you haven’t seen in almost a year. You wish your shirt didn’t have that tiny stain on the cuff. You wish your aunt’s laugh wasn’t quite so brittle. Feet stomp on the porch and you hurry to let your tall uncle in, forgetting to keep the dog from escaping outside…”

14) Choose a moral dilemma (for example, you see someone pocket several items at a CVS; you’re in a car at night, with people you don’t know well, and the driver hits a dog that ran into the road; you learn that a friend is having unprotected sex, etc) and explain what you would do. More importantly, explain why you would do it. What do you know about yourself that accounts for such a decision?

15) Create a short story that is 26 sentences long, each sentence beginning with the next letter of the alphabet. (Add other, arbitrary conditions, if desired, such as one sentence should be one-word long; there should be one question mark, one quotation, etc.) Rigid rules often produce fascinating results—such as with well-written sonnets, which have 14 lines and tight rhyme schemes, each line governed by a specific number of syllables and alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.

16) Create a still-life in the room that implies a dramatic moment (e.g. an overturned chair, several balled-up pieces of paper, an open map, a torn envelope, a set of keys, a silk scarf). Describe what happened either just before or just after that moment.

17) Review a section from the Police Beat or Classified Ads of a local newspaper. Choose one and tell the story behind it.

18) Describe the room of one of the following: a high school student about to drop out; a cashier who has just won the lottery; a faded movie star who still thinks she's famous; a paranoid person, etc (see full list of suggestions in What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers). Be as detailed as possible.

19) Create a how-to manual for something you can do well (clean a fish, change a flat tire, restring a guitar, make sushi, shop for groceries). Describe the process so that someone else could complete the task based on your directions. Use present tense verbs.

20) Come up with a list of nouns and a second list of verbs, all of one syllable each. Describe a scene or situation, using a minimum of ten words from each list.

Thought to Share

“The fear of exposure by writing is a rational fear. But in the act of exposure, writers discover themselves.” Donald M. Murray

Through this first writing experience, I hope that you have begun to find your self--both as a writer and as a human being!

Revising Reflection

Before submitting the next draft, you must write a reflection thinking about the revisions you've made. This is called a talk-back reflection. This gives you the chance to respond to your reviews. Thoughtfully explain, defend the choices you made while revising. Think about what you did, why you did it, and how it has improved your writing. Also comment on revising comments/issues that were helpful, problematic, confusing, or whatever comes to mind.

Please post this 2-3 paragraph reflection on your blog. Again, respond to your peers with support, questions, or advice.

Editing Guidelines

1) Proper Heading
2) Times New Roman, 12 pt font
3) Creative Title
4) Five paragraphs—each indented
5) Tools: Spelling and Grammar

HOW to edit:
1) Read through the essay for each type of common error
2) Read essay aloud
3) Read the essay in chunks—edit a paragraph and take a break, repeat
4) Read essay backwards
5) Have a partner read essay

WHAT to edit:
1) Capitalize first word of every sentence and proper nouns AND use a punctuation mark at the end of every sentence
2) Variety of sentence structure and word use
3) Look for fragments and run-ons
4) Watch for subject/verb agreement
5) Watch for pronoun agreement
6) Commas where necessary (compound, some complex, and compound-complex, introductory clauses
7) Eliminate 2nd person (you, we, us)
8) Eliminate contractions (can’t = cannot)
9) Eliminate vague words (things, stuff, ideas…specifics)
10) Eliminate unnecessary words or wordiness

Personal Essay Revising Goals

1) Read and assess the peer feedback.
2) Evaluate the feedback based on personal purposes.
3) Separate feedback into categories based on merit.
4) Create three obtainable and purposeful goals for the revising proces

Create a post defining and explaining those goals. The post should explore possible trouble spots and inquires that may arise.

Comment on each others' posts using the praise, question, or advice strategy.

Specific and Authentic Feedback Guidelines

1) The purpose is to motivate, engage, and encourage others in the revising process.
2) Create a positive environment through authentic feedback.
3) Understand that no paper is perfect and the writer is rarely satisfied.
4) Revising is focused on content and content only. Do not worry about grammar, conventions and mechanics.

PRAISE
Give positive feedback that affirms and connects to the text.

Affirmations: giving support to useful, meaningful, and effective content

Connections: demonstrate points of personal connection

QUESTION
Point out areas of concern through questions allowing the reader to make his or her own decisions.

Adding Information: ask questions that pertain to what you want to know more about

Clarifying Information: ask questions that pertain to what you need to know in order to better understand

Deleting Information: ask questions that pertain to identifying the focus

ADVICE
Recommend at the most three areas of further direction

Push: suggest ways the author can go beyond what is already stated

Explore: suggest other avenues or approached the author may want to consider

Direction: suggest strategies or tools that may be useful in obtaining your recommendations

Personal Essay Reflection #1

As you are continuing through the writing process with your Personal Essay, I want you to write a 2-3 paragraph reflection. A reflection is thinking about your thinking and pondering on what has happened thus far.

Some items to consider: (please do not respond to these as question/answer...this is written in paragraph form and only respond to those that apply. Also, feel free to incorporate aspects that are not mentioned below).

1) What have you done thus far?
2) What is going well with you? Why?
3) What has been the hardest part? If you have overcome it, how?
4) What do you fully understand? How?
5) What do you not understand?
6) Where are you going from here?
7) Triumphs? Fears? Frustrations?

Create a new post on your blog and title it Personal Essay Reflection #1.

Be sure to comment on others' blogs with praises and suggestions. (total for the week = 5-6 responses)

This I Believe Statement

It is now your turn to write your own This I Believe statement. Use today's activities for examples and here are more taken directly from published This I Believe essays.


I believe in Ivy. She was my youngest sister. She died in a plane crash with my father when she was sixteen.

It doesn’t always make sense to me but when ambiguities such as grace and love manifest themselves, I’m moved by the clarity they bring.

“Baby, people do what they do. What you got to do is be the best that you can be.”

I believe that the world is inherently a very dangerous place, and that things that are now very good can go bad very quickly.

If I have one operating philosophy about life it is this: “Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it’s good luck.” Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy.

I believe in fighting fear.

My success, I believed, came in asking the right questions.

POST YOUR BELIEF STATEMENT BELOW.

What Is a Personal Essay?

• An essay which emphasizes a personal, subjective view

• Focused on a belief or insight about life that is significant to the writer

• Often combines elements of narrative and memoir

Personal Narrative: Focused on a significant event
Personal Memoir: Focused on a significant relationship between the write and
a person, place, or object

• Structured similar to an essay with an introduction, body and conclusion

• Contains a thesis (This I Believe statement)

• Builds upon ideas, reveals significance in the end

TASK:
1) Split into three groups and read a selected reading (one personal essay, one personal narrative, and one memoir).

2) While reading Question the Author
* Look for the author's purpose (topic). What is the author trying to say?
* Identify effective supporting details (methods). How does the author say it?

3) Discuss findings with your group.

4) Split into eight different groups each containing a personal essay, personal narrative, and memoir. Share out and determine similarities and differences.

This I Believe Introduction

THIS I BELIEVE: Create an Effective Personal Essay

From 1951 to l955, Edward R. Murrow hosted This I Believe, a daily radio program that reached 39 million listeners. On this broadcast, Americans—both well known and unknown—read five-minute essays about their personal philosophy of life. They shared insights about individual values that shaped their daily actions. The first volume of This I Believe essays, published in 1952, sold 300,000 copies—more than any other book in the U. S. during that year except for the Bible. In fact, these Murrow broadcasts were so popular that American high school students are being encouraged to compose essays about their most significant personal beliefs.

Fifty years later, This I Believe, Inc., and NPR are again inviting Americans of all ages and all perspectives to examine their belief systems and then write a 400- to 500-word personal essay.

I believe in the power of simple questions.

I believe government is a verb: the collective effort of well-intentioned individuals.

I believe government is a verb: the collective effort of well-intentioned individuals.


Brainstorm: Personal Writing Prompts
Choose one as a prompt for an entry on your blog. Give it a title, copy and paste the prompt, and then answer the questions.

1. Most of us have been in a situation where we made a promise that for one reason or another we were unable to keep.
When were you disappointed because someone made you a promise that they failed to keep? Or when did you break a promise that you made to someone else?

2. We all tend to judge people by their appearances, even though looks can be deceiving.
Have you ever prejudged someone incorrectly based on their appearance or has someone ever prejudged you unfairly based on how you look?

3. All of us are works in progress with a long way to go before we reach our full potential.
In what skill or area are you still working to make progress?

4. Everyone has problems or challenges to overcome.
What obstacles are you proud to have faced and conquered?

5. Our society uses the word hero in many different ways?
How do you define hero, and who is a hero in your life?

6. There is a famous adage: "To err is human, to forgive divine.”
When did you feel divine because you were able to forgive someone for their mistake? When did someone act divine by forgiving you when you were wrong?

Writing Perspective

Create a new post on your blogspot account. Write a creative writing piece that answers the following question:

What do you think about writing? (formal, creative, journaling...any kind of writing)

All responses are welcome, BUT they must be in a creative writing format, such as a poem, character sketch, short anecdote, lyrics, drama, etc. Two examples have been provided for you as comments below.

GO WILD! BE CREATIVE!

WELCOME!!!

Welcome to the classroom blog for our writing workshop experience. You must first begin by creating your own blog account.

STEP ONE: ...if you do not have a blog
Go to your gmail (gcspartans.net) account and sign-in
At the top select the 'more' link and move to 'even more'
Select the Blogger application "Create an Account" (blue box?)
Follow the steps. YES, YOU MAY USE YOUR CELL PHONE or someone else's. Also, make sure you use your school email account (gcspartans).
When you get to "Blog Title," make it your name. I would put the same thing as your Blog Address (the actual URL you will use).
Choose a background template
The next screen will say "start blogging." This is where you can enter your first post. I would like you to first create a bio post. (kind of like your Facebook info)

STEP ONE: ...if you do have a blog.
Sign in to account
View Profile and/or Select Dashboard
Select "Create a Blog" right of Manage headline
When you get to "Blog Title," make it your name. I would put the same thing as your Blog Address (the actual URL you will use). Make this specific to Creative Writing course.
Choose a background template
The next screen will say "start blogging." This is where you can enter your first post. I would like you to first create a bio post. (kind of like your Facebook info)



STEP TWO:
Now is the somewhat trickier part. :)
Open another window and go to "http://gccw2011.blogspot.com/"
That is our class home page. You are going to join this page as a follower.
Click on the "follow" button.
Select "google" since our gcspartans accounts are google
It will ask you to login again (use your blogger password, not your school password)
It will ask you if you want to follow publicly. Say yes and hit "follow this blog"
Your account is now attached to the class page, but you need to attach your page as a link.
You will see your name on top next to a blank picture box (you have to be logged in to your blogger account for this to work).
Click on "options" and select "site settings"
Click "add links" and enter the url from your blog and your blog title.

EXTRA INFORMATION
Your blog will now be linked to the class home page. As you get more skilled in blogging, you will want to add a picture to you link so the boxes on the class page do not all look the same (If this hurts your brain, just ask and I can help you). You just click on your box and go to "edit settings," then you can edit your photo.

Now, whenever you enter a writing selection, all you have to do is create a new post (TOP RIGHT) on your page. That's it. Then anyone who wants to look at your writing can access your blog from the class page.



Happy blogging!