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.