Agenda:

Friday:

• continue working on the Dialogue story:
  • a decent first draft is due on Tuesday for peer review

Thursday:

• today you will begin the process of writing a short, short story (2 – 3 pages)
• the instructions for it are in the short story tab of the blog
• the first draft of the story is due Tuesday, April 9 for peer review – arrive with a printed paper copy!
  • sharing your writing for constructive feedback from someone other than the teacher is a good thing 🙂

Agenda

• Discussion of Dialogue Activities assignment – have out on your desktop, while I am going around, skim through the podcast transcript
• Scales – Prompt:
  • In any POV that you want, focus on one of the Afghan girls who no longer is allowed to go to school, and write a short scene where she has a conversation (dialogue) with her mother about her desire to go confront the Taliban at the school; the mother does not want her to go because she is afraid for her daughter.
  • if the the mother/daughter scene does not interest you then choose another ‘scene’ from the transcript where a conversion can occur; for instance, between the Muay-Thai teacher and one of the girls; which ever one you choose, make sure you focus on dialogue:
    • what conversation would reveal the fear, anguish, frustration and anger of being told you can’t go to school because you are a girl?
    • try to use one or two of the writing tips by Jenkins, which you should have summarized in your homework.
  • the two sections from the transcript with the background details might help you: part of the transcript

Agenda

I hope that you all had a wonderful break!

• Today – you will be reading and writing!
  • start with a Scales Free Write for 10 – 15 mins – many of you went on trips over the break – maybe there is something to source out of those memories… maybe a poem or a rant or travel blog style scale about the power of understanding different perspectives on the world through being in different places in the world. Traveling is like putting on a new pair of glasses, which not only broadens and shifts our view of the world, but we look at our identities differently as well.
  • but whatever you choose to write, make sure you are incorporating: Sentence Variation for Creative Writing as well as NEW devices and techniques – 10 Rhetorical Strategies
  • THEN… complete all of the Dialogue Activities, including READING the Hemingway story; I will be checking on Wednesday for formative assessment (homework) marks
    • These are on the Short Story Tab, but I have put them here as well:
      • Hills-Like-White-Elephants-Hemingway-Ernest
      • Dialogue Activities

Agenda

Wednesday:

• a quick discussion of the Dialogue assignment – in the Short Stories Tab (you will need ear-buds)
• begin the interviews outside in the hall

Tuesday:

• continuation of the Scales assessment activity
• Assessment interviews start tomorrow

Monday:

• Read something from this website – Teen Ink – a great online magazine of Teen Writing – settle into something quickly
• word on your Assessment and Reflection for your Scales – all materials are in the Experimental Writing Tab
  • a reminder that the interviews begin Wednesday – we will spin a random number wheel generator for who goes first and then it will proceed alphabetically from there
  • a reminder that when a student is with me, the rest of the class will be working a new assignment
  • I need to interview each class:
    • Wednesday is a short day (60 mins)  – so four or five people at roughly 8 mins each
    • Thursday and Friday = regular schedule (80 mins) means 7 people on each day at roughly 8 mins each
    • so, please be ready, organized, and practiced for the time given with your work printed off for you to present/discuss with me