Brochures Due!; Thief of Always Exercises

Please complete your brochures. Make sure you proofread your brochures for grammar and design mistakes. Make sure your name is on your brochure's opening flap (the third column of the first page). Print your brochure and hand in. PLEASE: DO NOT FOLD OR STAPLE YOUR BROCHURE!

After completing your brochure today, please do either or both of the following classroom assignments:

A. Read A Thief of Always. Use your time in the lab to continue reading silently on your own.
B. Choose any of the following writing exercises and write.

Chapter eight-thirteen:

10. Pg. 80; Tell a water story from your real life; describe a time when you encountered water.
11. Pg. 81; Describe a precious item you lost or that was stolen from you.
12. Pg. 83; Describe a dream you have.
13. Pg. 89-92; Describe a transformation or explore the possibility of being something else. What would you like to be? Why?
14. Describe a time you witnessed or participated in the death of a living being.
15. Pg. 130. An appositive is a description of a named noun. It is used after a comma to clarify or provide further detail to something already identified. Carna is described in a series of appositives (the appositive phrase is italicized): “Carna, the tooth-stealer; Carna, the devourer; Carna, the beast.” Use the appositive to describe an object or person.

This covers the first half of the book. The book is divided into two parts. The first part of the book has 13 chapters. The second does as well. There are 26 chapters in all. Why do you think Barker divided his book in this manner?

Part Two: 

Chp. 14-26

1. Pg. 139. Start a story with the sentence: “He knocked on the door…” continue the story.
2. Describe a time in your life when you wished that time would move faster or slower.
3. pg. 153. Draw a picture of a house or place. Use this drawing to start a story or poem set in that location.
4. Pg. 194. Describe your attic or a fictional attic. What sorts of things are there in the dark?
5. Pg. 199. Start a story or poem with the line: “There were five doors ahead of him.”
6. Chp. 20 – Have a conversation with an inanimate object. What might it say or believe?
7. Pg. 220. Oh, to be a vampire again…. Start a poem with a similar line. Choose a noun that you would want to be “again” and use this repetition (like pg. 220) to create verse.
8. Chp. 23. Write about the war between two or more inanimate objects. What would they argue about? Who might win?
9. Describe a time when you stole or thought about stealing something.
10. Pg. 266. Start a poem, story with the line: “The days were…”

PLEASE USE YOUR LAB TIME EFFECTIVELY IN THIS CLASS TODAY! DO NOT SPEND YOUR TIME TALKING OR DISTRACTING OTHERS, OR SURFING THE INTERNET FOR UNRELATED MATERIAL, OR LISTENING TO MUSIC, OR USING YOUR CELL PHONE.

Our creative writing lab is for writing and writing projects. Please honor these simple rules and respect your classmates by maintaining a quiet writing lab where we can focus on our writing.

HOMEWORK: Please complete the book A Thief of Always. There will be a test on the book and its motifs on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Thief of Always; Brochure

This morning, please choose any of the writing prompts below and write in your journal. After twenty minutes, we will switch back to working on our brochures. Your brochures are due (completed) next class.

But first, write as many of these journal exercises in your journal (or type them up). You will use these prompts in another writing exercise next class. If you finish before the twenty minutes is up, you can either select another prompt and keep writing, or spend your time reading The Thief of Always.

More Journal ideas for the Thief of Always:

Chapter Four - Seven:

1. Pg. 33; “Another day, another dollar.” Collect sayings that your parents or family use. List these sayings in your journal. Start a poem with a saying and explore its meaning or relevance.
2. Pg. 46; “This was a place where dead things belonged.” Start a description of a setting with the words: “this was a place where…” Perhaps turn your list into a catalog or chant poem.
3. Pg. 49; The description of autumn. This passage uses a lot of imagery: appealing to our senses through words that recall a touch, taste, smell, sound, or sight. Pick a season and, using imagery, describe it without naming it.
4. Pg. 55; The description of the musty room with the masks. Barker uses effective imagery here as well in this passage. You should note that the most important detail is left for last and that there is a build up of details. Write a description of a room, leaving the most important detail for last. (he does this again on page 56 when describing clothes).
5. Wendell’s practical joke (pgs. 59-62). Write about a time you played a practical joke on someone or when someone played a practical joke on you.
6. Pg. 68; Make a list of things you would like for Christmas. Add to your list odd items that may be impossible to find or get. Be creative!
7. Pg. 70-72; Describe an old gift given to you many years ago or describe a favorite gift. Where is this gift now, or what happened to it? Explore this exercise in a poem or short vignette. 

Homework: Please keep reading The Thief of Always. Attempt to complete the book by the end of the week. A test on the book will occur next week (Nov. 4).  

Brochures & Thief of Always: Chapters 1-3

This morning, please take a look at this short video about creating effective brochures.

To create your brochure:

In Microsoft Word or Pages, from the FILE menu, please select New From Template.

Choose BROCHURE as a template. Create a brochure about your chosen genre by following the steps below. Be creative. Play around with design and how you present the information in a clear, and creative way. You may use graphics and lists to provide answers to these questions:

1. Describe this genre. What is it?
2. Who is the target reader (a fantasist, a realist, a pragmatist, or what combination?)
3. What are some expectations a reader of this genre might expect?
4. What are some categories of this genre? AND what are the expectations a reader might expect from this genre?
5. Examples of some popular or famous books or films that fit this genre; and/or examples of authors who write in this type of genre.

For more tips about effective brochures, check out this article!

During period 4, we will stop where we are and move back to our reading assignment and writing task with the book The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.

During period 4, get into small reading groups. Please gather with your group and begin reading the book. Take turns reading the chapters out loud. This is PRACTICE in reading effectively--a skill we all need to improve, particularly for our upcoming coffeehouse reading performance. Try to be sincere, energetic, and read with some understanding of audience. Don't bore your peers! Group X has been disbanded because they could not work together. Please see your new groups:

Group Z: Reyenne, Janelys, Justice, Amanda, Jahde, Kiera, Hetep, Robert
Group Y: Olivia, Jasmina, Rashid, Gilda, Frieda, Rosalia, Aslin
Group W: Alannah, Kadesha, Nandi, Avana, Cameron, Leilanis, Kami

When you have completed reading chapters 1-3, please stop and participate in the writing exercise given to you today. Record your writing for this exercise in your journal. When you have finished writing, please continue reading ON YOUR OWN.

HOMEWORK: Please complete the writing and continue reading through at least chapter 5.

Types of Readers; The Genre Brochure Project; The Thief of Always

Please take the next few minutes to read about the different kinds of readers. You should take notes in your journal, as we will return to this concept time and again in this course and for the next four years.

At our level writing is a great way to express yourself. But make no mistake. Writing is a business.
Readers often select books similar to previous enjoyment. If a reader enjoyed a fantasy, the reader is most likely to continue reading fantasy, for example. There are 3 general types of readers that a writer should be aware of:

• Fantasists: readers who read to escape the tediousness of ordinary life, seeking new frontiers and imaginative fiction
• Realists: readers who read about contemporary life to learn about or reinforce personal experiences
• Pragmatists: readers who read for a specific purpose--from cooking to learning history or science

Most of us favor one or two of these styles when we read. Our tastes can change depending on our life experience and maturity. Well read and well rounded readers enjoy all types of reading styles at some point in their life.

Readers also become loyal to writers so that once you read Stephen King, for example, you might devour as much of his work to make you sick of his style before tearing into another author's work. Publishers count on this to occur.

In today's writing market there are a variety of genres that writers tend to write. Knowing what readers expect from these genres will help you as a writer give your audience what it wants. So let's learn about them!

Please sign up for a genre group. You will read about this genre, take notes, and present what information you can to the class.

Classroom Project/Task

• Choose one of the genres listed on the sign up sheet going around. Work with your listed partner on this project.
• Together spend some time today researching the genre you have chosen. Take a look at the questions bulleted below. You will want to be able to answer these questions in your brochure.
• In Microsoft Word or Pages, from the FILE menu, please select New From Template.
• Choose BROCHURE as a template. Create a brochure about your chosen genre by following the steps below. Be creative. Play around with design and how you present the information in a clear, and creative way. You may use graphics and lists to provide answers to these questions:

1. Describe this genre. What is it?
2. Who is the target reader (a fantasist, a realist, a pragmatist, or what combination?)
3. What are some expectations a reader of this genre might expect?
4. What are some categories of this genre? AND what are the expectations a reader might expect from this genre?
5. Examples of some popular or famous books or films that fit this genre; and/or examples of authors who write in this type of genre.

During period 4, we will stop where we are and move on to our next assignment/task. Go to the library and pick up the book: The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.

When you return, we will get into small reading groups. Please gather with your group and begin reading the book. Take turns reading the chapters out loud. This is PRACTICE in reading effectively--a skill we all need to improve, particularly for our upcoming coffeehouse reading performance. Try to be sincere, energetic, and read with some understanding of audience. Don't bore your peers!

Group Z: Reyenne, Janelys, Justice, Amanda, Jahde, Kiera
Group Y: Olivia, Jasmina, Rashid, Gilda, Frieda
Group X: Hetep, Rosalia, Leilanis, Aslin, Kami
Group W: Alannah, Kadesha, Nandi, Avana, Cameron

HOMEWORK: Please bring your books back with you next class. Otherwise, none.

End of Marking Period; Literary Genres

This morning, please take 5 minutes to review your notes for our unit test on Communication. Please turn in your journals (make sure your name is on or in your journal). After the test, please complete your 2nd poem draft that we started last class. If you finish early, please move on to the following key topic today:

Literary Genres: (taken from the article: Genres of Literature) 

• Narrative Nonfiction is information based on fact that is presented in a format which tells a story.
• Essays are a short literary composition that reflects the author’s outlook or point. A short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.
• A Biography is a written account of another person’s life.
• An Autobiography gives the history of a person’s life, written or told by that person. Often written in Narrative form of their person’s life.
• A Memoir is an account of a writer's experiences or life events in narrative form. Unlike autobiography, the emphasis is on the story of a true experience, not truth or accuracy itself.
• Speech is the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to express one’s thoughts and emotions by speech, sounds, and gesture. Generally delivered in the form of an address or discourse.
• Finally there is the general genre of Nonfiction. This is Informational text dealing with an actual, real-life subject. This genre of literature offers opinions or conjectures on facts and reality. This includes biographies, history, essays, speech, and creative or narrative non fiction.

Genres of Fiction:

• Drama is stories or work that is written for performance and dramatic art. This genre is stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical or film performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action.
• Poetry is verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that evokes an emotional response from the reader. The art of poetry is rhythmical in composition, written or spoken. This genre of literature is for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
• Fantasy is the forming of mental images with strange or other worldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality.
• Humor is the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical. Fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement which meant to entertain. This genre of literature can actually be seen and contained within all genres.
• A Fable is a story about supernatural or extraordinary people Usually in the form of narration that demonstrates a useful truth. In Fables, animals often speak as humans that are legendary and supernatural tales.
• Fairy Tales or wonder tales are a kind of folktale or fable. Sometimes the stories are about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children.
• Fantasy is a story based on improbable or imaginative settings, events, and characters. It often includes elements of legend, myth, fables, fairy tales, historical fiction, and science fiction that revolve around heroic and epic events--all untrue or imaginatively examined. It is the opposite style of Realistic Fiction.
• Science Fiction is a story based on impact of potential science, either actual or imagined. Science fiction is one of the genres of literature that is set in the future or on other planets.
• Short Story is fiction of such briefness that is not able to support any subplots.
• Realistic Fiction is a story that can actually happen and is true to real life.
• Folklore are songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a person of “folk” that was handed down by word of mouth. Folklore is a genre of literature that is widely held, but false and based on unsubstantiated beliefs.
• Historical Fiction is a story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting.
• Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by literature that is frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting. Fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and the reader.
• Humor is a story that is meant to create laughter, enjoyment, or to point out the foibles or errors of human beings or societies.
• A Tall Tale is a humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with an here of nonchalance.
• Legend is a story that sometimes of a national or folk hero. Legend is based on fact but also includes imaginative material.
• Mystery is a genre of fiction that deals with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets. Anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown.
• The genre of Fiction can be defined as narrative literary works whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact. In fiction something is feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story.

After our test, when instructed, please gather in groups to complete the genre assignment. Details to follow.

Listening & Review For Unit Exam

Please take notes on the key concepts of this topic. Keep your notes in your journal for easy reference.

Why do we have to learn to listen?

Well, listening is, just like writing, a skill. There is a big difference between LISTENING and HEARING.

• Listening is active. It requires your brain to process symbols, words, sounds.
• Hearing is the reception of sound. It requires that you can receive the sound. A deaf person cannot hear or her reception of sound in order to hear is not working. Deaf people use other ways in which to communicate.

When teacher say: "are you listening?" we often misunderstand and think they mean "did you hear me?" Yes, we say, all the while not paying attention to WHAT the teacher is saying. This happens with parents, brothers/sisters, neighbors, and all sorts of strangers too. It is the root of many conflicts and problems in our society.

If we don't understand a message a sender is sending to us, we often blame the speaker. But SOMETIMES the problem is with us, the RECEIVER. If we are not listening, we cannot blame the speaker. It takes two to communicate: the sender and the receiver!

WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Learning to listen carefully allows us to:

1. Avoid misunderstandings
2. Get along better with others
3. Learn
4. Be more successful in school and on the job

But there are barriers to listening. It's not easy to do all the time. Here are some of the common barriers of effective listening:

1. Distractions
2. Daydreaming
3. Being close-minded
4. Overemphasizing the source
5. Listening to only what is easy to understand

In order to avoid these obstacles or problems, we need to:

1. Prepare to listen
2. Expand our vocabulary
3. Apply the message to yourself or your life
4. Pick out central ideas or details
5. Provide feedback by looking at the speaker and giving the speaker feedback cues
6. Remember what we hear

It is courteous to be an effective listener. Rude people (people who often think of no one but themselves) tend to have poor listening skills. Learning to be a good listener is one of those important skills you learn in school and its use in life is essential to your success.

UNIT REVIEW:
You should know the following concepts:
Communication (speech, intrapersonal, interpersonal, public, mass, verbal, nonverbal)
Conversation (one-to-one communication)
Connotation
Denotation
The communication process (idea, encode, sending a message, decode, etc.)
Sender/Receiver
Memory & Recall
Reasoning & Thinking
Fields of experience
Symbols (verbal, nonverbal)
Kinesics
Proxemics
Paralanguage (volume, pitch, rate, stress, voice quality, etc.)
Vocalization (diaphragm, trachea, vocal cords, larynx, resonators, pharynx, nasal cavities, articulators)
Reception & feedback
Listening vs. Hearing
How to Avoid Misunderstandings
Barriers to listening
Central idea
Logical fallacies (name calling, card stacking, bandwagon technique, etc.)
Propaganda
The hook

Poetry Again

Please turn in your homework. A reminder that this Sunday, Oct. 20 at 1:00-5:00 is the Creative Writing picnic retreat at Mendon Ponds. Family members and friends interested in writing are also welcome. Please let Ms. Gamzon or Mr. Craddock know if you are planning to attend.

Jessica Care Moore

• Black Statue of Liberty
• When My Son Sees an American Flag
• Box This
• Inspired Word
• I'm a Hip Hop Cheerleader

Suheir Hammad

• What I Will
• First Writing Since
• Daddy's Song

Dawn Saylor: When I was 14

Marty McConnell: Give Me One Good Reason to Die

Andrea Gibson: Prism

Sarah Kay

• Worst Poetry
• Unsolicited Advice to Adolescent Girls

Now it's your turn, write a poem in which you tell something private, important, or beautiful to someone who desperately needs to hear it. Avoid rhyming and centering your poem drafts. Allow the poem to take shape as a narrative or story. You do not have to be the "speaker" in the poem, but you should have a strong voice that says something important about our existence as human beings. Use the poets you have watched and examined as models.

Your poem should start to use the following poetic techniques: metaphor, simile, allusion, and alliteration. For now, all poems will be expected to have at least 3 of these 4 techniques. Other techniques that are useful are: personification, meter, and imagery. If you don't know a word or technique look here. You may use any technique on this list, by the way.

After you write your draft, please save your draft and turn it in.

HOMEWORK: Please turn in any late work. Your journals will be collected next class, and there is a unit test (see post above). 

Poetry, Poetry, Poetry

Brainstorming: Start with your journal. Make a list of things you believe, things that make you mad, or things that you feel go unnoticed by others, things that are important to you. Write for 5 minutes. Try to fill a page or two.

Now, look over your list and choose the topic that you feel may be the most interesting to an audience. Write a poem based on this chosen idea. This will be a first draft.

Use period 3 to write your poem. If you finish early, you may try writing another poem on one of your other ideas, or view a few poems. During 4th period, we will stop what we're doing and screen a few of the performances in room 238.

When you complete your draft, please watch the following poetry slam performances:

Derrick Brown

• "A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me"
• "Meat Loaf"
• "Cotton in the Air"

Noah St. John

• "Snap Judgement"

Saul Williams

• Coded Language
• Ohm
• Telegram
• Said the Shotgun to His Head
• Explain My Heart (with music)
• Reparations (with music)

Taylor Mali

• How to Write a Political Poem
• Like Lily Like Wilson
• The the Impotence of Proofreading
• What Teacher's Make
• Totally Like Whatever
• I'll Fight You for the Library
• Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh Grade Viking
• An Apple a Day is Not Enough (animated poem short)

HOMEWORK: Please compare any two of these poets and in a paragraph or two compare and contrast their performance styles. Consider the poet's use of volume, pacing, pitch, sincerity, eye contact, gestures, and body movements. This assignment is due next class as homework. There will be a unit test on chapters 1-3, communication, and performance skills on Thursday of next week. A review sheet will be made available to you next class.

Love That Dog, Conclusion; Pre-Assessment

Today, please complete Love That Dog. After reading this book, we must take our pre-assessment for 9th grade.

The pre assessment has two parts to it. When you have completed this assessment, please go next door to the lab and work on the following task:

1. Revise your baseline fiction story. Draft two of your work is due today.
2. If you finish or have finished your draft two, please read the following poems:

Brainstorming: Start with your journal. Make a list of things you believe, things that make you mad, or things that you feel go unnoticed by others, things that are important to you. Write for 5 minutes. Try to fill a page or two.

Now, look over your list and choose the topic that you feel may be the most interesting to an audience. Write a poem based on this chosen idea. This will be a first draft.

When you complete your draft, please watch the following poetry slam performances:

Derrick Brown
"A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me"
"Meat Loaf"
"Cotton in the Air"

Noah St. John
"Snap Judgement"

Love That Dog, Poetry, Period 4

During 4th period, please shift gears a bit and let's read this book: Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

In preparation, please read these poems:

"The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams
"Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost
"The Tyger" by William Blake
"Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
"The Pasture" by Robert Frost

Gather in room 238 to read the book together.

HOMEWORK: Please revise and correct your baseline Interview Fiction story. Change the draft number from Draft One to Draft Two. Please attach your second draft to your first.

The Process of Communication: Period 3

Please turn in your homework (chapter three: Listening; and/or late chapters one and two).

Watch the following videos about the communication process during period 3:

A Brief History of Communication (animated film)
A Brief History of Communication (commercial)
Communication: Sender/Receiver: Abbott & Costello skit

Take a few minutes to read about and take notes on the communication process. Take careful note of vocabulary words in caps and bold.

The communication process starts with a person getting an IDEA (or reason to communicate). We will call this person: the SENDER.

1. The sender comes up with an idea or reason to communicate.
2. The sender ENCODES this idea with words or symbols
3. The sender chooses a type of communication and sends his/her message to a RECEIVER.
4. After receiving the message, the receiver DECODES the message.
5. The receiver receives the original message or idea.
if communication is to continue as conversation, the receiver becomes the sender and starts the process again, responding to what was originally communicated.

Why should I care? 
--Communication is one of the most important activities a person can engage in.
--Communication allows us to express ourselves
--Communication allows us to learn new things or meet new people
--Communication builds friendships, loyalties, love, and trust between people
--Effective communication allows us to avoid damaging or hurtful events or situations
--Ineffective communication is often the reason people engage in conflict, war, or destructive activities
--As writers, we have to communicate our ideas with our audience. The better we can do this, the more effective we can be.

There are a variety of ways in which an author or speaker can make communication more effective.

Take a few minutes to watch these videos about the failure in the communication process. Try to note what the problem communication is, and who is responsible for effective communication.

From: Monty Python and the Holy Grail
 Fawlty Towers (John Cleese)
The Evolution of Communication (Social Media) (animated film for EMC)
Communication (Animated)
Effective Communication commercial

Sesame Street: Bert & Ernie

If you have completed your viewing and note taking before the end of period 3, please continue revising and correcting your baseline fiction story. These story drafts (draft two) are due next class.

Revision; Speech

After our speeches, please revise your fictional story drafts (the baseline fictional interview story). The rubric for you story is posted below:

Project Rubric:

9-10: story is imaginative, clever, well written, grammatically sound (almost completely free of proofreading, mechanical or spelling errors), story uses effective dialogue and effective description, story has an interesting theme, character is based on original peer interview in some clever and creative way. Story is turned in on time and fits in the 3-5 page range, properly formatted. Story has a clever and creative title. 

8: story is mostly well written, with some gaps or weaknesses, but nothing that makes reading the story laborious or difficult. Story is mostly grammatically sound (some errors) but nothing that gets in the way of comprehension. Story has some dialogue and description, but work is not as compelling as scores of 9-10. Character is based on original peer interview in some way. Story is turned in on time and fits in the 2-5 page range, properly formatted. Story has a title. 

7: story is completed, turned in on time, but lacks the imagination and creativity of scores of 8-10. Some moments of storytelling, but story may need more plot development, conflict, character development, or attention to detail and specifics. Story might have dialogue or description, but this is relatively uninteresting, or weakly presented by the author. Character is dubiously based on details from an interview or original source, but this is not clear, or the character is too similar to the source material as to be mistaken for the peer interviewed. Story may be late (missed deadline), and is on the shorter less developed side between 1.5-2 pages in length. Work may have formatting errors. Story has a title. 

5-6: story is as 7 above, but may be very late, or there are so many grammar and development or writing problems that makes comprehension difficult for a typical reader. Work is carelessly or hastily done. Student spent more time off-task in the lab than working on this project. Story lacks a title. 

0: story or project not turned in.

Rehearsing & Delivering Speeches

This morning during period 3, prepare and rehearse your speech.

To do this, follow these procedures:

1. Cut out your speech and adhere or fix it to index cards. 
2. Memorize your key points or topic sentences.
3. Mark, underline, highlight important details in your speech.
4. Rehearse your speech with your partner. Go over and over it so that you are comfortable with what you have to say and how you transition between each speaker.
5. Volunteers will go first, then random selection. If your partner is not here or ready, consider how you will proceed with your speech. What changes might you have to make?

During period 4, we will travel to the Ensemble Theater and deliver as many speeches as we can in the remaining time. Any speech not delivered today, will be delivered next class. Be prepared for this inevitability. 

REMEMBER: Effective performance is based on a few things:

• 1. Preparation (rehearsal) -- knowing what you are saying and why.
• 2. Voice (how you sound: volume, pacing, pitch, tone, elocution, and appropriateness of voice)
• 3. Character (how you portray a character both vocally and physically)
• 4. Energy
• 5. Making choices. A good performer makes deliberate choices about voice, character, energy, tone, and rehearses these choices to deliver a solid performance.

Evaluate each speech using the form given to you for participation credit.

HOMEWORK: Please complete the 10 Review ?'s for Chapter 3: Listening for MONDAY, Oct. 7. If you have not completed chapters 1 & 2 review ?'s, you are late and will only receive minimum credit (if any) for these assignments. Please turn in your late work.