Your journal and portfolio is due today. Please use the blog post below this one to set up your portfolio. You may use your journal (to get those extra pages in) for your brainstorming for SOKOL or Gannon exercises (see instructions below!)
Your next book is a "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book program" selection. We will be working with Writers & Books for this project. Let's go get that book from our library today. Please read the book over the next week or two.
The deadline for submitting to SOKOL (poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction/prose) and Gannon University's poetry contest (poetry only) is next week (Jan. 30 and Feb. 1). If you'd like to kill two rocs with one writing stone, consider these prompts:
A. Write a "Where I'm From" poem, but instead of YOU as the subject, choose a real person you know, a historical figure, or a fictional person you make up and write about THIER life.
ex. You are from the hills of Santa Fe...; You come from hard labor and log cabins...; I called you grandma, but you were born an orphan girl...; etc. The traditional "Where I'm From" poem was written by George Ella Lyons. Schools have taken her poem and made it a bit of a cliche (i.e., you might have had to write one of these before). Making the subject someone else is more original.
B. Make a list of technical terms and use this list to describe a person or a common event.
Science technical terms: check here for some ideas...
Here's a list of poetry terminology...
Medical terminology sample poems...
C. Billy Collins wrote this poem: Shoveling Snow With Buddha. Take an historical figure (or a well-known fictional character) and describe that person doing something mundane or common: cutting the grass, making their bed, cooking pasta, etc.
These poems tend to win contests because they are:
1. Universal.
2. Creative.
3. Not about the teenage writer specifically.
4. Show a broader interest than just teenage interests...
5. Show that a poet is specific and knows something more than the average student submitting...
6. Tend to show humans overcoming adversity, not complaining or being negative about the subject...
D. Write a story about a character trying to change his/her life or a complicated situation, but write it in present tense or in second person. Start your story with a statement that shocks the reader--a secret or bit of truth that your protagonist has just realized.
Fiction advice:
1. Winners of fiction often have a story that is at least 1,000 words (about 3 pages) with the better ones being more like 3,000-5,000 words (5-7 pages).
2. Include a theme about common human experience (usually overcoming adversity)
3. Tend to be realistic, as opposed to Sci-fi/fantasy or other sub-genres
4. Use a variety of sentence structures and fiction conventions (includes a little dialogue, but not too much...includes a turning point in the plot, ends with a specific and memorable image, centers around an interesting voice or character.)
HOMEWORK: No classes next week until Friday. Please work on your Sokol or Gannon entries. Read: The Age of Miracles for Ms. Gamzon.
Your next book is a "If All of Rochester Read the Same Book program" selection. We will be working with Writers & Books for this project. Let's go get that book from our library today. Please read the book over the next week or two.
The deadline for submitting to SOKOL (poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction/prose) and Gannon University's poetry contest (poetry only) is next week (Jan. 30 and Feb. 1). If you'd like to kill two rocs with one writing stone, consider these prompts:
A. Write a "Where I'm From" poem, but instead of YOU as the subject, choose a real person you know, a historical figure, or a fictional person you make up and write about THIER life.
ex. You are from the hills of Santa Fe...; You come from hard labor and log cabins...; I called you grandma, but you were born an orphan girl...; etc. The traditional "Where I'm From" poem was written by George Ella Lyons. Schools have taken her poem and made it a bit of a cliche (i.e., you might have had to write one of these before). Making the subject someone else is more original.
B. Make a list of technical terms and use this list to describe a person or a common event.
Science technical terms: check here for some ideas...
Here's a list of poetry terminology...
Medical terminology sample poems...
C. Billy Collins wrote this poem: Shoveling Snow With Buddha. Take an historical figure (or a well-known fictional character) and describe that person doing something mundane or common: cutting the grass, making their bed, cooking pasta, etc.
These poems tend to win contests because they are:
1. Universal.
2. Creative.
3. Not about the teenage writer specifically.
4. Show a broader interest than just teenage interests...
5. Show that a poet is specific and knows something more than the average student submitting...
6. Tend to show humans overcoming adversity, not complaining or being negative about the subject...
D. Write a story about a character trying to change his/her life or a complicated situation, but write it in present tense or in second person. Start your story with a statement that shocks the reader--a secret or bit of truth that your protagonist has just realized.
Fiction advice:
1. Winners of fiction often have a story that is at least 1,000 words (about 3 pages) with the better ones being more like 3,000-5,000 words (5-7 pages).
2. Include a theme about common human experience (usually overcoming adversity)
3. Tend to be realistic, as opposed to Sci-fi/fantasy or other sub-genres
4. Use a variety of sentence structures and fiction conventions (includes a little dialogue, but not too much...includes a turning point in the plot, ends with a specific and memorable image, centers around an interesting voice or character.)
HOMEWORK: No classes next week until Friday. Please work on your Sokol or Gannon entries. Read: The Age of Miracles for Ms. Gamzon.
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