Story Draft #3 Due; Preparing Your Portfolio/Coffeehouse Preparation

Period 3:

Complete your draft of your short story. Submit a copy of your story in Google classroom by the end of period 3.

• "A Questionnaire for Rudolph Gordon" (pg. 83-85); Write a short story using only interrogative pronouns (who, what, where, when, how, why or other interrogative stems like "could you, would you, will you, or do you..."); Address your questionnaire to a specific person.
• "Class Notes" (pg. 122-125); Write class notes for your Class of 2022. Tell us in a newsletter style story what happened to all your classmates 30 years from graduation. Make sure you CHANGE the names of your peers before submitting your assignment.
• "Gerald's Song" (186-189): choose a song (google lyrics for example) and use lines from the song between scenes of your story. Lyrics might reflect or comment on the plot or contrast/contribute to character development or theme...

Honor writing time!

Period 4:

Print out and prepare your portfolio. Once you've done that, select 2-3 poems, 1 non-fiction essay or speech + 1 poem or 1 short story; 1 short story + 1 poem, or 1 short story + 2 poems. Select your BEST work. Then, let's go to the ensemble theater to practice.

Rehearse. Practice reading your work out loud. Give each other some feedback:

1. Are you pleasing your audience? Can we hear you? Can we understand you? Are you holding our attention? Are you too unfocused and confusing? Have you put energy into your performance or delivery? Are you boring? Are you making occasional eye-contact with your audience?
2. Are you matching your TONE of voice to the TONE of your speech or story?
3. Are you sincerely trying? [Avoid just going through the motions--an audience can tell that a performer just doesn't care or would rather be doing anything other than speaking...why should we listen to a person like this?]
4. Are you reaching the goals you set out for yourself? Are you following the advice I just gave you?

HOMEWORK: Complete "Sudden Fiction" (pp. 190-223)

Extra Credit Option for MP1 (due Friday, end of class period): For extra credit, complete a 4th or 5th draft of a short story or a new draft of a poem (new poem) that you haven't written yet. NOTE: extra credit does not replace a writing assignment. It is the icing on the cake. It is not the cake itself, figuratively.