Wrapping Up; Portfolio & Workshopping/Revision

Use the time in the lab today to work on your portfolios. Get together in small groups to complete any workshop and feedback with peers today. Additionally, check this for what's due Friday:

• Complete the handout on the Book Industry. This assignment begins/introduces you to our course for next year in Media Studies (Creative Journalism). Please read the chapter and answer the 5 questions for Friday, June 14.
• Your writing journal.
• All blog posts for your 2018-2019 blog.
• Your final portfolio (worth 20% of your final grade for this course)
• Any late or missing work. 

EXTRA CREDIT: Write a review on YOUR blog for The Martian Chronicles. Remember you may submit your extra credit science fiction/fantasy story Friday for extra credit for the marking period. Our last class is Friday.

Please return all textbooks to the library.

HOMEWORK: See above. Final portfolios are due Friday, along with your physical writing journal and all missing blog posts or missing assignments. Extra credit is due as well. 

Portfolio & Workshopping

We will read the short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" from The Martian Chronicles book. Please complete your reading of the book with the story "The Million Year Picnic". Bring your texts back with you to Wednesday's class.

After reading the short story, we will continue working on our portfolios. Feel free to get into small groups of 2-4 people and read and get feedback on your writing so that you can revise your work and prepare your final essay for your freshman portfolio.

Our last homework assignment and major assignments due for credit will occur on Friday. Here's what is due and when:

• Complete The Martian Chronicles; Wednesday, June 12.
• Complete the handout on the Book Industry. This assignment begins/introduces you to our course for next year in Media Studies (Creative Journalism). Please read the chapter and answer the 5 questions for Friday, June 14.
• Your writing journal.
• All blog posts for your 2018-2019 blog.
• Your final portfolio (worth 20% of your final grade for this course)
• Any late or missing work. 

Please return all textbooks to the library or bring them back with you to class so that you can drop them off at the library!

HOMEWORK: See above. Final portfolios are due Friday, along with your physical writing journal and all missing blog posts or missing assignments. 

Martian Chronicles: Usher II; Portfolio & Revision Work

This morning let's take a look at the short story "Usher II" from the Martian Chronicles. The story alludes to Edgar Allan Poe's short stories "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", among others. Check the links for details about the alluded stories and, if you wish to learn more, you can read those two stories here:

• The Fall of the House of Usher
• Murders in the Rue Morgue (the first detective story!)

After reading, please use your time in the lab/class to revise and prepare your portfolio. To revise:

• Get together with a classmate or two for feedback.
• Read your poem/short story/essay/play together.
• Look for typos and grammar mistakes as you read. 
• Improve your setting and characterization through additional details (add diction)
• Get inside the mind of your narrator when you can (stream of consciousness)
• Improve your imagery by using metaphors, allusions, or similes. 
• Improve your story by turning vague or inactive verbs and nouns into specific and active ones.
• Include specific details to create tone and evoke a sense of mood in the reader.
• Consider structure and flow of action in your poetry and fiction. Answer: does your story have a beginning, middle, and appropriate or interesting ending?
• Improve your sentence structure by reducing wordiness and awkward sentences.
• Rewrite important scenes to include necessary details (or complete a hastily written ending or scene in your story/poem).
• Cut scenes or paragraphs or sentences that are redundant or do not progress the story forward.
• Cut dialogue that is obvious or unnecessary.

HOMEWORK: Please read the short stories through "The Long Years" (pg. 166). Look for effective story telling and writing techniques that we have covered this year. Read as a writer reads. 

Martian Chronicles; Portfolio & Revision

Your humorous story drafts are due today. Please make sure you upload them to our Google classroom.

We'll start off class today reading "And the Moon Be Still & Bright" from the Martian Chronicles. The poem that is alluded to in this story is from Lord Byron: "So We'll Go No More A-Roving" 

At the 4th period bell, please move to the lab to work on your final portfolios, your humorous story draft (due today!), or gather in small groups to share/revise your portfolio work.

HOMEWORK: Complete "And the Moon Be Still & Bright" (if we did not complete the story in class), "The Settlers", "The Green Morning", "The Locusts", "Night Meeting", "The Shore", "Interim", "The Musicians", "Way in the Middle of the Air", and "The Naming of Names" (2001-2005). Complete and turn in any missing work from this marking period--including your humorous draft (which is due today!)