The Portfolio

Semester Portfolio

1. Choose:
• Poetry: Choose 3-5 poems that you think are most successful, creative, or show off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Fiction: Choose 1-3 stories that you think are most successful, creative, or show off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Script: Choose 1 script that you think is most successful, creative, or shows off your talent or progress as a writer.
• Other: Personal, Ms. Gamzon’s/Craddock’s, or English projects: Choose 1-3 projects you did for this semester for yourself, an English class, or for Ms. Gamzon’s or Mr. Craddock’s class.

2. Revise:
• Nouns: Nouns should be specific and concrete; avoid blatant abstract or vague nouns always in your writing.
 One way to make an abstract concept (like love or death or pain or sadness) concrete is by creating a metaphor or simile. (Ex. Love is a blind dove fluttering at your window)
 If you can’t hold it in your hand, touch it, smell it, taste it, hear it, then it’s not concrete. If you can’t see it or touch it, it’s not specific.
• Verbs: Verbs should be active.
 Do not write in the passive voice – let your subject do the action.
 Avoid excessive use of the verb TO BE. Instead, use strong active verbs
 Do not shift tense. Make sure all your verbs are either in the past or present. Try not to switch between tenses.
• Modifiers: Adjectives, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections. These parts of speech help describe your characters, settings, and plot events.
 The thing to remember about modifiers is that they are not necessary. Overusing them is a great mistake in writing! Be concise!
 Make sure your stories and poems describe the images you expect the reader to see. Don’t forget about WHERE your characters are or WHAT they are doing while they are talking or acting.
 Adverbs should be used sparingly.
 Try to avoid overusing conjunctions. This is a sure sign of a run-on sentence.
• Plot, character, setting, conflict, theme, dialogue, form: Find places in your stories and poems to expand your ideas. Complicate your plots, make them longer, more character driven, more descriptive. Use dialogue to develop your characters histories and backgrounds. Choose your words with care. Try to make a point. Remember your reader!
• Spell check and proofread your work! Reading your work out loud can help!
• It is sometimes helpful to get feedback from friends, teacher, or enemies about your writing.

Remember: this is a writing portfolio (and you have taken Grammar and Style), so you should check and correct any grammar or formatting errors in your work.

3. After you compile your portfolio, you need to write a 2-5 page typed reflection essay about your progress this far in your creative writing courses. In your essay, you should:
 Talk about the work you include in your portfolio
What pieces did you most enjoy, which were difficult for you and why? Which pieces show off your talent? What did writing these pieces help you understand in writing?
 Talk about your strengths and weaknesses as a writer
 Talk about the reading we did and your skill at being a reader. What pieces did you most enjoy/which pieces were difficult for you? Why?
 Talk about specific writing problems you have faced (and overcome)
 Talk about Ms. Gamzon’s and Mr. Craddock’s class – what parts did you most enjoy, which parts did you least enjoy? What might we be able to do to provide a better learning environment for you? Hint: do not complain, but actively examine what you felt you did and learned in these classes. Complain to your family and friends, not your self-evaluation.
 Make a goal. What would you like to work on in the next semester?

Finally, you may want to grade yourself. What grade would you give YOURSELF as a writer this semester? Why? Defend your answer.

Final Performance - Final Exam

Your final performance will be your group piece. By this time you should have a completed draft of your group piece poem. We will be rehearsing Friday, Jan 16, Wednesday, Jan 21 and you will have your final performance on Friday, Jan. 23.

Along with this, your journal is due on Wednesday, January 21.

A mid-term portfolio is also due. This is made up of work you have already written and a self-reflexion essay. Along with rehearsal on Wednesday, Jan. 21, we will be writing our self-reflexion essay for our portfolio. To help you, gather your best poems, short fiction, non-fiction, and the play you wrote this marking period together.

Group Performance

Today, try to complete a rough draft of your group performance piece. Type out your draft and prepare to hand in at the end of class.

Once you have completed the draft, work on movement, performance techniques, and rehearse your poem. You will present this poem next week as part of your final grade.

Slam Starters - political, economic, social ideas

Many slam style poems reflect a political, social, or economic opinion. Poets write these poems to say something important about an issue that is of importance to the individual poet.

Choose an area to focus your thoughts. Choose either a political, social, or economic issue. Some examples might be: poverty, equal rights, body image, freedom, education, etc.

Jot down what you know or think about this issue in your journal.

Once you have brainstormed the idea fully, pick through the ideas you came up with and begin writing a poem draft.

Remember that it is very important that you use personification, metaphor, simile, allusion, and other imagery techniques to bring your poetry alive. Slam also relies on repetition, rhyme (occasional), and an understanding of rhythm (or meter).

Self Discovery poetry slam prompt #3

Please use one of the following lines and create a poem to perform.

Remember to use metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, repetition, alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme (if you wish), and figurative language to improve your imagery.

Prompts:
1. My poetry...

2. This poem...

3. I am writing a poem...

Save Somebody's Life NJ

Copy, paste and go to this video link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPd_YuXgjn4

Slam Poem - Assignment #2

Choose a line. Any line. Use this line as an anchor, a repetition of idea or theme.

Some sample lines might be:

I believe...
When I die, I want...
The world I live in...
This is for...
Tomorrow I will go...

or pick any other line starter you'd like.

Use metaphor or simile or allusion or personification to help explore your theme.

Slam Nation

Slam poetry has become a "literary sport" in the past decade. Please view the film: Slamnation. As you watch this film consider the following:

Learn the history of the form. Where did it come from? Why? Who was involved?

Watch professional performance poets. Examine their technique and performance style. What do you notice? Which performers in your opinion are the best? Why?

What are the poets writing about? If you like any of the themes, try writing your own poems using similar themes.

Finally, after the film, please post a comment on the blog about what you thought of the movie and the sport "Slam".

Slam Poetry - Intro

A Brief Guide to Slam Poetry

Taken from Poets.org.

"One of the most vital and energetic movements in poetry during the 1990s, slam has revitalized interest in poetry in performance. Poetry began as part of an oral tradition, and movements like the Beats and the poets of Negritude were devoted to the spoken and performed aspects of their poems. This interest was reborn through the rise of poetry slams across America; while many poets in academia found fault with the movement, slam was well received among young poets and poets of diverse backgrounds as a democratizing force. This generation of spoken word poetry is often highly politicized, drawing upon racial, economic, and gender injustices as well as current events for subject manner.

A slam itself is simply a poetry competition in which poets perform original work alone or in teams before an audience, which serves as judge. The work is judged as much on the manner and enthusiasm of its performance as its content or style, and many slam poems are not intended to be read silently from the page. The structure of the traditional slam was started by construction worker and poet Marc Smith in 1986 at a reading series in a Chicago jazz club. The competition quickly spread across the country, finding a notable home in New York City at the Nuyorican Poets Café."

Zoo Story - Play project

Read and follow the steps below to complete this project:

1. Plays are meant to be performed by live actors (the dead ones are not as animate).

2. Playwrights (play wright, as in wheel wright or crafter) craft their plays around intense CONFLICT.

3. As stated previously, there are four types of conflict:
a. Person versus Person
b. Person versus Self
c. Person versus Nature
d. Person versus Society or God (a force larger than themselves)

4. The best plays include conflict type A and D. Types B & C are common, but type C is not as effectual in a play script. Type B is also used frequently and can be very effective. Usually, characters who are in conflict with themselves struggle with their own morals or beliefs about a situation, trying to work it out verbally in the presence of other characters. But they must speak! At different times in the play, The Zoo Story includes many conflict types: A, B, and D, specifically.

5. You are going to create your own short play following the standard playwriting format. The standard playwriting format is the following:

a. Stage directions are usually italicized and enclosed in (parenthesis).
b. A character who speaks a line has their name in CAPITAL LETTERS.
c. The character’s name is centered on the page.
d. Lines that are spoken (dialogue) are NOT centered.
e. A directional comment is placed in italics and parenthesis next to the name of the character speaking, if relevant. Many playwrights try to avoid these unless the dialogue is cryptic. Technically, the dialogue needs to indicate the emotion, not the stage direction.
f. Short actions or stage directions that indicate physical activity are enclosed in parenthesis and italicized when the action occurs during the spoken line (usually the beginning).
g. Long or complex actions that include technical information can either be off-set as its own stage direction (in parenthesis and italicized) or embedded in the line of dialogue.
h. Scripts are NOT double spaced. There is always a skipped blank line (one of these only) between lines of dialogue.

If you get lost or confused, take a look at the format in the book you are reading. Being observant helps.

6. Your “play” should be fewer than 10 pages and longer than 4. (7-8 is preferable.)

7. You should set your play in one setting only. Do not change scenes yet.

8. Pick a setting that reflects your characters, their motivation or what they want or desire, the conflict (see #3), or the mood of your scene.

9. Include no more than four (4) characters.

10. For each character you add, give a short description about them in the beginning of the script. See pg. 11 as an example.

11. Describe the initial action and situation of the play. What is happening when the lights go up or the curtain rises? Again an example of this can be found on page 11-12.

12. Your play MUST include at least one monologue. Monologues are effective in developing characters. For a good example of this, see the story of Jerry and the Dog (pages 36-44).

13. Due date is set for Tuesday, Dec.9.

Homework: Please go ahead and read The Death of Bessie Smith and the Sandbox as other examples of absurdist theatre.

The purpose of absurdist theatre is to metaphorically or figuratively comment on some aspect of the human condition in symbolic terms. Often, in absurd plays, the meaning reflects the existential philosophy of the playwright (which can be bleak sometimes). Part of the fun of Absurdism is the dream-like quality of the story (which doesn’t always make sense at the moment). After reading these two plays, respond to them as a reader and writer. Consider what surprised or pleased you, what frustrated you with the style or characters, what you would do differently, what you understood and got out of the play, etc. Your response will be due also on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

The Zoo Story

1. Research Edward Albee. Take brief notes about his career and style of writing.

2. Go the library and check out the play: Zoo Story by Edward Albee.

3. Get together in the following reading groups:
a. Adeline, Alex, Brianna
b. Monica, Jerry, Zach
c. Justice, Alaina, Whitney
d. Khari, Tashae, Kennethea
e. Nautica, Victoria, Wade
f. Aubrey, Shayla, Valerie
g. Jenee, Nancy, Lawrence, Marissa

4. Read “The Zoo Story” together in your groups. Assign parts as follows:

a. 3 students: one play Jerry, one play Peter, one read the stage directions where appropriate (only the longer directions).
b. 2 students: one play Jerry, the other play Peter, read the stage directions silently.
c. If you are alone, you may either join a group of your choice or read alone.

5. Answer the following questions – discuss first with your group, then individually write down:
a. Plays are based on conflict. Conflict can come in 4 “flavors”:
i. Person vs. Person
ii. Person vs. Self
iii. Person vs. Nature
iv. Person vs. Society or God

Largely, what kind of conflict does Albee use in this play?

Are there other kinds of conflict that occur within the story? If so, where are they found?

6. What seems to be the significance of Jerry’s story of the dog?

7. What might be symbolic about the Zoo? Why do you think Albee called his play “The Zoo Story”?