Wednesday, September 19th

Section 4 hard at work.

Agenda: 

The first of hour was spent writing a reflection about the process they took to create their final draft modeled after the questions written on the board. This exercise is help students be better evaluators of their work and to associate excellence with a habit of excellence through out their process as well as point out the direct effect of their process on the quality of their end product.

Students were also asked to identify a paragraph to half page of their best work to read out loud to the class as a celebration of the writing process and affirm that their work does have an audience. The All Mighty Clap was introduce as well.



Homework: 

1. Finish reading and annotating Hair by Malcolm X. Be sure to include your pre-reading notes to get full credit and put your name on the documents as well.

2. Continue reading your IRB1. Your IRB1 should be completely read by September 28th. Note the writing style of the author and after choosing a topic, be able to talk about how the author has developed the topic to point towards a certain perspective of it.

3. Upload your memoir ecopy to turnitin.com using the class ID and password posted in a previous post specific to your class section no later than 11:59 p.m.

Monday, September 17

In Class Work Day

Students may work on any of the following:
1. Memoir
2. Writing prompt from last class
3. IRB1 Reading

Read the blog from last Thursday for clarification. You may also use the time to conference with me about your memoir, if you have questions.

Side note: A wall in HS 015 has been designated the No Name Wall of Shame. If you have handed in work that does not have a name on it, it has been hung there.

Protocol to get your work back in the books?

1. Make an appointment during an Extra Help session from 3-4:00 on Thursdays.

2. Make an appointment during a different time we are both available. DO NOT STAND ME UP. This is a privilege given to students who have already once come to an Extra Help session because you have demonstrated already that you can keep appointments.

**getting your book "reconciled" is YOUR responsibility. Not mine. Additionally, if you stand me up three times or more, you have revoked your right to seek extra help for the quarter and a letter will go home to your parents notifying them.

Also, consider it your responsibility to have your laptops charged OR to have a laptop charger with you. Laptop charger stations are located in the HS lobby if ever you'd like to charge your laptop unattended in a locked environment while away at lunch or various classes. Please use this new feature at the HS to your advantage.

Homework for Wednesday, September 19: (copied from last post)

1. Turn in the Memoir Final draft in MLA format along with the Rubric (will be provided for you), self-edited copy, peer-edited copy, and proposal. You may include any additional drafts you may have been working on. The drafts serve you as a record of the amount of effort you put forth in this writing process.

2. Answer the following prompt and post it on your weblog (300 word minimum):
Santha Rau reflects at the end of the her memoir, "But I put it all happily away because it happened to a girl named Cynthia and I was never really particularly interested in her." Are you convinced of this statement?

3. Continue reading your IRB1. The book should be finished by the end of this month. Specifically, your book should be entirely read by September 28, which is coming up quickly. While reading, think about what aspect of the author's writing style you like the best (the way the author slows down the story to capture the nonverbal communication going on in the room in addition to what is actually said, the way the author uses simple colloquial language to describe yet doesn't lack in depth because the reader gets the impression there is a thoughtful process behind the words, the author's use of incoroportatin the flashback to create a history of the characters to help the reader better understand the significance of the ongoing as well as the past, ...and so on). Be able to identify a passage to a page that exemplifies the qualities you enjoyed.

Thursday, September 13

 Agenda:

Today's lesson a few announcements were made:
1. Turn it in dot com will be used when turning in memoirs on Wednesday, September 19th.
2. Extra Help Appointments to reconcile your grade book, talk about the progress of any of your papers, turn in work late or without your name from the No Name Wall of Shame will have to first happen during an Extra Help appointed time. After you've demonstrated that you can come to an appointment and NOT stand me up, you will have the privilege of making appointments outside of that block. Although you are not punished for doing work late, please know that turning in late assignments is still an unfavorable situation to be in so do not get in the habit of doing so.




A discussion that was started last class, delving into the implications of Rau inserting in her memoir the imagery of her father sitting on a horse with a procession of 5 servants behind him as well as discussed possibly what the implication may have been to allude to Romeo and Juliet with the title. The students also listed character traits they assigned Cynthia before the climax of the story and the character traits she was assigned after and how this illustrated the transformation we look for in stories. Rau's character, Cynthia, was transformed although not the radical physical sense of the word, but rather in the metaphysical. She adopted a new understanding although young and shed a kind of naivete after indirectly experiencing discrimination for the first time. Lastly, we discussed what I referred to as the 'stop and think' moments of the text, as shown below. Section 4 students were asked to find such moments and put them in their own words. Students were selected to write their interpretations on the board, as shown in the figure.

Homework for Wednesday, September 19: 
1. Turn in the Memoir Final draft in MLA format along with the Rubric (will be provided for you), self-edited copy, peer-edited copy, and proposal. You may include any additional drafts you may have been working on. The drafts serve you as a record of the amount of effort you put forth in this writing process.

2. Answer the following prompt and post it on your weblog (300 word minimum):
Santha Rau reflects at the end of the her memoir, "But I put it all happily away because it happened to a girl named Cynthia and I was never really particularly interested in her." Are you convinced of this statement?

3. Continue reading your IRB1. The book should be finished by the end of this month. Specifically, your book should be entirely read by September 28, which is coming up quickly. While reading, think about what aspect of the author's writing style you like the best (the way the author slows down the story to capture the nonverbal communication going on in the room in addition to what is actually said, the way the author uses simple colloquial language to describe yet doesn't lack in depth because the reader gets the impression there is a thoughtful process behind the words, the author's use of incoroportatin the flashback to create a history of the characters to help the reader better understand the significance of the ongoing as well as the past, ...and so on). Be able to identify a passage to a page that exemplifies the qualities you enjoyed.

Tuesday, September 11

Agenda:

Homework and quiz 1 on Annotations was handed back while students filled out a profile sheet. If students did not have the pertinent information, they are able to bring the information back at a later date and add it to Mrs. Lee's file.

The annotations of "By Any Other Name" by Santha Rau were checked along with a hard copy heavily edited by the writer. Meanwhile students worked on characterizing Santha Rau's "character" in her memoir.

The class was then engaged in a discussion about Imagery, the significance of the title, characterization and what I like to call the "Stop and Think Moments" in text. This discussion was initiated and will be extended to the next class.

Homework: 

1. Write a weblog of at least 300 words discussing the quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;	48
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. (II.ii.47-51)

Would you say that you agree with Shakespeare? Is a name ineffectual in that the thing does not change? Or perhaps you'd say that you disagree? Can the quality of something change if it is given a new name?

2. Your final drafts for your Memoir is Wednesday, September 19th. Turn in a hard copy including all components listed on the Memoir Assignment page located in the Contents section of the Edline Page in the folder marked 'Memoir Unit'. Also turn in an ecopy of your paper to http://turnitin.com

If you are in section 3, use the following class ID and enrollment password. You will have to create your own sign/password. 

 If you are in section 4, use the following class ID and enrollment password. You will have to create your own sign/password. 

Friday, September 7th

Overview/Comments: 
What a fun class today!

Watching some of my students sit and contemplatively stare off with a pen in hand was a satisfying sight. The process of writing takes so much careful consideration to create not only what is familiar but also have a personal take on it and I think after reading some of your work out loud, we were successful. Yes, we were able to use the class to write and joke about some cliches or familiar idioms we know. But what is more, we were also able to take a few run-of-the-mill sentence and create depth, a third-dimension if you will.

It was my goal that after taking a class period to develop three sentences, that it would alert you of the time consuming, yet satisfying task it is to create in the form of the written word. Take heed of this lesson and allow yourselves much time to go back and daze off again while writing like you did today, trying to remember what you were smelling, what it looked like up close, where you had seen something similar before and how it ties to your "realization".

I'm really looking forward to reading your memoirs already. Next class we will be talking about characterization, another element that must be considered in your memoir writing process.

Agenda: 
After turning in REDO's that were assigned for the 'How to Write a Memoir' article by William Zinsser, we concentrated the hour on developing our writing skill.

We first took a literal sentence (e.g. I ran to the store) and added the following:
+ Detail
+ Interesting word choice

We then also considered including Figurative Language:
+ Metaphors
+ Similes
+ Personification
+ 5 senses (hearing, touch, smell, sight, taste)

Finally, we considered the inclusion of:
+ Onomatopoeia
+ Symbolism
+ Allusion

An example of this transformation included going from

'I ran to the store' to

'My legs pumped and thudded like the pistons of an engine as I dashed to the corner of the corner mart with the red and white awning. The hot pebbles ricocheted off my calves and the smell of warm spring, like the Spring that tempted Persephone, floated in the air."

The important thing to note here is no action or event has taken place.  Remember, we didn't add more story but rather developed a world around the action and humanized our character. Also, students should beware of dropping in name brands or pop culture items to avoid the task of a personalized description. Also be wary of adjective and adverb over usage.

We did more work like the above and students shared their work with other sentences they transformed, such as "I ate a sandwich" and "I fell in love. / I love her."

Homework for Tuesday: 
1.  Read and annotate "By Any Other Name" by Santha Rau. You will find a PDF file on the Contents section of our Edline page.

2. Come to class on Tuesday with a hard copy of your memoir after having thoroughly edited your work after the last in-class peer edit. That means work should be in MLA format (consult the Purdue MLA website if you are unsure of the format here), be edited for content, have both a plot arc AND a realization, as well as sentences that have been given the same consideration sentences were given in class today. No more I + verb sentences that report the actions of story, please.Your self-edited copy should be a clean copy of edits you made on the computer and then be overtaken by your own pencil-markings.

3. Comment below with the sentence(s) you wrote. Include your name and section (either 3 or 4). Also include the original sentence and then final edit like the example below. This is also due Tuesday.

Joe Student
Grade 10 L&L -3

Literal Sentence: I ate a sandwich.

Edit 1: I inhaled the turkey, bacon sandwich on bread speckled with grain my mom made for me.

Edit 2: The cold cut gave in to the grinder-like rotation of my teeth and the bacon unearthed its flavor. The bread was speckled with grain and I looked up at her just in time so my forehead met the weight of her hand.

Edit 3: The bread speckled with grain jacketed the cold cuts and bacon that gave in to the grinder-like rotation of my teeth. The suction and slapping of eating filled my head so much so that I failed to hear my mother's beckoning to take a bite of her apple. I looked up at her just in time so my forehead met the weight of her hand.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Annotations for the article "How to Write a Memoir" were collected. For students who did not summarize the major ideas in the article and the tenants of writing a memoir were not touched upon, they were asked to redo the assignment paying special attention to using the margins to address it directly.

Students wrote a rough draft of their memoir and brought a hard copy with a word count of 400 or more words. Students were to bring a hi-lighter set with 5 or more colors. Students color marked their work to look for interesting word choice, the realization, 5 senses, and so on. Students then engaged each other in conversation about what they noticed about their own writing. Students wrote a paragraph regarding what they felt they learned about the needs of their paper at this stage of their writing process.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Using annotations made on the "Miss Brill" passage by Katherine Mansfield, students were given an open note quiz. This was corrected in class and then handed in. Afterward, students were broken into groups to discuss different topics in the text (family, relationships, food, culture, and Fishcheeks). A class discussion began and will continue next class.

Homework/Final Remarks:

1. For students who have yet to see me about their proposals, appointments should have been made to see me during a study hall or after school. These appointments must be kept. Already, I have been stood up by two students. Three strikes and you have been revoked the right to ask me for an appointment for the rest of the quarter. Additionally a letter to your parents will be sent so they are also aware why you are no longer able to receive extra help for the rest of the quarter.

2. Read the article on our Edline page entitled, How to Write a Memoir by Howard Zinsser in the American Scholar. Annotate. Bring a hard copy to class on Wednesday.

3. Complete a minimum of 400 words of your essay and bring a hard copy in for peer editing. Be sure to bring also a 5-color highlighter set or colored pencils. Your rough draft must meet the minimum word count of 400 but students will not be penalized for writing over 500 words.