Posts for 9/30

Post 1: We are two weeks, five stories, and three literary elements into our short story unit.  In this post, you can respond to a story, note trends or patterns across the stories, or let me know what you do / don't understand and what has / has not been helpful in our work with these stories in class.  This is not an invitation to just complain about (or praise) stories, so be mindful of your rhetorical situation.

Report your reading times for the week at the end of this post, including time you spent reading short stories.  If you spent additional time on your own story outside of class (not the post below or making up class time spent), you can count it, too.

Post 2: Spend 15 minutes working on mapping out the plot of your short story.  Consider (and identify) the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.  Will you use any plot devices or structures we discussed (like parallel plots, subplots, episodes, frame narratives, etc.)?  You can type this or use a story board template to draw and write your plot structure, and then take and post a picture of it (please don't use your computer's webcam for this, as it will reverse the image and writing).

FYI: We are about two weeks from the end of the quarter, so this is a good time to begin getting organized.  In the next week, I will ask for your comment logs and ideabooks.  See here to make sure you have everything in there that should be in your ideabook so far, and get your blog comment log up to date.  (Remember, guidelines for these assignments are in the "Routines" document). We will also be reflecting on our personal questions in our ideabooks this week.  Make sure you have a personal question that goes with your current reading and that you bring your ideabook to class each day.

Blog Posts for 9/23

Two posts this week:

1. Reading Response - same guidelines as always, and you may write about short stories if you'd like.

Don't forget to include your reading/working times, including time you spent reading short stories this week.

2. Write in the voice of the character you worked on in class today, as that character might be thinking just before he or she falls asleep.  Imagine you are this character, and write in first person ("I").  What are you, the character, thinking in the last few minutes before you fall asleep?  Do you have a problem or a goal on your mind?  (This may be a little jumbled and stream-of-consciousness, but it should be at least two paragraphs and represent 15 solid minutes of writing).

For comments, remember you need to keep track of the posts you are commenting on each week!  I have no way of seeing all of your comments together, so you need to keep a record of whose blog you comment on and when.

Posts Due 9/16

Two posts for this week!

1. Reading Response - I know some of you haven't been reading this week because you have been working on your paper, so the options are broad here.  You could respond to:
- your outside reading book (of course)
- something you are reading in another class
- something you read in our class (such as another student's blog or paper - of course, be kind)
- any of the videos from this previous assignment that you did not respond to that week

*List your reading / working times at the bottom of the post, including any time you spent working on your literacy narrative outside of class

2. We're making a(n e)book!  
In this post, please discuss any concerns you have or anything you'd like to change about your narrative to "go public."  (These will be semi-public, accessible from our course webpage and from QR codes in my class.  Your classmates and parents will have access, but it won't be on the front page of the school website or anything).  Are there names you need to change to protect the innocent?  Would you like another round of proofreading assistance?

Also, think about ideas for making it cool - both your own piece and the class compilation.  For instance:

• What kinds of images would enhance your writing? Try to make this pictures you take, draw, or paint yourself to avoid complicated copyright issues, and keep in mind you can't have an identifiable picture of you with your piece because of school privacy standards.  You might also think about graphic text pieces, like the Wordle I made of my "Graceland" poem below.
• Freed from the formatting constraints of MLA, what would you do?
• Cover? Title? Design / Layout?  Stuff readers should know?
• Other kinds of media (video, audio, links) that you'd like to include?

Happy blogging!

Great Posts!

Read these and be inspired!

Great Scenes / Vivid Imagery:

- Jacob
- Emelia

Great reading responses:

- Kaylin's reading recommendations
- Chanler + Chanler's personal reading question
- Martie
- John
- Jill

Other great posts:

- Alex D. on "This is Water"
- Azzie on "I Have a Dream"
- Kate on "This is Water"
- Amanda on "Rebel Music"

One blog you should just read all of: Kaylin's Wonder and Ponder

Blog Posts for 9/9

As we get the hang of blogging, the scoring on these will get a bit tougher.  Make sure you are writing a minimum of 2 fully developed paragraphs (a minimum of five sentences, but five short sentences may not give you a developed paragraph).  Don't summarize what happened in your book.

Our posts for this week:

1 - Reading response - push yourself for new things to talk about and use the sentence starters and/or your personal question to guide you.  Alternatively, you can update us on your literacy narrative (what you are excited about, what you are struggling with, what you have questions about, what you'd like advice on from your classmates).

**Please include your reading / working time this week, including all time you spent on your literacy narrative outside of class.

2 - Dialogue - your second post should be a dialogue between at least two people or characters.  It should be engaging and be punctuated and formatted correctly.  The length and substance should be equivalent to a regular blog post, though you will have more than two paragraphs if you are formatting correctly.  Here are some ideas for conversations:

• a conversation between two liars in which each line has a double meaning
• a conversation among three characters in which no line is more than three words long
• an exchange between two characters in which one character only asks questions and the other only answers
• a conversation between two characters from two different books or works (make sure to tell us who the characters are and what books they come from)