Day Seventeen / 9.30.10

Today we started with a quote from bell hooks: “The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created.” We then journaled on the difference between the academy and learning, and where else learning can occur outside of the academy.

Next, we covered the Show don't Tell handout, and began the Cliche handout. Finally, we covered some aspects of writing that I wanted to encourage you to either employ or avoid.

Day Sixteen / 9.29.10

Today we finished having our teacher conferences. Students finished their Show don't Tellhandout. You were also able to pick up the Avoiding Cliche handout.

Day Fifteen / 9.28.10

Today we started with the conclusion of Faulkner's quote from yesterday, "By sublimating the actual into apocryphal I would have complete liberty to use whatever talent I might have to its absolute top." To put it into our own words, we said, "By changing for the better the real Southern life into the fictitious, Faulkner felt he had liberty to use his talent to the fullest."

Then we finished the Introductory Paragraph handout. After that, we had individual conferences while you worked on the Show, don't Tell handout.

Day Fourteen / 9.27.10

Today we started with a quote from William Faulkner, "I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that I would never live long enough to exhaust it." We journaled about whether or not it was worth writing about Orange County. We then went over introductory paragraphs. Finally, we proof read our neighbor's rough draft, and turned it in.

Day Thirteen / 9.25.10

Today we started with a quote from Saul Bellow, "You are an exceptional amalgam of vehement forces." Then we discussed our Personal Moral Narrative (mistakes have been fixed). Then we touched on Introductory Paragraphs, and what is due Monday (a 1 page idea of where your story is headed). Next, we wrote about sunflower seeds. Here's some work from your classmates:

Salty, sweet babies of the golden flower,

Thrust into peril of death

hard, enduring shells, though protecting, crush easily

vulnerable insides exposed.

Historic-looking seeds each individual

will never know the happiness of following the sun.

Luminous head of bright flower, decapitates

with the setting sun.

Lack of light, lack of hope

Coming back at Dawn, smiling down on earth

when the sun lowers again,

we know it will rise tomorrow.

One little seed on the earth,

can mature into something so beautiful.

The sun helps it grow.

The water soaks up its true personality.

Day Twelve / 9.23.10

Today we started with presenting our My Name papers. Then, we analyzed a quote from David Foster Wallace: “The key to writing is learning to differentiate private interest from public entertainment.”

Then, we wrote a journal entry on a moral story from our life, based on the following three prompts:

Tell a story (in 2-3 lines) of:

1. Something where you were caught.

2. Something where you were rewarded.

3. Something where you did something where no one ever found out (good or bad).

Then we shared our 3 stories with our neighbor and they picked our best story. We then outlined David Sedaris' story ("Let it Snow"), to see how he created his structure, so that we could imitate a similar structure in our own story. The handout for that is here. For homework, you are to fill out the same form for your own story.

Day Eleven / 9.22.10

Today we started with a quote from Terry Eagleton: “...morality actually consists in this process of unfolding our creative powers and capacities, not in some law set above it or some august set of ends pitched beyond it.”

We discussed how morals are dynamic not static, and we can play a role in how morals will be defined in the future. Then we further discussed David Sedaris' piece, "Let it Snow," evaluating how many lines of dialogue he used (33% of the story), the number of characters he had (2 major), the setting (small location), and the timeline (less than 6 hours). We write small to convey big thoughts.

Day Ten / 9.21.10

Today I handed back your rough drafts. Your "My Name" final drafts are due Thursday. Then we talked about a quote from Einstein: "What is inconceivable about the universe is that it is at all conceivable." Next, we discussed the fables handout, and talked about morals and where they come from. We tried (rather unsuccessfully) to watch some movie clips, that ended with some sort of moral lesson. Then we read a story by Davis Sedaris, and came to consensus with our tables on the different moral lessons he may have been trying to convey in his story.

Day Nine / 9.20.10

Today we started with a quote from Thomas Hardy: "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." Then we edited our partner's "My Name" essay rough draft. After that, we discussed our journal writing requirements. Then, we reflected on where we develop our morals, and what issues are moral issues. Finally, I handed out a worksheet on fables, which you need to complete for tomorrow.

Day Eight / 9.17.10

Today we started with a discussion on literacy. What does it mean to be literate? And is literacy a luxury or a necessity? Then we discussed the excerpt from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself." After that we covered the standards expected for your My Name Paper due on Monday. The editing checklist is here.

Day Seven / 9.16.10

Today we started with a quote from Victor Hugo, “There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul." Then, we wrote about whether or not we are important in the world (are you more beautiful than the sea and sky?). Finally, we looked at Emily Dickinson's poem "I'm Nobody." Then, I gave you your next assignment, the My Name Paper, due Monday.

Day Six / 9.15.10

Today we started with a quote by Pablo Picasso: “Art is the lie that tells the truth.” After that, we talked about hooks. The hook handout is here. Your homework is to mimic Patricia Fargnoli's poem, "Naming my Daughter," by creating your own. You can view the poem and assignment here.

Day Five / 9.14.10

Today we started with a quote from Clara Schumann: "My imagination can picture no fairer happiness than to continue living for art."

Next, we outlined Amy Tan's piece from The Joy Luck Club. We saw how she looped the story, and how she revealed her name by telling the story of her sisters, her mother's name, and then finally the meaning behind her own name—essential sister. Finally, we read a poem and began brainstorming our own adaptation of "Naming My Daughter."

Day Four / 9.13.10

Today we heard a few presentations about our writing history. We then did a class timeline showing our landmark moments in literacy. After that, we talked about Why We Write. Next, we outlined Sandra Cisnero's short story, "My Name." We noticed that the structure does not emphasize her name explicitly, but reveals it indirectly, through telling her great-grandmother's story and anecdotes from school/her sister. As writers, we're often better suited to reveal something about our topic by telling a story that relates. Stories draw readers in and show them, rather than tell them, what we're trying to say.

Day Three / 9.10.10

Today we covered the syllabus. Then, we finished our blackbird presentations. Next, we studied sunflowers. Finally, we received our first homework assignment, writing about our reading/writing past. The assignment is here.

And here is a poem written by our class:

Seven Ways of Seeing a Sunflower

I.

Bright yellow petals, petals which

resemble fire in its full brilliance, a

bright yellow which fades into a

deep orange and into a black

abyss of which nothing escapes.

II.

Like humans, flowers are always kept and admired,

while stems are thrown away.

III.

When you look at a flower,

you think of beauty.

When you look at a sunflower,

you see something looking back at you.

IV.

For centuries, people thought the sun flower followed the sun.

But, maybe, the sun follows the sunflower.

V.

Yellow, green, brown, and black,

came back on Sunday morning,

and today the flowers are soaring.

VI.

When you smell the flower

the earthy smell kisses back.

VII.

A single flower left behind stays

put to fight against the wind.

Day Two / 9.9.10

Today we began with a quote from Picasso: “I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

Picasso's Garçon à la Pipe

Then, we learned something we weren't sure we could do. We translated a poem by Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," into pictures and then delved into the deeper meaning of the stanzas. The poem is pasted below:

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

II

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

VI

Icicles filled the long window

With barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Traced in the shadow

An indecipherable cause.

VII

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

VIII

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,

It marked the edge

Of one of many circles.

X

At the sight of blackbirds

Flying in a green light,

Even the bawds of euphony

Would cry out sharply.

XI

He rode over Connecticut

In a glass coach.

Once, a fear pierced him,

In that he mistook

The shadow of his equipage

For blackbirds.

XII

The river is moving.

The blackbird must be flying.

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.

Day One / 9.8.10

Today we discussed Langston Hughes' poem "Hope":

He rose up on his dying bed

and asked for fish.

His wife looked it up in her dream book

and played it.

Then, I told you a little about myself, and I shared with you poems from 1st grade, and a poem from my junior year of college. We discussed that writing is 1) innate—you know it because it is inside you, and 2) is a reflection of your gained knowledge. We must write as 13 year olds, but with the innocence of kindergartners, and the wisdom of educated people.