This is the Creative Writing Final

Please answer these questions in a New Post on your blog.  Number each of your answers and answer in complete sentences/paragraphs that reference the question so we can easily see which one you’re answering.  This should be a rather lengthy post to earn the entire  100 points.  Include 2 images.

1. List/discuss several of the different pieces of writing you’ve done this quarter, including posts, comments, creative pieces, journals, in-class writings, and things you’ve written on your own.
2. Name/discuss a couple of pieces you’ve read this quarter, including other classmates’ work and/or reading you’ve done in or out of class.
3. Write about setting up your blog and what you have gotten from that experience.  How did you come up with the name for your blog? Will you continue to use it on your own in the future?  What kinds of things will you post?
4. Write about journaling.  What kinds of things are in your journal?  Who would you want to read it?  Will you continue to journal?  What will you write about? 
5. Type an entry directly from your journal that you consider notable.  It could be a paragraph or a page or so.  You don’t have to explain it, but you could.
6. Type or copy/paste a passage or section directly from one of your pieces of writing that you consider notable or your favorite that you’ve written.  It could be a section or a whole piece.
7. What creative writing do you plan to do in the future, if any?  What do you get out of writing creatively?  How does this differ from the other writing you do, in school and in life?
8. Offer some final words of encouragement, appreciation, inspiration, etc. for your fellow writers you’ve worked with this quarter...
9. COPY and PASTE your answer to #8 as a COMMENT on as many of your classmates' final blog posts as you can.  

Looking for a challenge?

If you love poems and are interested in performing, you might want to participate in Poetry Out Loud, a nationwide poetry recitation contest. 

You memorize 3 poems from a large database of authors, time periods, and topics to compete at the school level and possibly the district, state, and national levels.  

Ms. Romay/Sutton is in charge, and she is having an informational meeting in her classroom Thursday 12/13 after school.  See her or me if you have questions!    

Final Project: Altered Book Portfolio

Here is the link to the Altered Book Final Portfolio Project assignment sheet and the scoring guide for your reference.  The books are due at the end of class Tuesday, 18 December.  Make something you love and that you will enjoy stumbling upon one day down the road...

XOXO

Soundtrack for (your) Life

Using Google Slides, you will create a presentation that identifies at least 6 songs that you feel tell the story of your life or capture some of the key themes you live or have lived by.

Your first slide should include: a CREATIVE title for your soundtrack, cover art that you have created or found that captures the feeling of your soundtrack, and your name.

The following slides should include: 1 song per slide, the artist,  2 lyrics that are especially meaningful or connected to you from each song, 100-150 words explaining why you selected that song.

Your final slide should provide a 150-250 word message to listeners you would include in the liner notes of your soundtrack. What would you want your listeners to be inspired to do, think, know, figure out, remember, etc. after listening to your soundtrack?

Example #1:  AE

Example #2:  DD

Example #3:  JC

Example #4:  OS

Sign up to present your soundtrack to the class on Monday or Tuesday if you hope to earn all the points.

Add a link to your presentation by highlighting your name below and clicking the blue Link button in the toolbar. Be sure the link is functioning. If you choose to forfeit the points for presenting, you still need to link to your slides below. Use the SCORING GUIDE to check that you’ve included all necessary elements.

Link your slides to your name on this post here:

Austin, Jaxson

Braun, Abi

Brown, Allyson

Clark, Tom

Egger, Katelyn

Eggert, Emily

Fintel, Paige

Girardi, Yvette

Groves, Lia

Higbee, Mikhayla

Houzenga, Eli

Hsi, Jo

Jensen, Zach

Johnson, Logan

Kershner, Karson

Knight, Autumn

Kotulski, Zatch

Lumos, Amethyst

Maxheimer, Makayla

McCurry, Quinn

McElroy, Teague

Meek, Drew

Olsen, Sydney

Pankratz, Jenna

Welschmeyer, Nikki

Worden, Grace

MUSIC to our ears

This week we will be looking at different ways music can inspire us to feel, think, act and even write. Create a New Post of at least 500 words on your own blog with the word "music" somewhere in the title and use the questions below (or ideas of your own) as prompts. 

Questions to consider:

• What is your favorite song? Why? Is it connected to a certain time, event, or place?
• Why do you gravitate towards certain types of music? Why do you think you dislike certain types of music? (influences, history, parents)
• What would your life be like without music?
• Is music a motivator for you? A distraction? An escape? An outlet? A means of expression/communication?
• Are you a musical person? What does playing an instrument or singing bring to your life? Where does this talent come from?
• One event I connect to music is the time when…
• Something music has taught/shown/changed for me...
• Is music poetry? What are some of the more “poetic” lyrics you can think of?

Add images to your post to make it visually interesting...

Thanks! Hope you have a great day!

FOOD for thought

We’re in the middle of a season of celebrations and family gatherings, many of which are centered around food.  I’d like us to take some time to think and write about our connections to food—memories, opinions, preferences, experiences.  I can think of all sorts of directions this contemplation might take you…

Please write a piece of your choice inspired by food.  The piece might be 300-500 words, any genre.  I thought of a few ideas, but there isn’t really a wrong answer here, so feel free to shape this assignment however you see fit.  This might take a really personal slant for you, or you can take a more observational, factual approach if that's more comfortable for you.  Include an image.  Please post your work by the end of class on Tuesday.

Just a few possible approaches:

a short essay re:  the story behind a family food or tradition

                     re:  what Thanksgiving really means

                     re:  a person in your life who has shaped you through food

                     re:  a childhood food memory

a longer poem   re:  a memorable meal

                       re:  a delicious food

                       re:  a disgusting food

                       re:  a cook at work

                       re:  the scene in a kitchen

                       re:  the scene around a dinner table

                       re:  gratefulness (or lack thereof)

                       re:  a childhood food memory

a recipe for an abstract concept

                       (love, disaster, family, the perfect Thanksgiving)

a letter to someone you’re thankful for

a letter to a cook you know and love praising his/her food 

a letter to thank the host for all the work put into the family feast

a short story re:  a Thanksgiving gone wrong

a short story re:  an epiphany about thankfulness or appreciation

Some examples:

Calories and Cream

Letter to Dad

Carrots

Cooking with my Aunt

My own example (a journal entry written a long time--and several pounds--ago!):

Do I say this every summer? That this summer will be the one where I eat better and exercise more and return to school in August transformed, a beautiful, skinny butterfly emerging from the fat and happy chrysalis of the season before? Ah, for the days of never worrying about what I eat and what I weigh…

I’m not even one to talk or write about fitness or dieting much myself, and my husband makes both seem superfluous. He is naturally thin, with arms that bulk up just by doing a few pushups in the evenings. But after watching a video I taped Sunday of Macauley and his dad breaking in the new Slip n’ Slide in the backyard, Ryan declared he, too, is unsatisfied with the shape he’s in, so we invested in a large bag of frozen lean chicken breasts and planned a grilling menu for the week of veggies and protein. I even bought a pair of Fit Flops on ebay: miracle shoes that promise to tone my legs and glutes while I just walk around and do what I do. Sounds easy enough.

But on the way back from getting the charcoal last night, he looked at the clock in the car, noticed it was close to 8:00, and asked reluctantly, “Do we really want to drag the grill out this late?” I needed little convincing. Handling raw meat, especially chicken, makes me lose my appetite anyway (this could be a good thing in the long run, perhaps), and it seems like it takes forever to fire up the little portable grill we continue to use, with no place to store a larger gas version until I clean out the cluttered garage. So I answered mischievously, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” and pulled through the McDonalds drive-through that is walking distance from our house and ordered two of their new Southern-Style Chicken Sandwiches, which if we’re getting technical about it, have no mayonnaise, only pickles, so how bad can they be? Really bad, I know.

So we postponed the first day of the rest of our new, skinny lives enough to scarf down the sandwiches, washed ‘em down with a couple of super-size sweet teas, too. But afterwards I pulled out the last box of brownie mix and made them for our meeting today…driving the devil out of my house or something like that. They’d be better with a cold glass of milk, the way I’ve frequently been eating them over the last few months, in bed before going to sleep no less. But I’m hoping this is the end of those late-night trysts for a while. A butterfly can’t soar with brownie-filled wings…

Click click, catch up

Use your time today to get caught up on any CHILDHOOD or PHOTO related blog posts you might be missing or write in your journal.  We will move on to a new topic after break (MUSIC) and work from past themes will no longer be accepted.

Keep journaling if you're all caught up.  I'll collect your journals one more time at the end of 2nd Quarter check--you'll need to have 10 new, full pages by then.

Here are some journal topic ideas:

• Who takes most of the photos in your family?
• Who is missing in most of your photos?  The photographer?  Someone else?
• How are the photos in your family or your home organized?  archived?  displayed?
• Are photos important to you?  Why?
• One of the funniest/weirdest photos my family has is of…
• Driving around with pets…
• Hands tell stories…
• I wish I had gotten a picture of…

This is... Photo Poem

Happy French Girl and Her Cat, 1959

I'd like you to do a New Post on your own blog with some writing about one of your own photos inspired by Katy Barber's "Photograph 1969." I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you'd like to arrange your words as a poem or a short piece of prose. I'll be looking for a vivid description of what we can actually see in the photo, followed by that "twist" we discussed in class, where you intimate or imply what else is "in" the photo...an understanding, an observation, a hint at something that came later, a bigger idea at play...something more. Please include the photo in your post. 

If you don't have a photo of your own or find that too personal, find a striking or interesting photo that speaks to you on the internet or in a magazine or use one we looked at in class and write about it in this same way instead.  Here are some historic photos you could use, and here are some heartwarming ones.  

Photograph 1969 by Katy Barber

This is my mother

lifting her hair long

like a low whistle

off her neck

These are her fingers

caught in the tangles

of brown and gold caught in

silver earrings

This is my father

reaching through the lens

to touch the edge

of a new family

to touch her opening belly

under her full dress

This is existing

before I exist

This is me growing up

against their lives

him watching for a sharp

breath from her looking out

onto the border of birth

this is bumping us into three

Remember your journal is due with 10 new pages today, too.  Thanks!

Flea Market Photos

In a New Post on your blog, please share some new writing of at least 250 words inspired by the antique flea market photos we looked at in class (or another one if you'd rather find your own).  

This could be a fictional short story, a long poem, a set of dialogue, a journal or diary entry in the voice of one of the people pictured, or something else...If you want to also include your profile information for the people, you could.

Include a picture of the picture or another image that fits. 

If you'd like to check out the work of Ransom Riggs and his fascination with old photos, visit his website.  I referenced his book Talking Pictures in class.

Photos of the Millennium (so far)

With the advance of cell phones, capturing all aspects of history and everyday life is easier and more accessible than ever.  Think about what your great-grandkids will say about all the images your generation is leaving behind--or will many of the images that tell your story/history vanish into cyberspace somewhere eventually instead of being in a photo album for those grandkids to flip through? (Write about this in your journal?)

This little dog happened to be strolling down a street just after the Pope had passed by--his little smile and upturned chin make it seem like he believes all the applause and fuss is for him!  Adorable.

Choose one of the photos from the 2000s and write a piece (poem or prose, fiction or nonfiction...your choice) of at least 250 words inspired by the photo. This might be a personal memory you have connected to this event or your thoughts about this moment in history...you decide what you'd like to say. You could also choose one from Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential Photos. I also just came across these interesting historic photos you could also peruse for inspiration.

Here's an example of something I wrote referencing an image from the aftermath of 9-11 that has always stayed with me.  

If the link is blocked on the school computers for whatever reason, you could visit another website with "iconic" or important photos from this decade or the last and choose one from there, or you might be able to Google an individual picture if you remember one or have a certain one in mind.  Include the photo you chose and your writing in a New Post on your own blog.

Photo Hunt + Captions + Hashtags

In a New Post on your blog, please share at least 10 of the photos you took during our Photo Hunt. Add a caption of at least 25 words to go with each photo, and include a clever #hashtag with each caption.  You can decide whether to label or otherwise indicate which photo on the list each was supposed to be.

At the end of your post, include a quote that suggests something about paying attention or writers noticing everything or the power of photographs.

Inspiring Images

Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3

Photo #4

Photo #5

Photo #6

Photo #7

Photo #8

Photo #9

Please do a New Post today on your blog inspired by one of these images and following these steps:

1. Add the image to your post. (You can right-click the image and save it on your computer to upload, or you can click the link below the photo and copy/paste the url--sometimes you lose the image later when you do it this way).

2. Write a prose paragraph of about 250 words inspired by the image (a fictional story, a personal memory, a vivid description...whatever comes to mind).

3. Then rearrange the exact same words in your paragraph as a free verse poem.  Experiment with the font if you'd like.

Example--yours should be a bit longer at 250 words (inspired by Photo #9):

Prose:

He put his hand on the back of my neck and kissed me, like he knew just who I was and what I wanted, that I loved summer nights and big, thick books, dancing and chocolate milk. I just closed my eyes. I didn't know if his favorite color was red or blue, if he liked Italian or Chinese.

Poem:

He put his hand

on the back

of my neck

and kissed me

like he knew

just who I was and

what I wanted

that I loved summer nights

and big, thick books

dancing

and chocolate milk

I just closed my eyes

I didn't know

if his favorite color

was red or blue

if he liked

Italian or Chinese.

Be ready to turn in your journal again FRIDAY, 11/16 for our mid-2nd quarter check (already!?). You should have 10 new, full pages.  You could freewrite about a few of the other photos in this post if you need some material.  Thanks!

Keeping it Real (like Dan)

In a New Post share your thoughtful answers to 4-5 of the Dan In Real Life questions.  Shoot for about 500 words.  Include an image.  You could also write responses to some of the questions in your journal.  Plan to turn in your journal with 10 new full pages for a Mid-2nd quarter check this coming Friday.

"Reely" good quotes

Dumb and Dumber

Create a New Post featuring 4-5 of your favorite MOVIE QUOTES.  These could be funny, sad, smart...whatever stands out to you.  You can type these or use an image featuring the quote.  Make sure you indicate the film the quote is from, and the character if you'd like.

When a Man Loves a Woman

"Reel" Life

Do a  New Post answering ALL the following questions (in at least 500 words) about your preferences in movies.

• Tell us about your favorite movie (or one of them!) and why you like it.
• Tell us about the kinds of movies you don't care for usually.
• Tell us about how often and where you usually watch movies.
• Tell us about what you need for movie viewing (environment, food, company, etc.)
• Tell us about what this survey says about you.
• If your life story was made into a movie...(who would play you, what would be 3-4 main plot points/events, happy or sad ending, etc.)

Include images in this post also. Thanks!

When you're finished, leave a quick comment on the movie post and/or movie quotes post of at least 3 of your classmates.