April 28

Ap 29/16 Station D: What did you think of “The Woman in This Poem”?

There is a lot of variety in the types of poems written, differing by their format, attitude they approach a common topic with, word choice, etc.

The following poem will likely be a poem unlike any you’ve read so far in school ELA classes. It’s another sample of what poetry can be like.

B5 Poem - The Woman in this Poem

Task- Either alone or with a partner you will:

  1. read through the poem
  2. add comments/questions/insights on the Right-Hand side of the poem. Underline or circle the part of the poem that triggers your comment and draw a line from it to your comment on the right. 
    • As others rotate through to this Station Activity, they will read the poem, read your comments left on the right, and then add their own comments/questions/insights either directly to the poem or to the comments left by the ones before.
    • There will be additional slips of paper added to the right for these additional readings/annotations of the poem. (See image)
  3. What kinds of things can you comment on?
    • if you can visualize what’s described in the poem, mention it and explain what you see
    • if reading a phrase reminds you of something from another story, your own experience, something you’ve heard, write down that connection
    • if there’s a phrase that infers/hints at something and you recognize it, identify and explain it
    • if you’re surprised by something, write down what triggered your response and how why
    • if you like a certain pairing of words together, using plays on sounds of words like Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance, Repetition, or Rhyme, identify and explain what you like about it
    • if you have questions for the author – why did they word it this way, what are they hinting at here, is there a phrase missing at the end of this line, etc write them out
    • if you develop predictions of how things will end, explain what you anticipate and why
  4. When you’re done, before moving to the next station:
    • Individually (each in the partner group) needs to add a comment to this post to share what you thought overall of the poem you studied. Try to develop at least a 3 sentence response.

Below is an example of what it may look like as groups rotate through this station.

20160428_113941

March 21

ELA 9 March 21/16 Getting ready to publish your novel ending

Alright, so you have finished all your creative writing to develop your own end to the novel in as unique a way as you desired. You followed several steps in the drafting/editing process to filter out several types of mistakes in an effort to clear up your work before publication. Now you’re just near the point of publishing, but there are a few more steps to complete.

What decisions did you face and what went into your decision-making that led to the final result?

  1. Through a method of your choosing, record yourself explaining your Choices as the Author.  Some potential questions you may ask yourself (and explain to your potential audience) includes:
    1. From the start of the assignment, what about the end of the novel did you most want to happen differently? What were the biggest changes you wanted to make and why?
    2. You planned out steps of your novel ending to hit the plot line accurately, like events for the new “climax”, new “falling action” moments, and a newly developed “resolution”. Explain whether this was helpful to have made an outline or guide for the rest of your writing or if you felt it held you back? Can you explain a specific moment it was challenging to stay on course?
    3. We have had several discussions about the significance of developing a story’s “climax”. What were some of your thoughts or what was your technique in polishing your story’s climax? Are you satisfied with the point of tension you developed or is there still something about it you’re not quite happy with? Discuss your mental self-talk surrounding the climax writing.
    4. Without giving away your ending, explain to your listener what you think is unique about your novel ending. Is it still somewhat similar to the novel’s ending or did you want to change it completely. Is there more of an ending you could have written if you continued on with the story? What ideas for a new ending did you have in mind that you decided against – and why did you decide not to use that idea?
    5. Consider and explain what you liked about this activity, writing your own ending of a novel, and also what you maybe didn’t like about it. In comparison to letting you write your own story from start to finish, what was unique about being asked to “take over” from an established author and story to change the ending?
    6. If you have read some of your peer’s writing, what do you notice about their style and quality of writing compared to your own? How do you feel you hold up against comparisons? Is there something in your writing that you feel you did particularly well with or other parts you feel a bit weaker in? Are there any qualities of your writing you can identify as needing improvement, in a positive way? (This shouldn’t include negative self-talk, but setting some potential goals to improve on in future work.)
    7. If you had to write an introduction to your version of the ending, what would you say to a reader who’s about to start reading your end of The Outsiders?

Posting your work.

  1. Create a new blog post titled CC New Ending for The Outsiders novel.
  2. Write a brief introduction to your new ending. You can explain to a potential reader what your assignment was and what was involved in developing your new ending.
  3. Include/attach your Video explanation of the “Choices of the Author”. (I can help you attach this, if you’re unsure how to.)
  4. Include/attach your novel ending. You can add it as a PDF document, so it can be universally read.
  5. You can also consider attaching an image to your post that suits this post’s purpose.

Reading/Reviewing Peer Work

  1. Now you’re going to read! Read some of the novel endings of friends in the class. You can pick someone who’s work you reviewed and read their final, finished product. You should also pick someone’s work you haven’t talked with much through the process, so their ending may be completely new to you.
  2. Adding comments: We want to support one another as young writers, even though we will all have different skill levels. To add appropriate and valuable comments, consider the following steps for each comment:
    1. Identify yourself
    2. Be sure to remain polite and encouraging
    3. You can use humour but avoid sarcasm
    4. If you disagree with something, be constructive (helpful) with your feedback.
    5. Be specific with the feedback you give. Relate a comment to a specific part/phrase of the original post.
    6. Consider your spelling before you press “send”. You can run your comment through Grammarly or type it into a Word and scan before pasting it in as your Comment.

 

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