Wednesday 6/5

Do Now:  Respond to the quote below:

“Welcome to the wonderful world of jealousy, he thought. For the price of admission, you get a splitting headache, a nearly irresistable urge to commit murder, and an inferiority complex. Yippee.”
― J.R. Ward, Dark Lover 

1.  Discuss Write

2.  Read "Girls in Their Summer Dresses"

3.  Examine gender perspectives.

4.  Analyze complexities of characters' relationship.   

Tuesday. 6/4

Do NOW:    Respond to the quote below:

“Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other.” 

― Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

1.  Discuss Write

2. Share plot lines for short story.

3. Profile:  "Girls in Their Summer Dresses"

4.  Read/ Discuss story. 

Monday 6/3

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984 

1.  Discuss Write

2.  Mine on Thursdays:  Final Discussion...  Did Howie make the right decision?
                                                                       Is he a hero?
                                                                       Will Holly ever forgive him?  Should she?  Explain

3.  Workshop:  Short  Stories.... 

Wednesday 5/29

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

Excerpt from "Mine on Thursday" -  "To be a man, my father said, wiping his cheeks, "is to look at the wreckage of your life and to confront it all without pity for yourself.  Without alibis.  And to go on.  To
endure."  **Consider the thematic value of this statement as it  relates to the narrator.

1.  Discuss Write.

2.  Examine dynamics of family relationships.

3.  Activity:  Prepare a character "analysis" of Hugh.  Cite specific references to support your work.

*15 mins:  Share.

4.  Analyze end.  Is Hugh Heroic?

5.  Explore Cormier's tone in this narrative.

5/24 - 5/28

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

Robert Cormier

“The possibility that hope comes out of hopelessness and that the opposite of things carry the seeds of birth - love out of hate, good out of evil. Didn't flowers grow out of dirt?”

1.  Discuss write.

2.  Share "Educational" fiction.  Collect.

3.  Character Analysis:  "Mine on Thursdays"

Activity,  With a partner, explore the "triangular relationship" of Hugh, Allison, and their daughter.

10 mins:  Share.

4.  Examine the role of the narrator's father?  Consider the significance.  

5.  Identify theme. 

Wednesday. 5/22

Do NOW:    Respond to the quote below:

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” 

1.  Discuss Write

               2.   Activity:  Meet w/ partner.   Read each other's short fiction.  Identify "educational" themes.   15 mins:  Share.

               3.  Invite students to present to class

               4.  Discussion:  themes; elements of satire

               5.   Robert Cormier's "Mine on Thursdays".  Profile/Read.   

Wednesday. 5/8

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

  

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” 

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

1.  Discuss Write

2.  Continue rubric designs

3.  Work with partner: generate at least 5 components to assess fiction.    Share w/ class

Tuesday May 7th

Do NOW:  Respond to the passage below:

“But my brain winds and wends. Back and forth. Up and down. It feels like the county fair has inhabited my mind-- complete with sketchy rides, carnies, and sugar-amped kids crying over lost balloons. So loud and disorienting. I want it to pack up and move on to the next town. I want my mind to be an open grassy field again with crickets and dandelions.

1.  Discuss Write.

2.  Task:  Select key passage from dialogue short stories...  Read to class:  Explain what you like most about this particular part of your narrative.

3.  Activity:  With a partner, design a rubric ( at least 3 parts) that can be utilized to assess fiction writing.

**Examine the "relevance" of each section you craft and explain why your creation would be a successful

"assessment tool" for grading fiction.  **15 mins....  Present to class.  

4.  Preview:  Robert Cormier's  "Mine on Thursdays"

10 mins Write:  Describe the last time a loved one disappointed you.  What happened?  How did it make you feel?   Do you still blame them?  Explain.  

Monday May 6th

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

“What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography

1.  Discuss Freewrite

2.  Activity:  Read/Share Dialogue Stories.  Write a 5 to 7 sentence synopsis of your partners story.  Be prepared to present to class.  15 mins - Share.

3.  Task:  Select key passage from dialogue short stories...  Read to class:  Explain what you like most about this particular part of your narrative.

4.  Activity:  With a partner, design a rubric ( at least 3 parts) that can be utilized to assess fiction writing.

**Examine the "relevance" of each section you craft and explain why your creation would be a successful

"assessment tool" for grading fiction.  **15 mins....  Present to class.  

5.  Preview:  Robert Cormier's  "Mine on Thursdays"

10 mins Write:  Describe the last time a loved one disappointed you.  What happened?  How did it make you feel?   Do you still blame them?  Explain.  

Wednesday 5/1

Do NOW:  Read over your Dialogue Draft -  Highlight a significant dialogue exchange.


1. Focus:   Dialogue Driven Short Stories

2.  Read "exchange"... Explain significanc; Describe what is revealed about characters
3.  Class discussion:  Share writing approaches:  Identify "obstacles" for this assignment:  Generate designs to offer solutions...

4.  Workshop:  Stories due Monday  5/6

Tuesday 4/30

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

“It isn't by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the world…by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves.”
― Ken Kesey, Kesey's Garage Sale

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  In first peson, assume the point of view of a "contemplative character" (kinda/sorta like yourself) and write a monologue that aims to prove your own existence.  Be creative!!!  *15 mins:  Share

3.  Dialogue Driven Short Stories

-Identify a key passage:  Read to class - Explain the significance.

4.  Class discussion:  Share writing approaches:  Identify "obstacles" for this assignment:  Generate designs to offer solutions...

5.  Workshop:  Stories due Friday:  5/3

Monday 4/29

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

"Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake" -William James

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  In first peson, assume the point of view of a "contemplative character" (kinda/sorta like yourself) and write a monologue that aims to prove your own existence.  Be creative!!!  *15 mins:  Share

3.  Dialogue Driven Short Stories

-Identify a key passage:  Read to class - Explain the significance.

4.  Class discussion:  Share writing approaches:  Identify "obstacles" for this assignment:  Generate designs to offer solutions...

5.  Workshop:  Stories due Friday:  5/3

Tuesday 4/23

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

“Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being "false," "untrue," yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction.”
― Clark Zlotchew

1.  Discuss Write

2.  Review Monday's Freewrite

3.  *********NO MORE EMAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4.  Review Dialogue Assignment:  Share Drafts

5.  Read excerpts:  Consider conflicts, protagonists...

6.  **Collect permission slips for play...

7.  Fiction Powerpoints...

Monday 4/22

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

“A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.”
― Lorrie Moore

1.  Write freewrite:  

2.  Discuss freewrite quietly with partner.

3.  Work on dialogue driven short story:

-At least 2 charactes

-plot movement

-Dialogue reveals character

-Narration provides context/insight

4.  Drafts due Tuesday 4/23

Wednesday 4/17

Do NOW:  Respond ot the quote below:

“For me a page of good prose is where one hears the rain. A page of good prose is when one hears the noise of battle.... A page of good prose seems to me the most serious dialogue that well-informed and intelligent men and women carry on today in their endeavor to make sure that the fires of this planet burn peaceably.”
― John Cheever

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Invite students to read selected excerpts from their short stories.  

Articulate :  The context

                         Significance to narrative

                         Thematic implications

3.  Fiction Powerpoints

4.  Dialogue:  How can it be most effective?  Discuss

--Reveal character

--Move plot

--Realistic voice

--Meaningful

--Role of narration

5.  Activity:  Craft a 1 pg dialogue that reflects a serious conflict between two friends.  

10 mins... Share

Tuesday 4/16

Do NOW:

“I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice.”
― Andre Dubus

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Activity:  Each student reads aloud the very first sentence of their story.  

Evaluate beginnings:  Consider which are most engaging.  Identify Strengths.  

3.  Activity:  Share your short story with a partner.  Read each other's story.  Prepare a short (yet creative) synopsis to read to the class.  *Imagine the story is being published, and you are prepaing a kind of 

"press-release" about it....  *10 mins - Share

4.  Invite students to read selected excerpts from their short stories.  

Articulate :  The context

                         Significance to narrative

                         Thematic implications

5.  Fiction Powerpoints

Monday 4/15

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

“A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.”
― David Sedaris

1.  Discuss freewrite

2.  Share "Sensuality" pieces

3.  Activity:  Share your short story with a partner.  Read each other's story.  Prepare a short (yet creative) synopsis to read to the class.  *Imagine the story is being published, and you are prepaing a kind of 

"press-release" about it....  *10 mins - Share

4.  Invite students to read selected excerpts from their short stories.  

Articulate :  The context

                         Significance to narrative

                         Thematic implications

5.  Fiction Powerpoints

Wednesday 4/10

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

When you dream, you dialogue with aspects of yourself that normally are not with you in the daytime and you discover that you know a great deal more than you thought you did.
**Toni Cade Bambara


1.  Students need to complete Do Now in their writing notebooks.

2.  Read Oates' article:  "Reading as a Writer"  

- Identify key components; record notes in preparation for discussion on Thursday

-Write a paragraph response describing the most meaningful part of the article

3.  Workshop:  Students work/edit short stories.  


  

 

Tuesday 4/9

Do NOW:  Respond to the quote below:

“One says the things which one feels the need to say, and which the other will not understand: one speaks for oneself alone.”
― Marcel Proust

1.  Discuss Write.

2.  Review first 5 sentences of short stories:  **Reading like a writer

Possible Goals:

--Establish Setting

--Create a mood

--Generate Conflict

--Reveal aspect of character

3.  Introduce Oates article:  Reading Like a Writer

*Read beginning:  5 min write:  Share.

4.  Activity:  Read through article with a partner:  Identify parts meaningful to you:  Explain.  

15 mins:  Share

5.  Workshop:  Short Story Drafts.  

Monday 4/8

Free Write:  Respond to the quote below:  (NOW)

It's a lot easier to be morally upright when you're not pinching and scraping to make a living… which makes the immorality of the wealthy even more unforgivable. Every advantage in the world, and they can't even be nice people? Nick may forgive them, but we're not sure we do.

*Nick Caraway... The Great Gatsby

1.  Discuss Write

2.  Short Story Workshop:  "Perfect" the first 5 sentences of your short story.  *Work w/ partner... 15 mins:  Share.

NOTE:  Final Copy due Monday:  4/15!!

3.  Article:  Joyce Carol Oates:  "Reading as a Writer"    Assign reading.

1 pg analysis due Friday 4/12.  

Wednesday 4/3

Do NOW:  Consider how the world has changed economically, socially, and politically since you were in first grade.  Has there been progress?  Is humanity in a "better place"?  Explain. 
(10 mins.)   *Share


1.  Handout:  What Makes a good short story?  Read/ Discuss.

Activity:  With a partner, create your own response.


2.  Fiction Powerpoints:  Profile Student work. 


3.  Short Story Workshop:  Craft a plot line that relates the action as it occurs in your narrative.

*Provide example on board:  10 mins:  Present.

4.  Writing Workshops

Tuesday 4/2

Do NOW:  Select an abstract:  (Death, confusion, fear, eternity, etc.)  Use figurative language to provide sensuality.  10 mins:  Share


1.  Handout:  What Makes a good short story?  Read/ Discuss.

Activity:  With a partner, create your own response.


2.  Fiction Powerpoints:  Profile Student work.


3.  Short Story Workshop:  Craft a plot line that relates the action as it occurs in your narrative.

*Provide example on board:  10 mins:  Present.

Monday 4/1

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself. -Ernest Hemingway

1.  Discuss Freewrite

2.  Review/Collect Settings:  

*Invite students to read.

3.  Short Story Drafts:  

Activity:  Meet with a partner.  Discuss overall plot line and the "profile" of  the protagonist.  Identify a key passage in which the character's qualities are revealed.

15 mins:  Share

4.  Activity:  Give Sensuality to an Abstract.  Work w/ partner.  Share drafts tomorrow.  Due:  Friday  April 5th.  (1 page)    *See previous post.  

Wednesday 3/20

Do NOW:

Respond to the quote below: 

"A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is."   Flannery O'Connor

1.  Discuss Freewrite

2.  Handout :  Eudora Welty on the Short Story.

Activity:  Read w/ partner.  Identify important points.  Offer personal insights. 

10 mins:  Share. 

3.  Fiction Powerpoints

4.  Activity:  Giving Sensuality to an Abstract. 

Death, Confusion, Envy, Chaos, Joy, Truth...  Choose and abstract and by creatively employing sensory details, provide "sensuality"......  1 pg w/ illustration.  Due April 1st. 

Setting:  Rough Draft due:  Friday  3/22   Final Copy:  April 1st. 

Tuesday 3/19

Do NOW:  Respond to the following quote:

"I think a little menace is fine to have in a story.  For one thing, it's good for the circulation.  There has to be tension, a sense that something is imminent, that certain things are in relentless motion, or else, most often, there simply won't be a story."  *Raymond Carver

1.  Discuss quote.

2.  Read:  "Eudora Welty on the Short Story"  (Handout)  Read

5 minute written response:  Share.

3.  Fiction Powerpoints

4.  Activity:  Choose an "urban setting";  "paint" a portrait with creative language.  Pay attention to detail!

Monday. 3/18

Free write:  Respond to the quote below:

Eudora Welty said, "Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else... Fiction depends for its life on place. Place is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of, What happened? Who's here? Who's coming?..."

1.  Discuss Freewrite

2.  "To Build A Fire"   Analysis and discussion of sensory details, setting, and conflict

3.  Fiction Power points.    

4.  Work on Setting piece.  Rough draft due Friday.   

Wednesday 3/13

Do NOW:  Describe the street on which you live.  Consider:  sounds, smells, sights, feelings, etc ***Be Descriptive and Creative.

10 mins:  Share

1.  Discussion:  How important is setting in a story?  Why?

2.  Read "To Build A Fire"

Activity:  As you read, compile a list of sensory details. 


Jack London's "To Build A Fire"

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Jack_London/To_Build_a_Fire/To_Build_a_Fire_p1.html

Tuesday 3/12

Do NOW:  Write one sentence that succinctly describes the plot of your story.


*Begin class with one Fiction Powerpoint.


1.  Plot Activity:   Collect Writers' plot lines...

Record class' plot descriptions on board.  **Whole Class Discussion:  Collective Evaluation

2.  Analysis:  Why are we writing what we are writing?  What can we learn about ourselves through our art?

**Look for similarities/contrast in plots/patterns of imagery/Narrators/Character Commonalities...


3.  Setting:  Various in importance --  Consider a story in which the setting was of vital importance.  Explain.  10 mins:  Share.  

Activity:  Describe the street on which you live?  What do you see?  Hear?  Smell?  Feel?  

10 mins:  Share.  

Monday 3/11

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

There's more to the truth than just the facts.  ~Author Unknown

1.  Discuss Freewrite

2.  Ficition Powerpoints

3.  Plot Activity:  Write one sentence that succinctly describes the plot of your short story.

Record class' plot descriptions on board.

4.  Analysis:  Why are we writing what we are writing?  What can we learn about ourselves through our art?

**Look for similarities/contrast in plots...

5.  Setting:  Various in importance

Activity:  Describe the street on which you live?  What do you see?  Hear?  Smell?  Feel?  

10 mins:  Share.  

Wednesday 3/6

10 min write:  Respond to the quote below:

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”
—Virginia Woolf

1.  Discuss quote

2.  Powerpoint Presentation

3.  Writing Workshop.  

Tuesday. 3/5

Activity:  10 min write-- Write page 132 of your future autobiography.    Share


PowerPoint presentations:   Fiction in Modern Society.    Critique/Discuss


Short Story Workshop.    Due:  March 8th

Monday 3/4

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is 

obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

Mark Twain

1.  Discuss Write.

2.  Review Narration Development:

**Pause Action

***1st or 3rd Person narrator offers:

--insight  --reveals aspects of character  --reflects view of the world --observes setting  --flashback

3.  Activity:  Students present Powerpoint Presentations:

"Fiction and its relation to American Society"

**Whole Class discussion evaluating each presentation

4.  Workshop:  Rough Drafts    ***Final Copy due March 8th

Wednesday 2/27

Article:  "Get Loose and Set Your Writing Free"

1. Read w/ partner.  Be prepared to comment on selected excerpts.  15 mins:  Share.

2.  Activity:

**Choose a "moment" in your narrative where you can "pause" the action and reveal more of your 

character's thoughts.    *15 mins:  Share with class.

3.   Discuss with partner the basic plot line of your story.  Theorize why you as an artist are writing this

particulare fiction.  Try to gauge possible themes you are generating.  *10 mins:  Share. 

Tuesday 2/26

Activity:

1.  Short Story Drafts:  Share with a partner.  **Select one scene:  enhance/edit/rewrite... **15 minutes:  Explain the significance of the change to class.

Next, **Choose a "moment" in your narrative where you can "pause" the action and reveal more of your 

character's thoughts.    *15 mins:  Share with class.

2.  Discuss with partner the basic plot line of your story.  Theorize why you as an artist are writing this

particulare fiction.  Try to gauge possible themes you are generating.  *10 mins:  Share.  

***Reminders:  Fiction Powerpoints due:  March 1st

                                 Short Story:  Final copy due March 8th  (5-10 pgs typed)

Monday 2/25

Freewrite:  Respond to the quote below:

“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Review/Collect Miss Brill Analyses  *(Have students share excerpts of their work)

3.  Short Story Drafts:  Share with a partner.  **Select one scene:  enhance/edit/rewrite... **10 minutes:  Explain the significance of the change to class.

Next, **Choose a "moment" in your narrative where you can "pause" the action and reveal more of your 

character's thoughts.    *10 mins:  Share with class.

4.  Discuss with partner the basic plot line of your story.  Theorize why you as an artist are writing this

particulare fiction.  Try to gauge possible themes you are generating.  *10 mins:  Share.  

Wednesday. 2/20

**Read Inquirer editorial.   5 min write response:  Share.

"Do Now":  Explain the difference between round and flat characters in your notebook.
5 mins - Share.


Activity:  Select any passage from the story.   Describe context.  Analyze significance.   (Take notes for your analysis).  --Work w/ partner: Present to class.

1.  Analyze Character of Miss Brill?  Profession?  Beliefs? Passion?

2.  Identify main conflict.

3.  Explore generation of theme.   How is it achieved?   Consider key passages.

4.   Read /Analyze end.   What can readers surmise?  (Almond cake?)

Tuesday 2/19

Journal:  Respond to the Shakespearean Quote below:

All the World's a Stage

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...

1.  Discuss Journal

2.  Consider:  Have you ever "listened in" on someone else's conversation?  Even pretend/wish that 

you were a part of someone's life?  Share your thoughts with a partner:  5 mins... **Whole Class

3.  **Review short story genre attributes:  Rough Draft due Thursday  2/21  (25 points)

4.  Introduce:  Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill"  

2 page analysis due Monday  2/25

Be sure to address:

Miss Brill's character:  Flat or Round?

Theme?

Narration