Senior+Composition

August 17, 2011 - Wednesday
- Journal #1 - What Seems to Be the Problem Here? Two paragraphs: - Syllabus - Course overview discussed in class. Extra credit for parent/guardian signature. - "Somebody Wanted But So Then" Summarizing/Prewriting Introduced.
 * Who or what is responsible for the quality, or lack of quality, of student writing?
 * Describe the uniqueness of you own situation and needs. What do you hope to learn from a course in writing? You have had twelve years of formal education that included writing. Why then do you feel the need to take a course basically designed to improve your writing skills?

August 19, 2011 - Friday
- Journal #2 (30 min) - Last class period I asked what you expect to gain from a course basically designed to improve writing skills. Now I'm asking you to zoom out a bit. - Personal Narrative Prewriting - Use the "Somebody Wanted But So Then" structure to describe three events that you have witnessed or been a part of. - Personal Narrative Team Prewrite - Students share three stories with multiple classmates taking questions about the story and preferences to what story they would like to hear more about.
 * First, give me a paragraph or two describing the highlights and lowlights of your previous three years of high school. Please include at least one academic, extracurricular, and personal high and low.
 * Next, what goals do you have for the next 180 school days? What do you expect academically, extracurricularly, and personally? What obstacles do you expect? How do you plan on overcoming those obstacles?

August 23, 2011 - Tuesday
- Journal #3 – For each of the “Somebody Wanted But So Then” stories you were to have finished upon walking in to class today, complete the following in your journal: *What is there about this experience that makes it important for me? *How does the experience fit into the big picture of my life? *What would have been different if I hadn’t lived through this experience? * What could others learn from reading about my experience?
 * 1) Create a working title and write it down. Skip some lines between each title.
 * 2) Create a working theme for each story by answering one or more of the following questions:

HOMEWORK - Students draft a narrative essay with an //in medias res// opener and a thematic statement taken from part 2 of the journal entry. Students should skip lines. DUE at the beginning of the hour.

August 25, 2011 - Thursday
- Surface Revision of Personal Narrative - Remove Dead Words and Passive Verbs - Review District Writing Rubric - Self-Evaluate Personal Narrative - Turn In Personal Narrative (First of 3 Rough Drafts for the Narrative Unit, One will later be revised/edited and turned in as a polished copy) - Start Creative Narrative Brainstorming with //The Mysteries of Harris Burdick// Children's Book

August 29, 2011 - Monday
-Journal #4 - Perspective & Tone - Three Paragraphs - Write Rough Draft of Creative Narrative DUE WEDNESDAY at the beginning of class.
 * 1) 1st Person, Negative description of room. Include thoughts, actions, setting, etc.
 * 2) 3rd Person, Objective. Basically unemotional description of the same room
 * 3) 3rd Person Limited, Postivie. Same as number one but with positive connotations and emotions described.

August 31, 2011 - Wednesday
- Surface Revision of Creative Narrative. Please add: - Self-Evaluation using district rubric and turn in. - Assignment sheet for Character Sketch/Narrative discussed. Start brainstorming and drafting. Rough Draft due at the end of class on Friday, September 1st. Friday's class period will include a short journal entry and time to write.
 * 1) A few lines of dialogue between two characters.
 * 2) 2 similes
 * 3) 2 metaphor - implied or direct, personification is an implied metaphor
 * 4) 2 of the 5 senses to a description of setting.
 * 5) 2 of the 5 indirect characterization options to protagonist - describe speech, thoughts, actions, appearance, setting, other people's STA toward them.