English 8
Keep reading - each day at home and each day in class. Remember to bring your book to class!
- 1.3: due Wednesday: write a paragraph using the vocabulary words from today's story "Act of a Hero." The words are as follows: undulating, acrid, rationalize, accolades, mockery, casualty.
- 2.1: due Thursday: write a paragraph using the vocabulary words from today's story "Act of a Hero." The words are as follows: undulating, acrid, rationalize, accolades, mockery, casualty.
English 11 AP - Macbeth End of Unit Assignment (adapted from Dominic Dedato’s Midsummer Nights’ Dream assignment)
Task: For this assignment, you will study one of the main characters in Macbeth. At home, you will work individually on one of the options below. You want to show that you understand this character by revealing his/her thoughts, motives and opinions on the play’s action.
Remember: No matter what option you choose, you will have to illustrate the character and events in as detailed a way as possible. All four options require you to speak/write/think in the voice of a character. Do not forget to acknowledge the changes that your character(s) experiences through the course of the play. Though properly cited quotations are acceptable, the purpose of the assignment is for you to interpret what happens in the play in your own words.
You must submit your work by November 6th. To submit your project, please email me your link. Here are your options:
1. You will create a Blog on www.blogger.com. It will feature five entries (at least two paragraphs each), one for each Act. You will also write a minimum of four comments (minimum two sentences each) from at least three other characters in the play. 2. Your will create a well-developed Facebook profile for a character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It should include at least 5 status updates (one for each Act), 3 pictures and at least 5 paragraph-long notes (one for each Act). It may also include event invitation and plans and Applications (i.e. take some quizzes as the character). Make sure your profile is kept private and do NOT add any contacts. For a bonus: create an extra entry! 3. If you do not have regular computer access, this option is for you. You will write a series of four letters between two characters in the play (from different points in the plot). Each letter should be no shorter than two full paragraphs. You can include creative sketches and/or items that may belong to your character. 4. Create 2 minute audio or video journal entries from a specific character from each of the five Acts in the play. You may use an audio or video cassette, DVD or create a podcast.
- Next meeting: November 2nd at 7:15am.
- First assignment: describe the view from a window - any window, bedroom, restaurant, bus, wherever - as seen by the character you gave birth to this morning and who has just received either very good or very bad news. Have some specific news in mind but do not mention it in the exercise. Don't even hint at it. The reader should be able to deduce if not the exact nature of the news, the tenor of it, whether it's good or bad, simply by the way you describe the view. The object here is to give the reader a sense of your character's internal life by relying on meaningful imagery alone. (This exercise is adapted from "through your character's eye" by Michael Knight in Naming the World.)
- 2nd assignment: make a list of ten things that might elicit a reaction from your character. (if he hates to swim, put him in a rickety boat, etc) Now write a scene using one of those situations and your character. (Adapted from Noah Lukeman's The Plot Thickens.)
- 3rd Assignment: Write a scene in which your character engages another character in dialogue. Make the scene mostly dialogue with little exposition. That means that your reader will understand what is occuring through what your characters say and how they say it. To make this scene more challenging, have your characters talk around an issue rather than confront it head on. For some help about writing good dialogue, check out this blog post: http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/how-to-write-dialogue
- 4th Assignment: Bad news. I'm so sorry to tell you this, but your character died early this morning. I'm not sure how - but I'm sure I'll find out in the obituary you are about to write. Please get familiar with the style of an obituary by reading some - then write your own for your character: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/obituaries/.
- All assignments are due at our November 2nd workshop. Please bring them in manuscript form, which means typed and printed in double spaced. Times New Roman. Size 12.
Writing 12 Contests and Opportunities
Katherine has brought this to our attention - thank you, Katherine! http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ National Novel Writing Month is coming up in November. The idea goal is to write up to a 175 page (Grade 11 can write anywhere from 17,000 to 35,000 words, and Grade 12 is anywhere from 25,000 to the full 50,00 words) novel in between midnight October 31st and midnight November 30th. I participated last year, and unfortunately didn't make it, but I'm going for the full 50,000 words this time around. I was hoping that some of the other writers in Writing 12 might want to join me, I know it's a huge undertaking but it really is fun to just write and not focus on whether everything is "perfect", and it would be nice to have a group who could support each other.
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