Creative Writing Assignments
* corresponds to a grade in the gradebook
Fall Semester 2015 (assignments are listed under the date they are due)
November 16th
Finish Journal 10, which you can find right here
November 13th
Sign-up for a conference time and continue working on revision
November 12th
Read poems from Brittan and Tia and fill out the workshop prep sheet for both. I will collect these sheets before they go to them.
November 11th
Read story from Serena and fill out the workshop prep sheet for both. I will collect these sheets before they go to them.
November 10th
Read story from Stephen and fill out the workshop prep sheet for both. I will collect these sheets before they go to them.
November 9th
Read story from Katie and fill out the workshop prep sheet for both. I will collect these sheets before they go to them.
November 6th
Read stories from Elliot and Shane and fill out the workshop prep sheet for both. I will collect these sheets before they go to them.
November 5th
Read stories from Dawson and Kaylie (Part 1 and Part 2) and fill out the workshop prep sheet for both. I will collect these sheets before they go to them.
November 2nd
Read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor and fill out the workshop prep sheet. (Yes, it is a good, long substantial story. But it is a three-day weekend and this is one of the most famous short stories in American literature. Once you hit the middle of the story, you'll fly through the rest of it.)
October 30th
Send me a draft of your poetry cycle assignment by 5 p.m.
October 27th
* Keep working on your poems. Read these three poems by Joy Harjo and fill out the workshop prep form
October 22nd
*Keep working on your poems. Read Trethewey's three poems and fill out the workshop prep form
October 16th
*First draft of your story assignment
October 14th
Read Chapter 2 from About a Boy by Nick Hornby
October 12th
Read A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
October 9th
Refine your character voice assignment and start writing your story
October 8th
*Something happened to your character and he or she needs to talk about it. Write a journal or diary entry in the voice of your character about what happened to them. Freewrite this and bring it in tomorrow to revise.
October 7th
Read Thank You Ma'am by Langston Hughes
October 6th
Read The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
October 1st
*Finish your digital story by the end of class. I will grade your stories over the following weekend with this rubric.
September 21st
*In-Class: Journal Entry 2 - Describe your experience revising and editing the draft of your digital story. What parts of this process did you feel good about? What parts of this process were difficult? What questions or uncertainties came up for you in this process, or come up for you generally, in revision?
September 16th
Read Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard. Annotate for imagery that made an impression
September 15th
*Finish your digital story script - I will provide feedback on your draft and compare my assessment with your self- assessment to determine a grade.
*Journal Entry 1 - Do a self-assessment of your story relative to the five story elements we've discussed thus far: dramatic question, moment of change, character development, unity (beginnings and endings), and description and word choice.
September 8th
Journal Entry 0 - What happened this week in your writing and with your digital story? What stood out? Why did those things stand out? What questions do you have about writing or storytelling? What are you happy about in your story? What still needs work? Write at least a half-page on any and all of these questions in a Google Doc. Share this document with me.
September 4th
Come in with a draft of your story. I'll be evaluating four things in this script: dramatic question, moment of change, character development, and beginnings and ends
September 3rd
Revise your draft of your story. Make sure the dramatic question is clear in your head. Expand your moment of change so it’s vivid relative to the rest of the story.
September 2nd
Write your story down
September 1st
Come to class with a story you want to tell for your digital storytelling assignment
August 31st
Take the writing personality quiz
August 28th
*Read the syllabus, note any highlights, questions, concerns and bring in the syllabus sheet signed by a parent or guardian
*Bring me a copy of a piece of your creative writing
Fall Semester 2014
December 5th
*Be ready to teach some 9th graders during your assigned period, either period 3 or 5!
December 3rd & 4th - In Class
*Be ready to rehearse your lesson with our class. We'll compress your 20-minute lesson into 10-minutes and change so we have a chance to provide you with some feedback.
Due Wednesday, November 19th
*Draft of your Spell. See the Spell Assignment sheet for details. Final is due December 2nd.
Due Tuesday, November 11th
*Three topic ideas for your writer's toolbox in simple statements.
See the revised assignment sheet for the Writer's Toolbox. Due date for the final toolbox is Thursday, December 11th
Due on Friday, October 31st
*Read the submissions from Travis and Riley (including their reflection sheets) and fill in notes on the workshop prep sheet. These workshop prep sheets will go to me and then be passed on to the authors.
Due on Thursday, October 30th
*Read the submissions from Nolan and Tony (including their reflection sheets) and fill in notes on the workshop prep sheet. These workshop prep sheets will go to me and then be passed on to the authors.
Due on Wednesday, October 29th
*Read the submissions from Sienna and Hayden (including their reflection sheets) and fill in notes on the workshop prep sheet. These workshop prep sheets will go to me and then be passed on to the authors.
October 23rd - In Class
Reflect on discoveries about writing from workshop sessions
Due on Thursday, October 23rd
*Read the draft of my story "Crickets" and fill out the workshop form (MS Word and PDF), and bring to class.
Due on Wednesday, October 22nd
*Read "Living Like Weasels" by Annie Dillard and fill out the workshop form (MS Word and PDF), and bring to class.
Due on Tuesday, October 21st
*Read the three poems by Joy Harjo and fill out the workshop form (MS Word and PDF), and bring to class.
Due Monday, October 20th
* Read the three poems entitled "Geography" by Natasha Trethewey and fill out the workshop form (MS Word and PDF), and bring to class.
Due Friday, October 17th
*Turn in your revision of your Telling a Story assignment.
*Read "How to Tell a True War Story," fill out the workshop form (MS Word and PDF), and bring to class.
Friday, October 10th - In Class
Complete the Mid-Semester Spell Check form to get you thinking about what spell you want to put in the Magical Manual of Writing Instruction.
Due Friday, October 10th
*A cycle of five very drafty draft poems all related to a central theme.
Due Monday, October 6th
*Revision to the Writing to Truth Assignment
Due Friday, October 3rd
*Writing Reflections assignment. Also everyone needs to get a date on the calendar to meet next week. I must have your writing reflection otherwise you don't get a conference.
Due September 30th
*Draft of the Telling a Story assignment - If you want to do something different or special with this assignment. Talk to me.
*September 26th - In Class
Write about where you can put humor into your story or moment piece.
Due September 26th
Read the first chapter of About a Boy by Nick Hornby
*Reading Vandalism - Give boring, non-specific writing a face lift with specific concrete, packed images.
*Creating a packed image - Use images from magazines to create a single, unified image that tells a story. Then put the image into words.
*Demonstrate a story arc - I offered several ways to do this in class. You can work with images from a story you're working on, your moment piece that you turned in, one of the stories we've read in class. The important thing is that you break the story into its significant events and compare what events you have to the classic story arc. If it doesn't fit, that's all right. But you need to show it to me in physical form, digitally, or by filling in the sentence at the bottom of this worksheet.
Due September 19th
*Character Voice assignment - You are getting into the voice of your character. The character needs to be deciding something. They don't have to come to a final decision but they have to be grappling and the stakes have to be high enough for it to really matter. Get it to the point where you're not sure what you would do next with the voice. It should be at least 250 words but can be longer. You can incorporate this character into your "Telling a Story" assignment.
September 17th - In class
*Demonstrate a story arc - I offered several ways to do this in class. You can work with images from a story you're working on, your moment piece that you turned in, one of the stories we've read in class. The important thing is that you break the story into its significant events and compare what events you have to the classic story arc. If it doesn't fit, that's all right. But you need to show it to me in physical form, digitally, or by filling in the sentence at the bottom of this worksheet.
Due September 16th
Read the first two poems in the packet of Character Poems
Read Hills Like White Elephants and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
Read this passage from The Color Purple by Alice Walker
September 16th - In Class
Take the Harry Potter Character Challenge - Presented with the words J.K. Rowling used to first describe Harry, Dumbledore, and other characters in the series, students had to match these descriptions with quotes from each of the characters.
Due September 15th
Read Thank You, Ma'am by Langston Hughes
Take a character (either one you've created in class or another one) and pick a Greek God or Goddess based on the descriptions from this spreadsheet. You don't have to read the whole spreadsheet. You can start in row 13 where it says "Archetype" and read across. The gods are listed first and the goddesses second in the spreadsheet. If you find an archetype that fits the character you created start reading down in the column and see if the life pattern matches the person you've created. Your character might be a blend of two or three different archetypes. Most of us are. Here is the spreadsheet in MS Excel and here is a PDF (you'll have to zoom into read the PDF).
September 12th - In Class
Fill in the Character Build worksheet using the character you discovered on Wednesday.
Due September 12th
Read The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara
September 9th - In Class
*Peer review of Writing to Truth assignment
Due September 8th
*Turn in your Writing to Truth assignment.
September 5th - In Class
*Creating a packed image - Use images from magazines to create a single, unified image that tells a story. Then put the image into words.
September 4th - In Class
*Reading Vandalism - Give boring, non-specific writing a face lift with specific concrete, packed images.
Due September 3rd - In Class
*Abstract vs. Concrete Worksheet - Find concrete images to replace the abstract words in the left column
Read selection from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.
September 2nd - In Class
*Discussion and analysis of The Barn and the Bees
*Powerwriting something that you know well
Due September 2nd
Read the short non-fiction piece called "The Barn and the Bees" by Kim Stafford (son of famous poet William Stafford)
Due August 29th
*Your writing notebook sheet - Fill in each category with notes from things you've noticed or remembered during the week. Are there any seeds for writing projects in your ideas, images, emotions, events, or dreams during the past week.
August 27th - In Class
*Sharing the story of your power object
August 25th - In Class
*Sharing your writing process with the group
Due August 25th
*Discovery Poem - Take one of the three intriguing things. Write a paragraph about why it intrigues you. Write a poem about that thing. Write another paragraph about what you discovered about the thing by writing the poem.
August 22nd - In Class
*Write fifty things that are true about you - circle the three truest things, circle the three things that are most intriguing.
*Diagram/Draw/Collage your Writing Proces - Metaphorical thinking encouraged.
Due August 22nd
*Review syllabus and turn in with your and your parent or guardian's signature.
*Email me a copy of what you feel is your strongest piece of creative writing
Read An Example of the Revision Process - From Burroway, Janet. (1992) Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. 3rd edition. New York: Harper Collins. This includes versions of Stephen Dunning's story Wanting to Fly
August 21st - In Class
*Powerwrite: Writing is like __________________________.