Thursday and Friday this week are work days in our class for your short story. I'll be pulling people out to conference. This is conference # 2. Keep working on your story and applying the elements we've discussed. And keep up with those journal assignments.
Learning target: We can recognize the incongruities in a piece of comic writing
Comedy is about things being out of balance. It is about incongruities, things that don't line up. Humor comes from expectations NOT coming true in either a good way or bad way. Comedy provides the perspective of an outsider or misfit and these are the most common characters in a comic story. This outsider perspective means that there is a natural distance between the reader and the story, the narrative voice necessary for comic writing is usually more lively and more alive to irony, which can prevent readers from falling into the story. But this isn't a bad thing. The best comic writers make you laugh and care deeply about their characters. They help you find your own comic spirit and leave you uplifted in the midst of challenge, difficulty, and death. We'll look for these qualities in three pages from Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy before turning you loose to work on your story drafts. I'll also continue with writing conferences. Homework due Thursday, October 15th Keep working on your stories Learning target: We can name the ways to use setting to enhance a story
Today we’ll start with watching a couple of digital stories from our class. If you missed the discussion about point of view, you can garner some of what we talked about by looking at these diagrams. Then you’ll use this questionnaire about setting to evaluate “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” Then, you’ll have work time to keep working on your story. During this time, I’ll pull people out for Conference # 2 to work out grades on your digital stories. Homework due Wednesday, October 14th Read Chapter 2 from About a Boy by Nick Hornby Learning Target: We can recognize shifts in point of view
We'll start out today looking at Elliot's digital story. And then you'll answer Journal Question # 5. Journal # 5: Which of the three aspects of developing a character that we went over last week-- finding a character, building the character, dialogue and details--do you feel will be or has been the most challenging for you? Why? What do you think is the most productive way to overcome this challenge? Take some time to answer this question. We'll then move to talking about the story you read this weekend: "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. We'll talk about this story tomorrow as well when we discuss setting. But today we're going to talk again about point of view. (If you missed Friday, hang with us and I'll talk with you individually about questions. I tried to scan some diagrams that mirrored what we went over on Friday, but technology defeated me and now they're at home.) In this story, the author shifts what's called the viewpoint two times. What point of view is this? Third-person omniscient. He can see inside the head of all of the characters. But notice whose head does the author dive the furthest into. The gets close and deep into the consciousness of the older waiter. He gets so deep in fact that we lose track of time and place and he ends up in a bar at the end and we don't know how he got there. I want to bring this idea of point of view to your attention because controlling and making it work for you is one of the big choices you make in any story. The rest of the day will be for you to continue your work on your story. Homework due Tuesday, October 13th Keep working on your story. First draft is due on Friday. Goal for the day: For students to understand their options in point of view.
We'll start the day with students choosing a slip of paper with a type of person written on it: a nun, a police officer, a best friend, a cute stranger, etc. I asked everyone to write on the back how they'd change the event their character is writing about in their first-person diary entry. The answers were either "more ____________________" or "less __________________." People then passed these slips of paper to the left. So, each person got another person's word. Now you have to do TWO things. Re-write the journal entry in 3rd person instead of 1st person (this means creating a narrator that will describe your actions within the scene) AND write in a style that is "more_______________" or "less________________" depending on the word that you receive. The essential part of the first part of this lesson is having people recognize that they always have a narrator in the story and are always writing for "someone." Change who you're writing to and your voice and style changes. I then explained that there are two parts to point of view in prose. The first is what "person" you are writing in. We talked briefly about first, second, third limited, third omniscient, and cinematic. The second decision is more subtle and has to do with the degree to which the narrator lets on that he or she is telling a story and telling it to a particular person. Having a narrator with an attitude is fun and can add another dimension to the story. But it's more difficult and creates a certain distance between the reader and the events in the story. The rest of the class will be for continued work time. Homework due Monday, October 12th Read A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway
The visual description of the character might hide the true nature of their character. The rest of the class will be work time.
Homework due Friday, October 9th Start working on your story Learning Target: We can associate our character with one or more archetypes
We're going to start today with the story Thank You, Ma'am by Langston Hughes. Get into two groups and identify all the symbolic elements you can in this story. Look at the objects and how they are functioning in the story. When is a door more than a door? Once you identify these, use this description of archetypes to think about the boy and the woman. Which of the archetypes do they represent? This isn't an easy question. Next share with one another how your character compares with these descriptions and why. Now go into this spreadsheet (MS Excel or PDF) of Greek Gods and Goddesses. Go to row 13 where it says "Archetype" and read across. The first eight are male archetypes; the next seven are female archetypes. Once you find the archetype that you think matches you character read up and down in that column. What feels right for you character? What doesn't? Did you have a secondary archetype? Check that one out as well. Now return to your character build worksheet. Can you answer more of the questions now? Do you want to change or add anything? The rest of the class will be work time for you to develop your character or start drafting your story. Homework due Thursday, 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. Learning target: We can name the fundamental questions we need to answer about our characters.
I'll start out with this clip from the movie The Wonder Boys. This the kind of imaginative thread you need to pull with the character in your story. After this we'll talk about the story The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara and how to interpret the rather unpleasant main character in this story. We're going to talk about what the character wants, both consciously and unconsciously, and what's keeping her from getting what she truly desires. Character have conscious desires, but they also have deep yearnings that are often unconscious that truly control their emotions and push them to do things even they can't explain. After this, you'll have work time to start answering basic questions about a character, hopefully the main character, that will be in your short story. You will use this worksheet to build out your character. Initially, give yourself ten minutes to answer these questions. Try to find the things you know about your character immediately. These things that you are certain about are the flecks of dust around which you'll build the "snowflake" of your character. Homework due Wednesday, October 7th Read the story Thank You Ma'am by Langston Hughes Learning target: We can create a character from our experience
Welcome to a new week and a new assignment. After focusing on yourself for your digital story, a big part of the next assignment—writing a short story—is creating one or more distinctive characters. Characters are the key to fiction. They are the hook for the reader and determine whether they will fall into the story or stay on the surface. There are three parts to the character puzzle: finding the character, building the character’s backstory, and then putting this character on the page so all your other work comes through to the reader. We'll start today looking at the current Magical Manual of Writing Instruction that you'll contribute to at the end of the semester. Remember, this spell is a major part of your grade. You have pick some part of your knowledge about writing that you want to preserve for generations. This week we’ll be developing characters for your short story. This coming weekend and next week you’ll be drafting your short stories. Your will turn in a draft next Friday, which I’ll read and give back to you next Monday. Some of you will want to get feedback from the class on your story before attempting a revision. Homework due Tuesday, October 6th Read The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara |
AuthorMarcus Renner is just a working teacher at Animas High School in beautiful Durango, CO CategoriesArchives
November 2015
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