Monday 4/21
1. Journal: If you could interview
anybody you wanted – past, present, or future – who would it be? Why?
What would you ask them? Explore.
2. Personal Mythology
Workshop: interviewing and giving characters life
a. Maybe share a couple journals.
b. Our next step in creating our Personal
Mythology is the art of developing character.
1) We’ll work on the skills and
material needed to develop character.
2) We’ll develop a meaningful and real
character sketch of an important person in each of our lives.
c. Select
a person to interview and for whom you are going to create a complete character
sketch.
1) This is someone from your parents'
or grandparents' generations to whom you are close or are just interested
in.
2) You are going to need to have access
to this person, so don’t pick someone who lives far away.
3) This can be a relative or someone
outside your family.
d. Develop
a list of at least 20 interview questions you could ask this person. Among these questions should be a request to
get a tour of their pictures.
1) Here’s a list of concepts of the
character sketch to keep in mind as you create your interview:
a) The person’s physical presence
b) A full sense of the person’s persona – the flavor and facts of their
personality
c) A feel for their lives, the mood
and events that make them who they are
2) List
due by end of the week.
e. Set
up a time to interview this person. Needs to be done
soon – within a couple weeks at most.
1) Your need to either tape-record the interview (audio or video) or take
detailed notes about their lives. Notes or tape due upon completion of
interview.
2) You may want to take some pictures
while you are there.
3) All notes and pictures from this
should be included in your scrapbook.
f. If time, work on selected writings.
3. HW: Read Section 6: Character Witness: 20 questions (pp. 129-130) but you need only read through paragraph 3 on
130.
4. Reminders:
a. Bring
books tomorrow.
b. Both
SSs FC and RRDs should be done tomorrow.
Tuesday 4/22
1. Journal: What do you really
know about your best friend? Hmmmmmmmmmm? Explain.
2. Writing from Memory
Short Story
a. Write a paragraph explaining the effects
writing your story from a different point of view had on your short story.
b. Turn
in best one – the one you intend to put in your scrapbook – with RRD
attached and point of view paragraph on top.
b.
Have other one checked (w/ RRD) when convenient and place in your
portfolio. (I’ll ask for these over the next few days.)
3. Writer Workshop:
Developing full characters
a. Review key concepts in last night’s
reading.
b. Go over rules of the writing – p. 130
c. Choose any character from anything
you’ve written or have wanted to write.
Don’t do yourself though – that would kind of defeat the whole purpose
of the assignment.
d. You see the 20 questions on pp.
131-132. And GO!
e. When finished, look over the What To Do With This Information section
on pp. 132-133. If something there looks
useful or fun, go ahead and do one.
Otherwise, simply put your 20 character answers in your portfolio for
possible future use. Either way, show me that you’ve completed
the activity before proceeding.
4. Reminders: Interview 20
questions due by end of the week – the sooner, the better.
Wednesday 4/23
1. Journal: after in-class
reading
2. Turn in late Full SS FC and RRD with point of view paragraph on
top.
3. Reader/Writer
Workshop: What might a good character sketch look like?
a. Sports Illustrated: Character Sketch of
Bill Clinton
b. Take notes for your own writing of a
character sketch.
c. When done, journal: Describe some of the techniques the author uses to create
a full character sketch of Bill Clinton.
d. This is what you are going to do
next. Discuss what it does, what is
expected.
e. Work on writing as needed, if time.
4. Have 20 interview questions checked during reading and journaling. You may wish to revise some of the questions
now that you have seen a character sketch.
1. Journal: tba
2. Turn in late Full SS FC and RRD with point of view paragraph on top
3. Personal Mythology
Workshop: Capturing the moments of your life
a. Review the Capturing Moments
section of the project.
b. Choose your other two visits and plan
when you will do them.
4. Turn in any late work;
have interview notes checked.
5. Reminder: Interviews should be done soon.
Friday 4/25
1. Journal: Imagine yourself
five years from now, looking back on your days here at Hilliard Davidson. What
will you remember about this building?
Which places are somehow special or otherwise memorable? Explain.
2. Writer Workshop: The
Art of Observation
a. Reinforce that you need to be doing your
observations as time allows.
b. Why observe?
1) What detail are we hoping to get
from observing (visiting) that we don’t otherwise have?
2) As writers, it is up to us to create
the world we write about. In this
particular case, we are creating a world for our own posterity.
c. Discuss approaches to recording
observations: sense charting, narrative, free writing, jot listing.
1) Use ALL your senses – try using a sense chart.
2) Capture the obvious and notice the
mundane. Readers may not always notice
the little details in their real lives but they sure will notice those same
details if they are missing from your writing.
2) Develop your vocabulary: it’s quite
difficult to fully capture a sensory experience without the words to express
it. Use the handout I gave you a couple
weeks ago for that.
3) Don’t forget that similes work well
when specific words escape you.
4) Try to describe things uniquely, either
when observing or later.
d. Practice observation
1) Disperse to the areas of the school
listed below. Do not be disruptive – you
should be a fly on the wall.
2) Observe, try different ways of recording,
look at things from new perspectives.
3) Where to go: gym, field house,
commons/cafeteria, offices (only a few please), bathrooms (weird), courtyard,
main entrances, hallways, stairwells.
4) You may NOT go into any classroom
for this.
3. Reminders:
a.
Interviews need to be done soon.
b.
Observations for Capturing Moments of
Your Life are underway.
c. You
should now be thinking about how you are going to put this all together –
review the assignment
online to get the whole picture.