Vocab Unit 4 Green class

Post this weekend before Monday morning!

Post five (5) sentences using your vocabulary words correctly, giving clues to the meanings of the words within your sentence.

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS:

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 1-3, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 1-10 AS LISTED ON PAGES 35-36.

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 4-6, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 11-20 AS LISTED ON PAGES 36-37.

Work by yourself on this assignment, please.

Save your sentences in a file in case you have problems posting.

Vocab Unit 4 Blue class

Post this weekend before Monday morning!

Post five (5) sentences using your vocabulary words correctly, giving clues to the meanings of the words within your sentence.

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS:

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 1-3, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 1-10 AS LISTED ON PAGES 35-36.

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 4-6, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 11-20 AS LISTED ON PAGES 36-37.

Work by yourself on this assignment, please.

Save your sentences in a file in case you have problems posting.

Vocab Unit 4--Yellow class

Post this weekend before Monday morning!

Post five (5) sentences using your vocabulary words correctly, giving clues to the meanings of the words within your sentence.

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS:

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 1-3, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 1-10 AS LISTED ON PAGES 35-36.

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 4-6, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 11-20 AS LISTED ON PAGES 36-37.

Work by yourself on this assignment, please.

Save your sentences in a file in case you have problems posting.

Journals? What Journals?

Go back into the archives of August and September to find all of the journals.

Seniors: 1. summer reading 2. personal essay warmup 3. old fashioned stories 4. John Updike interview 5. rock riffs

Sophs: 1. summer reading 2. favorite work of art 3. life is a highway 4. be like ben 5. laugh, think, and cry

Print out all of your responses to these five assignments. Each should consist of a minimum of 200 words or 25 blog lines. Will that minimum ensure an A grade? Probably not. You may and [probably should] edit what you submitted previously on the blog.

Turn in your best work. The assignment is worth 50 points. Due Tuesday, October 26.

Senior Journal #5 Rock Riffs (purple and red)

THIS IS YOUR FINAL JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT FOR THE FIRST MARKING PERIOD.

POST BEFORE SCHOOL ON MONDAY.

ALL JOURNALS #1-5 ARE DUE PRINTED OUT ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26.

TO GET SOME IDEAS, THERE ARE SOME FORMER COMMENTS IN THE OCTOBER 2009 ARCHIVES ALONG WITH SOME COMMENTS BELOW FROM TWO "OVERACHIEVERS" [WELL DONE].

Wanna get creative and have fun with some of your favorite songs ? Then try "rock riff writing." It's an idea that I have "borrowed" from Julianna Baggott, a St. Mark's alum and accomplished author.

There are no hard and fast rules. Choose a song that you really enjoy and use it to write a description, scene, dialogue, character sketch, or story (or film?) treatment.

I've included lyrics from a song that you might know by Billy Joel called Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. It's a story song already that involves two fairly well-defined characters, Brenda and Eddie. Read over the lyrics below:

Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies /And the king and the queen of the prom /Riding around with the car top down and the radio on / Nobody looked any finer /Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner / We never knew we could want more than that out of life / Surely Brenda and Eddie would always know how to survive. / Brenda and Eddie were still going steady in the summer of '75 / when they decided the marriage would be at the end of July / Everyone said they were crazy / "Brenda you know that you're much too lazy/ and Eddie could never afford to live that kind of life." / Oh, but there we were wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye. / Well they got an apartment with deep pile carpets / And a couple of paintings from Sears / A big waterbed that they bought with the bread /They had saved for a couple of years / They started to fight when the money got tight /And they just didn't count on the tears.

OK. if YOU had chosen this song, your creative opportunities would be endless to complete this assignment.

Describe your favorite Italian restaurant, from soup to nuts. Or describe, in even more detail, their Brenda & Eddie's humble abode.

Or write a scene at Brenda & Eddie's wedding, perhaps, that foreshadows their eventual breakup. Or a scene where Brenda & Eddie really rule the roost hanging out at the local diner.

Maybe compose a dialogue in which Eddie proposes to Brenda. Maybe have Brenda proposing to Eddie, which might explain how Eddie wasn't ready to get married in the first place.

Character sketch Eddie. Dress him appropriately, have him talk, act, react, etc. the way he should. Do the same with Brenda.

Maybe take the point of view of one of their high school "friends" who tells us in a brief dramatic monologue that she knew their marriage would "never last." [dramatic monologue is when one character talks continuously to another, who never is heard responding].

If you're really ambitious, come up with a story or movie treatment. I would define a treatment as a basic plot road map with some interesting explanatory comments sprinkled in. If you're casting the movie, who would be your first choices to play the roles of Brenda and Eddie? Mine might be Marisa Tomei and Nicholas Cage. But they're both probably too old now to pull this off.

Hopefully, reading my "riff" ideas on this Billy Joel song will encourage you to be just as creative with your own choice.

By the way, the photo is of Caffe Napoli on Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy.

Sophs #5 Journal--Jim Valvano--Laugh, Think, and Cry

Jim Valvano coached the North Carolina State Wolfpack to an upset victory in the 1983 NCAA men's basketball championship game. Valvano parlayed this victory with his gift of public speaking to become one of the most likable and recognizable coaches in the land. I had the pleasure of listening to Valvano speak to a group of Delaware high school basketball coaches and All Stars. Leaving the Dover banquet hall that night, I thought to myself, "This guy is going to be a world shaker." Or something like that.

Though his teams were always competitive, North Carolina State would never come close again to matching the success of the fantasy 1983 season.

Then came the tragic news that Valvano had developed cancer. Only ten years after his national championship, his body ravaged with cancerous tumors, Valvano was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs (ESPN's annual BESTS). Valvano, an inspirational coach, was probably even a better public speaker. His speech at the ESPYs will make you laugh, think, and cry, three things, that according to Valvano, you should do every day.

The Jimmy V Foundation was founded in his honor. It's still active and important today, raising millions of dollars to fight cancer. Dick Vitale, a well-known television basketball broadcaster and once a close friend of Valvano, is a main P.T. (Prime Time) Player in the battle against the insidious disease.

Your assignment: listen to the speech again (click on this link) and read the words to the speech at this link. Write your journal by responding to one or more of the following prompts:

1. What are the best parts (lines) of the speech? Why?

2. Tell me about the best 'pep talk' that you've ever received. Make sure to discuss the speaker, the situation, the audience, and the speaker's technique. Cite lines from the speech if you can.

3. How do you laugh, think, and cry each day?

4. Relate a personal story to any topic discussed in the speech.

5. Analyze the speech according to pathos, ethos, and logos.


AS ALWAYS, WRITE A MINIMUM OF 25 BLOG LINES OR 250 WORDS.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO COMMENT ON THIS BLOG FOR THIS POST.

Soph Yellow Class-vocab unit 3

Post tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 12.

Post five (5) sentences using your vocabulary words correctly, giving clues to the meanings of the words within your sentence.

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS:

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 1-3, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 1-10 AS LISTED ON PAGES 35-36.

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 4-6, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 11-20 AS LISTED ON PAGES 36-37.

Work by yourself on this assignment, please.

Save your sentences in a file in case you have problems posting.

Soph Green class--vocab unit 3

Post tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 12.

Post five (5) sentences using your vocabulary words correctly, giving clues to the meanings of the words within your sentence.

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS:

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 1-3, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 1-10 AS LISTED ON PAGES 35-36.

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 4-6, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 11-20 AS LISTED ON PAGES 36-37.

Work by yourself on this assignment, please.

Save your sentences in a file in case you have problems posting.

Soph Blue Class--vocab unit 3

Post tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 12.

Post five (5) sentences using your vocabulary words correctly, giving clues to the meanings of the words within your sentence.

SPECIAL DIRECTIONS:

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 1-3, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 1-10 AS LISTED ON PAGES 35-36.

IF YOU SIT IN ROWS 4-6, WRITE SENTENCES FROM WORDS 11-20 AS LISTED ON PAGES 36-37.

Work by yourself on this assignment, please.

Save your sentences in a file in case you have problems posting.

Sophs #4 YELLOW journal--Be Like Ben [Franklin, of course]

An older and wiser man writing his autobiography, Dr. Benjamin Franklin gave to the world his prescription for achieving "the bold and arduous task of moral perfection": list 13 virtues you wish to master, work on only one per week (like eradicating weeds from one flower bed at a time, he said), examine your day each evening to see if you had committed any actions contrary to that virtue (keep a record in a lined notebook), proceed to the next virtue the next week, and continue this process for a year (you'll be able to go through four cycles in 52 weeks). Sounds simple enough, right? About as easy and American as apple pie.

As a young man hiding behind the nom de plume of Poor Richard Saunders, Franklin's words of wisdom often took the shape of clever, pithily worded aphorisms like "God helps them that help themselves; a penny saved is a penny earned; fish and visitors smell in three days; an apple a day keeps the doctor away, etc."

Your journal assignment gives you some options.

You should (choose ONE of the three):

A. Tell me a personal or family tale that represents one of Franklin's virtues.

B. Tell me a personal or family tale that represents the theme of one of Franklin's aphorisms. Write that aphorism as part of your title. Check out the "talking Ben" by clicking here.

C. Relate in detail some orderly plan that you contrived in order to achieve some goal.


As Ben would have said, "Do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.

POST BEFORE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16

Sophs BLUE #4 Journal--Be Like Ben [Franklin, of course]

An older and wiser man writing his autobiography, Dr. Benjamin Franklin gave to the world his prescription for achieving "the bold and arduous task of moral perfection": list 13 virtues you wish to master, work on only one per week (like eradicating weeds from one flower bed at a time, he said), examine your day each evening to see if you had committed any actions contrary to that virtue (keep a record in a lined notebook), proceed to the next virtue the next week, and continue this process for a year (you'll be able to go through four cycles in 52 weeks). Sounds simple enough, right? About as easy and American as apple pie.

As a young man hiding behind the nom de plume of Poor Richard Saunders, Franklin's words of wisdom often took the shape of clever, pithily worded aphorisms like "God helps them that help themselves; a penny saved is a penny earned; fish and visitors smell in three days; an apple a day keeps the doctor away, etc."

Your journal assignment gives you some options.

You should (choose ONE of the three):

A. Tell me a personal or family tale that represents one of Franklin's virtues.

B. Tell me a personal or family tale that represents the theme of one of Franklin's aphorisms. Write that aphorism as part of your title. Check out the "talking Ben" by clicking here.

C. Relate in detail some orderly plan that you contrived in order to achieve some goal.


As Ben would have said, "Do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.

POST BEFORE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16

Sophs #4 GREEN class Journal--Be Like Ben [Franklin, of course]

An older and wiser man writing his autobiography, Dr. Benjamin Franklin gave to the world his prescription for achieving "the bold and arduous task of moral perfection": list 13 virtues you wish to master, work on only one per week (like eradicating weeds from one flower bed at a time, he said), examine your day each evening to see if you had committed any actions contrary to that virtue (keep a record in a lined notebook), proceed to the next virtue the next week, and continue this process for a year (you'll be able to go through four cycles in 52 weeks). Sounds simple enough, right? About as easy and American as apple pie.

As a young man hiding behind the nom de plume of Poor Richard Saunders, Franklin's words of wisdom often took the shape of clever, pithily worded aphorisms like "God helps them that help themselves; a penny saved is a penny earned; fish and visitors smell in three days; an apple a day keeps the doctor away, etc."

Your journal assignment gives you some options.

You should (choose ONE of the three):

A. Tell me a personal or family tale that represents one of Franklin's virtues.

B. Tell me a personal or family tale that represents the theme of one of Franklin's aphorisms. Write that aphorism as part of your title. Check out the "talking Ben" by clicking here.

C. Relate in detail some orderly plan that you contrived in order to achieve some goal.


As Ben would have said, "Do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.

POST BEFORE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16

Seniors #4 journal--John Updike

NOTE: THIS IS A JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT, BUT YOU DO NOT NEED TO POST YOUR RESPONSE. HAND IT IN AT THE END OF THE QUARTER WITH THE REST OF YOUR JOURNAL WRITINGS.

Your first assigned short story, The Lucid Eye in Silver Town, is a partially autobiographical account of its author, the young John Updike. Jay, the young boy in the story, is from some "hick town" in PA, as his father says in his sad, self-deprecating manner; Updike himself hailed from Shillington, a small town close to Reading, PA. Before he passed away in January 2009 at the age of 76, Updike was still reading and writing as much as ever.

Once a young man frustrated with a stalled career as a cartoonist, he tried his hand at fiction. His description of his first effort to write should encourage those of you who are intimidated or insecure in your own ability: "It's like sort of a horse you don't know is there, but if you jump on the back there is something under you that begins to move and gallop. So it's clearly a wonderful imaginary world that you enter when you begin to write fiction."

Updike went on to achieve the rare daily double of both popular and literary success, his novels read equally on airplanes and in college classrooms. His greatest gift was his ability to make us care about everyday people doing everyday things, a trait that makes him particularly American, this celebration of the common man.

Visit this webpage and read the Updike interview.

The entire interview?

Well, as much or as little as you need to in order to respond to this prompt:

Respond to any one or some of Updike's interview answers in this interview. He talks about a variety of subjects: his childhood, his experience with teachers, his early appreciation of reading, his writing theories, teaching a creative writing class, the American Dream, etc. You may merely respond in a agree/disagree--like/dislike manner OR relate his (and your) responses to "The Lucid Eye in Silver Town."

This represents one exercise in the "critical" side of the course. You might not find this journal or Updike's interview particularly exciting, but I'm hoping that you at least find it insightful. Let's face it. When was the last time you read serious musings on fiction from a serious writer of fiction?

Remember, 25 blog lines or 200 words.