Thursday, 24 April

Class covered a variety of topics today.

First Mr. Zartler shared the remaining dates in Apricot Irving's residency:
April 29th: "Hunger"; May 6th "Feast"; May 8th short lesson led by Mr. Zartler to prep; May 13th: "Conferences"; May 15th "Revision"; May 20th "Practice Reading"; May 21st Public Reading at Broadway Books in the evening.

Mr. Zartler then gave a lesson on how to write and include a "section thesis" in a "section introduction" in the thesis. He reviewed how the quote patter: "Intro the quote; quote the quote; cite the quote; explain the quote" should be followed with paraphrased evidence as well as embedded quotes in the thesis.

Class reviewed block indenting.

Mr. Zartler provided handouts and discussion for writing effective introductions and conclusions.

Next Mr. Zartler introduced the Food in Film unit.
Films to be studied are: Eat Drink Man Woman directed by Ang Lee; Ramen Girl starring Brittany Murphy; and Jiro Dreams of Sushi a documentary about the greatest sushi chef Jiro.

The films all feature tension or conflict between apprentices and masters; tradition and innovation; and conflict between generations.

The class considered the tension between tradition and innovation in a short writing and group activity.

The class will begin studying Eat Drink Man Woman  on Monday.

Monday, 6th June

Final Project: Writers are to create and publish an illustrated book for adults in the style of a children's book.

Writers examined models of this project, and the class discussed what is and is not appropriate for school. Writers began drafting ideas.

Class on Monday and Tuesday will be time to draft, write, conference, illustrate, etc.

The final project is due at the beginning of the finals period.

Tuesday, 21 May

Class began with a prompt about "moments of discovery."

Next the class analyzed illustrated books for children created by previous writers in the class. These books were compared to the list of attributes we have developed by analyzing professional models.

Next writers submitted for approval a proposal for their project. The proposal included:
Intended audience
(whether to be read to or by the child)
The utility of the book
the protagonist and conflict
a description of the mood or tone of the book.

Class on Thursday will be focused on drafting and revising; Mr. Zartler will demonstrate some ways to bind books.

Monday 20 May

Review of Illustrated Childrens' Book Assignment:

Full text due 28 May

Completed, bound, illustrated book due by the end of class, Thursday 30 May.

Attributes of Childrens' Books:

Illustrated; have a purpose, lesson, or utility for an adult; simple language; few words; repetitive; child or child like characters; often have personified animals as characters; positive resolutions; colorful.

In class today we focused on memories of food and eating as children.

We reviewed the fact that every book for children is written for a specific audience (age), and is specifically written to either be read by a child or to a child.

Due tomorrow, Tuesday, 21 May:

A specific audience and a specific lesson or utility for the book that you are to write.

This is the assignment for class on Monday, 5 May.

Peer Edit for Nano-, Micro, and Short-Short Fiction

You should have two stories with you today. I would be surprised if after receiving quality constructive criticism from your conferencing team you are not able to improve each of them. After reviewing the questions you will need to answer about your work, discuss the questions with your conferencing partners. Then take turns sharing your current draft and discussing each of the questions with your group. When you are done discussing you may revise your piece and then finish the assignment described below. This assignment is due AT THE START OF CLASS on Tuesday, 7 May.

Nano-Fiction is a story of exactly 58 words. Micro Fiction is a story of between 88 and 100 words. Short-Short Fiction is a story of 250 words or fewer (but more than 175). You are two have two stories, and each of the two must be a different type of story.

Conference Partner 1 ____________________________________________________ (print legibly)

Conference Partner 2 ____________________________________________________ (print legibly)

A) On a separate piece of paper, using complete sentences, paragraphs, etc. answer the following questions about your first very short fiction form:

What form did you choose to submit? Why did you choose this form?

State what you like about your story. Use an example or examples from your text.

State what you think would make your story better (using a quote is nice).

Does your story have an ironic twist? Why or why not? What is your ironic twist? On a scale of 1-10 or other scale of your choosing how much of a twist is it?

What did you do as an author to make the twist not be “out of the blue” but instead something that makes sense once it happens in the story? (Or, how will you revise your story so that the twist does not “come out of the blue” if it currently does?

What other changes will you make as a result of your conferencing? Why will you make these changes, or why will you not make any changes?

State what grade you think you should earn. State reasons for this being an appropriate grade.

B) On a separate piece of paper, using complete sentences, paragraphs, etc. answer the same questions about your second piece:

C) On a separate piece of paper of paper please write a short essay that explains I your own words:

How very short fiction is similar to other kinds of stories and how it is different.

What is it like to write very short fiction for you? Is it easier, harder, different (how?)?

What if anything you learned from this unit on very short fiction?

When complete, assemble your work in this order:

This sheet; first story (shortest piece) then appropriate self evaluation; second story then 2^nd self evaluation; Assignment C.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 29 April - 2 May

Two pieces of short, short fiction are due on Tuesday, 7 May.  Writers are to choose two from the three types we have studied: Nano-Fiction (exactly 58 words); Micro-Fiction between 88 and 100 words; Short Short Fiction fewer than 250 words.

Tuesday and Thursday Junior will be completing their state writing assessment; seniors will have time to revise their short short fiction and their thesis rough drafts. Juniors will receive rough drafts on the 7th. All students will have at least one week from return of their rough drafts to the time their final is due.

Ms. Margolis will guest teach on Thursday and Monday of next week.

Tuesday, April 16th

Today the class generated a list of "stock characters" and a list of modifiers.

Writer's combined one of each and used this character as a prompt.

After sharing, the class returned to the analysis of micro-fiction.

The class was divided into teams; each team was assigned three stories. Each team read and discussed the stories focusing on developing an evaluation for a presentation to the class. Teams discussed Which of their stories were good? Which was best? How each story provided a "twist"?.

We began but did not complete the presentations.

Juniors also rotated to appointments with their counselors for forecasting.