Tuesday / Wednesday 18/19 October 4th Period and 6th Period

This lesson plan applies to 4th and 6th Period on the 18th and 19th. 

See the previous entry for 5th period on the 19th.

Today we studied the motivations behind people doing terrible things.

For a our opening free write, writers made a list of times when they were most mad, then times when they were most frightened. Then writers choose one of those time to write about; writers focused not on the events, but on the feelings involved with the event. We then discussed the similarities between the emotions (some thought there wasn't much).

We discussed "'Fight' or 'Flight'" as a biological / physiological phenomena.

Next we read and discussed three current stories about people losing control in the Oregonian:
http://www.oregonlive.com/hillsboro/index.ssf/2011/10/trimet_disciplines_bus_driver.html#incart_mce
http://www.oregonlive.com/forest-grove/index.ssf/2011/10/grand_jury_indicts_forest_grov.html
and
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/10/remains_found_in_rural_skamani.html

Next we discussed various ways to use these stories as prompts through combining characters, events, motivations, etc.

Writers were reminded to keep up their daily at home writing practice, and to be working on their next short story, the Morbid Fiction that is due 28 / 31 October.