5th Period Friday, 20 October.

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:

Then we discussed this local tragedy.

and finally another local tragedy. In this piece the first two or three comments by readers of the Oregonian proved to be very useful as prompts for discussion and writing as well.

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. SO WRITERS ARE TO BRING A ROUGH DRAFT OF THE STORY TO CLASS ON TUESDAY!


Also fifteen pages of free writing in spirals is due on Tuesday of next week.

5th Period Wednesday 19 October/ 4th Thursday and 6th Period Friday 20 October

This class began with a free write.

Mr. Zartler presented the following
A picture of the Jamestown Bridge

Then he presented this video of the Old Jamestown Bridge.

Then he presented this web page with a story about the Jamestown bridge from this week, and the class watched the video.

The final image was another view of the bridge where the video news story (above was shot).

Students were asked to use these series of images and news coverage as a prompt for their own writing.
After writing there was a chance to share what was written, and to discuss how different writers used the prompts.

Mr. Zartler concluded this portion of the class by discussing the term "absurd." We discussed what a story that seems absurd tells us about the world.

Then the class looked at this blog.

The class discussed whether this article represented something absurd or tragic or something else.

After the discussion students were reminded that they have a Four page piece of short fiction due in the next week. The story should address death in some way. STUDENTS SHOULD BRING A ROUGH DRAFT OF THIS STORY TO CLASS ON MODNAY/TUESDAY.


Also due during the first class next week is the spiral with fifteen (15) new pages of writing.

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.