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.

Monday, April 15th

Writers were reminded about their poetry projects. Some have still not completed their self-evaluation of the work; this needs to be done.

The class generated a series of settings:

musty laundromat

messy dorm room

damp basement

sweaty gym

moldy beach house

bland motel room

deserted street corner at noon

moist swamp

abandoned apartment

dark alley

bloody bedroom

vacant gas station

spotless mansion

after an arena rock concert

spooky train stop

Each writer choose one of these locations as a prompt; after writing the class shared.

Next writers received a new set of short, short fiction. The stories were read and discussed.

Rough drafts of the thesis are due on Thursday.

Tuesday, April 9th

Note Change in Due Date: Rough Draft of the Thesis is now due on Tuesday, April 16th!

Writers got back their model sections back today, and they turned in completed outlines. Outlines will be returned on Thursday, April 11th.  All students should bring thesis materials to class on Thursday; juniors will be spending a large part of class time completing ACT Registration.

Mr. Zartler gave a lesson on several common problems students had in making writing their model sections. Writers had time during class to practice fixes to these issues and to conference with Mr. Zartler about them.

Thursday, 4 April

Many writers got there model section back today. The rest will be returned on Tuesday of next week (Monday is a PM block schedule, we will not have class).

Mr. Zartler located the missing writing, if he thought he had misplaced yours you do NOT need to email a copy.

Class today was built around developing the outline for the thesis. The outline is to be turned in on Tuesday. It should include all the notes for the thesis.

Mr. Zartler gave these notes many notes and examples including the following:

How to: It is pretty easy to create the outline for your thesis IF you have completed note cards. If you have 50-75 note cards you are in good shape.

To figure out what your outline will be you will take your note cards and sort them. Begin with your “Working Hypothesis” card. Put this at the top of a large desk or table. Then begin sorting your cards into stacks. Each stack should be on one major theme, topic, or idea that will help support and explain your hypothesis (there should also be a stack off to the side for cards that you are not going to use). You will probably make 2-5 useful stacks at this stage. Each of these main stacks will be a section of your paper.

Once you are done with the first sorting you should decide what order you will present the sections you have created. Put your stacks in the order you will put them in your paper from left to right. Next you should number each and every card in every stack. Take all the cards from the first section that will be in your paper and mark each of these cards with a Roman Numeral “II;” put this number on the far left of the top line of every card in the stack. (Roman Numeral I will be for the introduction to your thesis.) Take the cards for the second section of your thesis and mark all of these cards with a Roman Numeral III. Repeat this until you have written a roman numeral in the upper left corner of EVERY note card you are going to use.

After you have numbered every card according to the section it is going to be, begin the next process of sorting your cards. Take all of the “II” stack and see if you have a card that represents the thesis for this section. If you do not then create a new card that has the thesis for the first section. Add a “A.” to the card just after the “I” (e.g. II. A.). Next, take all of the cards in the stack and sort them into related piles. Depending on the breadth or complexity of this particular section you are either creating piles that represent paragraphs in a section, or you may be creating 2-3 subsections to a section.

Once all of the cards in the section have been sorted into piles, each stack needs receive a capital letter. Cards that will be in the introduction to the section will receive the letter “A.”, cards for the first body section will be labeled I.B., the second body section I.C., etc. If your section has subsections, and not just paragraphs that the capital letters will represent the sub-sections. Cards in subsections will need to be sorted into stacks to create paragraphs.  If a section has sub-sections then paragraphs will receive an arabic number after the capital letter, e.g. II.B.1, II.B.2, etc. Each time you create a stack of cards that is a sub-section, you should create a card that states the thesis of that sub-section. This card will always be the letter “A” that follows the roman numeral. Each time you create a stack of cards that represent a paragraph (generally a stack of 2-5 cards would be appropriate for a paragraph) create a Topic Sentence card for that paragraph. Keep this card on the top of each stack of cards that represents a paragraph.

Repeat the process of sorting cards within each section and subsection until you have labeled every card with a Section, (Sub-section -- if applicable), and paragraph Number or letter.

You may be wondering what all this sorting has accomplished; in short you have created your entire outline by sorting your cards!

Monday and Tuesday, 1 -2 April

There were no April Fool's lessons this year.

Ms. Margolis guest taught and the class read and analyzed several related forms of short fiction.

Writers should get handouts from Mr. Zartler, as writers will be required to write and submit some of these short forms.

Class began with a prompt built around hail and sleet. After writing and sharing the class worked on the model section that is due today.

The rest of class was devoted to checking the model section that was due today. We checked for the following:
Name/ Date/ Period

Appropriate title for the section

Section has a thesis
Introduction relates to thesis working hypothesis.
Introduction mentions the topic of each body paragraph.

Each paragraph has a topic sentence. Each topic sentence connects via a key word to the section thesis.

We labeled the evidence used in the section, then checked that the appropriate "quote pattern" was used to embed and cite the source of the information.
Introduction of quote, " the quote" (citation).
The introduction was checked to ensure it made clear from whom or where the evidence was borrowed.

The explanation following each piece of evidence was checked to ensure that there was a clear connection (through repetition of key words) to the topic sentence of the paragraph.

Students who had model sections with few edits required turned them in. Students who needed to make substantial edits will turn in todays draft along with a revised draft tomorrow at the field trip.

Ms. Margolis will be guest teacher on Monday and Tuesday after break.

Through 19 March, 2013

Sorry for missing a couple of posts. Here's what you need to know!

First: In school "field trip" a Town Hall discussion of Agriculture Policy with Congressman Earl Blumenauer this Friday, March 22nd from 9:25 until 10:25 in the library.

Next, the last couple of classes have focused on thesis work. This Thursday, students have due a "model section" of their thesis. In order to help with that:
Writer's should have turned in 25 completed notes and had their working hypothesis checked and ok'd by Mr. Zartler.

Class has had lessons about sorting note cards into sections, and sorting the cards for a section into paragraphs. The following diagrams help explain this process.  By adding a note to each stack explaining what the cards in the stack explain, the model section that is due on Thursday is practically written!

See you Thursday, and then again on Friday!