Daily Agenda
Week of April 30
Week of April 15
We will be starting our playwriting/scriptwriting unit. Here’s our intro:
Week of March 25
Week of March 13
Week of March 5
Week of Feb 26
Week of Feb. 12
Week 16
Week 15
Remember, for feedback, leave comments on each piece - at least three comments on what’s working, three ideas for revision, and three questions raised by the piece
MIDTERM
Week 14
Week 13
Week 12
Week 11
Week 10
Feedback must have the following:
Week 9
Week 8
Week 7
Feedback must have the following:
Week 6
Week 4 and 5
Workshop Guidelines
Group 1 will be Mariam, Esther, Nayeli, Alaysha, and Khymi (read and comment on each other's)
Group 2 will be Rachel, Ashley, and Sarah (read and comment on each other's)
Feedback must have the following:
Week 3
Week 1 and 2
- Intro to playwriting reflection - Canvas
- Drafting a Scene You Don't Know How to Write - Canvas exercise
- Writing a Monologue - Canvas exercise
- Begin writing an act of a play/TV show that we will continually revise - This should be submitted as a draft on Canvas
Week of April 15
We will be starting our playwriting/scriptwriting unit. Here’s our intro:
- Reflect on beginning of year goal - Canvas
- Intro to Playwriting - Canvas
- Playwriting reading - read through
- 12 Lines of Dialogue exercise on Canvas
- 3/4 Workshop - Please use the LAST thing you have been working on and post by 4/24
- Workshop feedback - Please leave by Friday 4/27
Week of March 25
- First assignment: Check in with Kayser face-to-face by Wednesday
- Grades for previous assignments going in on Tuesday
- Titles reading from Sol Stein
- Reflection on titles in Canvas
- Share your contest piece here for workshop - last chance
- We are starting to put our lit mag Graffiti together - please post a new piece to the blog by the end of the quarter - see me if you need help
Week of March 13
- Please use this time to catch up on missing work
- Continue working on contest pieces
Week of March 5
- Contest to consider - March 15 deadline (optional)
- Share your contest piece here for workshop - Share by Monday, 3/12 and give feedback by Thursday, 3/15
Week of Feb 26
- T-shirts!!!! - order through site
- Writing contests - check through these and choose one to submit to - share contest on Canvas
- Submit a draft of a personal essay - this should be like a story, not a 5 paragraph English essay - see me if you have questions
- Whoops - describe an embarrassing moment using specific, unique description
Week of Feb. 12
- New Yorker Personal History Essays - select one to read (assignment on Canvas)
- Anna's Shrapnel exercise
- Read through "The Personal Essay" and reflect in Canvas about what elements of this stand out to you. We are going to be starting a personal essay next, so start thinking of topics you'd like to write about.
- Submit draft for Unfinished Jigsaw - this is a draft for a journal that goes to all ages in Charlottesville City Schools. Keep this light and no more than a page.
Week 16
- #FlashbackFriday - Write a flash piece about a time in your life - make sure it has an engaging introduction and circular ending
- Create a timeline of events depicting your life by using newspaper headlines. Try to focus on events that didn’t involve you directly, but connect them to the pivotal events in your life.
- Use feedback that I give you to submit a second draft of Unfinished Jigsaw - we'll workshop this next week
- Share final Crossroads piece to me via Google Docs with NAME - CROSSROADS FINAL as the doc
Week 15
- Crossroads workshop - paste your draft that you submitted this week (only received two so far) in this Doc
- Begin a new piece for Unfinished Jigsaw - I know this is a lot of drafts to have, but this is a busy submission season
- #highschoolin5words - This was a trending topic I saw on Twitter and we got some awesome responses in the ½ class - I’m curious to see how y’all would define your high school experience in only five words
Remember, for feedback, leave comments on each piece - at least three comments on what’s working, three ideas for revision, and three questions raised by the piece
MIDTERM
Week 14
- Crossroads flyer - begin and submit a draft - this is a prestigious place to be published and I'd love to have all of you represented in there
- Read "Some Given Forms" - discussion to follow next week
- KTR Partnership? - Are you interested in having your writing featured in KTR and on their website? Let me know!
- “Remember to get the weather in your damn book--weather is very important.” - Ernest Hemingway - Go outside and compose at least a paragraph working the weather into a narrative - this can all be created as a separate piece or the weather can be incorporated into something you've already written.
Week 13
- Please submit a piece for the workshop component of the midterm to the Canvas discussion board
- Read through poems that utilize lists - Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" Gary Soto - "Ode to the Yard Sale"
- 15 minute exercise: For the first five minutes, create a list with as many items as possible. For the last ten minutes, you are going to create a poem utilizing the list you created. Post this under Canvas "10 Minute Spill"
- Please post a piece of your writing to Graffiti as part of your midterm grade - Use this guide for help: Graffiti posting
Week 12
- Read "Texas prisons ban..." and respond to Canvas discussion on banned books
- Read "Who We Were" and complete "Who We Were" poetry exercise - on Canvas
- Sounds discussion based on last week's reading
Week 11
- Thank you to those who have submitted their writing to Writers Eye.
- Please read through these contests and complete a draft for each - post to Canvas
- Read Sounds and be prepared to discuss next week
- Workshop doc - submit a piece of writing to workshop - comments coming next week (this could be a piece for one of the above contests)
Week 10
- Graffiti shirt survey
- Writers Eye Draft 2 workshop - click here - see below for feedback guidelines
- We are beginning our poetry unit. On Canvas, please read through different poets in the links in the poetry module. These poets were selected because it is important to read the earlier poetry to see how contemporary poetry builds from it.
- Your poetry assignment: Write five poems and post to Canvas along with the poet(s) you are emulating. This is an initial exercise to explore the voice and style of others and see how it mixes/matches with our own.
- Reminder: Duotrope outlets - make sure you post
Feedback must have the following:
- Three specific comments about what is working
- Three specific ideas for revision
- Three questions this work raised that you would like the writer to think about. These should be high level questions that can not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”
Week 9
- Please submit second draft of Writers Eye here - feedback was emailed this week - please let me know if you don't have feedback
- Edwidge Danticat "New York Day Women" reflection on Canvas
- Browse Duotrope and find three outlets that you would be comfortable submitting to - please see email for more info
- Setting and Pacing exercise on Canvas
Week 8
- Reading Good Writing reflection on Canvas
- Read Edwidge Danticat's "New York Day Women" - reflection next week
- Writers Eye draft and feedback - only one submission posted...
Week 7
- Description exercise in Canvas - explanation in assignment
- Good Writing Reflection in Canvas - explanation in assignment
- Make sure you're caught up on missing work - there are a lot of zeroes right now.
- Make sure your Writers Eye draft is submitted to the doc. There was only one submission from last week.
- Writers Eye workshop - Using the doc above, leave feedback on everyone's pieces. Follow these guidelines:
Feedback must have the following:
- Three specific comments about what is working
- Three specific ideas for revision
- Three questions this work raised that you would like the writer to think about. These should be high level questions that can not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”
Week 6
- Please check out the Writers Eye SELF-GUIDED TOUR
- Please submit a Writers Eye draft by Sunday on Canvas - email/see Kayser if you have questions on the draft
- Submit a draft of writing by Sunday for our workshop next week - it can be your Writers Eye piece or it can be a new piece or a piece you've been editing and working on. Here's the doc.
- Flannery O'Connor discussion - "Everything that Rises Must Converge"
- Plot exercise - we'll be examining plot structure the next two weeks
Week 4 and 5
- Writers Eye field trip Tuesday, 9/19 at 11:30
- Workshop feedback - please see below for workshop guidelines - complete workshop comments by Thursday, 9/21 -
- FYI - workshop doc
- Finish characterization exercise (steps 4-6)
- Goal-setting for year - in Canvas - please let me know what your big picture goals are for the year so we can develop a plan together. This class is a lot more customizable because of the virtual nature.
Workshop Guidelines
Group 1 will be Mariam, Esther, Nayeli, Alaysha, and Khymi (read and comment on each other's)
Group 2 will be Rachel, Ashley, and Sarah (read and comment on each other's)
Feedback must have the following:
- Three specific comments about what is working
- Three specific ideas for revision
- Three questions this work raised that you would like the writer to think about. These should be high level questions that can not be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”
Week 3
- Writers Eye trip is 9/19. We'll go to Bodos for lunch at 11:30 and be back to CHS during BKT. Please see me for permission form.
- Raymond Carver discussion on Canvas (due 9/12)
- Complete characterization steps 3-6. I only have one of these so far!
- Post a writing piece in the workshop doc by Wednesday, 9/13. The link is also under "Workshops" in Canvas. We'll do feedback next week.
- Read Flannery O'Connor's "Everything that Rises Must Converge" for next week
Week 1 and 2
- Welcome back!
- Field trip: Writers Eye - September 19
- Survey
- Graffiti mag - please read through this - it's our lit mag and something we'll be building/editing as the year goes on.
- Why do you write? Think about the truths you want to tell as well as why you write. Stop by and see me in D219 for an index card that you'll create to go with the cards from our 1/2 class.
- We'll be looking at how to create strong, dimensional characters - Please read through this Characterization Exercise and complete steps 1-3. Don't forget to share w/ Kayser
- Begin a free writing piece that you can workshop in two weeks.
- Please familiarize yourself w/ workshop norms - Workshop norms
- Read Raymond Carver's "Why Don't You Dance?" and "Popular Mechanics" for discussion next week.
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