Words for Colors

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/how-chinese-describes-color-vs-how-english-describes-co-1662947882

Monday, November 24, 2014

Scribble:  Sarah D. 

In these dark times three heroes will save the world, or die trying.

Description:
Description of Christmas from The Giver

Examples and suggestions for Description

Computer Lab 223   http://kidblog.org/DorseyCreativeWriting72014/wp-login.php?loggedout=true

1.     Finish writing your script for your memoir.  Post it on Kidblog.
2.     Catch up on anything else you need to do.
3.     If you have extra time, work on a story for the Writing Lab contest. THIS IS REQUIRED.   It should be REALLY good. 

"Favorite Part of the Holiday Season"

5 points for participation -- up to 15 points of extra credit for creating a great story. 

Enter this contest with an entry that is good enough to be at least considered for a prize:

2^nd Annual Holiday Writing Contest

Open to all students.  Contest is open from November 12 to December 12, 2014

7^th and 8^th grades may submit entries on MyAccess. Entries should be 2000 words or less.  The latest scored entry on MyAccess will be considered as the student’s competition entry. Entries must be submitted by end of school day on Friday, December 12.

All submitted writing should be the original work of the individual and not copied or plagiarized from another source.

Prizes for the top three stories will be awarded.

Bring a copy of your entry to Ms. Dorsey. 

5 points for participation -- up to 15 points of extra credit for creating a great story. 

Description

Read from Gary Paulsen -- Winter Room 

similes:

To illustrate, in Nature Emerson writes,

I see the spectacle of morning from the hill-top over against my house, from day-break to sunrise, with emotions which an angel might share. The long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimson light. (234)

Annie Dillard uses the following simile in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

In flat country I watch every sunset in hopes of seeing the green ray. The green ray is a seldom-seen streak of light that rises from the sun like a spurting fountain at the moment of sunset; it throbs into the sky for two seconds and disappears. One more reason to keep my eyes open (17).

found at http://www.writinginstructor.com/johnson-sheehan

Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia is a word whose sound imitates the thing it is trying to describe. For instance, the sounds of a “crackling fire” or a “murmuring river” are echoed in the words themselves. Here is Thoreau’s description of the pond in Walden:

The bullfrogs trump to the usher in the night, and the note of the whippoorwill is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled (153).

Words like trump, usher, rippling, fluttering, and ruffled all create a tone for this description that goes beyond seeing. We can actually hear the lake in this description.

Abbey’s Desert Solitaire is another text that heavily uses onomatopoeia. Here is a short list of words drawn from the pages of Desert Solitaire:

crackle, rustle, scuffle, brittle, whispers, slithers, hisses, mutter, thunder, crawled, sliding, roar, whistling, ticking, cough, babble, mumble, rattle, sizzle, bawling, yawning, gasp, splash, scratching, clattered, buzzing, humble.

http://www.writinginstructor.com/johnson-sheehan 

This illustrates both assonance and alliteration: 

Here is an example of assonance, also from Dillard:

A male English sparrow, his mouth stuffed, was hopping in and out of an old nest in a bare tree, and sloshing around in its bottom. A robin on red alert in the grass, trailing half a worm from its bill, bobbed three steps and straightened up, performing unawares the universal robin trick. (113)

http://www.writinginstructor.com/johnson-sheehan 

Link to Kidblog

http://kidblog.org/DorseyCreativeWriting72014/wp-login.php?loggedout=true

Create a dramatic script based on your memoir

Sample

Title: Blackmail by Snoopy
Characters: 
 Linus Snoopy 

Setting: Linus’ house. Linus is writing a letter while Snoopy 
watches. 

LINUS: (writing) I would like to recommend 
Snoopy for Neighborhood Dog of the Year. He 
is truly a dog among dogs. 
(turning to Snoopy) How’s that? 

SNOOPY: Great! (Snoopy gives Linus his blanket.)

LINUS: What a way to get your blanket back! 


SNOOPY:  What a way to get a letter of 
recommendation! 

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Scribble:  As far as anyone knew, the old house was abandoned.
   -- Brynlee I. 



Computer Lab 223
    Finish writing your script for your memoir.  Post it on Kidblog.
    Catch up on anything else you need to do.
    If you have extra time, work on a story for the Writing Lab contest. THIS IS REQUIRED. 

"Favorite Part of the Holiday Season"

5 points for participation -- up to 15 points of extra credit for creating a great story. 

Enter this contest with an entry that is good enough to be at least considered for a prize:

2^nd Annual Holiday Writing Contest

Open to all students.  Contest is open from November 12 to December 12, 2014

7^th and 8^th grades may submit entries on MyAccess. Entries should be 2000 words or less.  The latest scored entry on MyAccess will be considered as the student’s competition entry. Entries must be submitted by end of school day on Friday, December 12.

All submitted writing should be the original work of the individual and not copied or plagiarized from another source.

Prizes for the top three stories will be awarded.

Bring a copy of your entry to Ms. Dorsey. 

5 points for participation -- up to 15 points of extra credit for creating a great story. 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

1. Scribble:  Eva Lacey

(If not, practice writing a script for a comic strip.)

2.  Writing Memoir:  Richard Wright "The Night I Won the Right to the Streets of Memphis."

Memoir: Richard Wright

2. Creating a dramatic script based on your memoir --

Cast of Characters:
Define each character with about three descriptors rather than a complex biography. “Anxious teen who needs a job” or “high-school prom queen growing old with style” are good starts. [Source]

• Each character's voice should be so distinct that their lines could only belong to them. Rhythm, syntax, diction and grammar should be unique and consistent. Read lines without character names attached and see if the speaker's identity is obvious.

 In a script, dialogue is not in quotations. 

Stage Directions: 
Stage Directions briefly describe the setting and major movements of the characters.
In a script, actions and stage directions are written in italics and/or in (parentheses).   

For a dramatic script, change past tense to present tense: 

Prose Narrative	Dramatic Script
"Bobby opened the window."	(Bobby opens the window.)
“You get out of here!” Fred yelled at the dog.	FRED: (yelling at the dog) You get out of here!  yelled at the dog.
The tree crashed to the ground.	(The tree falls down. Crashing noises.)
Gwen said, “I hoped you would come to my party!”	GWEN: I hoped you would come to my party!

_______________________________
Example:  Source
FRANKENSTEIN
By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, adapted for radio by Antony Ellis (06/07/1955)

Characters
DR. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER
HENRY (Victor’s friend) ELIZABETH (Victor’s cousin & girlfriend)

Setting: Henry’s house, on the back porch, late in the evening.

Prior to this scene, Dr. Frankenstein created a monster. When his monster starts destroying 
things and killing people, Dr. Frankenstein runs away to England, hoping to leave the evil 
monster behind him. 

ELIZABETH: (screaming) Victor! Victor!
VICTOR: We’re out here, Beth.
ELIZABETH: Oh I’ve just had a horrible experience. Darling, I’m so glad to see you!
VICTOR: You’re pale, Beth. Sit down right here next to me.
HENRY: Oh, what happened, Beth?
ELIZABETH: I was . . . I was walking in the woods not far from here when I looked up and saw
. . . and saw a man . . . sort of a man standing over me.
HENRY: Well men aren’t so bad, that is if you happen to know the right ones, and you do. 

______________________

3. Go to the Computer Lab to type your scripts.

Friday, November 14, 2014

1.  Work on your memoir.

2.   Add dialogue if you don't have any.
      Add description if it would make the story more effective.


2.  Scribble:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uTpklGUvJw
       "Shoulder Devil"

3.  Journaling:

              Read an author's comments about journaling.

•  1. Read the chapter on Journaling on   page 172 +.
•  2. Write in your own composition book about your own journaling -- 
• Why you do or don't do it.
• Where you do it, or could do it.
• Anything else you could add.
• 
  
•  3. Write to one of these prompts she gives:
•  3, 4, 6, or 9
• Write a poem about your feet.
• Write about a time you were absolutely furious.
•  Write about your earliest memory
• Describe one of your bad/disgusting habits and why you enjoy it so much.

4.  Hormone Jungle.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Special offer:  Show respect to those who share their writing, and spend our quiet writing time quietly writing, and earn back points you may have lost.  One day doing it right will cancel out a day of having lost points.

Scribble:  Savannah P.

Next time:  Indigo

Link to Source

Prompts: Quotes from Children's Books

http://encurious.com/post/90982259223/quotes-from-childrens-books

Special offer:  Show respect to those who share their writing, and spend our quiet writing time quietly writing, and earn back points you may have lost.  One day doing it right will cancel out a day of having lost points.

Scribble:   Kaitlyn Tyler

You hear a noise -- the same one you've been 

hearing all week -- and you still don't know what it is. 

Number 1-12 spin:  http://www.classtools.net/random-name-picker/47_FXHRJG

Poetry:

Love That Dog!  Listen and write when directed to.     

http://lovethatdog16.weebly.com/love-that-boy.html   



Students wrote "inspired by"  "Love That. . . " poems.
Ms. Dorsey's poem:

Love that baby
Like a flower loves the sun.
I said I love that baby
Like a flower loves the sun.
Love cuddlin' baby in the evenin',
Love to hold him all I can.


We also read from
Hormone Jungle -- Coming of Age in Middle School --

If you need to finish your scary story or zombie haiku, go to
http://kidblog.org/DorseyCreativeWriting72014/

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Special offer:  Show respect to those who share their writing, and spend our quiet writing time quietly writing, and earn back points you may have lost.  One day doing it right will cancel out a day of having lost points.

Scribble:   


































Number 1-12 spin:  http://www.classtools.net/random-name-picker/47_FXHRJG

Poetry:

Love That Dog!  Listen and write when directed to.        

Students wrote poems inspired by "Street Music" and shape poetry.

See more examples of shape poetry at Concrete Poetry.

We also read from
Hormone Jungle -- Coming of Age in Middle School --

If you need to finish your scary story or zombie haiku, go to
http://kidblog.org/DorseyCreativeWriting72014/

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Scribble: Manuel M.
"He walked in and ignored me like he was never part of my life."


We also used this prompt:

Number 1-12 spin:  http://www.classtools.net/random-name-picker/47_FXHRJG

Poetry:

Love That Dog!  Listen and write when directed to.
Students wrote poems inspired by
"The Red Wheelbarrow"
"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"
"Tiger, Tiger"

We also read from
Hormone Jungle -- Coming of Age in Middle School --

If you need to finish your scary story or zombie haiku, go to
http://kidblog.org/DorseyCreativeWriting72014/

Memoir: Richard Wright

“The Night I Won the Right to the Streets of Memphis”

by Richard Wright

            One evening my mother told me that thereafter, I would have to do the shopping for food.  She took me to the corner store to show me the way.  I was proud; I felt like a grownup.  The next afternoon, I looped the basket over my arm and went down the pavement toward the store.  When I reached the corner, a gang of boys grabbed me, knocked me down, snatched the basket, took the money, and sent me running home in panic.  That evening, I told my mother what had happened, but she made no comment; she sat down at once, wrote another note, gave me more money, and sent me out to the grocery again.  I crept down the steps and saw the same gang of boys playing down the street.  I ran back into the house.

            “What’s the matter?” my mother asked.

            “It’s those same boys,” I said.  “They’ll beat me.”

            “You’ve got to get over that,” she said.  “Now, go on.”

            “I’m scared,” I said.

            “Go on and don’t pay any attention to them,” she said.

            I went out of the door and walked briskly down the sidewalk, praying that the gang would not bother me.  But when I came abreast of them someone shouted, “There he is!” They came toward me and I broke into a wild run toward home.  They overtook me and flung me to the pavement.  I yelled, pleaded, kicked, but they wrenched the money out of my hand.  They yanked me to my feet, gave me a few slaps and sent me home sobbing.  My mother met me at the door.

            “They b-beat m-me,” I gasped.  “They t-t-t-ook the m-money.”  I started up the steps, seeking the shelter of the house.

            “Don’t you come in here,” my mother warned me.

            I froze in my tracks and stared at her.  “But they’re coming after me,” I said.

            “You just stay right where you are,” she said in a deadly tone.  “I’m going to teach you this night to stand up and fight for yourself.”  She went into the house and I waited, terrified, wondering what she was about.  Presently she returned with more money and another note; she also had a long, heavy stick.  “Take this money, this note, and this stick,” she said.  “Go to the store and buy those groceries.  If those boys bother you, then fight.”

            I was baffled.  My mother was telling me to fight, a thing that she had never done before.

            “But I’m scared,” I said.

            “Don’t you come into this house until you’ve gotten those groceries,” she said.

            “They’ll beat me; they’ll beat me,” I said.

            “Then stay in the streets; don’t come back here!”

            I ran up the steps and tried to force my way past her into the house.  A stinging slap came on my jaw.  I stood on the sidewalk, crying.  “Please, let me wait until tomorrow,” I begged.

            “No,” she said.  “Go now!  If you come back into this house without those groceries, I’ll whip you!”  She slammed the door and I heard the key turn in the lock.  I shook with fright.  I was alone upon the dark, hostile streets and gangs were after me.  I had the choice of being beaten at home or away from home.  I clutched the stick, crying, trying to reason.  If I were beaten at home, there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it; but if I were beaten in these streets, I had a chance to fight and defend myself.  I walked slowly down the sidewalk, coming closer to the gang of boys, holding the stick tightly.  I was so full of fear that I could scarcely breathe.  I was almost upon them now.

            “There he is again!”  the cry went up.  They surrounded me quickly and began to grab for my hand.

            “I’ll kill you!”  I threatened.

            They closed in.  In blind fear, I let the stick fly, feeling it crack against a boy’s skull.  I swung again, lamming another skull, then another.  Realizing that they would retaliate if I let up for but a second, I fought to lay them low, to knock them cold, to kill them so that they could not strike back at me.  I flayed with tears in my eyes, teeth clenched, stark fear making me throw every ounce of my strength behind each blow.  I hit again and again, dropping the money and the grocery list.  The boys scattered, yelling nursing their heads, staring at me in utter disbelief.  They had never seen such frenzy.  I stood panting, egging them on, taunting them to common and fight.  When they refused, I ran after them and they tore out for their homes, screaming.  The parents of the boys rushed into the streets and threatened me, and for the first time in my life I shouted at grownups, telling them that I would give them the same if they bothered me.  I finally found my grocery list and the money and went to the store.  On my way back I kept my stick poised for instant use, but there was not a single boy in sight.  That night I won the right to the streets of Memphis.