Creativity Collage

Collage of Creativity -- About Me!

 (All work except the picture collage will end up typed or neatly written in black ink.)

I.  Make a title page for your entire assignment with a creative title, and with your name, class, and the date. 

II.  Create an 8 1/2" x 11" collage of pictures and or other illustrations that represent you and your interests.                                                                                            Due _________________________

III.  Write bio-poems based on two of the patterns you are given.  Due ________________________

IV.  Choose three out of the following ten choices. Title each assignment. (Use complete, correct sentences in your writing.)                                                                                                                                 Due ________________________

1. Top Ten  -- Create a top ten best and worst list (ten best and ten worst) of things that have happened to you so far in your life.  You must be specific, detailed, and creative.  Don't say -- 1. Born 2. Moved, etc.  Each item should be at least two creative sentences long.  Have a title for your lists -- not "My Top Ten."  Be more creative.  (Use complete, correct sentences in your writing.)

2. Junior High Hang-Ups Poem or Essay -- Write a poem or informal essay about a theme that is important to junior high school students.  For example, friendship, conformity, originality, education, family, finding talents, being yourself, staying away from drugs or other addictions, self-esteem, honor, popularity, careers, status symbols, sports, band, etc. or your own idea.  Use poetry techniques -- metaphors, power words, alliterations, symbols, figurative language, etc.  Don't rhyme.  Your poem must be at least twenty lines long.  The essay must be a page, double-spaced.  Have a creative title. 

                                                                ^{(Page lengths refer to typed pieces.  Handwritten will be longer.)}

3.  How to Survive in Junior High -- Make a list of twenty specific and truly valuable pieces of advice you would like to give new seventh graders.  Your list may be humorous but must contain "true" wisdom and be appropriate.  Have a creative title.

4.  Me and My Shadow -- Do you have someone you are with constantly -- a shadow?  Write at least a half page, double-spaced about how you are alike and yet different.  Why do you make a good pair?  Have a good title.

5.  What if. . .   What if. . . is a big question.  Make a list of twenty what if's.  Be specific and creative. 

6.  My Family -- Write at least a half a page, double-spaced, about how you have affected your family.  What would your family be like without you?  What do you add?  Have a title.

7.  Celebrations of Education -- Write at least two or three sentences celebrating -- notice the word is "celebrate" not "desecrate" each year of your public education.  Be sure to include the grade, teacher, and school.  Be specific.  Have a title. 

8.  Honoring Me -- Design a certificate with a border and a graphic that honors you for some specific but perhaps hidden talent.  Make this a talent of character rather than ability.  Be specific and creative -- not just "Good Friend."

9.  My Golden Rules -- Make a list of ten very specific and original-to-you rules to live by.  What wisdom and advice do you have to offer the world gleaned from your own experience.  Have a title.

10. Fifteen  Minutes of Fame -- Someone once said, "Everyone will experience fifteen minutes of fame in his or her lifetime."  What will your fifteen minutes be?  You may write in short story form -- narrative -- or explanatory style.  This must be at least a half of a page, double spaced.  Have a creative title.                                                   (Dorsey, 1-17-06, Adapted from materials presented by Brenda Burr and Launa Strong)

Examples;

Getting Started:  Ms. Dorsey’s Choices for the Creativity Collage

(Top Ten)                          My Life in a List – The Worst!

10.  It broke my heart when I lost my kitchen!  We had recently remodeled, and I had my dream kitchen. I’d been able to pick out everything in it from the cabinets to the ovens to the faucet. I hadn’t enjoyed it very long when we had to move. 

9.   I had my chance and blew it!  When I was in college, there was this guy in my zoology class.  He was handsome and smart and from California (which I thought was exotic and exciting – California, that is).  I was amazed when he asked me out on a date to the planetarium.   I was so nervous that I wasn’t very good company on that date.  He never asked me out again!  At the time, I thought I’d die. :  )

. . .

Celebrations of Education

First Grade:  Somehow my mom had enough clout to get me into the best grade school in Burley, Idaho.  It was an old run-down building called Overland Elementary, and was in the worst part of town, but that school had the best teachers in the area.  I loved my teacher, Mrs. Horne.  I remember the basement classroom, a set of seven colorful rubber  dwarves we could play with, numbers and letters on a flannel board, and building “mouse trails and houses” in the thick grass along the chain link fence with my best school friend Darwin Silcox. 

Second Grade:  Still at Overland, my teacher was Mrs. Dummer, and I kinda thought she was.  I remember thinking I was a true artist when I drew a picture of the three little pigs.  I was so proud.  And I remember the fall carnival, with a white elephant sale in my own classroom.  I wanted to buy all those marvelous things, as I looked and looked for a real white elephant. 

Third Grade:  Mrs. Budge read to us from the Thornton Burgess animal stories.  We’d say the pledge of allegiance and recite the Lord’s Prayer every morning. 

In October I moved to a brand new school, where one of the best teachers had transferred, so then I was in Mrs. Williams class where we learned about dinosaurs, and I could spell tyrannosaurus all by myself.  Because the school was still being built, we played “I’m the king of Bunker Hill” on mounds of dirt in the schoolyard, and we were bussed to the junior high for lunchtime.

What if. . .

1.   What if eating double chocolate ice cream made you lose weight?

2.   What if gasoline cost only 25 cents a gallon?

3.   What if our lunch breaks were an hour long instead of thirty minutes?

4.   What if dishes cleaned themselves – and put themselves back in the cupboards?

5.   What if snow and ice never stuck to my sidewalks and driveways?

6.   What if all students did their homework and handed it in 

-- on time? !!!!!

(Junior High Hang-Ups)     Conformity

         Why is it that when kids want to be different, most of them dress alike?   

         

Prewriting

Prewriting exercises -- Finding or elaborating ideas --

Have students do a blueprint prewriting  purple text, page 16, a map of their neighborhood.

Creative Writing --

Prewriting Techniques:

1) freewriting

2) focused freewriting

3) brainstorming

4) clustering

5) questioning

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

6) keeping a journal

7) observing

8) reading with a focus =

preview, skim, take notes

9) listening with a focus =

seek background info, create list of info needed, take notes

10) imagining

11) gathering

quotes, ideas, etc.

Prewriting Techniques:

1) freewriting       

2) focused freewriting     friendship, highway, child

3) brainstorming             a place I enjoy  or a place I don’t like

4) clustering                   heroes, movies, holidays, dreams

5) questioning                  sports, 

Who?                                     players -- baseball, basketball, soccer, etc.  fans 

What?                                    excitement, stadium on day of game, tailgate parties, foods, TV, uniforms,                                    

 Where?                                     stadiums, school playing fields, back lots,

When?                                    times to practice, time to watch, time to arrive for game, game over

 Why?                                     social, emotional, physical outlet

How?                                             getting to play, getting to see the games

       What do I know?  What would I like to know?  Where can I get more information?  What would I like to focus on?  What is my point of view?  Who is my audience?     -- drug addiction

6) keeping a journal     self, assigned    goals, dreams, steps,    problems    analyze self, situation, describe people,  If I could. . . then. . . ,   secrets,    people you admire or are supposed to admire    places to visit    considering things you’ve learned    news     facts   (the average young American witnesses 18,000 TV murders before he or she graduates from high school)

7) observing

8) reading with a focus =

preview, skim, take notes

9) listening with a focus =

seek background info, create list of info needed, take notes

10) imagining     What if. . .

11) gathering

quotes, ideas, etc.      “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  --Abraham Lincoln

Myths About Poetry

Seven Myths about Poetry

Today there are many myths about poetry. Late last century a surge took place among young people, teens began writing more and more poetry due to new concepts like slam poetry and rap music. However, many notions about poetry were formed and seen as truth. Here are seven myths about poetry:

    * Poetry must rhyme. In fact, poetry doesn't have to rhyme. Poetry doesn't have to do anything--normally it is just good practice to have rhythm and meters. However, there are exceptions to all rules.

    * Poetry must be a set length. A poem can be as short as one letter or as long as one billion. It just doesn't matter. Actually, poetry doesn't even have to have words or letters at all. A picture or photograph, even a drawing could be considered a poem in the right circumstance.

    * Poetry requires no thinking. Actually, it does. Just like any art really. There are some people who can write poems right off the top of their head and make perfect poems; however, most of us can't. We need to think before we write and think about what we wrote, then edit, then edit some more and write some more.

    * The best poetry is written when authors are depressed. You could make the argument that more poetry is written while authors are depressed, thus the chance of better poetry due to the amount. However, even this might not be true. Many famous poets have written their best works while in love--Rumi for example.

    * Poetry must make sense. Not entirely. Most forms of poetry do need to make sense. However, dada doesn't.

    * Poetry must have correct grammar. Not even close. Of course, many who have listened to music within the past decade know this already.

    * Big words make better poems. Edgar Allan Poe is a great example to dismiss this notion. Big words should only be used when they are absolutely necessary, unless of course your purpose is to make a poem which isn't.

http://www.poemofquotes.com/articles/myths-about-poetry.php

Poem of Quotes.com

Bad Writing!

http://bulwer-lytton.com/2015win.html