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.