Wednesday, April 26, 2017

3/16/2017

(Options in slides-fiction)
1. Sketch two characters in conflict with one another
2. Talk about setting
3. Dialogue sketch

What does a color smell like? The color green must smell like this day in April, sitting under the oak trees, with azaleas blooming around us. The sun hits the leaves and perfumes the air. Our senses mingle and we don't know what we are feeling, but we like it. The grass pokes through our blanket but we don't mind; we mistake the inchworms for blades come to life, squirming across the pages of our books with slow determination, just as the springtime slowly but surely gives way to summer, who takes over with a fiery passion as early as late May. Look at the sky, it reflects us. The blue is clear and bright and surrounds us in a blanket of warmth. 

4/6/2017

Write about creative activities you would like to use in order to teach immigration to your students. This can be as simple as a list of activities generated from this lesson to a full blown lesson plan about an immigration project.

I would be interested in perhaps examining the ethnic origins of my students, using that as a jumping off point for a new understanding of immigrations. I think it is important to first understand that we are all "immigrants" and should not isolate only certain ethnic groups in our understanding of the definition of immigration.
I also might like to use the news surrounding immigration as a starting point for a conversation about immigration by looking at how the world, especially politics, sees immigrants.

4/13/2017

Select one piece of writing from the MGP and complete 3 steps:
1. Tell how you got this piece.
2. Tell what this piece demonstrates about your ability to write and what it says about you as a writer.
3. If you can, write about your observations of yourself as a writer.


1. I created this piece based on Janie's grandmother in Their Eyes Were Watching God. She is intent on finding a husband for Janie, so much so that I thought creating a "want ad" for a husband would be a good way of demonstrating her grandmother's intense desire to marry her off. I didn't want to lose sight of the grandmother's good intentions, but I wanted to dramatize this "duty" of older women to find husbands for the younger ones. 
2. I'm not sure if this piece demonstrates "good writing" per-say, but it does indicate an ability ( I guess? ) to mimic the writing styles of things like want ads, obituaries and other unique pieces of literature.
3. If anything, I think I notice my writing can easily adopt a tone based on the needs of the piece. 

Thursday, April 20, 2017

4/21/2017

Write about a new tradition you would like to have in your future classroom.

Be creative and create a practice that honors the students' time together.

Well, I LOVED the idea of writing poems about one another. I think another cool idea would maybe to interview each other at the beginning and end of the year. Perhaps pairing students throughout the year and allowing them to grow with each other academically and otherwise, beginning and ending the year with each other and seeing how they have changed throughout the class.


How would you describe your writing voice? Describe what your range of reading voice and why you think it matters in a piece of writing. Finally, how would you go about teaching your students to find their boxes?

My writing voice is probably a little more formal that my real voice, kind of like a phone voice. But, I do have a bad habit of just letting a stream of consciousness flow out of my head, usually not making much sense at all.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

3/2/2017

Create a writing prompt that encourages students to share their thoughts about the current political climate. Have them apply literature to their opinions and ideas.

Think of a novel that describes some of the political problems of the society in which it is set (example: The Hunger Games, The Scarlet Letter, Animal Farm, The Canterbury Tales, etc)
How might you depict our current political climate as an allegory (a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one) ? What types of things would you choose to represent metaphorically, and why would you like to emphasize these elements? How would you represent your personal opinions through a fictional story? Draft a summarized version of your story, and include any important images or tropes you would use in writing your story.

I really love the political elements of some Shakespeare plays, such as Othello or Titus Andronicus, that deal with racism within the nobility in Rome. I think our current political climate could be applied by examining the racist rhetoric often used in support of (not always by) our president. So, because of that, I feel like a allegory set in a place such as ancient Rome would be distant enough while always being able to provide a scathing political critique. I would choose to represent out government as the dysfunctional noble families like that in Titus Andronicus, perhaps staging a dinner scene where all hell breaks loose and the problems of the nation are all revealed. I definitely would pursue the image of a government as a family, with the trope of the "crazy uncle" or divorced parents to stand in for members of our political climate. 

Thursday, February 16, 2017

2/16/2017

Found poem from a slide in the lesson:

Pre-Yourself
Where would you like to be (?)
A serious individual

I really love found poetry because I like being limited in my choices of words, since there are unlimited options and I get overwhelmed with choices easily. So, found poetry is perfect because it is a way that we as readers and writers can shape and mold other pieces of writing (even mundane things like syllabi or menus) to fit our purposes or tell a completely different story.


2/23/2017


So this is a biographical video I made for my Senior Seminar. For the project, I focused on the origins of my name. It is passed down from family, making my name that much more personal to me.