Titanic in the Library, Day Two

Go to my Titanic blog here: Watson’s Titanic Blog. If you haven’t created your Titanic blog, please do so immediately. As soon as you have created it, make sure I get the address so I can post it.

If you look at Titanic  the Class Blog List  you will find your class and name; if you have chosen a character, it will be listed. If you have not created your Titanic blog, the font will be orange. If you have created your blog, the font will be green. 

Because we only have one more day in the Library, use your time wisely. Explore everything on my blog and then branch out. Go to all the sites I link and beyond. Find information and just dump it on a blog post on your blog. At this stage, you are exploring, not doing the actual assignment.

To see the assignment as it unfolds, go here to the Assignment Post.

Part of the fun of this assignment is snooping at other people’s work. Take a look. It’s all on the Class Blog List.

NB: While you’re here, look above in the pages to your class and check that I have your general English 11 blog listed. If I don’t have your address, please give it to me today. 

Titanic in the Library, Day One

Today, we begin the Titanic Project. We’ll have two days in the Library to do research, followed by four days of Arts and Entertainment’s Titanic documentary, followed by more research, followed by the movie Titanic, ending in a giant presentation with each of you being characters on the doomed ship. None of this involves actual water or actual death or actual icebergs. It does involve research and being fascinated, however. And for some of you, it will involve really liking a movie with Leonardo di Caprio. 

To begin, go to my Titanic blog and begin your search. The first thing you need to do is get an overview and choose your person. It will all unfold from there!

Watson’s Titanic site   

Two Perfect Paragraphs

No one asks perfection of you but I am. Two paragraphs, eight sentences each, on the topic of your choice — your favourite video game, movie, TV show, whatever — that’s all I ask. You must have an interesting topic sentence that draws the reader in, three reasons for your belief, whaever it is, and a punchy conclusion. In the world of actual assignments and real writing, this is not the equivalent of brain surgery. The part that is brain surgery is what doing a PERFECT JOB will do to your brain.  

If there are any errors, I will give the assignment back to you. Your assignment MUST be perfect. No spelling errors. No run on sentences. No sentence fragments. (Hint: This part of the instructions is a series of sentence fragments!) No errors in punctuation. Not even any sloppy printing or writing. This will be the only time I will expect perfection from you. You can do it. The plus is that your grade will skyrocket. 

By the way, do you see the irony in the quote at the left? I see three errors. How many do you see?

PlayWeek

Sadly, PlayWeek 3 is at an end and the absolutely bizarre stories you’ve created will now be a fading memory. How can I put this delicately? I don’t think any of you should go into the matchmaking business. All of the relationships you created had more than a touch of inherent danger … you could see it coming. Dead people. Emotionally wounded people. These weren’t relationships; they were attachment traumas in the making. I mean, seriously, does anyone think dating Steven is going to go anywhere? That poor Metonymy woman. She needs to just sit down and read a book. She attached herself to every man in every story. That’s just not healthy. The way her weight fluctuated from man to man was enough to do her in.

I think my favourite presentations were the ones that just had every element of every single story. The icing from Roy’s pop tart ends up being a white smear on John’s hand, leading Anne to run off to Vancouver with Steven where she becomes a temp and he scoots off with Georgia Malinowski who then takes a trip to France where she meets Metonymy man … The characters loop and loop.

S.S. Playtime/Play

You people are exactly the right kind of weird for this assignment. Today we did what you like to do. You sat and talked to each other and got more than a little bit hyper. That may also be my fault because I gave you leftover Tootsie Rolls from the Test Writers, but there you go. I’m sure somebody has done a study on the link between sugar intake and creativity. Quite possibly the Sugar Institute of America. But I digress.

In case the sugar has already loused up your short term memory, I’ll remind you of what you did. You got into groups of three or four and started to create a literary concoction featuring three or more of the characters from multiple short stories. You had to determine the plot, the setting, the direction the story was going, and who was going to do what. Once I’d eliminated a few paths you were definitely not going to go along (banks may be robbed but babies will not be born), you were on a roll. Some of you had Jennifer bossing around poor old Georgia Malinowski while others had a series of criminal acts perpetrated by the entire cast of The Harness and The Painted Door. (John’s back from the dead just to rob a bank. Good luck with that, John. Didn’t we learn anything about karma from the story?)

So this was Short Story Playtime, Part 1. Next class is Playtime, Part 2. Then, I will give you photocopied handouts of your notes from today and you will individually write stories based on what you decided today. Technically, you’ll all be writing the same story but we know that won’t be the case. You all have a different writer’s voice. Playtime, Part 3 will actually involve you creating a play. You’ll bring the stories you’ve written individually, read them to each other, and then determine which parts you’ll keep and which parts you’ll eliminate or change; then, you’ll write a play … get ready … that you will perform the same day. It’s going to be spontaneous and creative. And probably chaotic. What else is new? It’ll also be fun. The mark part? That’ll be based on the individual writing done on Playtime, Part 2. I don’t think I could possibly mark whatever you are going to do on Play Day.

Short Stories Test

Today was a day to find out if SS Jeopardy worked or not. The block that wrote the Short Stories test today was 2-1; tomorrow it’ll be 1-2 and 1-3. I think it’s safe to say there were no surprises. I told you exactly what to study and if you did, you did well. It’s pretty straightforward, don’t you think? Bottom line: Your mark is all up to you!

On another note: I just keep marking and marking. Stay tuned for more handbacks.

For those of you who like to know the landscape ahead: Next week, we start a little creative writing/presentation/group effort extravaganza based on the short stories. Then we do the Perfect Paragraphs in class essay. Then October 21 and 22 we start the Titanic Unit. It begins with The Movie. Get ready to be sad.

Identification Essay

In class assignment: Consider all of the characters you have met in the short stories we have just finished reading. Was there one you just couldn’t stand? One who made you think, ‘Wow. That’s just like me.’ ? I am assuming there is one character you identify with — and that, in fact, is the basis of this assignment.

Here is what you are doing. It is due at the end of the period. Write a three paragraph mini essay on why you identify with that character. You need to include the character trait you share and how it plays out in your personality/character as well as how it is exhibited in the short story character.

Paragraph One will have a clear topic sentence and a clear thesis statement.  Here’s an example of a topic sentence: “Who doesn’t like people pleasers?” Here’s an example of a thesis statement: “Like John, in the Painted Door, I am a people pleaser.”

Paragraph Two is your body paragraph in which you compare your character trait to the same trait in your short story character. If you’re like John, was there a time you metaphorically went into the snowstorm because you automatically did what you thought was “the right thing” without thinking it through? The whole point of this assignment is to analyze a character trait.

Paragraph Three is your concluding paragraph. Does your character have an epiphany in the short story? Did you? Are you dynamic characters or are you feeling a little static?

All paragraphs should be at least eight sentences in length. Make sure you edit for grammar/usage, spelling, and style.

If you are finding this difficult, don’t panic. It’s probably a new way of analyzing literature for you but with practice you’ll get better at it. We’ll be digging beneath the surface of all kinds of literature all year. If you’re still unsure of how to write a mini essay and you think you blew it, you’ll have another chance on Thursday October 17/Friday October 18. On that day, you’ll be writing Perfect Paragraphs, your chance to get a high summative mark. You’ll have lots of time to prepare and you’ll also be able to bring notes into class.