Portfolio

9th grade Portfolio

9th Grade FINAL PORTFOLIO INSTRUCTIONS

There are two (2) parts to your final portfolio:

A. A 4-6 page, double-spaced, typed self evaluation essay
B. A variety of your best work chosen from all your CW classes
Your final portfolio will count for both 9th grade creative writing classes and will be reviewed by Mr. Craddock and Ms. Gamzon. It will constitute 25% of your final grade.
Part A. Self Evaluation Essay (see details below)
Part B. Portfolio
Select work that you created this year in Ms. Gamzon’s or Mr. Craddock’s classes. All work should be copies of original work. No journals will be accepted. Follow the guideline below.
Table of contents. Your table of contents should order your portfolio into the following parts:
a. Poetry
b. Fiction
c. Non-fiction
d. Scripts
e. Special projects
Poetry. Choose 6-8 of your best poems. Select work that shows your understanding and growth in the field of poetry. Each poem’s title should be listed on the table of contents.
Fiction. Choose 4-5 of your best fiction pieces. Select work that shows your understanding and growth in the field of fiction. Each fiction piece’s title should be listed on the table of contents.
Non-fiction. Choose 2-3 of your best non-fiction pieces. Select work that shows your understanding and growth in the field of non-fiction. Each non-fiction piece’s title should be listed on the table of contents.
Scripts: Choose 1-3 of your best scripts. Select work that shows your understanding and growth in the field of script writing. Each script’s title should be listed on the table of contents.
Special Projects: Choose 3-4 of your special projects (documentary, newsletter, brochure, literary magazine, online blog, etc.) that show your growth and creative ability. Each project should be listed on the table of contents. If you have been working on a project not assigned in class, you may include this work in your special projects. (Example: I am working on a novel, and I haven’t told my teachers or I have written a musical, etc.) Please do NOT print your special project, unless you already have an extra copy. Instead, please write about these projects in your reflection.

Self Reflection Non Fiction - Creative Essay: 
During the entire freshman year, we have thrown quite a bit of information, projects, and assignments your way. We did not do this to be cruel, but to see how you react to pressure, deadlines, writing & reading skills, and so that you had the opportunity to grow as a writer and a student. It is true that the most important qualification for writers is that they write. Apart from this, reading is also the most important way to improve your writing at this stage of your development and education. These introductory courses are designed to get you to know yourself as a student and writer a little better. Part of this is the need to self-reflect. Examine the writing rubrics below and the material in your portfolio. Reflect on your work this year.
Reflective piece: 4-6 pages, double-spaced. Write about how you’ve grown as a writer this year, what has been easy/hard for you, what areas you feel you need more work in; reflect on your progress as a writer, a reader, and as a student. Write about each selected piece you have chosen to include in your portfolio (per genre): why did you include these pieces in your portfolio? How does the piece show your growth and development as a writer in this particular genre? What did you learn about yourself concerning writing from this assignment or project? Discuss the writing process you used to create the work, where you got your ideas, what you learned about the form or genre of the work as you wrote and revised it, what you learned about yourself as a writer, etc. Discuss special projects and reading that had an impact on you. Which books you read were of high interest and what did you learn about writing from reading them? What did you learn about writing and about yourself through these assignments and courses this year?
Rubric
_____ Table of Contents 10 points
_____ Reflective Essay (4-6 pages) 30 points
_____ Poetry (6-8 poems) 10 points
_____ Fiction (4-5 short stories) 10 points
_____ Non Fiction (2-3 creative essays) 10 points
_____ Scripts (1-3 scripts) 10 points
_____ Special Projects (3-4 special projects) 10 points
_____ Grammar (Work is clean, copy-edited, free of errors) 10 points
Penalty: (-1/2 point for each grammar error. Up to -10 points)
_____ Portfolio turned in complete and on time: bonus 10 points
Penalties:
• Late portfolios (-10 points per day late)
• Handwritten work (-1 for each handwritten page)
• Grammar errors (see above) & missing required components of your portfolio

View Like Water for Chocolate

AGENDA:

Homework for Monday:  Read Chapters April, May and June.

View movie Like Water for Chocolate.  Alquasia go to Amazon to continue video.

Fantasy Recipe

Today's Writing Exercise:

Create a RECIPE for a real or imagined food, action, or PROCESS!!!

A RECIPE is a "How-to" description that includes "INGREDIENTS" and "PROCEDURES"

Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Like Water for Chocolate: Introduction
First published in 1989, Laura Esquivel's first novel, Como agua para chocolate: novela de entregas mensuales con recetas, amores, y remedios caseros, became a best seller in the author's native Mexico. It has been translated into numerous languages, and the English version, Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments, with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies, enjoyed similar success in the United States. The film version, scripted by the author and directed by her husband, Alfonso Arau, has become one of the most popular foreign films of the past few decades. In a New York Times interview, Laura Esquivel told Manalisa Calta that her ideas for the novel came out of her own experiences in the kitchen: "When I cook certain dishes, I smell my grandmother's kitchen, my grandmother's smells. I thought: what a wonderful way to tell a story." The story Esquivel tells is that of Tita De la Garza, a young Mexican woman whose family's kitchen becomes her world after her mother forbids her to marry the man she loves. Esquivel chronicles Tita's life from her teenage to middle-age years, as she submits to and eventually rebels against her mother's domination. Readers have praised the novel's imaginative mix of recipes, home remedies, and love story set in Mexico in the early part of the century. Employing the technique of magic realism, Esquivel has created a bittersweet tale of love and loss and a compelling exploration of a woman's search for identity and fulfillment.

Like Water for Chocolate: Laura Esquivel Biography
Esquivel was born in 1951 in Mexico, the third of four children of Julio Caesar Esquivel, a telegraph operator, and his wife, Josephina. In an interview with Molly O'Neill in the New York Times, Esquivel explained, "I grew up in a modern home, but my grandmother lived across the street in an old house that was built when churches were illegal in Mexico. She had a chapel in the home, right between the kitchen and dining room. The smell of nuts and chilies and garlic got all mixed up with the smells from the chapel, my grandmother's carnations, the liniments and healing herbs." These experiences in her family's kitchen provided the inspiration for Esquivel's first novel.
Esquivel grew up in Mexico City and attended the Escuela Normal de Maestros, the national teachers' college. After teaching school for eight years, Esquivel began writing and directing for children's theater. In the early 1980s she wrote the screenplay for the Mexican film Chido One, directed by her husband, Alfonso Arau, and released in 1985. Arau also directed her screenplay for Like Water for Chocolate, released in Mexico in 1989 and in the United States in 1993. First published in 1989. the novel version of Like Water for Chocolate became a best seller in Mexico and the United States and has been translated into numerous languages. The film version has become one of the most popular foreign films of the past few decades. In her second, less successful novel. Ley del amor, published in English in 1996 as The Law of Love, Esquivel again creates a magical world where love becomes the dominant force of life. The novel includes illustrations and music on compact disc to accompany it. Esquivel continues to write, working on screenplays and fiction from her home in Mexico City.

101 American Poets/TPCASTT/Poetry Share Out

AGENDA:

Read, research and present your poem to the class.  Turn in your TPCASTT.

Exquisite Corpse Poem

from poets.org

Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative poetry game that traces its roots to the Parisian Surrealist Movement. Exquisite Corpse is played by several people, each of whom writes a word on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for his or her contribution.

In order to write a poem, participants should agree on a sentence structure beforehand. For example, each sentence in the poem could be structured “Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun.” Articles and verb tenses may be added later or adjusted after the poem has been written. The game was also adapted to drawing, where one participant would draw the head of a figure, the next the torso, etc. The name “Exquisite Corpse” comes from a line of poetry created using the technique: “The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.”

The only hard and fast rule of Exquisite Corpse is that each participant is unaware of what the others have written, thus producing a surprising—sometimes absurd—yet often beautiful poem. Exquisite Corpse is a great way to collaborate with other poets, and to free oneself from imaginative constraints or habits. Remember, many of the most effective phrases or metaphors are those that are most surprising. So get a couple of friends and try writing an exquisite corpse.

As an example, the following is an Exquisite Corpse composed by the intrepid Academy staff using the sentence construction Adjective, Noun, Verb, Adjective, Noun.

Slung trousers melt in a roseate box.
A broken calendar oscillates like sunny tin.
The craven linden growls swimmingly. Blowfish.
A glittering roof slaps at crazy ephemera.

Just for fun--writing an ode

AGENDA:

Poem generator--just for fun!

http://www.runokone.com/makeapoem/

Tips for Writing Odes

An ode poem is a poem that is about only one specific thing that you think is truly amazing and praiseworthy. This type of poem can be centered upon an object, an idea, or even a person. The trick to writing an ode poem is to write using the same structure throughout, while using different words to communicate the one thing you are writing about. Here are some tips to help you out if you’re interested in writing an ode poem:

1. What really makes you emotional, either in a positive or negative way? Think of an object, person, or idea that you are deeply connected to, and this will be the topic of your ode poem. Remember, an ode poem can only be focused on one thing, so make sure that whatever you pick is something that you feel strongly about, so you have enough to write.
2. When someone brings the “something” you have chosen to write about up in a conversation, how do you react? Write down what you would say in such a situation, and next, think of specific adjectives to describe how you feel about the topic of your ode. Throughout the poem, you will have to use many words that have the same definition or meaning, so you might want to check out a thesaurus if you get stuck with this part.
3. How long do you want your poem to be? Odes are traditionally long poems, because chances are, if you’ve picked a topic you really feel passionately about, you will have a lot to write. Start by splitting up your poem into groups, or stanzas, of ten lines. Most odes have three of these stanzas, but if you want to write more, by all means do!
4. How do you want your poem to rhyme? It’s up to you how you want to format the rhyme scheme of this poem. You can make every two lines rhyme, every other line rhyme (most odes do this), or make up your own pattern- just make sure that whatever pattern you choose, you use the same one for the whole poem.
5. If you have written this ode about someone you know, make sure to read it to them or even give them a copy as a present so they know just how amazing you think they are. Then, post this ode poem to PowerPoetry.org so your fellow poets can learn what you feel passionately about!

ODE TO THE PRESENT
by Pablo Neruda
This
present moment,
smooth
as a wooden slab,
this
immaculate hour,
this day
pure
as a new cup
from the past–
no spider web
exists–
with our fingers,
we caress
the present;we cut it
according to our magnitude
we guide
the unfolding of its blossoms.
It is living,
alive–
it contains
nothing
from the unrepairable past,
from the lost past,
it is our
infant,
growing at
this very moment, adorned with
sand, eating from
our hands.
Grab it.
Don’t let it slip away.
Don’t lose it in dreams
or words.
Clutch it.
Tie it,
and order it
to obey you.
Make it a road,
a bell,
a machine,
a kiss, a book,
a caress.
Take a saw to its delicious
wooden
perfume.
And make a chair;
braid its
back;
test it.
Or then, build
a staircase! Yes, a
staircase.
Climb
into
the present,
step
by step,
press your feet
onto the resinous wood
of this moment,
going up,
going up,
not very high,
just so
you repair
the leaky roof.
Don’t go all the way to heaven.
Reach
for apples,
not the clouds.
Let them
fluff through the sky,
skimming passage,
into the past.You
are
your present,
your own apple.
Pick it from
your tree.
Raise it
in your hand.
It’s gleaming,
rich with stars.
Claim it.
Take a luxurious bite
out of the present,
and whistle along the road
of your destiny.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was the pen name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pseudonym after Czech poet Jan Neruda. In 1971, Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Neruda often wrote in green ink because it was his personal symbol of desire and hope. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Line breaking

In James Longenbach’s “The Art of the Poetic Line,” he mentions three kinds of line endings:

1. End stopped lines end with punctuation, as in Dylan Thomas’ Do not go gentle into that good night:
   Do not go gentle into that good night,
   Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
   Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
2. Annotated/Enjambed lines break in the middle of a sentence or thought. The line that follows provides additional information to line preceding it, effectively “annotating” the line above. This can create surprising turns for the reader, or be used to add some humor, as in Bob Hicok’s A well-stocked pantry:
   My wife went into the pantry for peaches
   but came out with a baby — I hadn’t noticed
   the house was pregnant, she said —
3. Parsed lines also break in the middle of a sentence or thought, but do so at the more expected points, rather than cutting against expectations as annotated lines do. This can help make dense sentences more clear and often seems most natural, like in william carlos williams’ Willow Poem:
   It is a willow when summer is over,
   a willow by the river
   from which no leaf has fallen nor
   bitten by the sun
   turned orange or crimson.

Line breaks can drastically alter the interpretation and overall experience of a poem. Some reasons to consider as you go to break your line could include:

1. Breaking where a breath seems natural
2. To support or alter the cadence or pacing
3. To add hesitation or a dramatic pause
4. To add subtlety to rhyme or alliteration. Embedding rhymes within a line rather than at the end of your lines can draw a poem forward and prevent it from feeling sing song.
5. To create an interesting format on the page visually, though Medium tends to prevent much experimentation with this.

Exercise 1: Dive into this exercise, called “Six S’s,” from Catherine Wagner in Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook. It’s just as useful to a solitary writer as it is in the classroom—all it requires is taking a poem out of its lineated form and writing it out in prose. For an example, here is William Stafford’s poem “Traveling through the Dark” with all its line breaks removed.

Traveling through the dark I found a deer dead on the edge of the Wilson River road. It is usually best to roll them into the canyon: that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead. By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing; she had stiffened already, almost cold. I dragged her off; she was large in the belly. My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting, alive, still, never to be born. Beside that mountain road I hesitated. The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights; under the hood purred the steady engine. I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red; around our group I could hear the wilderness listen. I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—, then pushed her over the edge into the river.

Now your task is to break the poem up into lines in six different ways—one for each of Wagner’s six S’s: speed, sound, syntax, surprise, sense, and space. This won’t take as much time as you think, especially if you print the above text six times and just use slashes (/) where you want the lines to break. You’ll get very different results depending on how you interpret those six S’s. For instance, if I choose to break lines in regard to the text’s “syntax,” I have to decide whether I am breaking lines to encourage regular syntax or to upset it. There’s a big difference between

Traveling through the

dark I found

a deer dead on

the edge of the

Wilson River road.

And

Traveling through the dark

I found a deer

dead on the edge

of the Wilson River road.

Or even

Traveling through the dark I found a deer

dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.

http://mrbchs.wikispaces.com/line+break+exercise

http://english202-childers.blogspot.com/2010/09/line-break-exercise.html


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/articles/detail/70144

Linebreaking/Enjambment

AGENDA:

Read the following:

Do the line break exercise on the handout.  Cut and paste the passage onto a word document.

EXERCISE:

http://english202-childers.blogspot.com/2010/09/line-break-exercise.html

Also read:

http://mrbchs.wikispaces.com/line+break+exercise

The Poetic Line

What is a poetic line?

A line is a unit of words in a poem, and it can vary in length.  According to Oliver (1994), "The first obvious difference between prose and poetry is that prose is printed (or written) within the confines of margin, while poetry is written in lines that do not necessarily pay any attention to the margins, especially the right margin" (35).

An example

Here are three lines from Robert Creeley's poem "The Language":

Locate I

love you some-

where in

SOURCE: OLIVER, M. (1994). A POETRY HANDBOOK. ORLANDO: HARCOURT BRACE & CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Lineation

What is lineation?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, lineation is "an arrangement of lines."  Coulson and Temes (2002) elaborate on this definition: "[T]here is an interplay between the grammar of the line, the breath of the line, and the way lines are broken out in the poem--this is called lineation" (para. 12).

An example

Here is an example of  "an arrangement of lines," spanning two stanzas, from Robert Creeley's poem "The Language":

Locate I

love you some-

where in

teeth and   

eyes, bite   

it but

SOURCE: COULSON, J & TEMES, P. (2002) HOW TO READ A POEM. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.POETS.ORG/VIEWMEDIA.PHP/PRMMID/19882 & CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Enjambment

What is enjambment?

Estess and McCann (2003) tell us: "Enjambment means breaking a line but not ending the sentence, that is carrying over a sentence from one line to the other" (p 140).

An example

There are multiple examples of enjambment in these lines from Robert Creeley's poem "The Language." Notice how this single sentence is carried over from one line to the next and over multiple stanzas, and all the lines break abruptly.

Locate I

love you some-

where in

teeth and   

eyes, bite   

it but

take care not   

to hurt, you   

want so

much so   

little.

SOURCE: ESTESS, S. & MCCANN, J. (2003). IN A FIELD OF WORDS: A CREATIVE WRITING TEXT. UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NJ: PRENTICE-HALL & CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Robert Creeley and The Line

One of the masters of enjambment and the line is the poet Robert Creeley.  As you can see above, Creeley's line breaks are often startling and unexpected.  To find out more about Creeley's unique use of the line (or breaking the line), read the section on "The Line" in How to Read A Poem, which you can find here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19882

You can also find a brief biography of Robert Creeley and his poems here:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/184

SOURCE: POETS.ORG FROM THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETRY

Robert Creeley's "The Language"

Here is the complete poem of Robert Creeley's "The Language":

The Language

Locate I

love you some-

where in

teeth and   

eyes, bite   

it but

take care not   

to hurt, you   

want so

much so   

little. Words   

say everything.

I

love you

again,

then what   

is emptiness   

for. To

fill, fill.

I heard words   

and words full

of holes   

aching. Speech   

is a mouth.

SOURCE: CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Robert Creeley's "The Language": An Animated Version

An animated poem of Robert Creeley's "The Language" read by Carl Hancock Rux:

open player in a new window

SOURCE: POETRY FOUNDATION

"Creeleyizing" A Poem

Assignment Task:

Select a poem that you have written.  For the purposes of this assignment, it is best if the poem consists of lines at least ten syllables in length and/or heavily end-stopped lines (meaning that punctuation appears at the end of the line). 

After you have selected a poem, "Creeleyize" your poem.  In other words, rewrite your poem by breaking your lines at unexpected moments (like Creeley does in a number of his poems), creating frequent enjambment and short lines.  

Assignment Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is to revise the lineation of your poem, exploring ways in which your changes in line breaks and line length open up new meanings and points of emphasis in the poem.  It might also suggest possibilities for further revision to imagery and sound.

Some Questions to Consider After Your Revision:

• Does the change in lineation help reinforce the rhythm of the poem? Or does it seem distracting?
• Is the change in lineation appropriate for the meaning of the poem? In other words, does this new form enhance the content of the poem?
• What words and phrases stand out to you in this revision that did not stand out before?  How does this change the poem?
• What additional ways might you revise the poem to explore other possibilities for making meaning, sound or word play?