Homework: Choose the prompt from your list: Lessons are not easily learned. Write a 400 to 500 word, multi-paragraph composition which adheres to the criteria we have been working with regarding strong descriptive writing. (See your notes and/or previous blog posts for this list). You can also read and re-read the samples I gave you, looking for key techniques.
USSR FORMS DUE MONDAY. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A FORM, SIMPLY COPY OUT THE STYLE YOU USED ON THE OCTOBER FORM AND WRITE YOUR RESPONSES ON A PIECE OF LINED PAPER.
REVIEW:
We have typed up the "My father is dancing . . . " composition.
We finished the "Suzie is talking to God . . . " composition Thursday night.
Today, Friday, Nov. 30, we started a composition with a prompt of our own.
If you were absent: Be sure to follow the notes below . . .
We read the sample in your package about Uncle Red. Read it carefully. Circle the verbs. Notice the techniques. Circle the sentence beginnings. Circle the images that appeal to the five senses. Circle the examples of alliteration. Find the allusion to the film, The Wizard of Oz.
First: Write a sentence where you put a character in a place doing something.
For example, Uncle John sips his Timmies double-double in the Lazy-boy leather chair in the living room. The morning CTV news flashes its headlines on the screen as it is too early for Uncle John to hear sound.
Once you have your first one or two sentences written. Choose a detail from it, ie the news, the coffee, the chair, the lack of sound and write a sentence to elaborate. In this sentence you may use a simile, alliteration, an allusion, etc
EG:
I live with Uncle John so I learned years ago to eat my cheerios without any milk slurps or crunching of molars. Silence rules in this small house.
Next: Describe the light or the sound in the place you are creating.
EG.
When the coffee is done, Uncle J reaches for the remote that he keeps in the plastic slot he attached to the side of his chair. If it's a sunny morning, light spills in sheepishly through the broken slat in the blind and gently lands in his lap like a dog that has been sick all night so curls now into its masters' legs for comfort.
Next:
You have a wonderful, descriptive, action-oriented beginning that creates atmosphere, has a person, a place and a problem.
Now: Choose to imitate the composition about Uncle Red or the one about the girl in the itchy dress at the funeral. Write at the top of your draft the name of the piece you plan to imitate.
Complete the draft using the criteria for Monday.
We will be in the computer lab this week. Mon to Wed we will be editing, revising and creating new compositions (5 in all). Don't get behind. Thursday, you will hand them all in but you will choose one to polish and turn into a good copy.
We'll write draft 4 and 5 Monday and Tuesday and edit on Wednesday.
Thursday and Friday we will write a mock provincial exam which will count for marks. Be prepared!
Arrive on Monday with all THREE compositions in draft form.
