Photo Hunt!

You can type your captions to go with your pictures using the Caption link as you add your photos.  Don't forget to add a clever hashtag to each of your captions, too! #laundrymonster

In a New Post on your blog, please add all 15 of the photos you took Monday during our Photo Hunt. Add a caption of at least 25 words to go with each photo, and include a clever #hashtag with each caption.  You can decide whether to label or otherwise indicate which photo on the list each was supposed to be.At the end of your post, include a quote that suggests something about paying attention or writers noticing everything or the power of photographs.

Photos from this millennium

Choose one of the photos from the 2000s so far that we looked at in class this week and write a piece (poem or prose, fiction or nonfiction...your choice) of at least 250 words inspired by the photo. This might be a personal memory you have connected to this event or your thoughts about this moment in history...you decide what you'd like to say. Here's an example of something I wrote referencing an image from the aftermath of 9-11 that has always stayed with me.  If the Distractify link is blocked on the school computers for whatever reason, you could visit another website with "iconic" or important photos from this decade or the last and choose one from there, or you might be able to Google an individual picture if you remember one or have a certain one in mind.  Include the photo you chose and your writing in a New Post on your own blog.  

This is... writing inspired by photos

I like this image...it's a print available at one of my favorite websites called Etsy, where you can buy all sorts of vintage and handmade goods. So much creativity and inspiration there...have a look some time.

I'd like you to do a New Post on your own blog with some writing about one of your own photos inspired by Katy Barber's "Photograph 1969." I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you'd like to arrange your words as a poem or a short piece of prose. I'll be looking for a vivid description of what we can actually see in the photo, followed by that "twist" we discussed in class, where you intimate or imply what else is "in" the photo...an understanding, an observation, a hint at something that came later...something more. Please include the photo in your post. 

If you don't have a photo of your own or find that too personal, find a striking or interesting photo that speaks to you on the internet or in a magazine and write about it in this same way instead.  You could also use the antique photo you looked at in class as your inspiration. Feel free to post any other writing inspired by photos that you've come up with this week, too...

Photograph 1969 by Katy Barber

This is my mother
lifting her hair long
like a low whistle
off her neck
These are her fingers
caught in the tangles
of brown and gold caught in
silver earrings
This is my father
reaching through the lens
to touch the edge
of a new family
to touch her opening belly
under her full dress

This is existing
before I exist

This is me growing up
against their lives
him watching for a sharp
breath from her looking out
onto the border of birth
this is bumping us into three

Spooky share

You all worked so hard on your spooky stories--I'd like for you to take some time today to see what your classmates have come up with.  I've divided the class into groups of four or five--see the lists at the end of this post.  Please find the blogs of the other members of your group (check the sidebar of the class blog) and complete the following:

1.  Read your classmate's Halloween-inspired story and leave a comment with 3 specific, supportive and complimentary remarks regarding the story and how it was written. 

Go beyond a short, generic comment and get specific. As in:  "You really got me with that twist at the end--I would have never guessed it was her sister stalking her all along.  Creepy!"  Or:  "Your use of dialogue was effective and pulled me into the story.  I never thought a conversation between a little boy and the demon living in his closet could sound so natural."  Don't cop out and put a rushed, generic comment like, "It was scary" or "Nice job."   

If, by chance, someone in your group has not posted a scary story, move on to step 2 on that blog and check back later in the block or focus on the other group members' stories.

2.  Then browse the rest of that classmate's blog and choose 3 other pieces to leave a positive, specific comment on.

3.  Move on to the blogs of the other people in your group.

4.  If you have time and would like to read and/or comment on other class members' stories, you can cruise through the blogs on the sidebar of our class blog and see what others have been up to.  Leave comments if you have time.

5.   In a New Post on your own blog, write up a brief summary of the scary stories of each of your classmates in your group and name at least one detail or technique you really liked.  Add a bit at the end of your post about your Halloween plans (and if they come close to anything in the stories you read!).

We'll be moving on to a new theme next week, so today is the day to offer this feedback and post what you've read to your blog.  I won't be giving credit for late posts on this one.

Groups of 4 (and 5):

Ansley
Bethany
Raven
Liana

Megan
Mikala
Alexis
Kinzie C.

Marissa E.
Jessica
Katie B.
Collin
Ashley

Marissa M.
Katie S.
Lauren
Austin

Taylor
Mackenzie M.
Allison
Bo
Allie


Thank you!  Be careful out there on Halloween and enjoy your long weekend...You are all such boo-tiful people...

scare tactics

The prompts in the previous post were fairly light-hearted in relation to Halloween.  For this assignment, the prompts are a bit darker...Feel free to shape them to something you are comfortable with...

I found some interesting horror story starter ideas at a blog called Nighthags Writing Corner.  Please go to this post and this post also this post and take a look at all the sentence starters, art and photos and choose one (or more, I suppose) to inspire a piece of writing of no less than 500 words (about 2 pages double-spaced). 

You'll have two class periods to draft, polish, then post your piece.  On Thursday, we will take time to read each other's work and you'll get some comments from your classmates (more on that later...), so you'll need to have your piece posted by then. 

When your piece is ready (and at least 500 words), please share it in a New Post on your own blog.  Give your post a creative title and be sure to include the image that inspired it or put the idea starter in bold within your piece.

Halloween spirit(s)

Choose at least 3 of these to respond to in answers of 400 words total in a New Post on your blog.  Your answers may be fact or fiction or both...Include an image...

• While trick-or-treating, my friends and I decided to explore a dark street we had never noticed before...

• The best costume I ever wore was…

• My favorite Halloween was the time I…

• As I looked at the Jack-o-Lantern, it seemed to be looking back at me. Then…

• As I reached into the bag of candy, I thought I heard a voice saying, “Pick me, pick me!”

• Write a Halloween poem using the following words: bat, pumpkin, candy, spooky, night, orange, black, witch, scary, wind.

• Write a recipe for a magic potion. Next, explain what the potion would do if someone drank it.

• I was putting my Halloween costume on when I heard something moving in my closet...

• On Halloween night, while trick-or-treating we passed the cemetery. Suddenly we all felt a cold and spooky wind...

• What are your favorite Halloween treats? What is the best one you ever received?

• List all the Halloween costumes you have had in past years.

• Describe how to make a great Halloween costume using mostly supplies you have around the house.

and the beat goes on...

Create 3 New Posts on your blog Friday:

 1:  Ask a Teacher About Music...write about the answers to the questions about music you got from 2-3 teachers you spoke with.  Include your own answers to each question, too, and write about how they compare to the teachers' and/or anything you found interesting or surprising.  Include images.

2:  Lyrics Shuffle:  In another post, share something you came up with when we looked at the 6 songs with the lyrics all cut apart and scrambled.  Include an image.

3:  4 Songs Freewrite:  In another post, write a narrative poem of 10 or more lines inspired by the one or more of the 4 songs we listened to in class on Thursday (Three Libras by APC, You Shook Me by AC/DC, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, Golddigger by Kanye West). Include an image.  Here's my example:

Shadow Lake—an hour from home

A summer night—I am 16.

I shouldn’t be here.  I am not allowed.

He broke up with me a month before

and hasn’t called since.

She came with me but

asks him to dance.

He is working so he says no

but laughs as she nudges his arm.

He is too old for me.

He has outgrown me.

I am vulnerable, stupid, young

and I feel like my fourth grade

flat-chested self.

I will go on to break hearts too

but for now I just want the pulsing music

to stop making my head spin

and for him to quit looking away from me,

through me, across the sweaty dance floor

at other girls, older, wiser than I.

Have a great weekend!  We will move on to skerry stories next week for Halloween! : )