Owen Meany

Pretend that, like the title character from A Prayer for Owen Meany, you were aware of the date and some of the details surrounding your own death. Write a 500 word piece based on this concept. It is due tomorrow at the end of the period.

Lost

Insert this piece of dialogue into a short story.  The story needs to be three pages-it is due at the end of class tomorrow.

"I think we should go this way," Jane said, pointing.

Mark nodded. "You're right."

"The other way might be better," Steve said, determination etched on his face.

"No, I think Jane's right," Martha said.

End Word Poem

 

Write a poem of twenty original lines that contains end words that when extracted from the rest of the poem, stand as another poem.

He carries unbalanced parcels of sorrow

As his silent shoes move among masses like empty measures

No one hears the echoes, the throbbing cadence of memories

Now relegated to the faceless insignificance of amplified light, blown out

A loud white storm, no one else knows what it sounds like

This is the point when reason and knowledge become cruel

The empty, un-reflected truth rains down like beatings,

The poison of logic is administered

To the servants he left his soul to

Intelligence, sentience, introspection, those

agents that render the mind helpless

When the hunched beast of emotion descends on men

in times most trying

When there is no one to talk to

Finally, he falls down on the cold ground, a slave to the process

The machinations of his own mind, in the onslaught of grief

#wcw

Setting: A ghost town in the wild, old west
Protagonist: Any woman you admire

Create a story (at least 500 words) that is based off of the above criteria.  Your story is due at the end of the period.

Burnt Marshmallows

I like this prompt from Ms. Sholk.  This is your assignment for today and tomorrow.

 

Love,

Koop

 

Burnt marshmallows

You and your three closest friends decide to go camping. You arrive and set up camp nearly three miles away from where you left your car. Late that evening, as you sit around the campfire roasting marshmallows, one of your friends reveals a deep, dark secret that turns what was to be a fun weekend into one of the scariest weekends of your life. Create a story based upon this plot line. It must be at least two pages and is due tomorrow at the end of the period.

Burnt marshmallows

You and your three closest friends decide to go camping.  You arrive and set up camp nearly three miles away from where you left your car.  Late that evening, as you sit around the campfire roasting marshmallows, one of your friends reveals a deep, dark secret that turns what was to be a fun weekend into one of the scariest weekends of your life.  Create a story based upon this plot line.  It must be at least two pages and is due at the end of the period.

Diamante

Diamante

Diamante

Diamante is a seven-line, diamond-shaped poem which contrasts two opposites. It is more a visual poem than one to be read aloud. Students can illustrate their final copies to produce an art piece. It follows this format:

First Line and seventh line - Name the opposites.
Second and sixth lines - Two adjectives describing the opposite nearest it.
Third and fifth lines - Three participles (ing words) describing the nearest opposite.
Fourth line - two nouns (if possible) for each of the opposites. (This is the transition point where the poem changes from one of the opposites to the other.)

Peaks,
Snowcapped, windswept,
Reaching, waiting, challenging
mountain ranges, ocean trenches,
Obscuring, waiting, daunting
Dark, black
Depths

Your assignment is to construct three of these. They are due at the end of the period.

Pantoum

The pantoum is a poem of indefinite length made up of stanzas whose four lines are repeated in a pattern: lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are repeated as lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza, and so on as shown below. 

___________________________(Line 1)
___________________________(Line 2)
___________________________(Line 3)
___________________________(Line 4)

___________________________(Line 5) - same as line 2
___________________________(Line 6) 
___________________________(Line 7) - same as line 4
___________________________(Line 8)

___________________________(Line 9) - same as line 6
___________________________(Line 10)
___________________________(Line 11) - same as line 8
___________________________(Line 12)
And so on...

Part of the pleasure of the pantoum is the way its recurring lines gently and hypnotically twine in and out of one another, and the way they surprise us when they fit together in unexpected ways. Write a pantoum comprised of 6-8 stanzas, with meaningfully intertwined lines. Try to create an unexpected juxtaposition between the lines to achieve surprise or irony.

Example from Christopher Lane: 

A man outside my window

The cat meowed and purred
I kneel by the fire
The darkness comes soon

The cat meowed and purred
She walked between my legs
The darkness comes soon
The stars will guide my way

She walked between my legs
She ran into the house
The stars will guide my way
I walk the beaten path

She ran into the house
Hiding away from me
I walk the beaten path
Stone, sand, and shell

Hiding away from me
The man peeks out
Stone, sand and shell
I stumble to the ground

The man peeks out
He hides behind the tree
I stumble to the ground
I'm running out of steam

Night turns to day
I kneel by the fire
Tapping at the glass
A man outside my window

#tbt

Take your favorite fictional character from your childhood and create a story with him/her as the protagonist.  The story must be two pages in length and is due at the end of the period.

Sestina

 

The sestina has six unrhymed stanzas of six lines each in which the words at the ends of the first stanza's lines recur in a rolling pattern at the ends of other lines. In the diagram below, the letters A-F stand for the six end-words of the sestina. The sestina concludes with a tercet (three-line stanza) that also uses all the six end-words, two to a line.

Stanza 1:
__________A
_________B
_________C

In this Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop, the six simple end-words are:
A: house
B: grandmother
C: child
D: stove
E: almanac
F: tears

__________D
__________E
__________F

Stanza 2:
_________F
_________A
_________E
_________B
_________D
_________C

Stanza 3:
________C
________F
________D
________A
________B
________E

Stanza 4:
________E
________C
________B
________F
________A
________D

Stanza 5:
_______D
_________E
________A
________C
_________F
_________B

Stanza 6:
________B
_________D
__________F
_________E
__________C
_________A

Tercet:
________A ___________B
________C __________D
________E ____________F

300 word free-write

Format and topic of your choice.  This is due at the end of the period.

"We are all that we are not."

What does this statement mean?  Does it apply to your life in some way?  Respond to this statement in poetry or prose.  Your piece must be 250 words in length.  It is due at the end of the period.

SLAM

Spoken word is a form of poetry that is focused on the aesthetics of word play and story telling. Spoken word is based upon personal experiences and viewpoints.  Your task:  Write a spoken word piece that is AT LEAST two pages long.  This is due at the end of the class on Tuesday.

Here is an example of a performed spoken word poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQgz2AhHaQg

Cinquains

Cinquains are a short poetic format.  The subject matter can be anything you like.
Here's the format:
Line 1= 2 syllables
Line 2= 4 syllables
Line 3= 6 syllables
Line 4= 8 syllables
Line 5= 2 syllables.

Your assignment for today is to construct 10 of these.  They are due at the end of the period.

If you finish early...

Your poems for your lists are due at the end of the class today!! If you're done early, write a short story on this topic

Your character is caught shoplifting. The shop owner says that she won't call the police in exchange for a personal favor....

#feelings

Above are four emojis.  Construct a list detailing all things that make you feel each emoji.  After you have constructed your list, select ONE of the emojis and create 4 poems that incorporates all of your listed items.  In essence, you are writing a poem that describes each of your emotions.  The list of all four is due at the end of class.  The poem is due at the end of class tomorrow.

Why the Fire

Standing in the dark at the foot of the property, I watched. It was hard to believe. I shielded myself from view, leaning against one of the many pine trees in the woods that ran up to my backyard. I had gone through with it. I had burned down my house.
Write a 500 word story using this passage as a starting point. It is due tomorrow at the end of class. It must be free of errors.

Bare Bones of Dialogue

Use these bare bones of dialogue to create a scene between two characters.  Make sure to add all components of a story (setting, characters, plot).  The dialogue can be inserted at any point of your story.  This is due at the end of class.

Dialogue:
Speaker 1: "The sun’s almost down."

Speaker 2: "Won’t be long now."
Speaker 1: "Why do we have to wait until it’s dark?"
Speaker 2: "Ask him when he gets here."

Speaker1: "Are you ready?"
Speaker 2: "No. Are you?"

Construct a 500 word free write by the end of the period.  You can post on here or submit a handwritten post.  Hand in at the end of the period.