The Ballad

With Folk Fest happening all week I hope that we can get inspired.  This week we are looking at literary ballads.  I pulled a few ballads for us to take a look at yesterday:  Bob Dylan, Coleridge, and Warren G.

This week your challenge is to write a ballad telling the story of something you found, or something that is a part of your life. 

Details of the assignment can be found by ...clicking here...

Media Criticism

This week we have been taking apart archetypes, allegories, and stereotypes.

I want you to apply your knowledge to the media and become a critic.

Pick out an advertisement, TV show, movie, or song and criticize it.  Tell us where it is coming from.  What archetypes is it displaying?  What is the hidden story?   What is it telling us we should be like?

Your criticism should be mature and collegiate.  It should be about one or two paragraphs long.

Please see me if you have any questions.

Pieces of a Whole Poem

We have been personifying, deconstructing, and vividly describing objects from our past and present.

Now I challenge you to put these descriptions together in a creative way.  Make a poem describing the objects from your life.

To get the full assignment, ...click here...

Writing for Publication

Throughout the course of the first nine weeks with you, I have read some of the most amazing, creative, and artistic writing.  You continually amaze me on a daily basis, and it has truly been an honor to see everything that you come up with. 

As the first quarter comes to a close, I feel like it is my duty to help get your voices to a wider audience.  I would like to help you publish a magazine.  In order to do this we need to be a team. 

Take one of the pieces that you wrote this semester, edit it, and polish it for a final draft.  If you turn this in to me I will give you five points.  Add some artwork and make a page that is interesting and wonderful.

Over the break I will see what I can put together. 

Most of all, please remember how truly awesome you are.  We have nine weeks left... lets make them extraordinary.

Mr. D

Realism and Modernism

This week we are looking at how literature changed after the Romantic movement.  We are looking at the Realist writers and the Modernist writers that described the harsh reality of a new world.  In class we read a couple of Hemingway short stories, and we looked at Dickens, London, and Hugo.

Your job this week is to tell a story about the day in the life of someone in Juneau.  Give a voice to someone that is voiceless, and show the harder side of living.

To get a copy of the assignment ...click here...

A story through poetry... the alternate assignment

Hey Everybody... Just wanted to give another option.  We have been doing a lot of journalism and reporting-ish writing.  I wanted to provide another option for points.  I am attaching a link to an alternate assignment where you can exercise your poetic muscle.  Tell me a story through poetry.

To get this alternate ...click here...

War of the Worlds!

Hey Team!

We are looking at how you can trick everyone into believing that your writing is the real deal and not fiction.  In the literary world this is called verisimilitude.  We read part of War of the Worlds in class, looked at how crazy it made people, and now I challenge you to make something similar.  Can you make us believe the unreal?   To access your assignment this week ....Click Here...