If I Were in Charge of the World...

In the spirit of DREAMING big, do some thinking about how you might shape the world if you could...what you would change or eliminate, what you would add or emphasize, what you would want for yourself and all of those you share this big place with...

Using the folded sheet with the "If I Were in Charge of the World" poem by Judith Viorst as a starting point and a template, gather some of these ideas you have about what you'd like to see in a world of your own dreams or making. Polish and share your poem in a New Post on your own blog. Include at least one image, maybe several.  

Color Catch-Up

Please have all assignments connected to the the theme of COLOR posted to your blog before the beginning of class tomorrow (Wednesday).

You should have:

Paint Chip Poems (all in one post or separate--your choice):

• 2 haikus
• 1 acrostic
• 1 free verse
• 1 narrative (poem or short piece of prose)

Color Collage Poem

Color Association Poem OR Color Story 

JUNIORS ONLY (from the counselors):

Please make sure you are completing your scheduling form by 2nd block tomorrow. 
You can go to:
Canvas> Kickapoo Counseling Commons > Scheduling > Click on Current Grade Scheduling Form

You will also need to turn in the BLUE form with course recommendations and signatures for all courses you scheduled. 

If you are taking honors English, please turn in your honors reading form to your previous English teacher.

Counselors will be available at all lunches today to answer questions.

From Fraser: Creative Writing isn't being offered next year, but I'd love to see you and your friends in Contemporary Literature or Film as Literature or English 4! XO

Monday's Option #2: Color Story

In a New Post (of at least 300 words, with at least one image and a creative title) on your blog by the end of class on Friday, write a short story (fiction or non-fiction narrative) that begins with a sentence that includes the word BLUE.

Start each of the paragraphs (at least 4 total for your story) following with  a sentence using a different COLOR word.  Include at least one image.  If you need more than 4 paragraphs to tell your story, that's fine.  

Use the COLOR word only once in each paragraph, but suggest the color in as many ways as possible. Highlight the details you've used in the color they're suggesting.

For example:

The world had turned GREY. Nothing but mud and asphalt surrounded the unpainted house, little more than a box made of concrete blocks. Charlie, dressed in faded work pants, rubber boots, and a thick wool sweater, steadied himself with a hand on the top rail of a weathered cedar fence. Behind him, nothing but ash-coloured sky, bare trees, and plumes of smoke belching from the factory in the distance. A lone sparrow rested on a branch, one beady eye watching.

Please have all color-inspired pieces posted before the beginning of class Wednesday so we can comment on each other's work. 

Remember you need to do this piece OR the Color Association Poem-you don't have to do both (but you could!). 

Monday's Option #1: Color Association Poem

 Using the handout template as a rough guide, create a Color Association Poem and share it as a New Post on your own blog.  Include at least one image.  Fold the handout in half and tape it in to your journal to count as an entry this week.  

Please have all color-inspired pieces posted before the beginning of class Wednesday so we can comment on each other's work. 

Remember you need to do this piece OR the 4-paragraph Color Story--you don't have to do both (but you could!). 

Paint Chip Poetry

Please polish and post the paint chip inspired pieces (alliteration!) you came up with in your journal during class on Thursday.  You may group them all in one post or do a separate post for each one.  Include an image for each piece.  Let me show you how to do this if you don't know--it's easy and important to add visual interest to your work.

You can post all your poems, but at minimum please post these (in any order you choose):

• 2:  haikus 
• 1:  acrostic using a paint color name
• 1:  8+ line free verse poem using the paint name as a title or in a line
• 1   8+ line narrative poem that uses the 4 paint color names (or you had the option to write a short piece of prose--memoir or fiction, etc.)

If you finish with this assignment, click around on the info at HGTV about the Psychology of Color, how different colors affect our moods.   There are various color quizzes out there you could try, too.  Or you could continue to customize your blog with gadgets (quotes, images, tools) on your sidebar, or update your profile. Thanks!

Color Collage Poem

In a New Post on your own blog, please post a poem of 8 or more lines inspired by some aspect of your magazine cut-out collage in your journal featuring the paint chip shade you selected. (You could write a short story or memoir piece on this one instead if you'd like.)  

The color may or may not make an appearance in your writing.  Your poem might describe a place, an event, a memory, a feeling, a person, or a combination of those.  It might take the form of a Narrative Poem, a Free Verse Poem, a Rhymed Poem, an Acrostic Poem, or a series of 3 or more Haiku Poems.  

Please include an image to go along with your writing.

Title your post Color Collage Poem. 

Include an Author's Note about the origin of your idea. 

Please post all COLOR-inspired assignments (including another one we will add on Monday) by the beginning of class Wednesday, 29 January.

Object-Inspired Piece of your choice

Please post a new piece of writing on YOUR blog inspired by our look at how objects can inspire new thoughts, trigger memories, or provide writing ideas.  

Please spend time to come up with at least 500 words (draft directly on Blogger or you can type on Docs for a word count then copy and paste if you want to).  

Also: add at least one image  (click on the icon on the tool row that looks like a photo--I can show you how, just ask). 

Also: add an "Author's Note" at the beginning or end of your post briefly identifying the object/activity that inspired you and bit of your thought process.

Be creative and take this assignment in whichever direction you choose:  fiction, narrative, poetry...You may come up with a finished product today or maybe just a good start on something you revisit and finish up over the long weekend or in class Tuesday. 

Some options:

• use one of the objects we passed around during class this week (key, lock, giraffe, etc.--check out the comments on the Idea Share post below for lots of ideas)
• use one or several of the objects you cut out of the magazines for your journal 
• go back to one of the objects you shared with everyone those first days of class or something someone else shared
• use an idea from the What's in Their Bag? character sketch you created this week
• browse the website Significant Objects for examples of writing connected to objects--you might even find an object there that triggers some writing for you
• you can make a story up or you can write a story that is true
• you could be inspired by a combination of these objects
• the object itself may or may not end up in your writing

When you finish your piece (due at the end of class on Tuesday, 21 January), you can continue to customize your blog page with gadgets in the sidebar, an interesting background, updated profile info, etc.  Be sure you've figured out how to add images--they are an important aspect of your blog and will accentuate your writing.  I can also show you how to put in links like I did (the pink words above).  It's really easy.

Thanks for making class LOVELY so far!