Analyzing Books Three – Five We finished up our discussion of our novel, My Ántonia, with a thorough review of the events and details of Books Three – Five. Make sure you are familiar with the novel before our final quiz by reviewing your active reading charts and short answer questions. Final
Analyzing Book Two Albert Rutherston, “Laundry Girls” 1906 We had a good discussion yesterday of Book Two of My Ántonia. We talked about the “hired girls” and how they were different from the townspeople in Black Hawk. They were always the daughters of immigrant farmers from the country and some
Characterization Exercise After analyzing the Introduction and Book One of My Ántonia, we moved into an exercise on characterization. We talked about how, in real life, we get to know what a person is all about. We came up with a list that included actions, clothing, family life, favorite foods,
Warming up with Willa Willa Cather After our three-minute free-write in our journals (we start every class this way; it gets us warmed up and underscores a topic or theme found in the novel we are reading/discussing at the moment), we conducted our usual ’round-the-table open notebook quiz on
Interpreting Literature: Session IV My Antonia 2015-02-26 We spent the bulk of our time yesterday reviewing theses with tension, crafting practice theses statements, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of leaving one’s home country for a new one, and sharing ideas about how to find points and particulars for an
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-05-19 Last class! Final Critiques We wrapped up our six week session today by finishing the round of critiques that we started last week. By now, everyone should have received critique on at least one story, and depending on how many pieces you have given
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-05-12 Sharing and Critique After a couple of students read their short stories this afternoon, I jumped right into sharing my feedback on three of the stories I received on Friday. My comments are highlighted in yellow and are suggestions for further developing each piece.
Teen Short Story Writing Circle 2014-05-05 Sharing and Critique I had the pleasure of hearing three very good short stories today — all were different, but each had great story lines and have the potential to be developed into even better pieces. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing these again, as I’
Elizabeth Gilbert was once an “unpublished diner waitress,” devastated by rejection letters. And yet, in the wake of the success of ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. With beautiful insight, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a
Sharing and Critique We kicked-off class today by sharing three more short stories. First, I am very happy that the students are writing more than just the bare minimum. Everyone seems engaged, enthused, and hopefully — inspired! We will continue taking turns sharing our weekly at-home writing — some weeks we may
Three Steps of Critique We started class today by going over our objectives when critiquing another writer’s work. I have no doubt this group will develop into a great circle of literary critics — they just need a little practice! Each week we will have three to four writers share
Class Overview We spent a few minutes today discussing what each class will look like. Every Monday we will: * Share the stories we begin in class and finish at home during the week, receiving constructive feedback from our circle of writers * Learn additional element(s) of fiction writing (character development,