Upcoming Due Dates

• Autobiography due Friday, 11/19.
• Read and annotate at least half of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J.D. Salinger by Friday 11/19. (You will work on it in class tomorrow)
• CW Test on Tuesday, 11/23. Will cover Autobiography, narrative, description and dialogue.

Autobiography Peer Editing

Answer the following questions. Handwritten or typed is acceptable.

Put yourself in the place of READER--not friend, not peer writer, but reader. That means that you're evaluating a writer as if you bought this book, and wanted to read it for entertainment.

1. Read the autobiography.
2. Examine the setting. What parts of it are visible to you as a reader? What parts need more explanation in the story from the writer?
3. Which character is the most believable? Why?
4. Which character seems to be intangible, or is unclear? Why? What would help the character become real to the reader?
5. What is the major conflict in the story? Is it realistic, considering the setting?
6. Draw the plot line of the story so far. Predict what you think will happen next—add it to the plot line.
7. What is the overall theme of the story? Why? What happens in the story to support your assumption?
8. Go through the story and correct all grammar errors, with the exception of character dialogue that is purposefully erroneous. (Check verb tenses, especially. Remember, this should be mostly in the past tense.)

Creative Writing Due Dates

Great job on your autobiographies so far! Your stories are intriguing and it's clear you've really learned from the professional excerpts we've read.

Your final draft is due Wednesday. Remember, it has to be five pages minimum and 10 maximum. Check the rubric on the Y:// (included in the assignment) to make sure you're fulfilling all of the requirements.

Wednesday, we will start reading FICTION. Our first short story will be from J.D. Salinger.

See Ms. Miller with any questions!

Contests!

Today, we are going to enter our poetry from last quarter into at least three contests. Please review the following contests:

http://www.civicandarts.org/index.php/arts/
http://poetrysocietyofvirginia.webs.com/2011studentcontest.htm
http://www.poetry.com/poetry-contests/
http://www.thepoetsanctuary.net/contest.html
http://allpoetry.com/

Rules:
If you want to enter a poem you did not write for class, you need to get it approved.
You must enter three contests.
Read the rules carefully! You're poem won't even be considered if you don't follow the directions.
Print the submission for me so I can give you credit for this assignment.

When you are finished, start reading about these contests, in which we will enter our autobiography and/or fiction.

http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Fiction_Writing/YA/YA10.php

http://www.theparisreview.org/about/submissions

http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/front/docs/studentWritingContest/2010.pdf

http://www.tcr.gov.nl.ca/tcr/artsculture/artsandletters/rules2011.pdf

http://www.akc.org/pubs/fictioncontest/

Quarter 1 Exam Review

Exam format:
·Multiple Choice
·Short Answer
·Reading Poetry
·Writing/Revising

Poems we've studied:
·Two-headed Calf
·The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
·The Fish·What is a Poet?
·What is Poetry?
·Transformation
·Untitled (Lucille Clifton)
·The Want of You·I Want Poems
·The Crabs
·The Whipping
·Mother To Son
-The Frying Pan

Skills and Devices
·structure
·content
·diction
·tone
·line breaks
·hyperbole
·simile/metaphor
·revision
·voice
·annotations