Comments for classmates

First, be sure your Object-Inspired Piece is posted to YOUR blog and:

• has a creative title (something more than Object Piece...) 
• includes at least one image (ask me how to do this if you don't know)
• include a brief Author's Note at the beginning or end of your post indicating where you got the idea for your story or which object inspired your piece

Next...

You all worked so hard on your object pieces--I'd like for you to take some time today to see what your classmates have come up with.  

Find your name in the groups below.  

Read the Object-Inspired Pieces of the classmates in your group and leave a comment with 3 specific, supportive and complimentary remarks regarding the piece and how it was written.   Nothing critical or suggesting changes at this point...

Include a greeting at the beginning of your comment (like "Hi, Taylor!) and a brief statement of encouragement at the end of your comment (like "Thanks for sharing this!" or "I look forward to seeing more of your work.")

Go beyond a short, generic comment and get specific. As in:  "You really got me with that twist at the end--I would have never guessed it was her sister stalking her all along.  Creepy!"  Or:  "Your use of dialogue was effective and pulled me into the story.  I never thought a conversation between a little boy and his baseball could sound so natural."  Don't cop out and put a rushed, generic comment like, "It was good" or "Nice job."   

Please read the person's I am... Poem also and leave a friendly comment, maybe something you have in common or find interesting.

Then copy and paste the comments you made into a New Post on your own blog so I can quickly give you credit for offering feedback today.  You can title the post "Comments for Classmates: Object Writing."

Here's what your post might look like...


Groups:

Maddi A.
Georgia
Winter 
Chad

Madison J.
Bailey L.
Bailey D.
Hope

Ralph
Sarah
Tyler
Jennifer

Alyssa
Gabi
Ashley T.
Lilli

Amber
Yahaira
Kennis
Ana

Corey
Kamryn
Ashley J.
Ian

Morgan
Cody
Audrey

If you still have time left today, you could finish the color cut-out collage we started in your journal on Friday, come up with writing topics connected to your collage, and maybe do some writing about one or more of your topics.  Your journal will be due for our mid-quarter check on Friday:  You need 20 full pages.

Inspired by Objects

"One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at.  This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity..." ~Edward de Bono

Please post a new piece of writing on your blog inspired by our look at found objects.  Please spend time to come up with at least 500 words (you can type on Word or Docs for a word count then copy and paste if you want to).  Also, add at least one image today (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 on Thursday.  This piece will be due at the end of class Thursday.

Some options:

• use one of the objects we passed around during class last week (some are pictured above...expand on one of the ideas you jotted down in your journal)
• use one of the objects you found on our walk around campus and the park (you could even steal someone else's object)
• use one or several of the objects you cut out of the magazines Monday
• 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? Sketch you created
• write about something you think of when you look at the articles about important objects from history via the V & A Museum, the 101 Things that made America from the Smithsonian, the website auctioning off thrift store items along with writing about them...
• P.S. Here's a link to more information about the 3D printing technology we talked about--scroll to the video at the bottom--this whole idea both fascinates and baffles me and the gun "printed" out makes me think of lots of things to write about)
• 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 Thursday, 26 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 (all the pink words above).  It's really easy.

Thanks for making class so pleasant so far!

What's in my (their!) bag? Sketch Assignment

In the spirit of US Weekly's feature “What’s in my Bag?” and Abbi Jacobson's book Carry this Book by Abbi Jacobson...

Imagine the contents of another person’s bag…

• Celebrity (Oprah, Martha Stewart, Barbie, Trump)
• Book/comic character (Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Willy Wonka)
• Movie or video game character (Indiana Jones, Mario)
• TV character (PeeWee Herman, Carrie Bradshaw, Leslie Knope, Homer)
• Historical figure or icon (Ben Franklin, Ghandi, Freud)
• Writer/artist/musician (Ephron, Banksy, Kanye, Prince, Beyonce)
• Inventor/innovator (Steve Jobs, Einstein)
• Athlete (Michael Jordan)
• Criminal (Bernie Madoff, Robert Durst)
• Someone you know

Create a large, colorful, detailed, labeled, imaginative sketch with at least 10 items and at least 5 notations/comments.  

Some ideas:

Books/Notebooks

Jewelry/Accessories

Tech products

Food/Snacks/Drinks

Shopping List

To Do List

Tools

Beauty products

Keychains/Keys

Work materials

Identification

Souvenirs

Lucky Charms

Medicines/First Aid

Awards

Trash

Vices

Phone (apps/call/texts/Insta/Snap showing)

Due at the end of class on Friday for 35 points.

This assignment does not have to be posted to your blog, but you are welcome to include it there if you would like!  

Back to the blogs

Hope you enjoyed the extended weekend!  I did...

Just to check in on what we did last week...Have you:

1.  created your own blog on blogger.com?

2.  accepted the invitation to join class blog sent to your email?

3.  left the url address of your blog as a comment to the bottom post on class blog? (Do you see your name/blog in the list on the right side of the class blog?  If not, I haven't seen it...)

4.  posted your I am... Poem to your own blog? (be sure to add an image or two and a title in the Post Title box)

5:  left a comment on "I am...Mrs. Fraser" on the class blog?

6:  shown me your customized journal cover?


New work for today:

Please leave a quick, supportive comment on at least 5 of your classmates' "I am..." Poem posts.  You might mention something you have in common or something you find interesting.  If the poem already has 3 comments on it, move on to another so that everyone gets some feedback.  A good comment might look like this:

Hi, Taylor!  I relate to what you said about missing your grandparents...I have a lot of memories with my own.  I also like chocolate milk!

Also, please take this quick survey.  SPS wants to know what qualities we expect graduates to have.

Any other time you have left could be spent reading/commenting on additional "I am..." posts, adding to your blog layout, or writing in your journal.

Stealing authentically

It's been a real pleasure getting to know you all these first few days.  I hope you are enjoying our class.  I have been quite impressed with your creativity and willingness to try new things here from the very start, and I look forward to seeing all that you come up with throughout the semester. 

I wanted to gather my thoughts and give you a preview of some of the other ideas I'd like us to consider and be inspired by over the next 15 weeks, all in keeping with Jarmusch's idea that it's more than okay to use everything around you to get ideas, that it's not where you get the idea but where take it. 

I'm organizing in terms of "themes" (rather than genres) and have a variety of activities connected to each to get you started on pieces of your own making.  Here's what I'm thinking (perhaps in this order or with some adjustments):

Writing inspired by:

• Objects
• Color
• Art
• Dreams
• Books
• Music
• Food
• Childhood
• Photos
• Films
• Gifts



Leave me a comment here if you have an idea or something you'd like for us to study or try.

Thanks again for being such wonderful people to start the day with...

XO Mrs. Fraser

Make it yours

Thanks for creating a blog today.  I hope you will continue to add to and refine your layout to make the page reflect your style as we go.  I'm still working on the class blog...

If I haven't seen and given your points for your customized journal cover we worked on during class yesterday, show it me today.

Be sure to fill 5 pages in your journal each week!

I am...Mrs. Fraser

I am...

a daughter, the oldest of 3, raised on small town sports, a life in the country and the desire to be a good girl.

a sister, the first to do most things, lucky enough to have been born with 2 built-in best friends.

a granddaughter, missing the days spent in the country with my Nanny and Papaw and my 9 cousins, riding horses bareback, picking vegetables from the garden, sitting around the old dining room table for meals and domino games, going shopping in a Ford Crown Victoria piloted by my lead-footed grandmother and keeping in touch through letters with my family far away.

a Drury girl, where I learned about Alice Walker, the secrets of Pi Beta Phi, how to live with roommates, and that the world is much bigger than Cassville, Mo.

a wife to Ryan, my friend and partner since I was 19, a man who knows I don't like to talk when I first wake up, who loves me even though I don't like to cook, and who every day makes me feel like the smartest, prettiest, funniest girl he's ever known.

a mother to Macauley, an eighth grader who, just when I think he's left childhood behind, gets out his Legos and dives into a weeklong project, a far more outgoing child than I was, the delight of my life forever.

I am...

sweet tea and chocolate milk, chips and guacamole.

puffy, comfy white couches, ironstone pitchers and platters, chippy white furniture, burlap and linen, mismatched silverware and old photos, flea market finds and treasures that make me smile.

a tattered teddy bear bought with my birthday money in Eureka Springs when I was 8.

tightly folded notes passed between teenage boys and girls in class and church.

photos and scrapbooks and a project always in the works.

big, thick books and glossy magazines.

sleeping late on weekends, especially when it rains, in a soft bed with lots of covers and feather pillows.

dark blue eyes and my dad's olive skin, black-framed glasses when I read or watch TV.

leggings and Pikos, lots of black, jeans and flipflops, blonde hair in a messy ponytail, Toms and a cardigan.

closer to 50 than I am to 20 now, whether I feel like it or not.

not 16 anymore.

older and wiser, more experienced.

I am...

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." (John Watson)

"Everyone you ever meet knows something you don't." (Bill Nye the Science Guy)

"Let it be...let it be...let it be...let it be...There will be an answer.  Let it be." (Beatles)

"Every little thing is gonna be alright." (Bob Marley)

Here we go!

Blogs are an interactive, visual way to share our writing, and I'm excited for you to create your own. I am providing some written instructions on the stapled handout, but I think you'll really just learn as you go. 

Your individual blog will be like an online, visual portfolio of your work for this class.  You might occasionally post something on your own, but your blog for Creative Writing is not meant to be a diary or like social media.  You will post your assignments to your blog for me (and often your classmates) to read.  You'll get comments/feedback from us right on your posts, too.

What I've set up here is a central class blog where I will post assignments and sometimes my own writing. You can usually check here for directions or what you need to get started, so please take the time to read the information I post. When you create your blogs, I will add each of them to a "blog roll" on the right hand side--from here you can hop on and see what everyone else is up to, and I'll be looking for you to make supportive and appropriate comments on your classmates' blogs beginning in the near future. This whole process of creating a blog might be a new one for most of you, and I appreciate your willingness to jump in and try something unfamiliar. You'll just have to spend a little time playing around with your layout, and I hope you feel free to add your own personal touches and make your page your own. You can start with the basic setup and let it evolve from there.

Some things to know/keep in mind:

• A post is a new entry you create from scratch with your own thoughts and ideas. A comment is an idea or thought you attach to someone else's post.
• While your blog is meant to be a place for you to express yourself and for others to communicate with you, we aren't using our blogs for socializing like facebook or texting. I hope you're kind and friendly to one another, but resist posting casual messages or silly small talk or really anything not related to our work together as a class. Later on, when you've moved on from Creative Writing, you may want to continue your blog and of course then you can do whatever you want with it!
• Since your blog is an "assignment" for a writing class, please attempt to use proper grammar and punctuation. You should not use text-speak or abbreviations or slang that you might use in texting or email. i do not want you to type in all lowercase like this. I DO NOT WANT YOU TO TYPE IN ALL UPPERCASE LIKE THIS. Use complete sentences and your best grasp on writing conventions. This is not to say we won't all make a few mistakes here and there, but we want it to appear that we were trying not to, not like we just haphazardly slapped some stuff down.

I do hope you enjoy this process...I'm here every step of the way so don't hesitate to ask me if you have questions or want some guidance.

• When you've created your own blog today, leave the url(address) of it as a comment on this post. I'll link all of them to this page and this will be our home base. You can name your blog whatever you want, but I'll be listing them by your first and last name in the blog roll because it's much easier for me to keep track of that way.  

• Your first post will be the "I am..." Poem you drafted on Tuesday. You should be able to copy and paste the text from the draft you saved. Add an image or two using the button that looks like a photo (next to the blue word Link) on the tool bar. 

• Also, please leave a comment on my "I am..." post telling me something you found interesting or something we have in common.  If you've still got some time after that, you could click on your classmates' "I am..." pieces and leave a similar, friendly comment.  Or you could work on customizing your blog with backgrounds, design choices, gadgets in the sidebar, etc.  Here are some places you can get free stuff to use in your blog design:  Leelou,  Shabby Blogs, Cutest Blog on the Block.

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