Free Reading/Writing Assignment

Free Reading and Writing for Six Weeks

English

OReilly

Writing:

60__________Ten pages handwritten or five pages a week typed

This can be poetry

Songs

Diary

or a combination

10 extra credit______________Please feel free to illustrate or embellish (one point per illustration up to ten illustrations), but I do need to see sixty full pages of writing, so if you interrupt your writing with an illustration, you need to add more writing.

10_______________Please keep all your writing in an 8.5 by 11 journal specifically dedicated to your writing.

You will be given at least forty minutes a week of class time to write.

At the end of six weeks, I will ask that you turn your journal in. Please mark any pages you don't want me to read with a clear sign not to trespass.

No more than than 2 pages can be off limits.

Please be aware that I am a mandated reporter; this means I must report the following:

financial, physical, sexual or other types of abuse, evidence of neglect, or an imminent risk of serious harm.

20_________At the end of the six weeks, please select an excerpt from your writing to be published on our class blog, which I will create.

5 points_________ Attach this rubric to the final product

20 points__________beauty, legibility, literary elegance, profundity, honesty, soul

Reading

You will go to the library/bookstore/Amazon and select a text to read. You must select your text by _____________.

The text can be fiction, poetry, biography, autobiography, memoir, historical fiction; sorry, no graphic novels; science fiction; anything else? ask me. The text must be at least 300 pages long, or you may read two shorter books that equal at least 300 pages. I suggest you seek books on a subject that interests you; if you love sports, find a book on sports. If you love music, find a book on music.

5 points per Monday___________Mondays will be reading day. Always bring your book on Mondays. Every Monday I will check that your reading logs are up-to-date. You must read fifty pages a week minimum.

For every approximately 50 pages you must complete the following activity:

60 _____________Select an excerpt that catches your attention for any reason: emotional impact, humor, excellent plot turn, beautiful language or imagery, or even poor writing. Copy that excerpt into your reading response notes, include page number. Be aware of all the literary devices we have studied: metaphor, simile, personification, symbols. But also be aware of humor, believable characters, exciting plot, suspense; or any insightful knowledge of history, culture, or science.

60_____________ Comment on the excerpt. At the least, comment on why the excerpt impacted you. Keep you commentary in LP. Please do not use 1PV. In other words, do not say, "I like this excerpt because...." rather comment directly on the style: "The imagery in this excerpt is vivid. When the author describes the character drowning, the reader empathizes, and the moment is tragic. The drowning is also dramatic because the character is a sympathetic character whom the reader has grown to like."

The Final Project:

At the end of the six weeks, I will ask that you write a response to the text

10 ___________ Select some aspect of the author's style that you have encountered in the book and excerpt a sample of the style. In one or two sentences, briefly analyze that style:

In The Sound of Waves, by Yokio Mishima, vivid imagery, simile, and personification create a dream-like tone. The phrase "the ocean bestows" is personification, and "she gazed at me like a persimmon in a bucket" is a simile that creates a vivid image. Personification of the ocean makes the ocean seem alive, like a sentient God. The vivid imagery of a bright orange persimmon in a bucket is like the surprising and unexpected image in a dream.

When I say analyze, I mean specifically comment on how the writer's style creates theme, tone, suspense, meaning, interest, surprise, beauty, emotion, or insight.

50 ___________ After your brief analysis, write your own passage of at least one page using the author's style as analyzed in your response.

10 ___________ At the end of your writing sample, briefly defend, using specific examples, the way in which you have mimicked the author's style.

15 ___________ Correct formatting, punctuation, mechanics, this rubric