Enrichment Options

Miss Skoro's English ClassWeekend Starting 09/13/2012

Due Monday 9/17 at the beginning of English class.

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

“In my writer's notebook, I often go back, spading into the soil of my past life, trying to unearth the person I once was. When I write about a memory I try to capture it as honestly and accurately as possible . . . .I pay attention to the feelings connected to it: cozy, fearful, sad. Exploring a memory includes looking into not only what happened but also how it affects you now.”

(Fletcher, p. 86-87)

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Assignment Description

Your assignment is to complete one of the options on the following slides by Monday, Sep. 17 at the beginning of your English class.

Requirements:

A. There is no length requirement. Your work needs to be long enough to fulfill all the requirements of the option you choose.

B. If you decide to write or draw about a memory, you must use a memory you haven't written about this week in other activities.

C. Bring this completed on Monday and ready to share/turn in at the beginning of class.

ONE TIP: Leave space around whatever drawings, artifacts, clippings or photos you put into your notebook. That way you have room to return to these objects and explore through them what they mean to you and what memories they dredge up.

Strategy: Writing Down MemoriesOption A: A Place from your Past

“Memories have a way of embedding themselves in special places. They soak into rugs and sofas and walls and closets. If you want to discover a memory, try describing the place connected to it.”

(87)

Instructions: Write about a place from your past and what it means to you. Describe the feelings that remembering that place brings up, and the mind pictures you see when you think of that place.

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option B: Memories from your Childhood

“What do you remember? What reckless, stupid, funny things did you do? What stories did your relatives tell endlessly about you? What used to terrify you? Did you have a favorite stuffed animal? Blanket? Imaginary friend?”

Instructions: Tell a memory from your past. It can be a memory of anything that sticks out to you. How were you as a child, or what your little brother was like. It's your choice.

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option C:Draw a picture of a Memory

“Many writers put into their notebooks other things besides words to help them remember. They do this as a way of preserving what they suspect later they will want to remember. . . Lots of people prefer to express themselves through sketches or drawings. I've seen many notebook that contain a mixture of written words and pictures.”

Instructions: Draw a picture of a memory from your past. If you want to, include words to describe how you're feeling in the picture, what is going on, etc.

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option C:Draw a picture of a Memory

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option D: Artifacts“Student Sean McIlreavy has a page in his notebook entitled: THINGS

I LOVE. He has clipped out photographs from magazines – of a rock musician, roller blades, a hockey stick, a fishing pole, baseball cards, a hundred-dollar bill – and taped them onto his notebook page.

The stuff I tape into my notebook includes tickets to sporting events I attended autographs, and a backstage pass to a rock concert. Having these objects helps me keep in touch with the actual experience.” (92)

Instructions: Put an artifact from a memory in your notebook, especially if it is from a memory that affected you, was important to you, or that often sticks out in your mind.

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option D: ArtifactsExamples:

I found this picture on the internet. I kept it because I think it's incredibly beautiful!

The back of a postcard my friend from Turkey sent me when I was in the 6th grade. I finally went to visit when I was 18.

Option E: Articles

“As you read through the morning newspaper or flip through a magazine while waiting for your dental appointment, keep your eye out for any intriguing article that catches your eye. Often you can find an article or a bit of news that could spark an idea for your writing. When you find one, clip it out and paste it in your notebook.

When I [Ralph Fletcher] find an article like that I clip it out and tape it into my notebook. The clippings in my notebook include matters of great personal significance (my grandfather's obituary), important world events (the day Nelson Mandela was freed from jail, the signing of the peace treaty in Bosnia) as well as more playful stuff.”

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option E: Articles

Examples:

[From Ralph Fletcher's writer's notebook]

“a. Mayor Forced to Eat 12 Pounds of Bananas.

c. Fallen Object investigated in Argentina: “A long, cylindrical object fell to earth May 6 and

disappeared in the dense jungle near the Argentine-Bolivian border Argentine newspapers

reported yesterday. There was no immediate confirmation from NASA . . . “

[From George Takei – priceless! ---->]

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option F: Photographs

“My notebooks contain lots of photographs. Friends. My wife. My kids. The king of Tonga. My son's first school picture. Me.

Using your notebook as a scrapbook can be fun. An artifact like a photograph contains powerful magic to bring a deeply buried memory to the surface of your mind. Most of us don't have photographs or videos of the most important memories in our lives. Don't worry. The mind has a gigantic storeroom of 'mental photographs'. All you need to do is to find a quiet place, close your eyes, and start browsing.”

(Fletcher, p. 86-95)

Instructions: See if you can get your hands on pictures of you when you were younger. Some of the best photos to put in your notebook are ones that make you uncomfortable-- the silly expression you often have, the time you were on stage wearing a bunny costume, you sitting on the lap of your least favorite uncle. Photos like that often spark the best writing.

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Option F: Photographs

Strategy: Writing Down Memories

Right before my first marathon and then immediately after. In the after photo, I am a little grumpy about how hard it had been.