Creating Conflict

Make sure you have a book out.

Source: UK DailyMail

You've been working on creating characters! Congratulations!
Now you have to think about the terrible things that are going to happen to them.

Remember, sometimes bad things happen to good people, and that's where the lessons are.

So. You have two goals:

Goal 1: 

1. Open this PDF. Read it all the way through. Do not move on until you are done.  
2. Open this document. copy and paste the questions into your English Journal.
3. Answer the questions about the conflict in YOUR novel.

Goal 2:

•  Go back to your Character Questionnaire and keep going. 
•  A piece of advice: the more detail you write, the easier it will be when we start writing novels. So if it asks if your character has any pets, don't just write "a dog." What's the dog's name? What kind of dog? Is it a friendly dog? DETAILS!

If you got this far, here's a comic for your enjoyment:

Source: Jason Bergsieker via The Curious Brain

Creating Character

Books out.

Yesterday you got to hear some advice about writing novels from Margaret Dilloway.

Today, you actually get to begin brainstorming and writing about your own novels.

You read an article about creating characters a couple weeks ago (AOW #4). Now you get to begin that process.

1. Open this document about Characters.
2. READ the first page that talks about protagonists and antagonists
3. COPY the questionnaire to your English Journal.
4. Begin filling it out. 

Homework: Calling in your blurb

1. Remember that blurb you wrote about your perfect novel? It's time to call it in.
2. Calling it in means you call our number and read your blurb to the voicemail. 
3. It's very easy. Just dial 1-858-633-6726. The outgoing message will remind you to start with your name and then read your assignment. 
4. The assignment you need to read is your blurb for your ideal novel. You wrote it in your English Journal on 10/14. 

Group Novel Settings

Source: Chip Kidd

Okay. Yesterday we spent a lot of time looking at a character named Miss Havisham from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Today, you can focus your attention on your group novels.

Goal #1: Look closely at the setting in your book. 
Look at the settings described in your group novel.  Select at least three quotes from your novel that describe the setting, but tell you something about the character. Add these quotes to the same chart you were working on yesterday. (This should give you at least four entries on your table in your English Journal. The first one will be about Miss Havisham.)

You may work with the person sitting next to you to find quotes and discuss the characters, but you will all need to write in your own English Journals.


Goal #2: Join Remind
Some of you still haven't joined Remind. If you are one of these people, you have a zero in your gradebook. If you would like to change that, join Remind TODAY. This means you need to click on your period in the sidebar and follow the directions. 


Goal #3: STUDENT DATA FORM
Quite a few of you have still not completed the Student Data Form (linked in the sidebar). This is not optional. If you are one of these people, you have a zero in your gradebook. 

If you suspect you are one of these people, fill out this form.


Goal #4: Update your English Journal
Are you missing any entries or parts of entries? Fix that. This is your chance.


Goal #5: Create a Setting
Choose a character from your group book that doesn't have his or her own setting, or who's setting is not well described.  THINK about what you know about that character. WRITE a descriptive paragraph about the setting for that character (in your English Journal, under today's table). EXPLAIN (in a second paragraph) what you are trying to show about the character with the setting you created. There are some ideas HERE if you need help.

A Character's Setting

Source: 

Hey Everyone!

I hope you had a relaxing weekend.

Now that we're back, let's get reading.

You will need three tabs open:
1. This blog.
2. Your English Journal in Google Drive
3. Socrative (room number: 504326)

We have been looking at characters. Today we are going to move our analysis over to setting.

A detailed setting can tell you a lot about a character, too!  We will look at a setting together, you will look at settings in your books and, if you are very lucky, you might even get to create your own setting that says something about a character.

Goal #1: Let's look at this character together:

Miss Havisham is an incredibly rich and ancient (old) woman who was left standing at the altar on her wedding day many many years ago. She is bitter, angry, and still cannot let go of the memories of that terrible day. 

DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK UNTIL I TELL YOU TO.

You'll need to create a table in your English Journal that looks like this:

Using the one-page text you have linked above (that you are now allowed to open), as well as what you already know about Miss Havisham, fill in the table above with quotes that describe setting, and what that shows you about the character.

Novel Discussion/Quiz

Hello again! 

Make sure you have your book out! 
We'll be reading.


Today we have four goals.

1. I'd like us to look at a few examples from what you did yesterday. How were these examples successful? How can we improve them?
2. You're going to take a Reading Quiz based on your novel. Click here to access it.
3. Once your are done with your quiz, take a look at these discussion questions. Take some time to discuss the questions that pertain to your novel with your group. It is in your best interest to use evidence from the novel to support your answer.
4. After you feel confident about any or all of the questions, choose your favorite, copy it into your English Journal, and answer the question in writing. This is an individual activity.

Bonus Goal:

This is a survey that I'm asking you to complete because I want to know your opinions about our classroom environment.
Please be honest. Your name is not attached to it, and it should only take a couple minutes. There's less than 10 questions.

Novel Inferences

Happy Wednesday!

We will read at the bell.

Yesterday you practiced making inferences about characters with passages from other texts. Today you will be able to make inferences and discover more information about the characters from your own novel.

You will need to click on the link that corresponds to your own group below. It will open a view-only file. You have a couple choices:

• Have one person make a copy that you all share and work on together (remember that I can see who edits it and when!)
• Each person can make their own copy and you can work individually or with partners to choose passages and write descriptions.

No matter which option you choose, you must share it with me.

Period 4

Group ONE

Group TWO

Group THREE

Group FOUR

Group FIVE

Period 6

Group ONE

Group TWO

Group THREE

Group FOUR

Group FIVE

Group SIX

Characters

Source: Bell of the Literati

Today you can get your netbooks!

For reading today, you can either read your choice novel or your group novel. Just make sure you're on track to finish the group novel by October 6!






Now that you've all chosen your books, we have some work to do, and we're going to start with character analysis and inference.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS TO ANALYZE
This is a view-only file. Make your own copy. You will need to share it with me. If you don't share with me, you didn't turn it in. (Don't be that guy.)

Now that you've practiced with these character descriptions, remember that you are being introduced to new characters in your own novels that you can also make inferences about.


After you finish looking closely at the character descriptions above.
1. Go back to your own book and look at what you've read so far. Find passages that describe a character. 
2. Pick one passage and type that passage into your Writer's Notebook.
3. Explain what that passage says about the character. What can you infer from that passage?