Marking Up Fiction

1. Read entire piece once without marking anything.
2. Read again a second time
     -put a box around 5 unknown words
          -write a guess definition using context clues
          -write the real definition
     -highlight/underline things that strike you
          -? things you don't understand
          -! things that really hit you
          -... things you may disagree with
     -write your personal connections/reflections in the margin

Possible Sources for "My Family" Essay

Book:  "What Do You Stand For?"- in Library
Book:  Encylopedias or non-fiction country books- in Library
Book:  Family history book or a family member's diary

Online:  Pioneer Culture Grams
Online: http://family.lovetoknow.com/list-family-values - site that talks about family values
Online:  https://familysearch.org/- family history search site

Person:  Grandma/Grandpa
Person: Parents
Person:  Older sibling

"My Family" Essay

Apply the ABCDs to this prompt:

Write a 5-paragraph essay about your family.  Tell the reader about your family's heritage, share a favorite family tradition, and explain one value that is important in your family.  Use at least one book source, one internet source, and one person source.  Be sure to cite your information appropriately in a separate bibliography page. 

5 Elements of a Story

5 Things
5 Ws

ABCDs: On-Demand Writing Prompts

PROMPTS:

1. All humans make choices or decisions daily.  Some are important; some are not so important.  We choose what clothes to wear.  We decide whether or not to do our homework.  We choose certain people for friends.  Sometimes the decisions we make change our lives.
    Discus an important decision you have made in your life.  Explain the decision and how it affected you.  Tell whether you would make the same decision again.

2. In our lifetime many people, places, and things change from what we remember from our youth.  Sometimes the changes are subtle, like the repainting of a house down the street, while other times they are more obvious, like the demolition of a remembered landmark.
    In an essay describe a person, place, or thing that has changed in some way.  Describe what it was like before the change and what it was life after the change.  Tell your reader how you feel about the change.

3. We all dream about meeting a famous person, perhaps a movie star, a singer, or an athlete.  We wonder, "What would it be like?"  "Where would we go?"  "What would we talk about?"  If you could spend a day with a famous person, whom would you choose and what would you do?
    Identify a famous person with whom you would like to spend an entire day.  Give details to explain how you would spend the day, where you would go, and what you would say.  Make sure the reader knows why you chose this person.

4. Many television shows have characters who are teenagers.  Although the people who write and direct these shows are adults, they try to portray the teenagers realistically.  Sometimes these portrayals do not seem real to teenagers.
    Write about a television show in which you think teenagers are portrayed realistically.  Tell your reader what traits or actions make these characters seem real.

5. "Sometimes we, ourselves, are our own worst enemies."
    From a novel, story, or play, select a character who seems to have been his or her own worst enemy.  Show how the character was able or unable to overcome these problems.  Tell why you think the character was able or unable to do so.

6. A large number of students who begin high school do not graduate.  Educators are concerned about this trend.
    Explain the cause of the high dropout rate from your point of view.  Consider obvious and not-so-obvious causes.  Support your explanation with examples from your own experience and/or from what you have read.

7. We are all influenced by creative work found in our world.
    Choose a creative work (e.g. film, music, book, art, or poem) that has had a significant influence on you.  Describe the work and tell the reader why the work is important to you.  Make sure the reader understand how the work has influenced you.

8. In many novels, plays, and short stories, a character is challenged in some important way.  As a result of the challenge, he or she changes for the good or for the bad.  The kind of change reveals an idea the author wants you to understand.  For example, when a character becomes happier at the end of a novel than he was at the beginning, the author may be showing you what goes into making someone happy.
    Select one major character from a novel, play, or short story you have read.  Write an essay in which you describe how the character changes and tell what the author wants you to understand about the character as a result of the change.  The reader of your essay is familiar with the novel, play, or short story you select.

9. During the time you have been in school, you have had many teachers.  Each of these teachers was uniue.  Some of your teachers, such as art or shop teachers, had to have special talents besides teaching.  Others, such as coaches and drama teachers, worked with students beyond the classroom.  These qualities and teaching techniques made each of them different.
   Describe the qualities that make up an excellent teacher.  Consider the good teachers that you have had and what made them good teachers.  Use a specific anecdote(s) to support your description of an ideal teacher.

10. Your school newspaper is planning to publish a feature secion on the best movies of the year, and you have been invited to write about your favorite movie.
    Choose a favorite movie that you have seen.  Write an evaluation of this movie.  Support your evaluation with convincing details from the film.  Don't just tell what happened.  Consider such elements as why the main character and/or the setting was appealing, how you reacted to the central problem, and what feeling the film gave you.  Convince other students who read your school newspaper that your favorite movie is really as good as you think it is.

"Tell-Tale Heart" Parts

1-2 Hour
Narrator: Thomas
Old Man: Jeremiah
Announcer: Lydia
Policeman 1: Logan
Policeman 2: Matthew
Neighbor: Abby G
Ad Announcer: Hannah
Ad Singers: Lexi
Orchestra: Adam, Abby R
Sound Crew: Hailey, Erica, Gracie, Mia
NBC Announcer: ??

5-6 Hour
Narrator: Kyler R
Old Man: Shaun
Announcer: Jordan
Policeman 1: Kylee
Policeman 2: Griffen
Neighbor: Brinley
Ad Announcer: Dax
Ad Singers: Sariah, Lucy
Orchestra: Dax, Ava
Sound Crew: Cole, Shaun, Chels, Lily C
NBC Announcer: Lily C

"Sorry, Wrong Number" Parts

1-2 Hour
Mrs. Stevenson: Lilly T, Lily G
Operator: Eden, Justice
Man in Black: Jeremiah
Announcer: Jaxyn
Thug: Aaron
George: Davis
Chief Operator: Leah
Sargent Martin: Jacob
Telegram Person: Britain
Information: ??
Nurse:  Kaylee
Orchestra:  Abby R, Adam
Sound Crew:  Haily, Erica, Mia, Gracie

5-6 Hour
Mrs. Stevenson: Lucy, Mia
Operator: Talia, Maybe
Man in Black: Kyler B
Announcer: Chels
Thug: Taysen
George: Sylvester
Chief Operator: Sariah
Sargent Martin: Ben
Telegram Person: ??
Nurse: Savannah
Information:  Ella
Orchestra:  Dax, Ava
Sound Crew: Cole, Shaun, Chels, Lily C

What is Figurative Language?

1. Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation. When a writer uses literal language, he or she is simply stating the facts as they are.
   Example:  "Mr. Hylton is a good music teacher, but he smells like monkey armpits." That is a factual statement, and it is not figurative language.  
   Example:  "Mrs. Kempton is a beautiful ray of sunshine, glittering across the rippling surface of a giggling brook."  This is figurative language, because although Mrs. Kempton is clearly beautiful and her radiance could be compared to sunshine, she cannot LITERALLY be both human and a ray of sun at the same time.  Also brooks don't giggle.  But it kind of sounds like they do.  That's why people always refer to brooks as giggling, laughing, chuckling, etc.  
   *NOTE:  this is a good time to discuss the word "cliche."  A cliche is a phrase or description or idea that has been overused.  An example would be if we walked out into a heavy rainstorm and I said, "Boy, it's raining cats and dogs today!"  People always say that when it's raining a lot.  
   Activity:  let's see how many cliches we can come up with as a class. :)
   
   Ok, that was fun.  Time to watch a video and learn more about the types of figurative language.  Figurative Language Video

Tell-Tale Heart

 By Edgar Allan Poe

   True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
   It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees --very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.
   Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly --very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this, And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously-oh, so cautiously --cautiously (for the hinges creaked) --I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights --every night just at midnight --but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.
   Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers --of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps he heard me; for he moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back --but no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness, (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers,) and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily. I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in bed, crying out --"Who's there?" I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed listening; --just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.
Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or of grief --oh, no! --it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself --"It is nothing but the wind in the chimney --it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or "It is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions: but he had found all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel --although he neither saw nor heard --to feel the presence of my head within the room.
   When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little --a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it --you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily --until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye. It was open --wide, wide open --and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness --all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot. And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? --now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.
   But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eve. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! --do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me --the sound would be heard by a neighbour! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once --once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.
   If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs. I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye --not even his --could have detected any thing wrong. There was nothing to wash out --no stain of any kind --no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all --ha! ha! When I had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock --still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had I now to fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises. I smiled, --for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search --search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.
   The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct: --It continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definiteness --until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears. No doubt I now grew very pale; --but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased --and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound --much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath --and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly --more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men --but the noise steadily increased. Oh God! what could I do? I foamed --I raved --I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder --louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! --no, no! They heard! --they suspected! --they knew! --they were making a mockery of my horror!-this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now --again! --hark! louder! louder! louder! louder!
   "Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! --tear up the planks! here, here! --It is the beating of his hideous heart!"