IDEAS FOR CW FROM CAT

I. ASSESSMENT

Goal: Develop Creative Voice

Descriptive words
Rich characters: make them real, not flat
Conflict

II. WARM-UPS

1. Peal an orange and eat it: descirbe using all your senses
2. Draw something using your observation powers
3. Three random concrete nouns that you have to include in a story.
For example: tomatoes, water and a dog - Eating tomatoes on a beach with a dog
4. The Blind Bag: Feel and describe
5. Improv games

III. ASSIGNMENT IDEAS

1. Magical Realism: How you can put one piece of magic into the real world and make it real.

Read Gabriel Marquez, Very Old Man

2. Artists' Books: Manufacture your own book

3. Journal: daily writing about something good and something bad that happened to you that day.
Snippets of conversation you heard or read: things that can affect your character

4. Postcards: Create a book on pictures, story on pictures

5. Found Story: collect words or pharases around town or in school and make up a story using them.

6. Friday Share Day: Paticipation grade with constructive comments
I like - no, respond with why I like...

7. Share Half-Day: Someone's short story to write a paper on. Write on one or two things. Maybe the conflict, the environment, descriptions, framing
For example: This is how Eggers brought his characters alive. Writere can't talk, answer or defend story as it must stand on its own. At end of 5 min...

CAT ITEMS

1. Read a short story and write comments about it: Cat will send

2. Send Cat envelopes to send stuff to me. Have self-addressed, etc.

3. Give Cat feedback on my own progress and writing along with students.

MORE

-Take the reader behind the wheel of the worst driver you've ever known.

-Write a scene in which a moving automobile hits a young boy on a
bicycle. Describe the scene four different times, from the following
four points of view: the driver of the car, a passenger in the car, the
child on the bicycle, and a pedestrian who witnesses the accident. You
may guide your readers to believe that one of the versions is the
"truth," or you may allow your readers to decide for themselves, or
even question the very notion of "truth."

-"Eavesdropping"--spend an hour or so listening to conversations in a
public place and use one of the as the basis for a story or scene.

-key words: infectious, bad hair day, superstitious

-Write about your own worst habit

-Verbs & Nouns: fold a sheet of paper in half. Write down ten nouns.
Turn the paper to the other side and pass it left to your neighbor.
Think of an occupation (carpenter, doctor, chef, etc.) and write down
fifteen verbs that go with that position. Pass the paper to the left
again. The third person to touch the paper opens it and joins the nouns
with the verbs to see what interesting combinations you can get. (ie
Dinosaurs marinate the earth. The lilacs sliced the sky into purple.
Her husband's breath sawing her sleep in half. My blood buzzes like a
hornet's nest.)

-Tell me the best piece of gossip you've heard all month. If you don't
know any, make it up.

-Tell about the quality of light coming in through your window. Don't
worry if it is night and your curtains are closed or you would rather
write about the light elsewhere. Just jump in and write.

-Give me your morning. Breakfast, waking up, walking to the bus stop.
Be as specific as possible. Slow down in your mind and go over the
details of the morning.

-Write a story based on a personal ad. As you write, concentrate on the
attributes that writers might be unintentionally revealing about
themselves.

-Pass out a postcard or photo book or some such, and have them write
about the picture for a set amount of time--15 minutes or
so--attempting to make it into a scene, not just plain description.
Even if there are no people in the picture, create characters,
describing the scene through their eyes.