Please come in, check the agenda on the board, and pull out a sheet of paper.

1. Please come in, check the agenda on the board, and pull out a sheet of paper. 2. What is Van Gogh saying about himself? Complete these two statements as if you were the Van Gogh of this portrait. I am . . . I feel . . . Base your statements on the picture, not your own feelings. Warm up #1 Check out this self portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, a famous artist. 1. Look carefully at the details of Van Gogh’s self portrait.

2. Think Pair Share 3. How do you know what Van Gogh is saying about himself? What evidence can you find in the picture that supports your statements?

3. Your turn! Think about how you would paint a self-portrait. What colors would you use? What expression would you have on your face? How would you be dressed? What kind of background would you have? Make a simple sketch of your self-portrait, and write a few sentences describing what you would like your self-portrait to look like.

4. Brainstorming • Using the information from the warm-up, create a list of words that you would use to describe yourself—you have 2 minutes.

5. Check out this poem I wrote about myself:

6. Please come in, have a seat, pull out your poem, check the agenda and continue working on your poem. If your poem is finished, please raise your hand, and I will help you get started on your project.

7. Please come in, pick up your materials for today, and begin working on your project. If you have finished your project, please raise your hand, and I will give you a fun English activity to complete. You may work in pairs for your activity.

8. Read and Think:The little pink fishes swam upstream and died. Write the answers:1. Is this sentence sad? Think about this carefully. Don’t focus on the idea of a dying fish. Instead focus on the sentence itself and the effect it produces. Does the sentence make you feel sad, or like crying, when you read it? Why or why not?2. Most people will agree that the sentence is not very sad. Why? What specific characteristics in the sentence keep it from being sad? As you identify the characteristics, your are beginning to look at the tools writers have to choose from as they create voice. Try this: Write a sad version of the sentence, The little pink fishes swam upstream and died. What did you do to make it sad?

9. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, pull out your plot notes graphic organizer. Make sure that the exposition portion of the organizer is complete. When you finish, please answer the following questions in complete sentences: • What does Rainsford mean when he says there are two types of people: hunters and huntees? • What does Rainsford mean when he tells Whitney that he is a hunter, not a philosopher? • How does Rainsford’s attitude towards hunting differ from Whitney’s?

10. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, pull out your plot notes graphic organizer. When you finish, please write 10 lines on the following prompt: Parents and teens sometimes have conflicts over ideas and outlooks. Write about a parent-teen conflict you have experienced or heard about and how everyone worked to resolve it.

11. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, pull out your plot notes graphic organizer. Beneath the last journal you wrote, please write 10 lines on the following prompt: Conflicts do not occur only between people. Think of a time when you could not decide what to do about a situation. How did you finally resolve your inner conflict?

12. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, pull out your plot notes graphic organizer. Beneath the last journal you wrote, please write 10 lines on the following prompt: Some conflicts can be avoided or resolved before people become angry with each other. Write a dialogue between two people that shows how they resolved a disagreement. Be sure to show how both people compromised to reach and agreement.

13. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and pull out your vocabulary list from last week. Read and Think: M.C. heard him scramble and strain his way up the slope of Sarah’s mountain. --Virginia Hamilton, M.C. Higgins, the Great Write about it: • What does it mean to scramble and strain up a mountain? Close your eyes and try to get a picture of someone scrambling and straining up a mountain. • How would it change your mental picture if we rewrote the sentence like this? M.C. heard him walk up the slope of Sarah’s mountain. Now you try it: Write a sentence describing someone slowly climbing up a flight of stairs. Use Hamilton’s sentence as a model. Use awesome words to spice up your writing.

14. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and pull out your vocabulary list from last week. Study for your quiz!!

15. Please come in, gather all the supplies you need to work on your map project, and begin!

16. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, pull out your plot notes graphic organizer. Read and Think: A redheaded woman was there with Trout. Kate could see her rummaging through the cabin, dumping drawers and knocking things from the shelves of cabinets. --Louis Sachar, Holes Write about it: • What picture do you get in your mind when you read the second sentence? • How would the meaning of the sentence change if we changed some of the words? For example: Kate could see her searching through the cabin, emptying drawers and taking things off of the shelves of cabinets. Now you try it: Write a sentence describing a small boy making a mess in a restaurant. Choose words that are clear, concrete, and exact.

17. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the Store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather got to know, the lady who threw me my first lifeline. Write about it: • What is the dictionary definition of the verb sop? This word is not usually used to describe a person’s actions. What effect does this have on the reader? • What is a lifeline? How is Angelou’s use of the word different from its usual use? How does this diction affect your understanding of the sentence? Now you try it: Write a sentence using the verb ring in a fresh and new way to capture your behavior around your house. Use Angelou’s first sentence as a model.

18. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, pick up your team’s vocab poster from the table with the inboxes, and finish your posters. When you finish, please raise your hand and I will give you the next steps.

19. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, “sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and whit with the the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and Eland the Koodo grew darker. . . Write about it: • What is the dictionary definition of scuttled? How would your mental picture change if the passage said, They trudged for days and days . . . ? • Consider the hyphenated adjectives Kipling uses in this passage. How do these adjectives help the reader understand the scene? Now you try it: Write two sentences about going on a long car trip. Your first sentence should contain a strong verb that creates a vivid picture for the reader. The second sentence should use a hyphenated adjective that either rhymes (patchy-blatchy) or has alliteration (slippery-slidy). It’s okay to make up part of the hyphenated adjective.

20. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to herd his teeth into place with his thumb. He asked his mother if he could have braces, like Frankie Molina, her godson, but he asked at the wrong time. -- Gary Soto, “Broken Chain” Write about it: • What is Gary Soto implying about the character’s teeth when he used the verb herd in the first sentence? • How would the meaning of the sentence change if the sentence were written like this? He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to push his teeth into place with his thumb. Now you try it: Write the sentence below and fill in the blank with a strong verb that creates a clear picture in the reader’s mind like Soto’s does. Avoid such obvious verbs as brush, comb, or fix. Be creative!! She spent hours in front of the mirror trying to _________________ her hair into place for the party.

21. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: I used to like going to have my hair cut. I like the mirrors in the room and all the smells of lotions and shampoos. I like to sit there—young and fresh and pretty—and see what the women were having done, to make themselves look younger and prettier. I liked the way my mother’s hairdresser teased me about boyfriends and dances. Not anymore though. Somebody held the door open so my mother could wheel me in, and a few people who had met me came around to say how sorry they were. Cynthia Voight, Izzy, Willy-Nilly Write about it: • Which details support the attitude that the narrator used to like having her hair cut? • Which detail changes the direction of the passage? Note that the narrator’s reason for not liking haircuts anymore is not explained, yet, you know what has happened. What effect does that have on you, the reader? Now you try it: Write a paragraph using details to capture the reasons why you like a particular sport. Don’t explain why you like it. Instead, use details to show the reader what you like about the sport. If you want to experiment, try shifting the focus of your paragraph as Voigt does.

22. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: He was an old man. His black, heavily wrinkled face was surrounded by a halo of crinkly white hair and whiskers that seemed to separate his head from the layers of dirty coats piled on his smallish frame. His pants were bagged to the knee, where they were met with rags that went down to the old shoes. The rags were held on with strings, and there was a rope around his middle. --Walter Dean Myers, “The Treasure of Lemon Brown.” Write about it: • Identify all of the vivid details in the passage. How do the details help you understand the focus of the passage? • There are several contrasting details in the passage, details that give two completely different pictures of the man. For example, the passage says the man is wearing layers of dirty coats which makes him sound padded and heavy; but he is also described as having a smallish frame, which makes him seem frail. Identify other contrasting details in the passage and tell what these contrasts add to the overall effect of the description. Now you try it: Using Walter Dean Myers” paragraph as a model, write a similar paragraph about an old cat. Use lots of vivid detail.

23. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: When he ran, he even loved the pain, the hurt of running, the burning in his lungs and the spasms that sometimes gripped his calves. He loved it because he knew he could endure the pan, and even go beyond it. He had never pushed himself to the limit but he felt all this reserve strength inside of him: more than strength actually—determination. And it sang in him as he ran, his heart pumping blood joyfully through his body. --Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War Write about it: • What is the main idea of this paragraph? State it as simply as you can. How do the details in this paragraph support the main idea? • The details in the first sentence describe the physical sensation of pain. The next three sentences, however, focus on another characteristic of pain. What is this other characteristic of pain? How do the details of the last three sentences help the reader understand the other characteristic of pain? Now you try it: Write a simple topic sentence about something you love to do. Then list all of the details you can think of that would help someone else understand why you love what you do. Be sure to use lots of vivid details!

24. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: Meanwhile, Confucius pursued his studies. Whenever he had a chance, he visited the state capital, Qufu, a lively town thronged with people talking, and shouting; buying, selling, and gambling; eat at food stalls in every street; and watching acrobats, jugglers and magicians at the marketplace, where vendors hawked such delicacies as bears’ paws, the fins of sharks, the livers of peacocks, and bees fried in their own honey. --Russell Freedman, Confucius, The Golden Rule Write about it: • What is the focus of the detail in this description of the state capital, Qufu? • How would the feeling and impact of this passage change if Freedman had ended the second sentence right after people? Now you try it: Describe a town you have visited. First decide on a focus: the people, the historic sites, the stores, and restaurants, or the scenery. Now write a sentence similar to the one describing Qufu. Use lots of details to make your description come alive for the reader.

25. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: I loved the smell of fruits and vegetables and would savor everything, sniff at it, before I ate. We had a pear tree in the garden, and my mother would make a thick pear nectar from its fruit, in which the smell of pears seemed heightened. But the scent of the pears, I had read, could me made artificially, too (as was done with “pear drops”), without using any pears. One had only to start with one of the alcohols, ethyl, methyl, amyl, whatever—and distill it with acetic acid to form the corresponding ester. --Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood Write about it: • The first sentence of the passage is a broad statement, stating that the speaker’s love of the way fruits and vegetables smell in general. How does the rest of the passage enrich and strengthen the first sentence? • What is the speaker’s attitude toward science? What specific details reveal this attitude? Now you try it: Write a paragraph which expresses a positive attitude toward playing a particular video game. Start with a general sentence about video games, and then use detail to capture the aspects of the game you like. Don’t explain why you like the game. Instead, bring the reader into the experience of the game through carefully chosen detail.

26. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. --Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream” Write about it: • Identify two examples of figurative language in the passage (metaphors, similes, personification). How do you know the language is figurative? • What does the figurative language add to the passage? Now you try it: Rewrite the passage from Dr. King’s speech without any figurative language. Contrast your sentence with the original.

27. Please come in, make sure you have your story to continue writing, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: I was seven, I lay in the car Watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass. My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin. --Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,” Words under the Words: Selected Poems Write about it: • What is the metaphor in this poem? What is the literal term? What is the figurative term? What does the metaphor mean? • How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if Nye said simply, My stomach really hurt? Now you try it: Rewrite the figurative term in Nye’s metaphor. Try to express feelings of anxiety and pain—both physical and emotional—with your metaphor. My stomach was _____________________________________________.

28. Please come in, make sure you have your story to continue writing, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: I was seven, I lay in the car Watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass. My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin. --Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,” Words under the Words: Selected Poems Write about it: • What is the metaphor in this poem? What is the literal term? What is the figurative term? What does the metaphor mean? • How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if Nye said simply, My stomach really hurt? Now you try it: Rewrite the figurative term in Nye’s metaphor. Try to express feelings of anxiety and pain—both physical and emotional—with your metaphor. My stomach was _____________________________________________.

29. Please come in, make sure you have your story out for writer’s workshop, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; dark pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists. --Ray Bradbury, “The Dragon,” The Golden Apples of the Sun and Other Stories Write about it: • Is the word night literal or figurative? If it is literal, what does it literally mean? If it is figurative, explain why. • When Bradbury says, darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists, what does he literally mean? This entire clause is a metaphor, which means there has to be a comparison between essentially unlike things. What is the comparison? What are the literal and figurative terms of the metaphor? Now you try it: Write sentence similar to Bradbury’s about a group of very happy people. Use a metaphor to describe the people. The first thing you need to do is decide what you want to compare their happiness to. Then you can write your sentence. Remember that a metaphor is implied, not stated.

30. Please come in, make sure you have your story out for writer’s workshop, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: He could shoot a bumblebee in the eye at sixty pace, and he was a man who was not afraid to shake hands with lightning. –Harold W. Felton, Pecos Bill and the Mustang Write about it: • This is an example of hyperbole, an exaggeration that is based on truth but carries the truth to such an extreme that it is no longer literally true. Of course, Pecos Bill couldn’t literally do these things. What, then, is the purpose of saying that he could? • Compare Felton’s sentence with this one: He could shoot very well, and he was not afraid of anything. Which sentence better helps the reader understand what Pecos Bill is like? Why? Now you try it: Write a sentence about a great basketball player, using hyperboles. Model your sentence after Felton’s sentence.

31. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: “. . .The grass you are standing on, my dear little ones, is made of a new kind of soft minty sugar that I’ve just invented! I call it swudge! Try a blade! Please do! It’s delectable!” . . . “Isn’t it wonderful!” whispered Charlie. “Hasn’t it got a wonderful taste, Grandpa?” “I could eat the whole field!” said Grandpa Joe, grinning with delight. “I could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field!” --Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Write about it: • What is the example of hyperbole in this passage? Remember that hyperbole is figurative not literal What is the literal meaning of the hyperbole? • The character, Grandpa Joe, first states that he could eat the whole field. Then he extends the hyperbole by saying he could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field. How does this extended hyperbole help you understand Grandpa Joe’s experience of swudge? Now you try it: Write a sentence with dialogue that include hyperboles. Your character should be a teenager. Give your character a name, and have your character say something about being very tired. Use hyperbole to capture just how tired your character is. Dahl’s passage can serve as your model.

32. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: There was enough military in Beekman’s toy department to wipe out Red China and the Mau-Mau tribe of Africa, and I personally think some of the toy manufacturers could use a good course in preventive psychiatry. --Paul Zindel, The Pigman Write about it: • What is the example of hyperbole in this passage? Remember that hyperbole is figurative not literal What is the literal meaning of the hyperbole? What is the figurative meaning of the hyperbole? What does the exaggeration tell us about the toy department?) • What is the speaker’s attitude toward toy guns? How does hyperbole in this sentence reveal this attitude? Now you try it: Write a sentence using hyperbole to express a negative attitude toward the super-sized portions in a fast food restaurant. Use Zindel’s sentence as a model.

33. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: Flowers and other things have been laid against the wall. There are little flags, an old teddy bear, and letters, weighted with stones so they won’t blow away. Someone has left a rose with a droopy head. --Eve Bunting, The Wall Write about it: • This passage is from a book about the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. There are several symbols (something that means more than it suggests on the surface) in the passage. Identify the symbols and explain what they mean. • Look at the last sentence about the rose. Remember that it is a rose, but it’s also something else. What does the rose usually symbolize? Why does it have a droopy head? What does the droopy head add to our understanding of the symbol and the feeling of the passage? Now you try it: Create a list of as many traditional symbols as you can think of and be sure to explain what each symbol stands for.

34. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: The one tree in Francie’s yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. It had pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of of opened green umbrellas. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenement districts. Write about it: • Remember that a symbol is itself and something else. This paragraph is about a tree, but it’s also about something else. What is that something else? When you identify the something else, you have understood the symbol. • How would this passage be different if Smith had used a simile instead of symbolism, like this? Francie’s spirit was like a tree with pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made the tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. She always tried to rise above her troubles like a Tree of Heaven which struggles to reach the sky, no matter where its seed falls. Now you try it: Think of a plant that symbolizes something. Write a paragraph which develops that plant as a symbol. Don’t compare the plant to anything. Instead, talk about the plant in such a way that the reader understands you are also talking about your spirit. (Of course, it’s hard !) Use Smith’s paragraph as a model.

35. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: The silence was delicate. Aunty Ifeoma was scraping a burnt pot in the kitchen, and kroo-kroo-kroo of the metal spoon on the pot seemed intrusive. Amaka and Papa-Nnukwu spoke sometimes, their voices low, twining together. They understood each other, using the sparest words. Watching them, I felt a longing for something I knew I would never have. I wanted to get up and leave, but my legs did not belong to me, did not do what I wanted them to. –ChimamandaNgoziAdichie, Purple Hibiscus Write about it: • Imagery is the recreation of sensory experiences through language. Which of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) is most important? What particular words create this sense experience for the reader? • The kroo-kroo-krooof the metal spoon on the pot is described as intrusive. What does this mean? What image is contrasted with the sound of the metal spoon on the pot? What effect does this have on the passage? Now you try it: Describe your school hallway between classes. Focus on the sounds that are important in the scene. Use two contrasting images and a made-up word which imitates a sound, as Adichie does in her passage.

36. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: Backing out the driveway the car lights cast an eerie glow in the morning fog centering on movement in the rain slick street --Nikki Giovanni, “Possum Crossing” Write about it: • Write down the images in the poem. What kind of imagery is used in these line? What kind of feeling is created with these images? • Contrast the feeling created by Giovanni’s lines with these lines: Backing out the driveway the car lights cast a warm glow in the morning sunshine centering on movement in the rain slick street How do the images create a different feeling? Now you try it: Write four lines of poetry about trying to comfort a friend who is heartbroken. Create the feeling of sadness through sight imagery. Use Giovanni’s poem as a model.

37. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boom—boom—boom– twelve licks; and all still again—stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees—something was a-stirring. I sat still and listened. --Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Write about it: • What kind of imagery is used in this passage? How do these images affect the reader? • Twain used imagery to set up a contrast between sounds and quiet. Make a T-Chart on your paper, label one side “quiet” images and the other “sound” images. Then list the images in the appropriate column. • How does the use of the “quiet” and “sound” images shape your understanding of the scene? Now you try it: Write a paragraph describing the sounds you hear in your classroom right now. Use imagery that captures both the quiet of the room and sounds of the room. Use Twain’s paragraph as a model.

38. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: He had bathed regularly in the lake, but not with soap and he thought how wonderful it would be to wash his hair. Thick with grime and smoke dirt, frizzed with wind and sun, matted with fish and foolbird grease, his hair had grown and stuck and tangled and grown until it was clumped mess on his head. --Gary Paulsen, Hatchet Write about it: • Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between figurative language (like metaphors and similes) and imagery. That’s because a lot of figurative language contains imagery. For example, we could describe someone’s hair as limp and stringy, like overcooked spaghetti. This is a visual image—it makes you “see” the hair. Look at Paulsen’s paragraph again. Is the imagery figurative or not? Explain. • What does the imagery in this passage reveal about the character’s attitude toward his dirty hair? Now you try it: Write a paragraph describing a really messy room. Use lots of detail in your paragraph. Do not use any figurative language.

39. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: Something warm was running across the backs of her hands. She saw with mounting horror that it was mixed slime and blood running from the dog’s mouth. --Stephen King, Cujo Write about it: • What kind of imagery is used in this passage? Is the imagery also figurative? • How does the imagery in this passage help create the horror of the situation? Now you try it: Pretend that your best friend just threw up. You are helping your friend and you accidentally touch the vomit. Think about what it feels like. Using King’s sentences as a model, write at least two sentences describing that experience.

40. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: When I walk into a restaurant and order the trout almondine, I have to trust that it is trout, and not dogfish or mudpuppy— That my cream of mushroom appetizer won’t be creamy With earwax; my café au lait, not laced with phlegm. --Charles Harper Webb, “Trust,” Liver Write about it: • What are the important images in the passage? What kind of imagery is most vivid in this passage? • These lines are from a poem called “Trust.” What does Webb believe about trust? How does the use of imagery help you understand the meaning? Now you try it: Write four lines of poetry that use imagery to help the reader understand what something tastes like. Your images can be figurative or not.

41. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: “This must be simply enormous wardrobe!” though Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. “I wonder is that more moth-balls?” she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. --C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Write about it: • What are all the images in the passage? What kind of imagery is mostly used in this passage? • What does Lucy feel in the passage? How does the imagery help you understand what has changed in the closet? Now you try it: Finish the following passage with your own words. “I wonder if the pool is as warm as it was in July,” Elliot though, as he gingerly put his foot in the water. But instead of the warm, gentle comfort of the water, he felt . . .

42. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: He was a year older than I, skinny, brown as a chocolate bar, his hair orange, his hazel eyes full of mischief and laughter. --Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican Write about it: • Look carefully at the way this written. All of the words that follow the word I are used to describe the he of the sentence. They are adjectives and adjective phrases. This is not the way words are usually ordered in English. (In English, adjectives are usually right before the nouns they modify, or at least right next to them.) What effect does this word order have on the meaning of the sentence? • Placing all of the adjectives and adjective phrases one after the other is called layering. What effect does this word order have on the meaning of the sentence? Now you try it: Write a sentence similar to Santiago’s sentence. Try to use the same types of adjectives and adjective phrases as in her sentence.

43. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: But once I spread my fingers in the dirt and crouch over the Get on Your Mark, the dream goes and I am solid again and am telling myself, Squeaky you must win, you must win, you are the fastest thing in the world, you can even beat your father up Amsterdam if you really try. Ad then I feel my weight coming back just behind my knees then down to my feet then into the earth and the pistol shot explodes in my blood and I am off and weightless again, flying past the other runners, my arms pumping up and sown and the whole world is quiet except for the crunch as I zoom over the gravel in the track. --Toni Cade Bambara, Raymond’s Run (Creative Short Stories) Write about it: • Look at the first sentence in this passage. The sentence is made up of many short clauses in a row, each clause separated by a comma. Read the sentence aloud several times and think about it. A comma indicates a short pause, a little breath. Why do you think the author wrote the sentence this way instead of dividing it into separate sentences? In other words, how does the sentence structure emphasize the meaning of the sentence? • Both of these sentences start with conjunctions (but, and). What is the purpose of a conjunction? Why do you think the author has chosen to start sentences with a conjunction? Now you try it: Write a sentence describing getting a phone call you are really excited about. Try to capture your excitement through your structure, as Bambara does, using short clauses connected by commas. Begin your sentence with a conjunction (and, but, or).

44. Please come in, make sure you have a textbook, and begin working on the warm up. Read and Think: 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 single dime ray, like the thread of a spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye. --Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” Write about it: • Look carefully at the first sentence. There are several groups of words called phrases (very patiently, without hearing him lie down, a very, very little) that interrupt the flow of the sentence. Why do you think Poe wrote the sentence like this? • Look at the second sentence. What is the purpose of the dashes? How do these dashes, and the words they set off, involve the reader in the action of the passage? Now you try it: Write a sentence about doing your homework. Try to imitate the way Poe uses phrases to slow down the way you read the sentence. Use at least one dash. When I __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

45. Writer’s Workshop Directions As I walk around conducting writer’s conferences with each of you, it is important that you begin revising your story. Please use these steps to create a better story. 1. Use the revision checklist to determine what you would like to revise. Do no simply check everything off—a completed checklist is not the point—a well written story is the point. 2. Have a partner go over the checklist—again—do not simply check everything off—a completed checklist is not the point—a well written story is the point. 3. Get together with your partner, and choose 5-7 things from each category to revise in your paper. 4. Begin making changes on your rough draft.

46. In teams of two, you will be assigned a vocabulary term from a short story. --Your job is to create a vocabulary poster that has the term (written so that it is visible from across the room),--the definition of the term (making sure that your definition matches the usage in the story),--and the sentence in which the word occurs (the page number of the story is on your card.)--Decorate your posters so that they catch the eye. The very best terms will be posted on the word wall. --When you finish your poster, please raise your hand, and I will give you the next step.