AF: it's 2nd period!

AF: List of things to do: Throw Together a White Elephant Party!

Sorry I'm late with this, Kids (especially Hanna). An administrator pulled me into a project that I did not know I was in charge of...just a horrible surprise.  But I'm sort of done for now.

A White Elephant gift exchange has many variations, but here is how we will play:

Bring in something that is good, but sort of weird -- this is a perfect time to regift those goofy presents you have received over the years.  I have something funny Carlos gave me a few years ago, and I'm definitely bringing it.

If you don't own anything like that, but you'd still like to play, buy a very inexpensive "gag gift" that you would not mind receiving.  Don't spend more than $5.  Giant candy bars, bags of chocolate and bottles of bubbles are good gifts.  Nobody would be upset or disappointed with candy or bubbles.

A nice book that you know you will never read is also a great idea.

Don't bring in a piece of garbage.  Nobody wants to receive your trash.  It has to be a legitimate item that you just think is weird.  Be sure to check with your mom.  Don't wrap up her gravy boat that looks like Ben Franklin without her permission.

Wrap the present, but do not tag it.  People should not be able to guess who brought the present in.

We will draw numbers, and when everybody has a number, Number One will pick from the pile and open their gift.

Number Two can then either select a new gift from the pile, or steal the gift that Number One selected.

If you are stolen from, you are next in line to pick from the gift pile.

Once a gift has entered the third pair of hands, it is "frozen," and cannot be stolen again.

OK?

Also, if you want to bring in snacks and food, that would be fine.  Let's sign up for that in the comment section.

Project for Awesome!

So this isn't exactly related to AP English, but it is related to books and I need some sort of opinion on this because I'm an indecisive loser. Anyway, every year, the YouTube community gets together and does this thing called Project for Awesome (raising money for charity to fight worldsuck). For the first half of the campaign, the money donated goes straight to organizations fighting Ebola in West Africa. For the second half of the campaign (which we are now in), the money goes to one of the charities that receives the most votes on the P4A page.

So I wanted to donate $10, but when i went to donate, I found out you can also get things for "donations' (you're basically buying really cool but overpriced stuff). So when i looked down the list, there was a Paper Towns book (my favorite of all of John Green's books) signed by the entire Paper Towns cast (sold out, I totally would've bought it at $150, no hesitation). And there's this exclusive copy of The Fault in our Stars with a green cover that's signed by John Green and I think it'd be awesome to have it, but it's $125. That's a lot of money for one book. And i love the story, but it's not even my favorite book out of the ones he's written. But i want it. And it's for charity. But it's $125.

So, I'm sorry for wasting your time with that really long story, but I'm tearing myself apart over this... Go donate to P4A if you can!!

http://www.projectforawesome.com/

AF: The Villanelle, for form junkies

Originating in the 16th century, a villanelle is a six stanza poem whose first stanza contains three lines, the first and last of which repeat alternatively as the final line of the four ensuing three-line stanzas, and ending with a four line stanza whose last two lines are the repeated lines.

Got that?

1/2/3
4/5/1
6/7/3
8/9/1
10/11/3
12/13/1/3

These are so fun and so hard to write.  The trick is to get a good first stanza, and then to fearlessly tell your story.  Go for the jugular.

Alone
by Tara Howe

Please do not leave me here tonight
For I have no desire to be alone.
The groping hands of the venomous night

Try to catch me. In my line of sight
Are the shadows, moving with a chilling moan.
Please do not leave me here tonight.

The air has a destructive bite
That is tearing my soft soul. Crushed bones
From the groping hands of the venomous night.

I fear that I shall no longer be by morning light,
With my fallen body never to be known.
Please do not leave me here tonight.

In my struggle for life I will fight,
Yet the darkness will win with the lone
Groping hands of the venomous night.

I warned you this would happen. Tight
ropes pulling out my soul. Now to the surreal zone
With the groping hands of the venomous night.
Please do not leave me here tonight.


You will note that she reversed the sequence of the final two lines, but I don't care.  Do you?

AF: Poetry Minilesson

I am sorry these short poetry mini-lessons are coming so late in the writing process.

I love messing around with poetry, reading poetry and writing poetry with young people.  With AP English Language and Expository Writing classes,  I only get to work in poetry some summers when I am teaching at Young Writer's Camp.

Let me offer three quick lessons that are fun and yield good results.

Remember, a poet is in love with language, and seeks the music and the rhythm of language.  For every word that ends up in the poem itself, several must have already been cut.  You want to work with the barest and strongest words that yield the most honest and direct impact.

The Photograph Poem
How to do it:  Hold a photograph in your hand, either real or imagined.  Then using your eyes as the camera, go over the photo and then with your language, describe what you see.  Comment on the content of the photo only minimally.  Let the image and your words do the work of communicating, and trust your reader to see what you see.  Your job as a writer is to be faithful to the image and the feeling that you wish to convey WITHOUT telling anybody how they should feel.

Watch Sandra Cisneros do it:

My Wicked Wicked Ways

This is my father.
See? He is young.
He looks like Errol Flynn.
He is wearing a hat
that tips over one eye,
a suit that fits him good,
and baggy pants.
He is also wearing
those awful shoes,
the two-toned ones
my mother hates.
Here is my mother.
She is not crying.
She cannot look into the lens
because the sun is bright.
The woman,
the one my father knows,
is not here.
She does not come till later.

My mother will get very mad.
Her face will turn red
and she will throw a shoe.
My father will say nothing.
After a while everyone
will forget it.
Years and years will pass.
My mother will stop mentioning it.

This is me she is carrying.
I am a baby.
She does not know
I will turn out bad.
        --Sandra Cisneros

Cisneros steps out of the photo for a moment to tell a quick little story, and then returns to the photo for its surprising concluding lines.  I love how this poem suggests that underneath the banal family photo burbles another very different story -- unfortunately also banal and ordinary -- that is nevertheless unexpected precisely because it squirms out from the photo.

I have had good success with students writing poems about photographs.  It somehow opens up possibilities, and frees up the writer.

AF: Works Cited Tutorial Video

What is a Multigenre Research Paper?

Photo by Nicholas James, Class of 2015