Structure Section 1: notebook entries Section 2: reading questions, vocabulary, and response writing Section 3: brainstorming, drafting (process writing)

Topic: Name Period Date ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Essential Question: Questions Notes Summary:

Notebook Entries You must bring your English notebook daily to class. Number and label each entry to get full credit. Complete the required number of lines. When absent, be sure to make up entries missed (posted on Web page one week in advance of due date). Notebooks entries will be collected and graded after 8-10 assignments (3 points per entry). If a notebook is too sloppy to grade, it will be returned without credit.

Notebook Entries First Marking Period

1: Ideal Teacher (10 lines in seven minutes) Describe your ideal teacher. In your opinion, what qualities does a good teacher possess? What turns you off to a teacher? Think of past teachers and describe a positive and a negative experience. Don’t name names!!!

2: Tested “I understand that in any contest, I will be tested, maybe to the boundaries of my ability. And when this happens, I will remember that I have overcome great difficulties already, and all that strength is in me.” Jeremiah uses the above to get himself through hard times. What does Jeremiah’s mantra mean to you? Have overcome great difficulties? How did this shape you? Has past struggles prepared you for future challenges? Explain (10 lines)

3: Greatest Fear (10 lines) Start each paragraph with a strong topic sentence and include descriptive details. If you know, tell how long you’ve had this fear and how it began. Describe how you feel and react when confronted with this fear. Describe some situations you have to avoid because of this fear.

Sample: 4: Sympathetic Character (7- 10 lines in five minutes) Write a character sketch of a sympathetic character who has a fear to overcome. Sample: Jimmy Winters is a 14-year-old boy who just moved from New York City to Last Run, a remote mountain town in Colorado where his parents plan to renovate an old ski resort. A city boy and not much of a nature lover, Jimmy is ill at ease in his new mountain home. He misses the sights and sounds of NYC and can’t stand the quiet. This move is his parents’ last ditch effort to save their marriage and Jimmy feels like a third wheel. What’s worse and incredibly ironic, Jimmy is afraid of heights and not at all excited about living at a ski resort. He does not plan to go anywhere near the lifts.

5: Setting (7-10 lines in 5 minutes) Write a character sketch of a sympathetic character who has a fear to overcome.

Abandoned amusement park Indoor parking lot

SAMPLE The old rusted chairs of the ski lift swung ominously above Jimmy, squeaking at the still gray sky. As he turned a full 360 degrees, all he could see was the endless expanse of collosal snow drifts and snow-capped mountains in the distance, penning him in. With no buffer other than the delapidated ski lodge, the wind blasted mercilessly around him, singeing his ears and taking his breath away. And then there was the said lodge—lonely and decrepit—with its busted windows, dark rotted paneling and creaking floors. When the family arrived yesterday, Mom urged Jimmy to have some vision of what this place could be, what they could make it into. But Jimmy didn’t have her kind of vision and only wished that he could hop on the next flight back to New York.

6: THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR (10 lines in seven minutes) Options: Describe a theft from the thief’s point of view. Describe a punishment from the child’s point of view. Describe the teacher from the disruptive student’s point of view. Describe a man from his ex-wife’s point of view. Describe a dog from a cat’s point of view.

7: Irrational Have you ever felt an irrational sense of terror in your bedroom at night? Do you imagine hearing and seeing things that are threatening? (7-10 lines)

8: Superstition (10 lines in 7 minutes) Are you superstitious 8: Superstition (10 lines in 7 minutes) Are you superstitious? Do you believe in good luck or bad luck? Do you believe that you can bring forth one or the other by your actions? Do you hesitate to walk under a ladder? Do you have a ritual or special item you wear when playing sports?

9: Fate (7 to 10 lines) Do you believe in fate or free will 9: Fate (7 to 10 lines) Do you believe in fate or free will? Do you feel like your future is pre-destined by forces in the universe? Are you even comforted by the idea that “what will be will be.” Or do you believe in total free will? Do you feel that the only forces governing your future are your own acts?

10: Wishes (5 to 7 lines) If you had three wishes, what would they be?

Describe your character or setting using a fresh metaphor. 11: Movie Version (3 to 5 lines) Describe your character or setting using a fresh metaphor. Examples: Sarah’s gaudy prom dress shouted across the room at me, its brash colors screaming all at once for my attention. I stare at my girlfriend’s face, trying to figure her out, but she is a wall clock that is too far away to read.

12: Technology (7 to 10 lines) Your thoughts on the following statement: New technologies and scientific discoveries are always good for society. There should be no limits placed on what scientists can explore.

13: Nature versus Nurture 13: Nature versus Nurture. (7 to 10 lines) Your thoughts on the following statement: Frankenstein is born innocent and intelligent. It is only after he is rejected by his creator and abused by society that he becomes destructive and vengeful. Mary Shelley believed that we are not born who we are. We are made who we are by our upbringing and experiences. What do you think? Do you think this true? If so, do you think that this justifies criminal behavior?

14: Belonging. (7 to 10 lines) Where do you feel the greatest sense of belonging?

15: Parents (7 to 10 lines) What do you fight with your parents about?