No warm-up; instead, prepare for doom…

REMINDERS  Any/all late work from September are due Wednesday.  After this, no late work will be accepted.  Check Infinite Campus  Bring Black Boy ALL week.  Period 6: Warm-ups please!  All portfolio pieces from OTHER classes are due to me on October 20, 2011!  Talk to your other teachers a.s.a.p. if they have not assigned something yet for portfolios.  Make sure your teachers sign your portfolio pieces before you bring them to me.

Writing Applications 2.1: Write biographies, autobiographies, short stories or narratives a. Relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details. b. Reveal the significance of, or the writer’s attitude about, the subject. c. Employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description, comparison or contrast of characters).

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY! The days that we remember most usually show what we value most– when values are challenged, we remember losing our values or having our values put at risk. For your second portfolio assignment, you will write about an event in your life which challenged a core value that you had and caused you stress —an autobiographical incident.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  Your event must have something to do with a core value.  Although the stressful situation may have been ongoing, I want you to focus on one event (i.e. a few minutes) that you feel represents the beginning/height of the stressful moment.  Use what you have learned about diction, detail and imagery to create a specific TONE.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY! Here is the format for the autobiographical incident essay. Each paragraph should be very descriptive and should be at least 8 sentences.  First Paragraph: EXPOSITION catch your reader’s attention and give background information. You may want to start by…  describing what kind of day it was prior to the event.  describing the setting (place and time) that your story happened.  describing and introducing a character(s) who is important in your story.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  Second Paragraph: RISING ACTION – what was happening right before the incident occurred?  Describe the following in detail:  Where were you (detail)?  Who was there (detail)?  What other things/objects were around you that are notable (imagery)?  What thoughts/emotions did you have (diction)?  Any other information that is important to understanding the main event that you will be talking about.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  Third paragraph: CLIMAX Describe the main event.  Tell us exactly what happened and how (detail).  Take us through the event, step by step (imagery)  Describe what other people were doing (detail/imagery).  “Quote” (as best you can) important conversations.  Explain the thoughts and feelings that you had during the time that this was happening (diction).  YOU MAY NEED TO BREAK THIS INTO TWO PARA- GRAPHS!

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  Fourth paragraph: FALLING ACTION– what happened immediately after the incident?  How did the event end (detail)?  What did you do and/or say after the event (detail)?  What did other people do after the event took place (imagery)?  How did you feel the next day(s), week(s) or month(s) (diction)?

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  Fifth paragraph: RESOLUTION– What is the most important thing that you learned from this event?  Explain how you feel about the event today (diction)  Did this devastate you?  Was it the best day of your life?  Did it teach you something important?  Are you still confused about what happened? Why?  What value was challenged? Did you fight for the value or experience losing it?

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  RESOLUTION (continued…)  Did you learn something about what’s important to you?  Did you learn something about humanity?  Did you learn something about what you will fight for?  NOTE: Try to stay positive in what you learned.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INCIDENT ESSAY!  This assignment will go in to your portfolio and will make up a large part of your first quarter grade, so work hard on it! Make sure that you get personal, but not so personal that you forget about your audience.  Before turning it in, EDIT!!!  Due: Monday, October 17 th, 2011.

GRADING Here’s what your autobiographical incident essay will be graded: 1. Organization (do you have an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution that flow logically?) 2. Tone (do you focus on creating one or two main tones throughout your essay with diction, detail and imagery?) 3. Development (do you have enough detail to describe who, what, where, when and how?)

GRADING Here’s what your autobiographical incident essay will be graded: 1. Prompt (do you focus on one specific, adverse event that occurred over a short period of time, such as a few minutes or hours? Do you catch the reader’s attention at first and explain what you learned afterwards about your values?) 2. Writing (do you use good vocabulary, have complete sentences that are not run-ons, a clear sense of audience, and obvious editing?)

ANY QUESTIONS???

 Not only am I asking you to complete an autobiographical essay, but I have completed one too!  As a class, we will read my sample autobiographical incident essay.  Use this to guide how YOUR essay should be.