Due October 1, 2015 (Animal Perspective)

Write an essay from the perspective of an animal.

You may use anthropomorphism or personification.

Anthropomorphism is a literary device that can be defined as a technique in which a writer ascribes human traits, ambitions, emotions or entire behavior to animals, non-human beings, natural phenomena or objects. 

Anthropomorphism is also a type of personification that gives human characteristics to non-humans or objects especially animals. However, there is a slight difference between these two. Personification is an act of giving human characteristics to animals or objects to create imagery, while anthropomorphism aims to make an animal or object behave and appear like they are human beings.

Use ten dollar words not ten cent words.

IEW Meet & Greet on September 2, 2015

Our first class is Wednesday, September 2nd from 11:00 to 1:00. This first meeting is a Meet and Greet class. I will hand out notebooks and give you the information you'll need for the year.
Be sure to bring a pen or pencil, your tuition check, a simple snack, your imagination, and a big smile!

Our "every other week" September schedule looks like this:
Meet and Greet with Mrs. Cortez & Mrs. Harrelson on Wednesday, September 2
Class with Mrs. Harrelson on Wednesday, September 16
Class with Mrs. Cotham on Wednesday, September 30

In October we will begin meeting every week.

Start reading The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. Your target completion date is September 30. :-) Spend those "off-weeks" in September reading this book. It is a very simple book. We will be using it to teach important literature concepts, terms, and ideas. Please keep in mind that we are choosing this extremely simple book so that we can illustrate how readers are able to learn literary concepts from any well written story.

The Sign of the Beaver is set in the wilds of 18th-century North America.  It is about twelve-year-old Matt who is left on his own in the Maine woods while his father sets off to bring the rest of the family to the new settlement..  Conflicts and challenges arise for Matt during his fathers's prolonged absence. Some challenges are life threatening and some are poignantly life altering.  Matt befriends Attean, an Indian chief's grandson and is eventually invited to join their Beaver tribe and travel north with them.  Should Matt abandon his hopes of ever seeing his family again and go, or should he stay alone in the woods waiting for a family that may never return?

Andrew Pudewa -- Focusing on the Process and the Tools

IEW helps students build up repertoires for the purpose of enabling them to become better writers. 

repertoire: a stock of skills/tools that a person habitually uses.  
Our repertoire includes KWOs, organized approaches, brainstorming, clear thesis statements, topic/clinchers, strong verbs, quality adjectives and other dress-ups, openers, decorations, proofing, re-writes, reading with discernment

IEW checklists and practice assignments do not provide a formula for good writing or perfect writing. The checklist is not the objective, it is the means to the end. 

IEW writing's focus is really about process, not product. With this process, we are "gradually building up a repertoire of specific word

usages, specific grammatical constructions, specific literary devices. And we force the kids to do it *not* because we want their writing to be instantly better, but because we want them to be better writers."

Middle schoolers tend to challenge us, and high schoolers have strong default writing patterns that need tweaking. Both sometimes complain. If
the child grumbles, "I could write a much better paragraph if I didn't have to put in all this stuff," Andrew's response is to admit, "That may be true. The goal is not for you to write the best possible paragraph you could write. The goal is for you to learn the skills that will ultimately make you a better writer."   

He compares it to teaching violin: With a new student, he expects incorrect bowing, wrong notes, missed slides. 
 Writing is like music lessons. 
•  You aren't expected to get it perfect the first time. 
•  Let it challenge you and savor that challenge.
•  There is almost always room for improvement.
•  The process will teach you lessons that transcend the task at hand.


Graphic: http://www.kristenkoster.com/category/writing/writing-as-art/