Hi.

Part One: Reading
Before I ask you to write any Flash Fiction, I'd like you to read some. The links below will take you to sites that offer lots of examples of this type of writing. I'd like you to read a handful of them. What's a handful? As many as you can find in 20 minutes or so.

• Previous Scholastic award-winners in Flash Fiction
• 100 Word Story, which also has written and photo prompts for writing
• NPR’s Three Minute Fiction contests
• Flash Fiction Online
• The Guardian | Flash Fiction By Kids, For Kids
• The Times Magazine’s Lives column. Though, as the name of the series implies, these pieces are memoirs, the structure and length can be good models. Here are some short student stories based on Lives columns.

After reading, I'd like you to select one (1) story that you liked and respond to it briefly in this Google form. 

Part Two: Writing
After reading some samples, head on over to www.shorpy.com and find a photograph that needs a story--some intriguing "stray moment."

Try your hand at  writing your own flash fiction based on this photograph. It should be somewhere between 100-200 words. This is a first draft. You will revise it.

Bring in a copy of your story--AND the photo that inspired it--for Wednesday's class.

I hope you've been enjoying your independent book(s). Remember you need to read a minimum of 2 hours each week.

Do me a favor: could you please fill out this form and indicate the particulars of your book and your reading rate. You wrote those details in your writer's notebook, and on a not very official Post-It for me. I'd like to have something a bit more official on the books. 

Beginning this week, in addition to your weekly minimum of two hours of reading, you’ll also reflect in writing on what you’ve read.

How?

Each Monday, come to class with a 1+ page personal reflection on your reading from that week. Think of this writing as an opportunity to “take stock” of important moments in the text. How will you know what moments are important? Apply the Notice and Note signposts described below. You may want to have a few sticky notes in your book that you can use to mark scenes that are worth exploring in more detail – scenes that are “worth writing about.”
 Please note that if you want to write about something that is not directly related to one of the signposts, feel free! Your weekly reflections should emerge from your personal reactions to the text. Most of the time, one of the six signposts will apply since they appear in so many different stories.

The key in your reflections is to reflect in an inferential or critical manner (not literal). Do not just describe or summarize what happened; instead, explore why what happened may be significant in the story (the signposts).
Your reflections and reading progress (have you made your weekly page goal?) will be checked each Monday. Remember, your reflection is due at the beginning of class every Monday (or IR day).
Your first reflection is due Monday, October 19.

Also: I'll be checking in on your reading goal (what page your on, etc.) every three weeks.  I'll be awarding 10 points for consistent reading, but less for readers who are falling behind on their goal. 

Expect to give a 5-minute book talk before the end of each marking period.

So if you're keeping score, here's what you need to do:

1. Read two hours every week
2. Write a weekly, 1+ page reflection in your Writer's Notebook about your book.
3. Give a 5-minute book talk each MP.
4. Write a "letter-essay" about your book. (More info on this later.)

Please watch the following short videos. These signposts will give you good ideas for moments to reflect on as you read your book. They are:

1. Memory moments
2. Contrasts and Contradictions
3. Aha moments
4. Words of the Wiser
5. Again and again
6. Tough Questions

​

Hi.

You are going to write a personal essay. Your first assignment for me was a personal essay, You told me the story of your life as a reader and writer. This next piece can be from any other angle. The only requirements are:

• it is from your perspective
• it aims to capture the truth of the event(s) and experiences
• it is contemplative and reflective 

What could it look like?

• it could be a narrative; a telling of an event or story
• it could be a reflection on a topic (like life as a left-hander; as Jewish; as a worrier, etc.)
• it could be about a relationship you've had or had
• or something else

Your first draft is about discovery and "getting it down." So don't worry too much about what it's going to become, just "get it down" on the paper/screen.

Use your writer's notebook for ideas, if you're unhappy with the one you're working on.

We will be working on this draft next week, so you need to have something "down" by the end of class. 

Just write. And then keep writing. Remember: all that typing sounds like rain,.

This week we start with the first of many reading workshop days this year. We will read every Monday during the first semester. Some important reminders and guidelines:

• You are required to read a minimum of two focused hours per week. This includes the time you take in class to read. This is non-negotiable. Treat your reading time as you would any other homework.

This week we start with the first of many reading workshop days this year. We will read every Monday during the first semester. Some important reminders and guidelines:

• You are required to read a minimum of two focused hours per week. This includes the time you take in class to read. This is non-negotiable. Treat your reading time as you would any other homework.

• How much you read (quantity) is personalized to you and your book. Be sure to calculate an accurate reading rate when you begin any new book to determine how many pages you should be able to read. You should meet or beat your goal each week. That’s how you know you are staying on track in your growth as a reader. I will be checking each week to help you stay on track.

There are many different approaches to any craft. Stephen King offers a lot of good advice on writing in his On Writing. (Hey, that's why it's called that!) This year, you'll hear lots of advice. Most of the advice would be helpful to any kind of creative work, so I suggest listening carefully. 

I'd also like you to seek out some advice on your own. Writer and thinker Maria Popova hosts a great website called Brain Pickings. She collects a lot of great advice from all sorts of thinkers and posts them on her site. The following post about Stephen King's On Writing also includes links to writing advice (most in list form) from several other successful writers. 

For homework, click on some of those links found on this post, and select two rules that make sense to you--or interest you in some way. For homework, copy them down in your writer's notebook and explain why you selected them underneath. 

Your life in six words. It can:

• tell a story
• offer advice
• express your interests
• express a personal outlook/philosophy
• etc.

Get a writer's notebook and bring it every day. 

• Any size, color, shape.
• Must have at least one-lined side.
• It's your property--I'll never collect or grade it. (However, you are unprepared without it.)
• Must be bound, as in not loose-leaf.

Cool?