Monday, December 2, 2013

 

ENGLISH – 2^nd trimester – Day 3

 

"If you can't see anything beautiful about yourself,

Get a better mirror,

Look a little closer,

Stare a little longer,

Because there's something inside you

That made you keep trying

Despite everyone who told you to quit"

 

1.      Pick up a syllabus…scan it…read the bolded text…page 3 is your homework…get it signed by you and a parent for tomorrow.

2.      Read “Puzballs” paragraph and answered the 4 questions. Discussed how it is possible to answer questions about a nonsensical paragraph.

3.      Read “prior knowledge” paragraph. How much of it can you remember? Why is that?

4.      Discussed similarities between Shakespeare and these two paragraphs.

5.      Write down the following sentence: I ate the sandwich.

a.       Introduced to Shakespeare’s use of unusual word order and its poetic advantage – re: “I ate the sandwich”

6.      Finish your classwork from last Friday “Case Study” work (TO BE COLLECTED). After reading one of the case studies…

• Write down 3 reasonable solutions.
• For each of your 3 solutions, write the 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages.
• Decide which solution is best.
• In 8 sentences, tell what is likely to happen after your solution is carried out. In other words, what is the ending to your story. It must be believable.
• What will happen immediately?
• What will things be like in a week or two?
• How will things be affected in 10 or more years?
• Make sure both of your names are on it…then turn it in (on the center table).

 

ENGLISH homework:

 

·         Return Contact Information Sheet, signed.

 

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PLAYWRITING – Day 3

 

·         Discussed actions

• Defined actions. What are they? What aren’t they?
• He dropped the book. (action)
• He was furious. (not an action)

·         Number a paper 10 – 1 (with 1 representing the beginning of a scene and 10 representing the end). Choose one of the following as your #10 then work backwards figuring out WHY each moment occurred…make certain each is an action.

 

·         #10 The singer was drawing a picture under the bridge.

 

·         #10 The bully was creating a website at the baseball game.

 

·         Chose a winner from each table.

 

·         As you read the interview with David Mamet from the Paris Review, write down any things you learn that pertain to writing.

 

·         Discussed ACTors vs. TALKers…we will learn to write actions (not great speeches)

 

ACTor vs. TALKer follow-up: Interview with David Mamet from the Paris Review.

INTERVIEWER So to you a character is . . .

MAMET It’s action, as Aristotle said. That’s all that it is—exactly what the person does. It’s not what they “think,” because we don’t know what they think. It’s not what they say. It’s what they do, what they’re physically trying to accomplish on the stage. Which is exactly the same way we understand a person’s character in life—not by what they say, but by what they do. Say someone came up to you and said, I’m glad to be your neighbor because I’m a very honest man. That’s my character. I’m honest, I like to do things, I’m forthright, I like to be clear about everything, I like to be concise. Well, you really don’t know anything about that guy’s character. Or the person is onstage, and the playwright has him or her make those same claims in several subtle or not-so-subtle ways, the audience will say, Oh yes, I understand their character now; now I understand that they are a character. But in fact you don’t understand anything. You just understand that they’re jabbering to try to convince you of something.

 

PLAYWRITING homework:

 

None