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READING THE DRAFT AND ADDING DEPTH |
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We handed out copies of the book text draft. We started
reading the text in class-the students read the rest
at home. Most of them seem to have a good sense of what
they need to write next, although a general feeling
of malaise ("this isn't as good as we thought it
was, now that we have some distance from it") seems
to come and go. |
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Here's a little list of what they are each working
on. (Essentially, each student picked a character they
could relate to the most. To revise and add depth to
the book, the student infused more of their own personal
feelings and thoughts about the issues the character
was going through.) |
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Ricky: Chester -- Chester has flashbacks to having
to say goodbye to his girlfriend in order to come
to college. |
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Wendy: Sicile -- Sicile and Milo talk about life
and art. |
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Alex: Milo -- Milo and $; Milo wondering how he will
afford college. |
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Tisha: Mei-Lin -- Mei- Lin wonders if she has what
it takes to stay in college and care for Chang |
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Katie: Fred -- Fred describes ways to find money
for college -- scholarships, financial aid, students
loans. *just a note -- Katie seems to be more in rewriting
mode than adding mode. The text she handed in today
was almost identical to text from the summer draft,
so I didn't type it up. We should encourage her to
generate new material -- fleshing out Fred's back
story for example -- where was she before she was
a picture? What would she study. etc. I was even thinking
that we could ask Katy to flip through a scholarship
book and just write about how she feels while doing
it. That's just an idea. Perhaps she'll be more in
a writing mode tomorrow. |
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Samantha O. was absent today, and I'm not positive
if she is working on Roachelle or Cucumber. I also
don't know who / what Kim is working on. I think that
she is working with Samantha G. |
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Samantha G: Paranoid Pete -- Pete describes his philosophy
of life (they're coming to get you!) and why he doesn't
want to go to college just to please his parents.
Perhaps Samantha G. could explore what he would do
instead? |
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Maria: Mardi -- Mardi talks about growing up in a
single-parent home and wanting to be a teacher --
wanting to help people. Mardi also talks about the
importance of balance at college. |
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Bliss: Odet (a new character)is a bird with cerebral
palsy. This is some brave writing, and Bliss is good
at integrating scenic details and action into her
early drafts. In her scene, Odet reveals that although
she didn't get into college the first time that she
applied, she is going to apply again. Perhaps Bliss
could write more about alternative routes to college
and /or non-traditional students or students with
special needs. |
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Angel: Angel is writing about Piranha, and unfortunately
his last piece of writing is MIA. Megan looked everywhere
for it today, and she still hadn't found it when I
left. Let's hope it turns up. If not, Angel will need
to rewrite it. |
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THE ROUTINE |
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We could get into a routine of starting class by handing
out their newest work. If they seem at a loss as to
where to pick up, then we could go around the room and
ask each writer what they plan to work on during the
next hour. I'm pretty sure that Tisha has a copy of
the brainstorming they did (on what they need to do
for the book). If they need
guidance, we could ask them to choose one thing from
that list to work on. If anything, they'll need to (eventually)
work on integrating the new text into the story so it
will flow, but I can't tell when exactly they should
start doing that. I know my personal writing process
is to go back and forth, but it is hard to know what
will work best for the group since different things
will work for them as individuals. I told them that
if they seem like they are not sure what to do, then
we'll try to help them get what they need so they can
start working. |
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OPTIONAL: We didn't know if we should hand out
new copies of the draft each time we insert new text
(it is so much paper!). We could have a "master
copy," revised each day, that we bring in. That
way we wouldn't need to make 11 copies of the whole
thing (which is over 200 pages since, as of today, the
draft is about 22 pages) each day, but only the new
material. We would have at least one revised copy in
the room, but for now, it makes more sense to just give
them copies of the new stuff. It seems like it is mostly
a matter of counting on the writers to keep track of
all the pages and where the new text goes. |
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