Exploring short stories

We've already discussed journal responses and annotations as ways to respond to and work with texts. Today we will turn our attention to writing as a way of exploring ideas.

This type of writing, which can also happen in a journal response, gives you the opportunity to work with an idea and receive feedback from me. Although it is not a formal essay, you will still need to do a few things:

• Focus on a specific point
• Include at least one quotation from the text
• Comment about the language you quoted

We'll try a test one today, focused on the last two stories you read: "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" and "Harrison Bergeron." Of course you can use your annotated versions of the stories as well as your journal responses and any notes you took with your small group. You can go in one of two possible directions:

• Character-Based. You can compare/contrast one character from each story, making a conclusion about what is important about them.
• Theme-Based. You can write about a theme or idea present in both stories. Are the messages the same in both stories, or different?

You'll have the rest of the period to write your journal response. Write it in a new Google document. When you are finished, you will open Schoology in another window and then submit your assignment to where it says "Paragraph response to Stories." You will need to upload your document.

I will give you feedback on your work in a way that will hopefully be helpful for all types of writing we will do in this class.

Don't worry about the grade - focus on figuring out some cool things to say and getting your thoughts onto the page.