Thursday, January 19, 2012

Writing Historical Fiction

Writing Historical Fiction
Historical fiction has always been popular, with people gravitating toward novels set in time periods that they have an interest in. But writing historical fiction is a lot more work than writing a contemporary fiction piece.
  1. Choose a time period. The time period should be very specific, not a vague decade within a century. Clothing styles, customs and social mores change from decade to decade and often even more frequently. Choose the exact years in which your book will take place.
  2. Research, research, research. The moment in history that you choose should be very familiar to you by the time you have finished your research. Do as much research as possible before you even begin to write. Writing a story and then trying to adapt it to a certain time period will come out sounding artificial and forced. The information you uncover will guide the story you write and take it to places you hadn't considered before.
  3. Give the characters an appropriate perspective. The characters of a historical fiction novel should have the mindset of people from that time period. Characters are shaped by their experiences, family life and culture, which includes the time and place in which they are born. A character's general perspective on the world will be obvious in books written in the first person. If the book is written in the third person, a character's values as defined by the time period can be demonstrated through the character's dialogue and actions, or through the narrative voice recounting the thoughts and feelings of the character. However the character's viewpoint is demonstrated, it should be apparent that the character is not simply a modern person dropped into a different time period.
Good historical fiction will meet the include the following elements:
1. A well-told story that is historically accurate.
2. Characters are realistically portrayed.
3. The setting is authentic.
4. Historical facts are skillfully woven into the text.
5. Ethnic and minority groups are portrayed accurately

In order for all these elements to be met, the author must be willing to do a lot of research and to use the writing process since this type of writing entails a lot of planning and revising.  Below are some powerpoint presentations we will be looking to help give you some tips towards having a wonderul historical fiction story.

1. Attention Grabbers

2. Writing Dialogue Tips

3. Sentence Fluency

4. Literary Devices


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Advertising Strategies: Hovercraft Part 2

Scenario: Your company has been very successful in your first television advertising campaign.  Surveys have found the demographic you chose to advertise to have liked the advertisement and sales have been pretty good.  It's now time to try to reach some other demographics since your hovercraft can be used by any person who is the driving age. Your job is to now advertise your same  product to a totally different demographic and instead of doing a TV ad, you're going to do a print ad using Comic Life.  The print ad will appear in a magazine so it can only be 1 or 2 pages.  If your TV ad demographic was young females, your print ad demographic should be mature males.  This means you will have to do a lot of planning and totally change the format of your ad.

Assignment Page Planning Sheet

Monday, January 16, 2012

Analyzing Commercial Made By Students In Class

Students have spent a lot of time in the process of making commercials that use advertising strategies to persuade others and know it's time to analyze their finished product.  Go to the Using Advertising to Persuade Others post and use the Analyzing Commercials worksheet to see what advertising strategies they used to persuade you, the consumer, to buy their product. When you think they have used one of the strategies, write down why you think so in the space provided; be sure to use specific examples.

After you have finished the Analyzing Commercials worksheet, I would like you to answer the following questions in the comment part of this post. Take a look at my post if you're confused (It's located under comments).  Be sure to sign your name at the end so I know who has left comments. ANSWER QUESTION FOR BOTH COMMERCIALS.

1. What demographic (sex, age, economics) do you think each advertisement was targeted at?

2. Do you think the advertisement was successful in persuading its chosendemographic?  Why? ( use specific examples)

3. Leave a compliment sandwich for each advertisment (something good, something to work on, something good)

Friday, January 13, 2012

Using Advertising to Persuade Others

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Some Commercials To Analyze










Advertisement Rubric

Deep Sea Biology



You only have 100 minutes to gather info, so you need to work quickly!

You need to research your fish and find information about:
·        Where your fish lives/lived (what depth and zone of the ocean it is found)


·        Characteristics
o   Physical characteristics
o   Gestation
o   Other

·        Adaptations suited for survival in its environment
o   Extremely pressure
o   No sunlight
o   Survival

Make jot notes and a way to present it
·        All submitted to Mr. Catton
·        Post presentation on blog






Points will be given based on:

Appropriate classroom behavior (no games)                 ________/  10 points possible
Quality of information                                         ________/ 10 points possible
Presentation                                                          ________/  15 points possible
3 or more references                                             ________/  5 points possible
Picture of fish                                                       ________/  5 points possible

                                                                             ________/  45 Total points



Wednesday, January 4, 2012

New Year's Resolution

PREWRITING
Do you make New Year's resolutions? What is a resolution? A resolution is a promise. It is a promise that you make to yourself! It is a tradition for people to make resolutions at the beginning of a new year. There are different kinds of resolutions.
One sort of resolution has to do only with oneself. You might decide to lose weight, to stop eating candy, to exercise more, or to watch less TV. Other resolutions might involve family or friends. You could resolve to be more patient with your little brother, to be more helpful to your mom, or not to get into fights with your friends. Some resolutions are about school and the outside world, such as getting to class on time, trying for better grades, or not teasing the neighbor's dog.

If you manage to keep these promises, it will make you feel better about yourself. So, it's important not to make wild resolutions that are too difficult to follow. Your promises to yourself should not be too hard to keep.

DIRECTIONS
The box below is divided into three sections.
1. In the first section, list at least two resolutions for your personal improvement.
2. In the second section, list at least two resolutions that have to do with family and friends.
3. In the third section, list at least two resolutions about school and the outside world.
PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT:



FAMILY AND FRIENDS:





SCHOOL AND THE OUTSIDE WORLD:








Drafting

  Nobody's perfect! The beginning of a new year seems like a good time to think about changing. That's why people make resolutions in January.
In this activity, you are going to write the first draft of an essay about your promises to yourself for the new year. The best resolutions are those that you can be pretty sure of keeping. Choose three of the resolutions you listed above – one about personal improvement, one about family and friends, and one about school and the outside world. Write a five-paragraph essay about these New Year's resolutions.

Write notes for your first paragraph here, introducing the topic.






Write jot notes for your second paragraph here. It should describe your personal improvement promise and tell why you are making it.







Write jot notes for your third paragraph here. It should describe your family and friends resolution and tell why you are making it.








Write jot notes for your fourth paragraph here. It should describe your resolution about school and the outside world, and tell why you are making it.








Write jot notes for your fifth paragraph here. It should restate the topic and sum it up.









REVISING AND WRITING A FINAL COPY

DIRECTIONS

1. Edit and revise the first draft of your essay about New Year's resolutions. Here are some suggestions:
a. Does the first paragraph introduce the topic in an interesting way? Can you make it more exciting by beginning with a question or a startling statement?

b. Do the next three paragraphs describe each resolution? Do you clearly explain why you are making these resolutions?

c. Do you restate and sum up the topic in the last paragraph?

d. Are all sentences complete? Do subjects and verbs agree?

e. Is all spelling correct? Consult a dictionary.

2. Write the final copy of your essay. Write a title on the first line. Indent at the beginning of paragraphs. 















Read more on TeacherVision: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/new-years/activity/4136.html#ixzz1iV8C086g