Historical Fiction Writing Project
Historical Fiction Rubric

Ideas for writing goal focus:

Confidence and Independence: Confer with yourself. Read your writing as an other and decide for yourself what works and what needs more work. Pull through difficulty with more independence, push for closure, finish a draft, then seek others' responses.

Descriptive writing: Tell more in your writing. Provide the details that will help readers see, hear, and feel your vision.

Quantity: Experiment with alternatives--several different leads, passages, conclusions, titles--then choose and work with the best.

Completion: Finish your story by the given deadline. Adhere to all checkpoints.

Embedding context: Weave in the who-what-when-where-and-why amid the dialogue and action

Conciseness: Work on succinctness, or at least deletion after the fact. What don't you need? What doesn't add to the character, plot, tone, theme, idea?

Proofreading: Proofread for sense: for missing words and missing word endings (e.g., s and ed)

Conventions: Punctuate, capitalize, and paragraph correctly, right from the start.

Spelling: Self-edit for spelling by circling, then looking up, every word you're not absolutely sure of. Keep a record of hard-to-spell words.

Homonyms: Get homonyms (your/you're, their/they're/there, and its/it's) under control.

New marks: Try new marks to give your writing greater voice, eg., : ; and --.

Commas: Learn the basic conventions governing commas; delete unnecessary commas. Watch for comma splices.

Verb tense: Recognize and keep a consistent verb tense.

Elimination of qualifiers: Eliminate the qualifiers and diminishes that can clutter writing: so, really, very, sort of, kind of

Tuesday

You will receive a Social Studies/Language Arts project called Be the Historian.

Through independent research, you will complete the hard copy of the work packet. You must express all thoughts and responses in a professional and academic manner. The point of the packet is to conduct independent research in order to gain a higher knowledge of language arts and social studies skills. You have all week to work in my class as well as Giblin's . The packet is due next Monday, April 28th.

A few reminders:
*Annotate all articles using the following format:
  -Record your comments and questions in the margins.
  -Circle unfamiliar words and find the meaning through context clues or dictionary definition.
  -Underline key points.
*Do not rush through this work. Your responses should be thoughtful and show a deep analysis. You
  must pay attention to conventions of writing (spelling and grammar).
*Ask questions if you do not understand something.


POETRY CONTEST UPDATE:
Earth Week Haiku Contest
Write your own Haiku about nature and submit it by Thursday, April 24th. The winner gets $15!

Requirements:
1. Poem should be about nature.
2. Poem should follow 5-7-5 as closely as possible - one syllable either way does no break the poem.
3. First two lines should be a complete thought.
4. Third line should surprise or delight.
5. Haikus should be sent to Ms. M. Collins electronically (mcollins@chccs.k12.nc.us) and include the statement I acknowledge that this is my own work, as well as your name and homeroom. Write Haiku in the subject line. Submit by Thursday, April 24th, at 3:10.

Monday

Small Group Discussion Questions: questions

Friday, April 18th

Friday!!

Journal #4: 

Day 4 - Directions: Comment, Observe, Ask Questions, Make Predictions, Make Self Connections, and Analyze:

• Discuss the ending of the book
• What may be some themes or the “lesson” behind the historical event and/or story?

Remember - Journals 1 through 3 are due Monday. Journal #4 will be due on Tuesday. We will drop your lowest journal grade. Remember to cite specific evidence from the text and it explain its significance. Remember to introduce your quotes with phrases, rather than just plopping the quote. Please ask me if you have any questions!

Thursday, April 17th

Thursday

Journal Prompt #3:
Comment, Observe, Ask Questions, Make Prediction, Make Self Connections, Analyze:

• Symbolism
• Figures of Speech (simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, idiom, oxymoron, pun, hyperbole). Hint: Figurative language is to be taken figuratively rather than literally.
• What has surprised or shocked you about the novel and/or the history behind it?
• Describe any "facts" you feel may have been exaggerated for the story's sake.

*Cite from the text to support your response!

Figurative Language Song: Figurative Language
Common Symbols in Literature: http://www.muhsd.k12.ca.us/cms/lib5/CA01001051/Centricity/Domain/520/English%203/Unit%201%20--%20Early%20American%20Lit/ArchetypesandSymbols.pdf

Wednesday, April 16th

Wednesday

Journal #2 - Directions: Comment, Observe, Ask Questions, Make Predictions, Make Self Connections, and Analyze:

• Main Character (How are your similar? How are you different?
• Word Choice and Tone (Does the author write in a serious way? Does the author write in a humorous way?)
  
  *Cite from the text to support your response.Write in complete sentences and pay attention to your spelling and grammar!

Tone

Tone, in written composition, is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. Tone is generally conveyed through the choice of words or the view point of a writer on a particular subject.

Every written piece comprises a central theme or subject matter. The manner in which a writer approaches this theme and subject is called tone. The tone can be formal, informal, serious, sarcastic, sad, and cheerful. It may also be any other existing attitude.

Tone in a piece of literature decides how it should be read by the readers.

Hint: Here are some frequently used words to describe tone and mood: Tone and mood words

Historical Fiction Journal #1

Directions: Comment, Observe, Ask Questions, Make Predictions, Make Self Connections, and/or Analyze the following:

• Setting 
• Mood (the overall feeling in the story)
• What do you already know about the history?

*Cite from the text to support your response.

Setting

Definition: 

In literature, the word ‘setting’ is used to identify and establish the time, place and mood of the events of the story. It basically helps in establishing where and when and under what circumstances the story is taking place. A story can have multiple settings, which helps to provide contrast.

Example: 

In the first installment of the Harry Potter series, a large part of the book takes place at the protagonist, Harry’s, aunt’s and uncle’s place, living in the “muggle” (non-magical) world with the “muggle” folks, and Harry is unaware of his magical capabilities and blood. This setting establishes the background that Harry has a non-magical childhood with other “muggle” people and has no clue about his special powers or his parents and is raised much like, actually worse than, regular people, till his 11th birthday.

Mood

Definition: 

In literature, mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings in readers throughout words and descriptions. Usually, mood is referred to as the atmosphere of a literary piece, as it creates an emotional situation that surrounds the readers. Mood is developed in a literary piece through various methods. It can be developed through setting, theme, tone, and diction*.

*Diction can be defined as style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words by a speaker or a  writer.

Example: 

Charles Dickens creates a calm and peaceful mood in his novel "Pickwick Papers":

"The river, reflecting the clear blue of the sky, glistened and sparkled as it flowed noiselessly on."

The depiction of idyllic scenery imparts a serene and non-violent mood to the readers.

http://literarydevices.net/mood/

Week of April 7th - April 11th

Hello all!

We are wrapping up our biography/autobiography timeline project this week. You will have time to read in class and take notes of significant personal events and world events that shaped the character and influenced the actions of the person in your book.

Make sure to look carefully at your project sheet. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m1ZW4MXtCIjuP_QcM7BjMqgd7DGphU_57sK3ahAJU-o/edit?usp=sharing

You must follow the instructions to create the timeline. Also, remember to answer the questions on the back of the page in short response. Answer one essential question from the front of the page on a separate sheet of paper, 7-10 sentences using evidence from your book.

Staple everything in this order: Project sheet, essential question response, timeline
Submit by the end of the class on Friday, 4/11.  My goal is to have the graded assignment back to you no later than Friday, 4/25.

Connotation/Denotation
We discussed connotation and denotation on Monday. Remember, connotation is the emotional or imaginative association. Here are the notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cX1BDZQ9jOb2uO-OqUvdhQbqAA_S8tlcoRUrVqflTsk/edit?usp=sharing.

Using your notes and your prior knowledge of connotation, read the following poem and answer the questions on a separate piece of paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R4NGOBtfzEEy-4ubSgJ5pIKbGLF695mHe46YwOs5Vco/edit?usp=sharing

This is due by Friday. Do your best.