Homeless Creative Writing Time will be allotted for work on Friday, March 4. There will be no class time after that. If students wish to come in during lunch, the classroom will be open twice on designated days (TBD).
Objectives:
Ø to show evidence of proper punctuation in dialogue
Ø To infuse writing with a strong character and sense of voice
Ø To write a vignette-- A short piece showing considerable skill, especially such a composition designed with little or no plot or larger narrative structure. Often vignettes are descriptive or evocative in their nature. ...
Task:
Ø Your task is to write a piece inspired by Charles Bukowski’s
poems “Flophouse” and “The Laughing Heart”
Ø Have a friend or parent help you edit and read your story aloud to ensure that your dialogue is punctuated properly.
Format:
Ø 1.5 spaced
Ø Typed or neatly handwritten
Ø At least one page vignette
Ø Include at least five exchanges of dialogue
Story Elements to Consider:
Ø Why are they homeless?
Ø What kind of a life do they have?
Ø Will their conflict be resolved?
Ø Will there be an antagonist?
Ø Is the material appropriate for school?
Ø Does the protagonist hide their life from friends and family?
Protagonist: Feel free to develop your own, fiddle with the generator (http://selfpublishingteam.com/chargen/ya/), or research a real person and share your version of their story.
**Rubric on the reverse side**
**A two-point deduction will be taken if the paper is turned in without a rubric.**
Name:___________________________________________
| | Loud and Clear! (A) | Speak up! (B-C) | Are you mute? (D) |
| Voice: The homeless character created is given life, description, depth, credibility, and interactions with people. | ü Has personality and shows how the character thinks and feels. ü The tone fits the purpose and audience. ü The writing is lively, expressive, and engaging. ü The author cares about the topic and audience, and it shines through in the writing. | ü Has some personality, but it is hard to identify the writer. ü The tone is apparent in some parts of the writing. ü The author does more telling than showing feeling. ü The author cares most of the time about the topic and audience. | ü The writing contains little or no personality. ü There is no evidence of tone in the writing. ü The author tells about feeling without showing it. ü The author does not seem to care about the topic or the audience |
| Dialogue This includes every comma, quotation, end mark, capital letter, paragraph, and indent. | Few errors: 0- 3 errors | Several errors: 4-8 errors | Numerous errors: 9+ errors Did not include dialogue. |
Did you ever get any teen runaways in the shelters?
ReplyDeleteI have a question about the Homeless piece...do we have to use dialogue?
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't see any teens in the NYC shelter, Denver, OR Yakima (Washington). The Yakima one was focused a lot on families so there weren't any teens alone.
ReplyDeleteYes... dialogue has to be there since the rubric is based on dialogue and voice alone.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever regret going to do this homeless thing? Like if you felt really bad and realized that it wasn't your thing. Or did you really enjoy it?
ReplyDeleteI never regretted doing the hoomeless gigs. I grew up in a town not unlike Mahwah. My parents raised with an awareness of the world, but they sheltered me a lot. I was a voracious reader--read everything-- and I was reading a lot of books about people who lived differently than I did. I wanted to know what that was like.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is... I loved doing volunteering. It was work hard--building, cleaning, packing, cooking, and organizing, but through all that I worked with people who were actually going through stuff and it was a comfortable environment for me to learn in. Suddenly my life wasn't about what I was wearing or if I was wearing make-up or not or what my track schedule was, it was about being a plain, old person without any pretenses. I ended up rocking and loving my construction boots. Haha.
During some of our units we talk about how street smarts are different than academic smarts. Part of being street smart is having strong social connections to the world and getting out there. I really and truly learned a lot.
Fifteen years later, I wish I had kept a journal or diary of all the good, honest, metamorphosing people and kids I met whose stories are going to remain with them, wherever they are today.
There is NO shame in volunteering. There is NO shame in becoming friendly with people unlike you. Trust me... on a day when you're cooking for hundreds of people and doing the dishes with others--you look and feel the same way as the homeless guy who's passing the dishes to you. The same way as the kid across the counter who doesn't want veggies with his dinner. The same way as the person you peel dozens of potatoes with over a giant trashcan. You don't work in silence. You make small talk and then you get to big talk.
I didn't do a lot of bad stuff growing up; I was a good kid. But I feel like I did because I learned from other people's life experiences.
There is a large part of me that wishes education could be like it used to be when a teacher says, "You've never done that? Well, I'll put it together and let's meet on Saturday and we'll all go down to the homeless shelter and put in some time there." Remember Erin Gruwell in "Freedom Writers"? She used the world and field trips to truly teach her students. She was an educational game changeer---a life changer. She's one of the reasons why I love that movie so much--there's so much more to the world than school and what you have.