Give a damn about something...     

Download Design Writing: Narrative Paragraph

Download A-Maker: Narrative Paragraph

     Passion is the fuel that drives the engine of our potential. It ignites the fire in our belly and polishes the lens of our imagination; it enables us to see who we are, what captures the bent of our iconoclastic vision, and why we are alive. It drives us to persevere on whatever rocky path we take to a mastery of some specific thing that somehow powers the direction of our mind and heart and soul and being; moreover, it defines what legacy and testament we will leave behind, and it will tell the greater story of our life. In short, our passions, for better or worse, define our lives—and damn, our passions are worth their weight in words. So get ready to fill at least one small with a treasure trove of memory.

Prompt...

Using the Design Writing Narrative Paragraph Plan, tell us about one of your passions. It could be sports or a single sport; it could be a hobby or an activity; it could a personal trait that you strive to embody and embrace–really, it is anything that you are driven to master. It can't be drudgery or answering some lame call to duty. It needs to be something you do simply for the love of doing.

The maximum length is 350 words, so follow the details of the plan with focus and certainty, choose your words carefully, craft your sentences with clarity and conciseness, describe your scene with images and actions, and create a single paragraph that is compelling and memorable—and reflects the best effort you can give!

This is due at the end of school on Friday. Post to your blog and save as a Pages doc.

• To be extra sure you are following the prompt, use the Narrative Paragraph A-Maker and be sure to get an A.

Design Writing

Literary Analysis Paragraph

A-Maker

Sometimes the shortest path is the longest trail 

~Fitz

     Really, who doesn’t like an A on an essay that has been painstakingly crafted and wrought in thoughtful, meticulous ways over the course of many precious hours stolen from from the larger tablet of time? The irony is that in trying to save time by choosing a shorter and suggested path to the peak, we often lose time by rambling around the base of the mountain, and, in spite of our efforts, we never reach the top; we never see the amazing view, and we never go home with any sense of accomplishment. But all is not lost. Today is a new day and a new opportunity to get back on the trail and do things right.

Finding Truth in Words   

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain
 

     I am constantly asking my students (and myself) to reflect on the literature they, and I, read. As I have grown older—and not necessarily wiser—I find myself only reading literature that I am sure will prod me out of my intellectual and emotional torpor, like a lizard basking in the newfound warmth of spring. Right now it happens to be The Brothers Karamazov, a book I first read as an eighteen-year-old literary newbie. It might have been the first time I didn’t turn away from a book because of the daunting length of the text and the panoramic sweep of life it covers. It is now a completely new experience, though it still resonates with the young and restless soul that even now permeates the fibres and sinews of my aging and ageless self. That book made me think.—and forced me to think beyond and into my myopic experience of life thus far.

I thought this essay of mine might be a good way to approach "Tech-Free Day." Though it is somewhat ironic that it is a blog post:)

Yes, your parents are petrified…

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

     They are petrified by the reality that your iPad and phone screens have become the constant and continual portal through which you live your lives. They are petrified that the tether between parent and child is frayed and fraying even more. It is not like the "old days" days that came (with challenges of their own) when parents could look out on the backyard and see with clear eyes exactly what you were doing. When you were in the house, they saw what you watched. When you answered the phone—a clunky box screwed to a wall—they knew who you were talking with; they knew their names and their parent's name and where they lived. They knew what plans were being hatched and where you were going. They knew what book you were reading or what card game or board game you were playing.