Students wrote an informational feature article about fine writing. A second feature article about a subject of your choice is due Friday, December 4.

My Access prompts are available through Firefox. Your user name is your student ID number. Your password is your first initial, birth month and day, and last name to nine characters.

Michael Clay Thompson has this to say about grammar:

"I think that grammar is so lovely that even if it were utterly useless, one would still irresistably explore it, as one explores chess, or architecture, or the spiral geometries of shells. Grammar is the sort of magic aesthetic lens through which we can view the delicate structures upon which ideas rest. As scientists marvel at the delicate skeletal frames which support and form living organisms, through grammar we can view the delicate relationships which give form and pattern to the phenomena of the mind. If this comparison strikes you as idealistic and metaphorical, please consider it further. These relaionships do exist and they are beautiful."

Entry #14 Write a legitimate Poe critique that could be used in a textbook preceding "Tell-Tale Heart."

Entry #15 Reflect on Thompson's quote about grammar as a "magic aesthetic lens."

Entry #16 Compare/contrast the experience of Rodriquez and Jimenez in their autobiographical excerpts.

Entry #17 What do we sacrifice for fashion?

Entry #18  Rank the writers: Yep, Paulsen, and Soto

Bring reflection journal and textbook daily. Trust the GUSH...

Tom Romano, teacher of writing pedagogy and author of Clearing The Way said:

"Teachers have students write to discover, create and explore their thinking, dig up prior knowledge, to cultivate intellectual independence, to conjecture about possibilities, to struggle with difficult concepts, and to engage their imagination as an ally in learning."

How does this happen for you in your writing assignments?