Portfolio due; MP Reflection; Luisa Valenzuela

This morning, please prepare your MP portfolio. See the rubric posted above. Each marking period, you should reflect on your work and progress during the marking period. I'd like you to cover that now before you submit your final MP 1 portfolio.

What should I see in the portfolio? (some or all of the following...)

• How it feels to be me - essay
• The Namesake writing prompts
• A piece about names
• A cultural poem draft
• A transformation story (using the archetypal transformation story plot/tropes) (from short stories "Horse", Julio Cortazar's "Axolotl" or "A Yellow Flower", etc.
• A science-fiction story draft (from The Stone Gods)
• An anti-poem in the style of Nicanor Parra
• A Pablo Neruda-style poem draft
• A piece set in Chile or using Rapa Nui mythology
• Other prompts from our reading (see Oct. 24, Sept. 30, for an example.)
• Other blog prompts--check the blog for details!

Your reflection:

[Please avoid writing about the excuses as to why you didn't do your best this marking period...I know you've been "looking at colleges" and "other courses have homework" and "work schedules" and blah, blah, blah. Been there, read that before. Instead, focus on:...]

• What have you written in your portfolio that you think you did well on?
• What have you written in your portfolio that needs more work? What kind of writing problem(s) are you facing with this/these piece(s)? How can we help?
• What novels, short stories, authors, poems, films, scripts, essays, etc. had an impact on you this marking period? Also, why? What did you learn from reading (or not reading) them?
• Remember? here's a short list of what we covered:
• The Namesake (novel) by Jhumpa Lahiri
• "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neal Hurston
• "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua
• Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat"
• Various poets (Sept. 18 post; Oct. 16, etc.)
• TV episodes/film clips (Personal Identity & Body Swapping, Sept. 22)
• "Horse" (short story) by Amy Bonofons
• Various Julio Cortazar (Argentina writer) short stories: "A Continuity of Parks, Axolotl, & A Yellow Flower"
• 20 Love Poems & a Song of Despair poetry collection by Pablo Neruda
• Nicanor Parra "Anti-poems" samples; & Gabriela Mistral poem samples (Chilean writers)
• The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson 
• "The Sun Rising" by John Donne
• Argentinian contemporary writers (short stories by Sorrentino, Denevi, Shua, Negroni, Luisa Valenzuela, etc.)
• What writing problems are you still having after 4 years of creative writing classes? 
• How have workshops helped/did not help you? 
• What haven't we covered that you would like to cover in a creative writing class?
• What needs to change in the way the class is taught? What needs to stay the same?
• What is (at least) ONE goal you have for the next marking period.

Your reflection should be 1-3 pages (double-spaced). Include your reflection in your portfolio.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PORTFOLIO:

1. By hand. Print out your work and place in your physical writing portfolio and turn in. Remember to include various drafts if you revised your work. Include your reflection.  

2. Digitally through Google Classroom. Place your writing and drafts into a folder and share the FOLDER with me through Google Classroom--be careful! Please make sure that your work has your name on it, that you submit it correctly so that I can read your work, and that you clearly mark the draft # of your work so I can compare early drafts with later ones that were revised!

Remember to mark your work clearly as to draft #'s, your name, and titles. Also, remember to indicate what assignment prompted you to write this draft. Include the assignment name where applicable.

Finally, if you did not complete your homework, do it now, late: Read the following short stories:

• Fernando Sorrentino "There's a Man in the Habit of Hitting Me on the Head with an Umbrella"
• Marco Denevi: "The Lord of the Flies"
• Ana Maria Shua: "Without a Net"
• Maria Negroni: "The Baby" (we read this in class)

Post a COMMENT in the COMMENT section of this blog (below) with your vote for the best short story from this group. In your "review/comment" please write a very brief summary of the story (its premise) and explain why you think the story works, what makes it unique or memorable to a reader, what artistic or literary devices it uses in its structure, or reasons why the story, in your opinion, is better than the others. Finally, create a short writing PROMPT for the class based on what you learned or thought about for the story you chose as best.

Period 2:

A short animated history of Argentina (2 min.)

Let's take a sample look at Luisa Valenzuela's work.

"Luisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in Argentina."

Let's read: "The Verb To Kill"

If we get to it, enjoy the musical Evita.

HOMEWORK: None.