Second Grading Quarter

1. Second Grading Quarter • Portfolio Assignments #11-20 Due on Friday, November 13th. • Remember to hand in your rough drafts to be checked off by Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Clifton.

2. 11. Personal Symbol • Write about an object that has special symbolic meaning for you. It might be a gift from someone you love, an award of which you are proud, a souvenir from a place you miss, a childhood toy you still treasure, a family photograph, whatever. Describe the object, appealing to the senses as appropriate and giving specific details. Also explain what it symbolizes for you.

3. 11. Personal Symbol • As soon as the bell rings, I take out my ipod. I can’t stress the importance this tiny little device has on my life. My ipod contains all of my music, pictures, and even some of my favorite movies. Music is my life. I wake up to my ipod, listen to it on the bus, doing homework, and I even fall asleep listening to it. It has the ability to contain all different kinds of songs to fit all of my ever-changing moods. My ipod also contains my favorite movies that I like to watch when I am traveling or when my sister won’t let me watch my favorite TV shows. I also like to carry my ipod with because it’s like a live photo album of all the people I love: my mom, dad, family, and friends. My ipod is a personal symbol to me because it stands for all that represents me: music, movies, and pictures of my loved ones.

4. 12. A Mysterious Place • Describe in a FULL page some place that seemed mysterious, exotic, or fearful to you. Concentrate on creating the same impression on your reader by a careful selection of sensory details which recreate the setting. Help us recognize what was special about this place. Or make up a fantasy place that has these qualities…just describe it well enough for us to believe in it too.

5. 12. A Mysterious Place • It was a dark and stormy night. Our car broke down two miles back. As we walked in the cold, cold rain, we came upon a darkened house. Knowing this was our only option for help, we went up the path. The house was unkept; shutters hung on their sides, vines crept up the house, an owl howled from a weeping willow. We looked for a doorbell and noticed just a large knocker in the shape of a gargoyle. My friend picked up the heavy metal knocker and let it drop. The sound of it made us both want to run for the hills. We didn’t hear anything. Then, suddenly, an old man appeared out of nowhere. We told him what had happened to our car and he invited us in all too eagerly. We sat on his tattered couch. He offered us some lemonade which we reluctantly accepted. My friend and I gulped it down, thirsty from our long walk in the cold rain. Suddenly, the room started spinning. We both fell to the floor. That was the last thing we remembered before waking up in the basement with cold hand cuffs around our wrists…

6. 13. Synectics • Synectics makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar. It is the basis of all metaphor and involves the process of creative problem-solving. Each of the following sets of questions ask for choices between unrelated answers—answers which can be logically related somehow—and yet, there is no single correct answer. BUT correct answers would rephrase the question as part of the answer. Think carefully about the choices offered, make a choice, and then explain your reasons for choosing as you have. It is your explanation which proves your answer “right” or “wrong.” Answer at least TEN.

7. 13. Synectics • 1. Which is wiser a pen or a pencil? • 2. Which is easier to forgive a street or a sidewalk? • 3. Which is smarter, a clock or a calendar? • 4. Which is easier to teach, a question or an answer? • 5. Which is like a contest, a cloud or a sunset? • 6. Which is more fearful, new or old? • 7. Which is like a promise, math or science? • 8. Which is more difficult, a dream or a nightmare? • 9. Which is braver, an hour or a year? • 10. Which has more pride, an entrance or an exit?

8. Which is easier to close, a road or a map? • Which is like a legend, a mirror or glass? • Which is more suspenseful, rain or snow? • Which has less charm, a signature or an autograph? • Which is more trustworthy, history or literature? • Which is more useful, a friend or an enemy? • Which is sadder, seek or find? • Which costs more, a home or a house? • Which is happier, music or art? • Which is like a Valentine, the truth or a lie?

9. 13. Synectics • Which is wiser, a pen or pencil? I think a pencil is wiser because if you make a mistake, you can just erase it. • Which is smarter, a clock or a calendar? I think a clock is smarter because without a clock, we can’t have a calendar. • Which costs more, a home of a house? A home costs more because a home is a house filled with priceless things. • Which has less charm, an hour or a year? A year has less charm because you remember less of what happens in year.

10. 14. Telling Tales • Think back to memories you associate with family storytelling. You know , the ones you hear over and over every holiday. Maybe these tales are the legends that have given your family courage in hardship. Maybe they are religious stories or goofy songs or true family history. Maybe they all seem to be about what a mischievous kid you were. Embarrassing, hilarious, unbelievable. Retell a story you remember as part of your family’s heritage OR make up one you which had been told.

11. 14. Telling Tales As a child, I grew up in Chicago where the winters always gave us a lot of snow. As kids we liked to go sledding. Since the Midwest

12. 15. These Words Belong to Me • Make a list of words which have special power and magic. Think of common words with uncommon meanings, or even strange new words which allow you to think a new kind of thought. For example, do you know what “serendipity” means? Find out why it’s so wonderful. What’s ironic about a “scar”? List and define at least TEN words. For each word, explain why this particular word belongs to you. Or perhaps give me a hint hidden in a question.

13. 15. These Words Belong to Me • Clumsy- I am what it is I tend to trip, and get the simplest things at time like jokes or comments. • Bilingual- I can speak English and Spanish. • Optimistic- I try to see the bright parts to a problem and just laugh it off. • Confusing- Sometimes I think one thing and at others I change my mind, which tends to confuse people about me.

14. 16. Flashback • If you could relive one day or experience in your life, what would it be? You might choose to relive this time because it was so wonderful you want to experience it again, or you might choose a day you want to change in some way. Identify the day or experience, tell why it was so important to you, and explain what reliving it would accomplish.

15. 16. Flashback • If I could relive one experience in my life, I would relive the day my grandfather passed away. The day started out with an early morning phone call from my grandmother. It shocked me awake. I could hear my mother telling my grandmother to call 911. My mom got in the car and raced over. He was admitted into the hospital that day. All day at work, I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to make it. After I got off of work, my dad and I drove to the hospital. We had parked at the wrong entrance and had to walk back to the car and drive to the correct entrance. By the time we had gotten to my grandfather’s room, he had already passed away. If I could go back, I would have ditched work to go see him. It would have given me peace to have said good-bye to him and tell him I loved him one last time.

16. 17. As Time Goes Bye-Bye • Carpe Diem (or Seize the Day!). Before time passes you by, what things do you want to do? What one thing do you most want to do by the time you are thirty-five? Why? What have you already said good-bye to—people, places, idea, stages in your life, hopes, dreams, sorrows? Reflect on those good-byes and/or grand plans. Make a list with short explanations, or concentrate on explaining one specific goal or farewell in depth.

17. 17. As Time Goes Bye-Bye • As time goes bye-bye, I hope to reach certain goals in my life. One of those goals is being able to go to college. I know this is one of the things that my parents were never able to accomplish themselves. Although I will have to pay for it myself, either through scholarships or through loans, I am bound and determined to go to college to earn a degree. I would like to use this degree to get a good job, and support my family. In the future, I would like to be a good role model to whatever children I have. I hope they can look at their mom and see that even though going to college was a struggle, it was still worth it.

18. 18. A Day in the Life • Write about a part of your life as if it were a passage from a novel. Refer to yourself in the THIRD PERSON—not “I woke up” but rather “she woke up.” Exaggerate, elaborate, and prevaricate if you wish—there’s truth to be found in fiction, too.

19. 18. A Day in the Life • As she woke up, she realized she didn’t get enough sleep. Fighting crime was taking a toll not only on her rest, but also on her dating life. She had to leave in the middle of one of the best dates of her life last night to answer a distress call. Turns out it was only a cat caught in a tree. She desperately wanted to turn around and go back to her date, but the frightened face on the cat’s owner, a little girl, made her stay and get the cat out of the tree. By the time she made it home, she only had a few hours of sleep. She still had to get up in the morning to go to work. Leading a normal life was hard for a super hero. She took a shower and hit the sheets. It seemed only minutes before her alarm clock was buzzing for her to get up. Today would have to be a coffee day to help her get through her boring work day.

20. 19. Metamorphosis • Make a list of objects, places, ideas that could stand for your younger self, symbols for the way you used to be. Then make a contrasting list that could stand for your current self, symbols that represent the way you are now. Sort of an “I used to be…but now I am…” kind of chart. Use these contrasting LISTS to write a FREE VERSE POEM on your transformation.

21. 19. Metamorphosis • I used to be short, but now I’m tall. • I used to like pop, now I like rock. • I used to be snotty, now I’m sweet. • I used to be just a sister, now I’m an auntie. • I used to be single, now I have a boyfriend. • I used to be bad in school, now I’m an honor roll student. • I used to have acne, now I have freckles.

22. 20. Picture This • Find an acceptable visual IMAGE that you can actually include in your portfolio—a photo of friends, a copy of a well-known painting, magazine clipping, original artwork, etc. Paste it on the page with IDENTIFICATION (caption, title and artist, bibliography, etc.) Then write a RESPONSE, clearly stating your opinion of the work and supported details from the work.

23. 20. Picture This This picture was done at the Sears studio in Martinsville. She was three months the day this picture was taken. It took my husband and I about an hour to get her to smile. It was unusual because she is usually really happy and smiles easily. However, that day she didn’t have a long nap. Minutes after this picture was taken, she started crying uncontrollably and eventually fell asleep in the Sears Studio. Isabella Clifton ~ Three Months