Soule Papa Blog Entries - Examples of Excellence in Personal Narrative Writings

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It is also a good way to expand your personal writing style.

With that in mind, I have pulled selective entries from a blog that I read often. I picked them because I think the writing is really lovely and effective. I selected them to show that you don't have to be a professional writer to be good at composing. I also think they are excellent examples of how your voice and personality can come through in a short piece. We will be reading them, examining them with the hopes of finding techniques and ideas that you can make your own twist on them. And finally, I hope you enjoy them. We'll read them. Discuss them and then try to write our own. We will be doing three rounds, each with a different focus. I will be asking you to create three pieces of writing, but only in the draft form for now. Later I will ask you to pick one and perfect it.



Part 1: Snapshots and Personal Inventories
Lovely examples of how a snapshots in time or an inventory of something personal can lead to a powerful piece of writing:

Soule Papa's Note to Self

Soule Papa's My Little Pony

Soule Papa's Loose Change

Soule Papa's Since Last We Met

Soule Papa's Get Trained


Your Assignment: Write a piece similar to the ones we just read. They could be some sort of snapshot with your response to the event or a personal inventory that represents some aspects of who you are.

Part 2: Capturing Your Response
Well Crafted pieces that illustrate how capturing your response to a moment, event or situation can be a lens that shows your personality:

Soule Papa's Finding the Beat

Soule Papa's The Wearing Away

Soule Papa's Upon Arrival

Soule Papa's A Fortress in Time


Your Assignment: Consider a time where your response to the event, the moment elicited a strong, thoughtful, deep or unusual response and write about it. Use the entries we just read as a guide for how to craft such a piece of writing.

Part 3: In Response to a Time or Place

Examples of how a description of how you respond to and what you think about an event captures a part of the essence of who you are:

Soule Papa's In the Corners

Soule Papa's Out of Somewhere

Soule Papa's In the Clutches

Soule Papa's Something Scary

Your Assignment: This last set of writing focused more on the writer's response to places and time, with a lesser focus on the who. Find something that strikes a cord for you along those lines and write about it.

This I Believe...

As part of getting ready to write college entrance essays, We are spending a bit of time examining excellent writing. Varations on this assignment are played out at many high schools and colleges across our country. I hope you find it inspiring...

This I Believe...

"This I Believe..." started out as part of a radio show in the 1950's. It was reborn on NPR for nearly four years. The last new program was aired early this summer. We are visiting the This I Believe website to listen to and read a few examples of their powerful and consis essays. I have focused on selecting essays from students 18 and under, as well as a few others.

Day 1 (Friday)
I explain the program and we listened to a few of the stories including:
"Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude"

Seeing with the Heart

My Father Told Me I Was Fat

The Beatles Live On

Returning to What's Natural

Finding the Flexibility to Survive

Accomplishing Big Things in Little Pieces

Then we will discuss what is striking about these pieces. What grabs your attention and makes you want to keep listening/reading?

Day 2 (Tuesday)Exploring the Essays on Your Own

We have time in the computer lab for students to explore more essays. I would like each student to read/listen to at least six more essays and select their favorite. We will be filling in a reader's journal to track the names of the essays and the student's response to them. I want each student to pick a favorite and print it out for our next activity.

“This I Believe” Personal Narratives:
Considering Style, Impact, Audience, Content and Personal Voice

Directions: I’d like you to go to thisibelieve.org and read/listen to at least five different essays. I’d also like you to record your responses to each of the essays with the following items for consideration:
 Why did you select this essay?
 What do you think the author did well?
 What are the author’s strengths?
 What is the author’s overall purpose and audience?
 What are the techniques the author uses and why? What is the effect on the reader?
 What stylistic devises worked well? Why?
 Copy down one of your favorite lines from the essay.
Before you leave class today, pick your favorite, copy the text to a word document and print it. Be sure to bring it to class tomorrow.

You can browse by theme, or by special collections (many of ours came from this page), or by the age of the writer and expected audience.

Day 3 Considering Style

Each student came to class with a print out of their favorite essay from the "This I Believe" series. They put themselves into groups of 3-4 people and shared their essays. One person would read their essay to the other members. The group would discuss the essay with an emphasis on the stylistic elements of the essay. Each person would make an entry on a sheet of paper with the following information filled in:
Name of the student reading the essay_____________________
Name of the essay ________________________________________
Favorite line from the essay______________________________
Response to the essay ____________________________________

Each student needed to have three completed responses.

Homework: Begin to develop a list of things you believe in. Think about the guiding principles by which you live your life. These are things you are passionate about, things you would work for or fight for. They are the things by which you make your choices. Have at least five on your list for class.

Day 4 (Friday)Generating Ideas

Students began by listing at least five core beliefs. Many of them were very general, such as I believe in family. We worked on probing deeper to get to a statement that was more specific.

Next, students selected one that they think they would want to write on and did the following (The items below are borrowed from the "This I Believe" website curriculum for high school. It is used with permission from the author.):

Synonyms (words and phrases
that mean the same thing as
the belief statement) OR
words/phrases associated with
this concept.
Example: Life is fair.
• Even-steven
• You get out of it as much as you
put into it
• You get what you deserve
***Make a list of 3-5 synonyms

Write out at least one story that illustrates how that belief operates in your life.

Make a list of at least three other stories that also illustrate your belief.

Homework: Be ready to start a rough draft on Monday. We will be in the computer lab to type up our essays on Tuesday and the block day.

Day 5 (Monday) Creating a Rough Draft

“This I Believe” Personal Philosophy Statements
This has been adapted from the “This I Believe” website

We’ve spent some time listening to and reading many of the excellent essays on the “This I Believe” website. We’ve done some prewriting activities to help you hone in on what some of your beliefs are. Now it is your time to write. I’d like you to write a short essay on your some belief you hold. It is my hope that this may help prepare you for writing your college entrance/scholarship essay. This will not be easy, most likely. But it should be honest and focused. Understand that you many need to go through a few drafts until you get to that point.

Here are the particulars:
 350-500 words, typed using 12 point Times New Roman font
 1 ½ Spacing
 Titled something other than “This I Believe”

We will also follow the guidelines for the program:
This I Believe Essay-Writing Guidelines

We invite you to contribute to this project by writing and submitting your own statement of personal belief. We understand how challenging this is—it requires such intimacy that no one else can do it for you. We would like you to tell not only what you believe, but how you reached your beliefs, and if they have grown, what made them grow. This necessarily must be highly personal. That is what we anticipate and want.

To guide you through this process, we offer these suggestions:

Tell a story: Be specific. Take your belief out of the ether and ground it in the events of your life. Consider moments when belief was formed or tested or changed. Think of your own experience, work, and family, and tell of the things you know that no one else does. Your story need not be heart-warming or gut-wrenching—it can even be funny—but it should be real. Make sure your story ties to the essence of your daily life philosophy and the shaping of your beliefs.

Be brief: Your statement should be between 350 and 500 words. That’s about three minutes when read aloud at your natural pace.

Name your belief: If you can’t name it in a sentence or two, your essay might not be about belief. Also, rather than writing a list, consider focusing on one core belief, because three minutes is a very short time.
Be positive: Please avoid preaching or editorializing. Tell us what you do believe, not what you don’t believe. Avoid speaking in the editorial “we.” Make your essay about you; speak in the first person.
Be personal: Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone, and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak.

HOW DO I SUPPORT MY PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY?
Here are a few ways to make your essay more personal. Try to use…

D Dialogue
“If you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all,” my mother warned me throughout my childhood.

R Rhetorical Question:
“When you are eighty years old, what will you regret that you didn’t do?”

A Anecdote (a short story to illustrate a point)

P Personal Experience

E Example

S Statistic

Tips To Add Audience Appeal To Personal Essays

1. Be sure your essay is about something you care strongly enough about to elaborate and wax
eloquent or passionate about it. Readers want to know what you know, feel what you feel, and
understand exactly where you’re coming from.

2. While the idea for the essay must be personal, make the frame big enough to allow your reader
to find parallels between your experience and theirs. Give readers the opportunity to say, “Ah!
Yes, I’ve never been there or done that, but I can relate to what the author is talking about.”
Even if readers have not been on a mission trip to Africa, the effective writer must draw in an
audience to show a more universal implication of a very personal experience or belief.

3. If you are writing about a small personal occurrence, put your idea in a context that gives the
reader insight to both the small moment and the wider perspective. Think of your essay as a
camera lens. You might start by describing a fine detail (a specific moment in the narrative),
then opens up the lens to take in the wide view (the general/global backdrop), then close the
piece by narrowing back to the fine detail.

4. Use details to draw the reader in. Be specific and avoid using abstract expressions and phrases
such as “the best day of my life” or “I’d never known greater grief” to describe emotions of love
or loss. Make the emotions real and immediate by noting specifics and details that draw the
reader into your experience.

5. Employ all the senses to convey your ideas to the reader: sight, sound, taste, touch, and hearing.

6. Make sure that beyond all the idea development, your readers can summarize the MAIN IDEA
that you BELIEVE. You should not have to hit the readers over the head with a summary
statement such as “What I am trying to say…” or “What I really mean is…” In fact, such a
closing is almost insulting or an indication that you fear you have danced around the belief
without making it crystal clear. You must aim to leave the readers clear and satisfied—whether
they agree with what you believe or not. Sometimes a brief echo of the opening is the most
satisfying clincher to bring a personal essay full circle.

The Poetry of Music - Finding the Metaphorical Meaning

The "Fast Car" assignment went pretty well. Most people seem to understand where they needed to go and what they needed to do. This assignment kicks it up a notch. This time students, working alone or with one other person, are to select a song and analyze it. I am suggesting that "Hotel California" and "Desperado" both by The Eagles will work. "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head" is also an excellent choice. Students may also ask for another song to be considered. Here's what I'm looking for in the lyrics:
* Is the topic appropriate for school/youth?
* Does it contain figurative language(similes, metaphors, etc.) that will help the student understand how diction can craft a tone or create an emotional reaction?
* Does the song have a message for more than one audience?

If so, here's what the kids are to look for and address:

Speaker
- What do you know about the speaker?
- What is the speaker's attitude towards the topic?
* How do you know that? Can you support it with examples of figurative language and diction from the text?

Audience
- Who is the primary intended audience for the song?
* How do you know that? What in the text leads you to believe that?
* How does the diction support your idea?
- Who is the second intended audience for the song?
* How do you know that? What in the text leads you to believe that?
* How does the diction support your idea?
Mesage
- What are the messages that the song writer is sending?
- How do the messages differ for the different audience?
- How do you know that?

Effectiveness:
- What is the overall quality of the song? Is it effective? It is thought-provoking?
- How? Why? What's the response?

So, what do you do once you figured this out? I'd like you to write a paragraph or two that addresses the points listed above. Here's the basic format. Feel free to make it yours as long as all of the elements are present:

P - Point: Open the statement by telling us a bit about the song (title, artist)and what it is about, on the surface. Then delve into the meat of what you want to say.
E1 - Evidence:
Primary Audience - What is it about? What can you pull (and quote) from the
text to defend/explain your thinking?
A1 - Analysis:
Primary Audience - What about the message? What is it? What does the author
want you to do/change/be concerning this message?
E2 - Evidence:
Secondary Audience - What is it about? What can you pull (and quote) from the
text to defend/explain your thinking? How effective is it?
A2 - Analysis:
Secondary Audience - What about the message? What is it? What does the author
want you to do/change/be concerning this message? How does it differ from
the other message? How effective is it?
Concluding Remarks - This is the "So What" part where you tie it together and leave your reader with our final remarks. Make it powerful!

"Fast Car" Poetry Annotation

Poetry Annotation - "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman
This week we began the poetry annotation by working with "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman.



Here's the assignment.

English 12 Unit 1:
”Fast Car” Model Annotation

Know:
The goal of this assignment is to learn how to annotate a poem. This will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of a poem.

Understand:
You will understand how finding the speaker (personae), audience(s), purpose and argument aids in your better understanding a piece of writing.

Do:
In small groups you will do an annotation of the poem and present it to the class.

What You Need:
o A Small Group to Work With
o 1 Extra Copy of Fast Car Lyrics (I've included them at the bottom of this posting)
o Scissors
o Tape or Glue
o Colored Markers or Pencils
o 1 Extra Large Sheet of Paper

English 12 Unit 1:
”Fast Car” Model Annotation

1. Cut up the poem so that it can
be attached to the poster in one
continuous column.

2. Write the names of your
group members on the front
of the poster.

Reread the poem and begin
To mark words, phrases and lines that help you figure out:
Speaker
o Who the speaker is and what you know about them.
o What is the speaker like?
o What has happened to the speaker?
o What is the speaker’s attitude towards the event(s),
o Etc.
Audience(s)
o Who is/are the intended audience?
o How do you know this?
Purpose:
o Why did this person take time to write the poem?
o What is the message?
o Are there multiple messages? If so, what are they? Who are they intended for?
Argument:
o What does the speaker want you to do with the information?
o How does the speaker want you to behave or change?

-----------------

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won't have to drive too far
Just 'cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

You see my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
I say his body's too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way

I remember we were driving driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
And we go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain't got a job
And I work in a market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You'll find work and I'll get promoted
We'll move out of the shelter
Buy a big house and live in the suburbs
You got a fast car
And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I'd always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me would find it
I got no plans I ain't going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way

Creating a Wordle Word Cloud

Creating You Wordle
Part 1:
Ø Create a list of words, phrases, song and/or movie titles, events, objects, etc. that describe you in some way. You need to have at least 20 things on your list and they must be a variety of types of thing. For example, please do not simply list the titles of 20 songs. Perhaps you could have four titles of songs, four titles of movies, four phrases you find yourself saying often, 4 words your best friend would use to describe you, and so on.

Ø Underline the most important ones. Please try to underline at least four of them.

Ø Go to Wordle.net and create a word cloud from these words. Be sure your first name is the largest word in your word cloud. Print your wordle and use it with your personal poster. We will be printing in black and white. If you want to print it again, or in color be sure to save it in the gallery. That will allow you to get it again.

Wordle Tips:
If you want a word to be larger than the rest type it several times. For example, if you type your name four times it will be much larger than the other words. The words that are kind of important could be typed out two or three times to make them slightly bigger.

If you want to keep a set of words/phrases together be sure to place a ~ between the words. The program will read this as a linking space. The ~ will not show up on your word cloud.

Be sure to block and copy what you typed out in your text box before you hit, "GO" and see your wordle word cloud. If you don't like what you see you can go back, paste in the text again and add to it. If you do not do this you will have to retype everything as it does not save what you entered.

You can change up the colors by selecting Color>Edit Color Paletter> Click on the squares to pull up a color palette. Pick four colors and they will be inserted.

The default setting for Wordle does not include numbers. You can turn this feature on when you go to view your wordle word cloud. Click on "Language" and uncheck "Remove Numbers".

You can have a fun time by selecting Randomize from the bottom of the screen. The program will select new fonts and positions. Be aware that by doing this you cannot go back to a previous version of the word cloud.

If you decide to save something in the gallery be sure that you do not use your full name or publish anything that should not be available to anyone who accesses the Internet!

Have fun! Check Out the Gallery for interesting ideas!

We completed these on Wednesday, August 26th. It was due at the end of class. It is worth 50 points.

Quotes on Identity

Here are the quotes we used in our preunit learning activity:

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.
James Baldwin

As a young teenager I looked desperately for things to read that might excuse me or assure me I wasn't the only one, that might confirm an identity I was unhappily piecing together.
Edmund White

First of all, what happens is, when you're good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.
Mike Krzyzewski

Human identity is the most fragile thing that we have, and it's often only found in moments of truth.
Alan Rudolph

I have done everything I can to make sure my daughter knows her father because you form your own identity by rebelling against your parents - but first you have to know them.
Greta Scacchi

Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity.
Rollo May

Strengthening our identity is one way or reinforcing people's confidence and sense of citizenship and well-being.
David Blunkett

The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes.
Sallust

We don't need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables - the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers - to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.
Jane Elliot

Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.
B. R. Ambedkar

You have your identity
when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.
A. R. Ammons

Your life will be a blessed and balanced experience if you first honor your identity and priority.
Russell M. Nelson

You manifest based on who you are already - so you must own the identity of the dream in order to manifest it.
Joy Page

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. ~Epictetus

You cannot belong to anyone else until you belong to yourself. -Pearl Bailey

Telling others about oneself is...no simple matter. It depends on what we think they think we ought to be like—or what selves in general ought to be like. Nor do our calculations end when we come to telling ourselves about ourselves. Our self-directed self-making narratives early come to express what we think others expect us to be like. Without much awareness of it, we develop a decorum for telling ourselves about ourselves: how to be frank with ourselves, how not to offend others....
-Jerome Bruner

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
-Buddha

A verse from the Veda says, 'What you see, you become.' In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement.
-Deepak Chopra

Always be a first rate version of yourself, and not a second rate version of someone else.
-Judy Garland

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.
-Aldous Huxley

"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
-François de La Rochefoucauld

Beware of no man more than yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.
-C. H. (Charles Haddon) Spurgeon

“Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.” ~ Kevin Arnold

“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?” ~ Chuck Palahniuk

The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.” ~Richard R. Grant

“Identity is such a crucial affair that one shouldn't rush into it.” ~ David Quammen

“Identity is theft of the self” ~ Estee Martin

“The identity of one changes with how one perceives reality” ~ Vithu Jeyaloganathan

~ I think history is inextricably linked to identity. If you don't know your history, if you don't know your family, who are you? ~ Mary Pipher

~ Integrity simple means not violating one's own identity. ~
Erich Fromm

A people must have dignity and identity. ~Andrew Goodman

A racial community provides not only a sense of identity, that luxury of looking into another's face and seeing yourself reflected back, but a sense of security and support.
Wentworth Miller

Welcome to Your Senior Year!

Your Senior year is exciting. You'll find that it is like no other year in your school career. We'll be doing some more personal and rhetorical writing. You'll be doing some technical writing, you'll lead some whole class discussions. It'll be great.

To start off, I'd like to post my syllabus for you:
Welcome to my class. I truly hope you will enjoy what we do. I am working hard to make sure that we satisfy all our requirements in an interesting manner. This year long course has seven main units. We will cover the first four this semester:

Unit 1- Many Selves, Many Voices – using poetry and an interview to become aware of the variety of voices writers and speakers use, and how these voices reflect a cultural context and a sense of the speaker’s individuality.

Unit 2 – Looking Forward & Getting Ready for the Next Step - using non-fiction and technical documents to explore the next step you may take, whether it is going to college or starting a career. We will be writing college entrance essays, cover letters for business purposes and creating a resume.

Unit 3 – Stranger in the Village – using essays to understand how encounters with others expand our own potential for self-expression, and understanding the risks associated with being either a “stranger” or a part of the “village.”

Unit 4 – A Medley of Voices – using a novel by Zora Neale Hurston to understand the connections between language and character, and to analyze historical/social//cultural contexts in literary works.

Students in English 12 will be expected to:
Attend class and be an active participant.
Read and interpret from a wide variety of genres.
· Write—notes, poems, essays, research papers and stories, —in response to what is being read and discussed in class.

Students and parents should understand that English 12 is designed to challenge every student. However, the extent to which an individual student is challenged will be dependent on the effort that the student puts into the class.

It is our desire that you become engaged in the coursework and that it becomes the subject of conversation between you and your instructors, your classmates, and your family.

I want you to succeed in my class. Even if you don’t feel like you’re “good” at writing or reading, you can still get a good grade in my class. So, you say, how do I do that? Here’s the drill:


· COME TO CLASS EVERYDAY! Having an interesting mix of students makes the class more fun. I want to see your smiling face every school day.

Absences & Tardies: I will be enforcing the school attendance policies. If you have excessive tardies (this means a lot of tardies or you are VERY late to class) I may require you to make-up that time during the access portion of the schedule or I may require you to clean desks during part of your passing period.

· BE PREPARED! For my class you will need your brain, a well fed body, a good attitude, respect, and the following supplies:
· Pens: All assignments must be done in pen or typed/word processed.

· 1 Three Ring Binder with Paper

· 1 Two-Pocket folder, preferably one that is punched and can travel within your notebook.

· Your Planner: This should be used to record assignment, especially homework due dates. It also serves as your hall pass.

· Markers or Colored Pencils that have been sharpened: (Optional) We will be doing some fun things in class that you require a nice visual presentation. Be sure to put your name on your markers or colored pencils.

· Post-It Notes: ( Optional, but Useful) You will need the small ones that you can write on. (1 3/8 x 1/7/8 or 2 7/8 x 2 7/8)

· A Highlighter

A Jefferson County Pubic Library Card: You can gain access to all of the databases that the Jeffco Public Library has if you have a library card. I would like you to tell me your card number and the name on the card so that you can access the databases even if you don’t have the card with you. If you do not have one you can get one by going to any Jeffco Public Library or by applying online at www.jefferson.lib.co.us. If you apply online you will need to pick it up within three days from when you applied for it.

Grading Criteria:
All assignments are given points. Grades are awarded based on points earned.

90% = A 80% = B 70% = C 69% = F

In keeping with the English Department Policy, no “D” grades will be awarded.

Okay, enough said? Feeling overwhelmed already? Stop and breathe. I am strict, but also fair. It is important to me that you know what is going on and expected in my class. I hope to see your face beaming with pride in your own excellent work and feel good about how well you have prepared yourself. Need help with any of this stuff? See me. I am always here before school, during the access period or you can schedule time with me as well.