9 th grade writing journals

9th grade writing journals

Why do we write? To document and organize thought

Imagine yourself on this beach. Describe what it is like being there, in at least 5 sentences.

Beauty or Brains?“Beauty is only skin deep,” the cliché claims. If you had to choose between beauty and brains, which would you pick? Which do you think would get you further in life? Which do you think would make you happier?

1

Mystery Location

Imagine yourself in a location, and without including its name, write a short description using imagery, so that the reader could imagine themselves in this location.

Challenge: If you want to challenge yourself, see if you can write a complete description using only one sense other than vision.

1 Pirate Ship2 Jungle3 Corn field 4 Amusement Park5 Desert 6 Sport Stadium

Homework: Roll the dice, and whatever number comes up, you will describe this location with detailed imagery, using all your senses except vision. (8-10 sentences)

Partly CloudyHow many words relating to weather can you think of? List as many words as possible in alphabetical order, before the timer goes off. Try to think of one word for every letter.

2

SurvivorWhat does it take to be a survivor? In a test of survival, what traits or qualities allow someone to succeed? What kind of situations would you need to use those skills in? Do you think you are a survivor?

Write:

Compare and Contrast Characters

Each word or phrase is a character trait. Explain if these traits describe Rainsford, Zaroff, both, or neither. Explain your answer.

1. honorable2. clever3. experienced hunter4. cruel5. arrogant6. moral

Compare and Contrast Characters

Each word or phrase is a character trait. Write R if it describes Rainsford, Z if it describes Zaroff, and B if it describes both characters.

1. honorable2. clever3. experienced hunter4. cruel5. arrogant6. moral

Write:

Personal PersonificationPersonification is a literary device that gives a non-living object the characteristics of a living thing. For example, a writer might say that the wind sighs, the rain laughs, and the leaves whisper. The poet Carl Sandburg wrote a poem called “Fog” that begins with personfication:“The fog comes on little cat feet”. Write a second line, rhymed or unrhymed, to follow Sandburg’s line. For example…The fog comes on little cat feetAnd creeps silently past my bedroom window

The Woman and the Bandit

In your journal, number 1-6 and make sure you have a few lines below. When the bell rings I’m going to tell you a short story about a woman, her husband, a bandit, a ferry captain, a lover, and a pickpocket…

Then I’ll ask you three questions that you’ll answer in your journal

Write:

What if?

Arranged MarriageIn some cultures, marriages are arranged. The parents, sometimes with the aid of a matchmaker, choose mates for their children. If your parents had to choose a mate for you, what kind of characteristics and qualities do you think they would look for? How would your parents’ choices differ from your own? Would you want to marry a person they picked for you? Why?

PresentWhat is the best gift you were ever given? Why’d you get it? What made it so great? Who gave it to you?

Vocab Matching

1. Vestibule2. Covet3. Ravages

a

b

c

6 Word StoryThe famous writer Ernest Hemmingway once supposedly wrote a story with only 6 words to win a bet. (For sale: baby shoes, never worn) It had to have emotion, and a beginning, middle and end. Whether or not the story’s true, it’s inspired other writers to try the same. Here are some examples from other writers:-Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?-Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time

-It’s behind you! Hurry before it

-K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket

-Two wives, one funeral, no tears Now, write your own 6 word story!

Hidden SimilaritiesSometimes things that are not alike really do have something in common if you look hard enough. You have to challenge yourself and think outside the box, there is no one right answer. • How is a jar of peanut butter like a

train?• How is a kitten like a truck?• How is a baby like a fork?• How is a football like spinach?

Answers, Answers, AnswersIn school you’re used to being asked questions, but there’s often only one right answer. For the questions below, there can be a lot of answers. For each question, write 3 possible answers. 1. What is beautiful?2. What is depressing?3. What is striped?4. What is empty?5. What is complicated?6. What is green?

FreewriteIf everyone lived underwater…..

Dream Vacation

Think about all the places in the world you would like to see. If you could have a free one week vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why? What do you like about it? What would you do there?

A Christmas Memory- MoodBased on the following details from the story, how would you describe the mood so far? Suspenseful? Peaceful? Sad? Nostalgic? Explain your thinking.“the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town” “a cheery crunch, scraps of miniature thunder sound as pecan shells collapse”“dusk turns the window into a mirror: our reflections mingle with the rising moon as we work by the fireside in the firelight” “the black stove, stoked with coal and firewood, glows like a lighted pumpkin”

Writing Journal- Lottery

• If you won the lottery for 10 million dollars this week, what would you do with the money? (Think about what you might buy, who you would give it to, would there be any left over, would you save it for something?)

Figurative LanguageBelow are quotes from “A Christmas Memory.” Each of them are examples of what type of figurative language? Define it, then write 2 examples of your own. (hint, starts with an s)“ we unreel our kites, feel them twitching at the string like sky fish as they swim into the wind”“As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven”“dollar bills, tightly rolled and green as May buds”“The black stove glows like a lighted pumpkin”“the sun, round as an orange” “red berries shiny as Chinese bells” “my friend wants our tree to blaze like a Baptist window”

Vocab Matching

1. Squander2. Suffuse 3. Goad

a

b c

Freewrite

Questions, QuestionsTry to think creatively, and come up with a question for each of the answers below. 1. The answer is Corn Flakes. 2. The answer is upside down. 3. The answer is black and white. 4. The answer is never. 5. The answer is cool. 6. The answer is bumpy.

RevengeAre you the kind of person who gets even, or gets revenge on people? What would someone have to do to make you mad enough to want revenge? What would you do to them?

Cask of AmontilladoIn the video of “Cask of Amontillado” how did the director create the mood and the setting, and help the story seem suspenseful or frightening? What were some techniques he used?

Imagery or not?1. “Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a

snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes, at an aurora that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time”

2. “TIME SAFARI, INC. SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST.YOU NAME THE ANIMAL. WE TAKE YOU THERE. YOU SHOOT IT.”

3. "Makes you think, If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States.“

4. “They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds' cries blew on a wind, and the smell of tar and an old salt sea, moist grasses, and flowers the color of blood.”

5. It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest.

Paradox

Grandfather Paradox

Time-Travelling Paradox

I am a liar

Is time travel possible?

Sentences? Tell if the following are complete sentences or not. If not, fix them!

1. Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?

2. Your Safari guide in the past. 3. Safaris to any year in the past. 4. We guarantee nothing, except the

dinosaurs.5. He glanced across the vast office.6. The light of the time machine on his

thin face.

Sound of Thunder Analogies1. annihilate: injure :: flood :

a. breeze b. damage c. leak

2. Eckels : Travis :: Eckelsb. butterfly b. dinosaur c. Travis

3. Infinitesimal : Gigantic :: Energetic :

a. sluggish b. terrific c. tiny

Analogies- An analogy compares words or concepts, based on how they are alike or related to each

other. Ex. Dog is to puppy as cat is to kitten (a young dog is a puppy, just like a young cat is a kitten) scissors : cut :: broom : ___________a. clean b. dust c. sweep d. dirty kindness : friend :: cruelty : ___________a. meanness b. enemy c. war d. unkindness

Types of Analogies include:• Synonym (happy : joyful :: sad : depressed)• Antonym (inflation : deflation :: frail : strong)• Characteristic (tropical : hot :: polar : cold)• Part/Whole (finger : hand :: petal : flower)• Degree (mist : fog :: drizzle : tropical storm)• Type (golden retriever : dog :: salmon : fish)• Tool/Worker (pen : writer :: voice : singer)• Action/Object (fly : airplane :: drive : car)• Item/Purpose (knife : cut :: ruler : measure)• Product/Worker (poet : poem :: baker : pie)

Through the Tunnel- Imagery or not?

1. “He was an only child, eleven years old.”

2. “From where he stood, the bay was a scoop of moving bluish-green fringed with white.”

3. “He floated on the buoyant surface and looked back at his mother”

4. “There she was, a speck of yellow under an umbrella that looked like an orange peel”

5. “A warm sea where irregular cold currents from the deep water shocked his limbs”

What sense is the imagery appealing to?

• “Two grayish shapes steered there, like long rounded pieces of wood or slate”

• “the water sparkled as if sequins were dropping through it, it was like swimming in flaked silver”

What could the scarlet ibis symbolize?

Analogies 2

1. Lifejacket: boat :: : cara. Medicine b. seatbelt c. emergency

2. Ignite: extinguish :: harvest: a. Plant b. relax c. autumn

Resolutions

Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions? What are they? What would you like to have happen this year?

Writing Journal

Which is more important, success or failure? Why? This is opinion, but you have to explain your answer.

Explain yourself!

You’re getting back your attitude survey about obstacles and success. Pick one of the statements and explain your answer, defending your thinking.

List the 5 most important things about this house

Essay 1We’ve read several texts that deal with overcoming obstacles and experiencing both success and failure. Which is more important, success or failure? Defend your answer using support from “Blind to Failure,” “Seabiscuit,” and your own experience or an event from history.

Write:

Do you agree or disagree with the quote above? Why? What does the quote make you think about?(3-4 sentences)

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”e. e. cummings

Please put on paper that can be turned in.

1. Define “individualism”-2. Define “conformity”-3. What are 3 things you remember from the

Walden excerpt?4. What is one piece of advice that H.D.

Thoreau would give?

Rights-Writing JournalWhat rights do you have as an American citizen? What gives us these rights? How would you react if someone tried to take your rights away? What could you do?

July 4, 1776.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of

America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Writing Journal

Explain how Thoreau’s concepts of civil disobedience and individualism relate to Rosa Park’s actions and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

BathtubWe all know what a bathtub is supposed to be used for. Let your mind go and try to list as many uses for a bathtub as you can before the timer goes off.

Writing Journal- John Donne Quote

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. …any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”

What do you think the famous quote above is trying to say? How does it relate to our discussion about the townspeople in Sighet and the other bystanders?

“The Holocaust was not an accident in history—it occurred because individuals, organizations, and

governments made choices that not only legalized discrimination but also allowed

prejudice, hatred, and ultimately mass murder to occur.”

National Holocaust MuseumExplain what you think the statement above means, in your own words.

Pick 1 to analyze • Message?• Persuasive Techniques?• Target Audience?• Effectiveness?

Write:

Never Ever

Think about all of the older people you know- teachers, parents, coaches, neighbors, friends, relatives, acquaintances. Probably one or several of the adults you know have provided you with an example of how not to live your life. Look ahead to your future, and think about the one thing you will not let happen. Begin by writing: The one thing I will never do is…

Animal AlphabetHow many animals can you think of? Try to think of as many as you can, in alphabetical order, before the timer goes off.

Finish the statement

Something that scares me is….because…..

Writing Journal- I’m proud of…• What are 3 things about yourself you are the

most proud of? Why? (it can be a skill, something about your personality, something you accomplished, etc). If you had to sum up yourself or your life, what would you say?

Analogies

1. Foot: Inchesa. bathtub: gallonsb. meter: milesc. pound : ouncesd. fork: spoons 2. Torch: Illuminate

a. stove: bakeb. vacuum : cleanc. car: rund. phone: write