A is for Alliteration!

Last week the writing club began an activity that focused on a writing technique called alliteration. Alliteration is when the writer stresses two or more syllables of a word group by using the same consonant sound or sound group. After we discussed what this meant, and how to use it, we put our new technique to work.

We wrote stories using each letter of the alphabet as a sentence, stressing the letter in each sentence as much as we could. The rough drafts are pretty good so far, we plan to polish them up and post them next week! So check back and tell us what you think!

Happy Holidays from Cabrini Connections!

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Free write journaling...

Last week was Thanksgiving so we took a little break and enjoyed family and food. We hope you were able to do the same!

The previous week we had light attendance (Charles and Sean we miss you!) so we focused on free writing. Javan, Paris and Savon wrote in their journals about anything that was on their minds.

We then openly discussed our journal entries and related to each other in what we have going on; with the Holidays approaching and for the students grades are coming out so all-around stresses are running higher than usual. Next week Miss Misha will be introducing a new activity that is hands-on and lots of fun so stay tuned!

A Day In My Life...

Last week we began an activity that mirrored the activity we did two weeks ago about the Minors. Each student began with a sheet of paper and titled it "A Day in My Life."

The concept: Each narrator began his/her story with a situation that embodied a day in their life. After two minutes of writing we dropped our pens and passed our stories to the person on our left. They then continued the story and applied it to a day in their life. We were almost finished when our 6:00pm bell rang and writing club ended. We'll pick it up where we left off on Wednesday and share some of our finished products with our friends that visit our blog.

Thanks and have a nice day!

Insight from Paris Lockett

Paris Lockett is one of writing clubs new members of the 10'-11' school year. She attends the Military Academy and so far has shown great depth and soul in her writing. So much so that we wanted to highlight one of her free write activities. She would like to make it clear that this is a piece of fiction.

Untitled, by Paris Lockett.

Now here we go with this again. The thought of love invading my soul. Love. Man, it's over and done with. No motivation for me to continue on drowning in this vast ocean of uncertainty. I wish I could get out of here....

That's how I was feeling once upon a time. I begged and tried for the feeling to dismiss. No more love for me. Because my one true love, the one that said he would always have my back no matter what, left me for dead. And since, my life has spiraled down.

Dad? Daddy? Where are you? My pleas and cried go unheard to dismantled ears. Mom took me to the funeral but her significance of being present angered me. All I wanted, as any young child does, was love and a relationship with the man that birthed her into existence. But it don't matter, struggle will make me better. Now I'm soul searching. But my haunt is finna stop because no young guy can replace my heart, my foundation...my DADDY.

I hate when people say stupid things in regards to him. Every will and strength I have, you're outta here. Wow, to actually get this out is both hard and unbearable. Sure, I have people who've been there for me. But, SO?? Deep down inside, my heart only yearns for him. Now I feel like crying because unfortunately, I do really miss him.

But the pain grows and the distance has deepened. God it hurts. Let the pain dismiss. If pops was here, I wouldn't be fat. My boyfriend and I would have more in common and that awkward feeling I get around him and his parents would cease. These green military clothes I wear cover the true colors that blind my life.

And we're off!

This week we started off with a 15 minute free-write in our journals and then we went around the table sharing our thoughts. Sean Mayfield is working on a dictionary for "White Slang"-it's comical and harmless. Savon Clark is remaining focused on his goals, we appreciate and encourage his confidence and determination! Paris highlighted reasons that she is happy today, mainly siteing that the simple things in life tend to be quite beautiful if you look at them with a positive attitude, well done Paris!

After our free-write we dove into a fun interactive project called "The Mine."

The concept: Everybody wrote "The Mine" at the top of a sheet of paper. We then each began a two minute creative writing involving anything to do with a mine. The idea, of course, mirrored the heroic tale of the 33 Chilean minors that were rescued after 69 days of being trapped miles underground.

But rather than tell their story, we used our imaginations to create our own renditions. It was so much fun and we all look forward to finishing the stories next week, so stay tuned!

2010-2011 School Year

Writing Club had gotten off to a great start for the 2010-2011 school year! With two new club coordinators and several new students, we spent the first week getting to know each other and sharing things we love about writing. Last week, we took a look at The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and discussed writing from the perspective of an animal or an inanimate object. After picking a theme, such as the zoo, the students wrote a paragraph from the perspective of something at the zoo. Once finished we all tried to guess whose perspective they were writing from!

We have such talented writers in the club who continue to amaze us with their fabulous stories!