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mstrmrphy — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:29:44 +0000

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Make sure you read this.

mstrmrphy — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:58:33 +0000

You should read this in Sophomore year of high school. Beg your teacher to make you read it.

(click the book cover to see the amazon page)

Just so you know…

mstrmrphy — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 14:01:21 +0000

Anne Frank would have been 82 today (June 12).

Summer Reads

mstrmrphy — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:18:16 +0000

Summer is a great time to get some reading done, and I’ve already finished reading one book: “The Four Fingers of Death”, by Rick Moody. (Here’s a pretty wordy review of the book.)

It wasn’t a great book by any means, and certainly not as good as anything by Kurt Vonnegut (mentioned in that review, and to whom Moody dedicated his book).

Right now I’m deciding which book I want to read next. But while I make that decision, you should fill me in on the books you’re reading this summer. Give us your reviews because I just might pass this on to future students.

DRUMS PLEASE!

mstrmrphy — Sun, 29 May 2011 23:19:17 +0000

Congrats everyone!

mstrmrphy — Thu, 26 May 2011 21:19:50 +0000

Well, you made it through the school year. You’ve made it past 8th grade.

Time to sit, relax, and hopefully read about 30 books before school begins again.

Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean I won’t be updating this page. Feel free to check in and tell me how you’re doing.

Rubric for your Final

mstrmrphy — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:53:27 +0000

Here’s the Rubric for your Final Presentation.

Your Stories Have Archetypes, Too.

mstrmrphy — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:27:55 +0000

We talked about how character archetypes generally show up in fiction, but they do show up in the real world, as well. The difference is, in the real world we assign these archetypes to people.

Think about it: how many times have you heard of a real person referred to as “a hero” or as being “evil”? These are not actual qualification for people, because there’s no way to actually measure how much good or evil a person has. They’re words that carry opinions, but because we’re so used to seeing these archetypes in the stories we read and the movies we watch, we become more comfortable using them in our real sotries, as well.

So.

You have to write your own stories, and you need to fit these archetypal characters into those stories.

Requirements

2 pages.
2 drafts: one rough, edited draft, and one final draft.
5 of 7 of the archetypes
- Hero
- Shadow
- Threshold Guardian
- Shapeshifter
- Mentor
- Herald
- Trickster

Possible Story Ideas

Fighting with Siblings or Parents
Fighting with Friends (or Enemies)
First Boyfriend/Girlfriend
An Embarrassing Experience
Winning an Important Game
Losing an Important Game
The Most Terrifying Experience of Your Life
Breaking a Bone (your own or someone else’s)
Breaking the Law
Rebelling Against Your Parents
Worst Teachers
Camping Trip! (or other Vacation)
Near-Death Experience
A Time you were Wrong

Archetypes in Storytelling

mstrmrphy — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:18:02 +0000

We looked at the archetypes in storytelling the other day — the simple definition for this is: Archetypes are the types of characters that generally show up in stories; they are molds that have qualities that generally remain uncvhanged from story to story. Good guys are good guys, bad guys are bad guys, there are people who get ni the way of both of them, etc. Here’s the prezi presentation we looked at in class.

ISAT TIME

mstrmrphy — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:09:20 +0000

Whoa! Didn’t realize how long it’s been since I updated the page.

Well, time to get back on the wagon, I suppose: your Language Usage ISAT is coming up this Thursday, and it’s going to be a bit of a difficult test. You need to remember to take your time with it.

Until then, you should check out the prep questions given out by the state.

Also, today we went over some Commonly Confused Words.

In case you missed class