Writing the Right Way!

1. aristocrat 2. biography 3. thermostat 4. octagon 5. parasite 6. barometer 7. chronic 8. geographical 9. paralle 10. pharmacy 11. biological 12. dialogue 13. geological 14. parable 15. televise 16. hydrant 17. enthusiasm 18. paralysis 19. thermos 20. neon

J76: What is the most influential thing that you learned this year in Language Arts? Discuss something that has effected you, something that “stuck”. J77: Write a character description of one of your favorite people. (physical attributes, personality traits, peculiar mannerisms…) J78: You have an extra $100,000 to give away; you cannot spend it on yourself. What would you do with the money?

Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad

  1. Discuss features of Tubman’s character that enable her to carry out her mission so effectively.   2. Tubman never learns to read and write. What special abilities does she use to compensate for this handicap? There are many…   3. What character traits exhibited by Tubman show the influence of her father? Her mother? Which parent seems to contribute more to Tubman’s value system?   4. The Underground Railroad is naturally filled with risks and uncertainties. Which incident, in your opinion, is the most dangerous? The most suspenseful? Discuss the incident(s) and what makes it such.   5. Why does John Tubman threaten to inform the master if Tubman attempts to escape? Was he wrong to do this? Explain the difference between John’s status and Tubman’s on the plantation. Why can’t he understand her desperation for freedom?   6. Although Tubman continues her work after the disappointment she suffers when her husband marries another woman during her absence, what evidence in the book suggests the permanent hurt she feels… Discuss the effects of her failed relationship with John.

    Brainstorming Helps: Key Questions~ 1.What is the purpose of a narrative writing or short story? 2.Who is your audience/ 3.What mood are you trying to create? 4.Will your narrative be fiction or non-fiction? 5.Who will the main character be? 6.Who will the minor characters be? 7.What is the setting of you story? 8.What conflict occurs in your story?  ___________________________________________________________ Instructions for your narrative outline: 1 Detail the overall storyline. This doesn’t have to be perfect or even in complete sentences. Just draft a rough overview of the story that the narrative should tell. Don’t include pertinent details, just get the general story down on paper so that you can determine if the direction you want to take will work. 2 Make a list of characters. One of the hardest part about getting a narrative down on paper is figuring out what characters exist in your story and why. Write a character list and next to each one draft their name and purpose. While details about each character may change over time, knowing why there are in the story helps to determine their direction and to build the story around them. 3 Set the scene for your narrative. Figure out where the plot takes place and draft a list of details about the setting. You can go back later and incorporate some of these details into the storyline, but making a list of them now aside from the actual writing process gives you time to focus on the setting. Be descriptive and imaginative in your setting, bringing it to life for the reader. 4 Put the events of your storyline in order. Figure out what takes place and when and incorporate this into another list. Eventually, when these lists are melded together to form the basis of your narrative, you will have all of the components in place. Make sure the time line seems right in terms of what is supposed to happen and when. 5 Draft a list of details you don’t want to forget. The outline is not the time to determine that one of your characters has long, brown curly hair but if this is a detail that is important to you, put it on your detail list to remember for later.     Click here for the narrative power point:    

1. incentive- something that encourages somebody to action. Motivation. 2. contraband- illegal imports and exports; illegal trade. 3. Secession- withdrawal of Southern States from Union. 4. inauspicious- promising failure or bad luck 5. daguerreotype-early photographic process, photograph of something, somebody. 6. adornment- embellishment, decoration. To enhance. 7. haversack– bag carried on back. 8. inscription– writing, dedication. 9. peddling- to sell goods; sometimes illegal things. 10- destitute– penniless; lacking necessities of life.

J71: Discuss the numerous ways in which your life would be different if you lived in the 19th century (1800’s). J72: Choose one of the following quotes by Harriet Tubman and write a 1/2 page reaction to it:

1- I grew up like a neglected weed — ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.

2- I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.

3- I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.

4- Quakers almost as good as colored…. They call themselves friends and you can trust them every time.

5- I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.

6- We saw the lightning and that was the guns; and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.

 

J73: Free Write

 

J74: 1/2 page reaction to one of the following quotes about Harriet Tubman:

Quotes About Harriet Tubman • From Alice Walker: “We will be ourselves and free, or die in the attempt. Harriet Tubman was not our great-grandmother for nothing.” Alice Walker, You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down. • From Frederick Douglass: “The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witness of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.” • From Frederick Douglass: “Much that you have done would seem improbable to those who do not know you as I know you.” • From William Still, diary entry: “Great fears were entertained for her safety, but she was wholly devoid of personal fear. The idea of being captured by slave-hunters or slave holders, seemed never to enter her mind.” • From Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1859 letter: “Her tales of adventure are beyond anything in fiction and her ingenuity and generalship are extraordinary. I have known her for some time — the slaves call her Moses.” • From Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1859 letter: “… a more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found among the most unfortunate-looking farm hands of the South. Yet in point of courage, shrewdness, and disinterested exertions to rescue her fellow-man, she was without equal.” • From Oprah Winfrey: “I am where I am because of the bridges that I crossed. Sojourner Truth was a bridge. Harriet Tubman was a bridge. Ida B. Wells was a bridge. Madame C. J. Walker was a bridge. Fannie Lou Hamer was a bridge.”

 

J75: Why did you choose the particular event that you picked for your narrative? What is it’s significance?

 

J69- Harriet Tubman lived from 1820-1913, a time of great changes. In chat ways do you think that this time in history would have been different had she never lived? J70- What stood out to you in last night’s reading? (Ch. 16-17) 1 page response