9.2 Writing
9th Grade Introduction to High School Writing
Grade 9 Disposition
Inter-Relationships and
Self-Reliance
Big Ideas
· clarity
· discovery
· perseverance
· self-determination
· voice
· reflection
· introspection
· exponential personal growth
Themes
· Writing is a way of knowing, showing, and becoming.
· Writing keeps thinking dynamic.
· Reflection is a habit of mind.
Focus Questions
· How does writing help people discover and understand what they are thinking?
· How does writing shape what others think of us?
· What are the common characteristics and techniques of good writing shared across genre?
· What characteristics and techniques are unique to specific genre?
· What techniques does a good writer use?
· What purposes does writing serve in the real world?
· What characteristics of
· writing do I appreciate ?
Essential Questions
· Who am I?
· How do my skills and talents help define me?
· What evidence do I have that I am committed to learning?
· How do I demonstrate that I am open-minded enough to learn from my experiences?
· Which decisions I make today will affect me for my entire life?
Quotations
I "Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers."
Steven Spielberg
II"To think is to write."
Jim Burke
III "Writing about personal importance is not to say students should always write about themselves; rather, they should write about subjects that challenge them to expand what matters to them, to connect who they are to what they are becoming."
Jim Burke
IV "When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miners pick, a wood-carvers gouge, a surgeons probe. You wield it and it digs a path for you follow. Soon you will find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject?"
Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, 1989, Harper, p.3.
V "The instinct for memoir is there whenever we return to a remembered place, catch a whiff of a familiar smell, or feel nostalgic over a photograph. The seeds of memoir are there when we listen to stories and say," That reminds me when..."
Lucy Calkins
VI "A memoir is not what happens, but the person to whom things happen."
Virginia Woolf
VII "Memoir is not the whole head of hair but one or two strands of hair."
Jean Little