Write Your Own Short Story Project

You MUST complete a satisfactory short story in order to pass this marking period!

Be prepared to type your story in class on Thursday and Friday! Stories that are not typed will lose 10 points. Any stories turned in after Friday will be considered late and will lose 5 points a day for each day they are late.

Your story should follow the structure of the plot pyramid.

• Paragraph 1: Exposition (Tell us who the characters are, what the conflict is, where they are)
• Paragraph 2: Rising Action, Event #1 (small conflict)
• Paragraph 3: Rising Action, Event #2 (big conflict)
• Paragraph 4: Rising Action, Event #3 (bigger conflict)
• Paragraph 5: Climax (conflict explodes!)
• Paragraph 6: Falling Action (consequences of the climax)
• Paragraph 7: Resolution (how it ends)

Come after school Wednesday and/or Thursday if you need help! I'll be hanging around after school from 2:55 - 3:55.

Vocabulary for Forged by Fire

The Art of Flame
Originally uploaded by Jeremy-G

Below are the 5 vocabulary words for this week. If you did not get the notes in class, this will help you complete Homework #13.

We have a quiz on these words on Friday, November 21st!

* elaborate: made or done with great care or much detail
* hysterical: feeling uncontrolled, extreme emotion
* numerous: great in number
* resignation: the act of giving up or accepting something terrible
* terrify: to fill someone with terror

Directions for completing the graphic organizers:

* Definition: Write in the dictionary definition (see above for our definitions)
* What is is: Write what the vocabulary word means in your own words and/or give examples
* What it isn't: Write down the opposite of the vocabulary and/or give non-examples
* Use it in a sentence: Write a sentence that uses the vocabulary word

All Rewards are Canceled Until Further Notice

Dear Class,

I write this in sadness. During my fourth period class, one or more of my students stole cookies that belonged to their classmates.

As you know, I reward students in my class generously when they do well: grab bag prizes, homework passes, raffle tickets, candy bars, Hershey's kisses, and homemade cookies. I do these things out of my own kindness and generosity. I do these things because I want to, not because I have to.

Today, my trust was horribly violated. I have spent the past two months believing in each of my students as honorable and decent human beings. I was proven wrong when cookies were stolen this morning.

The cookies were not only stolen from me--I spent four hours baking cookies last night--but from your fellow classmates.

From this point on, there will be no rewards in my classroom. Student of the Month has been discontinued. I will no longer give out candy or tickets from the jug.

Rewards will resume when I get an apology from the thief/thieves or whenever I begin to trust my classes again. I'm not sure which will happen first.

My apologies.
Ms. Gibson