Welcome to Cre8tive Havoc

The Motherblog for the students in room 2B1 at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate.

Free Reading Fridays

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” -Lemony Snicket

A BYOD Classroom

All devices welcomed!

Newspaper Blackout Poetry

"Creativity through subtraction" -Austin Kleon.

Monday 30 April 2012

Reading and Writing Reflection #8

This week's Reading Reflection is just as you would expect it to be:

Reading Reflection (250 Words)
Remember to start your post with:

Reading Reflection #8

Book: Lone Wolf
Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages Read: 74-130
And fill your reflection with the usual questions, comments, predictions, connections, etc . . .


However your Writing Reflection will focus on Blackout Newspaper Poetry and be a bit longer than usual, as I'd like your reflection to be about 250 words in length this week.

Topics to discuss:

- Discuss the process of writing Newpaper Blackout Poetry. How did it go for you? What were some of the challenges and successes?

- What was unique about this way of writing (compared to the other types of writing we've done this semester; listogrpahy, doodling, six word memoirs, moments)?

- What did you learn about yourself as a reader/writer/thinker?

- Other comments about this style of writing?

Friday 27 April 2012

We're on Instagram!!

Hello everyone,

In class this week we've been working on Newspaper Blackout Poetry.  As you've all been busy scribbling away, I've been snapping photos of you (that sounds kind of creepy now that I've written it . . .) Anyways, I posted a photo of your hard work on Instagram, and Austin Kleon (author of the poetry book Newspaper Blackout Poetry) "hearted" it. See pic below:

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Newspaper Blackout Poetry- Things To Remember

- "shopping for images"
- "transformation not summarization"

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Newspaper + Marker = Poetry

I recently heard about Newspaper Blackout Poetry, and thought we should give it a spin in Creative Writing class.

Here's two videos to give somebackground:



A sample of Austin Kleon's Blackout Poetry:
Creative Writing 101- By Austin Kleon

Some links to explore:


 
So here we go!
  • You are going to create a trio of Newspaper Blackout Poetry. 
  • All poems in the trio must relate to one another through a common theme. 
  • Each poem must have a title.
  • Your poems are going to be displayed in three ways: On the walls in the hallway, on your blog, and submitted to Austin Kleon's blog.
Ready, set, blackout!




Reading and Writing Reflection #7

Remember what we did last week?  Rinse and repeat.  A refresher in case you don't remember:

Reading Reflection (250 Words)
Remember to start your post with:

Reading Reflection #7

Book: Lone Wolf
Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages Read: 74-130
And fill your reflection with the usual questions, comments, predictions, connections, etc . . .
Writing Reflection (100 words)
This week's writing reflection is going to be a bit different.

(1) I would like you to visit 3 classmates blogs, and leave meaningful and significant comments that encourage a discussion. When you leave a comment, I want you to cut and copy the page specific blog address/URL and post it in your blog as part of your Writing Reflection.

(2) I also want you to discuss how the process of commenting went:

Monday 16 April 2012

Reading and Writing Reflection #6


It's that time again!  Gosh, it seems like we're doing this on a regular basis, almost weekly perhaps??

Reading Reflection (250 Words)
Remember to start your post with:

Reading Reflection #6

Book: Lone Wolf
Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages Read: 74-130
And fill your reflection with the usual questions, comments, predictions, connections, etc . . .
 
 
Writing Reflection (100 words)
This week's writing reflection is going to be a bit different. 

(1) I would like you to visit 3 classmates blogs, and leave meaningful and significant comments that encourage a discussion.  When you leave a comment, I want you to cut and copy the page specific blog address/URL and post it in your blog as part of your Writing Reflection. 

(2) I also want you to discuss how the process of commenting went:

  • Where did you leave comments? Why did you select that post to comment on? 
  • What are the characteristics of a "good" comment? 
  • What are the characterisitcs of a "bad" comment?
  • What are some benefits to commenting on other people's blogs? 
  • What are the benefits to receiving comments on your blog?

So this week's Writing Reflection would look like this:
Weekly Reflection #6
Comment #1
 Comment #2
 Comment #3
The first comment I posted was on Ryan's blog.  The reason why I posted a comment is because his discussion of superheroes got my really thinking.  Why do we as a society have superheroes, and what do they reflect about our values?  Even more exciting, what super power would you have if you were a superhero? Why? I think that by commenting on Ryna's blog, we can take a relatively every day topic like superheroes, and start to think about how society works and why . . .
The second comment I posted was . . . .
The third comment I posted was  . . .

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Blogging Time


Alright,

So pretty much everyone has recieved a "Blog Check In #1" list from me.  In today's class you have one last opportunity to fine tune your blog before . . . dunh, dunh, daaaaa . . . Report card time.  The sad truth is that I have to assign you some sort of mark on your progress in this class, despite that fact that progress isn't always best expressed through a numerical mark.  SO, in today's class double check that:

- Your blog is up to date
- Your blog shows evidence of personalisation (add some gadgets, tweak the format/layout/backgroud-- make it look like an extension of your brain)
- You visit the blogs of your classmates,  create some pay it forward karma.

If you've made significant changes to your blog, please add detailed, highlighted notes to your  "Blog Check In #1" list,  and resubmit the sheet to me further further evaluation. 

Monday 9 April 2012

Reading and Writing Reflection #5

"Thinking"- by MotionStudy
http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=thinking&order=9&offset=24#/ddnx0h

Alright ladies and gentleman, it's Monday and we're working on the usual Reading and Writing Reflections.  But I would also like you to keep in mind that the dreaded report card time is fast approaching. As readers, writers, students, and thinkers, we need to come to a decision about the progress you have made this semester.  As such, this week's Reading and Writing Reflection is asking your to look back at how things have gone this semester, and look forward to the new projects you'd like to pursue.

Reading Reflection (250 Words)

Remember to start your post with:

Reading Reflection #5

Book: Lone Wolf
Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages Read: 35-74

- Then jump right into it!  Feel free to chat about how your book is going. However you can also talk about how your reading practise is going as well. For instance,  how are you finding the Friday reading classes?  Are you being as productive?  Do you find yourself reading at home more? Why? Why not?  How/why have your reading habits changed over the semester?


Writing Reflection (100 words)

Title this posting "Writing Reflection #5". The topics to discuss are:

- Color coding your "Moment": How did this go? What did you learn about your piece or yourself as a writer?
- Blogging: What would you like to learn to do next?  Or is there some other form of Social Media you'd like to explore form an education stand point (Twitter for example)?
- Our next writing project?  I was thinking Fan Fiction would be interesting! Comments/ reactions?  Don't know what it is? Then Google it! And get back to me. . . .


Monday 2 April 2012

Welcome Back!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Spring Break?  A fellow teacher told me this morning that we only have 13 weeks left until the end of the school year?  Can you believe it? 

I guess that means that it's time we started to wrap up our work on the "The moment" writing project.  You job for today's class is to:

(1) Dig out the story chart you should have filled out for your moment.
(2) Spend today's class re-wroking your moment so that it includes all of the moment elements listed on the story chart.
(3) Print a cpy of your Moment (double spaced, 12 point font)

In tomorrow's class we will be working with these drafts is a very specific way, so please make sure  you have them ready.