These are just a few examples of memoirs from last year to help give you ideas for how a video reflection/memoir looks and feels.

     Leaving Fenn or even just moving on to high school is a major transition in life—and one worth remembering with a lasting memoir that will bring back the joys, triumphs, setbacks and fullness of your time at Fenn. For your final assessment in English, I am asking your to write a “memoir” of your Fenn experience and to present your memoir in video and written form.

I want to give you as much freedom to create the memoir as possible, but I also want to have some guidelines that we all follow. Please read this carefully and studiously.


Guidelines:

• The memoir should reflect on your time at Fenn—but not on a specific event; rather, on a relatively few events that shaped your time at Fenn.
• The memoir should include reflections on some of the people who helped guide and mentor you—both teachers and friends.
• The final product must be created in both video and written form and posted to a special weebly site I have created for these video memoirs. 
• You may use iMovie or an Adobe Voice Video to tell your story.
• The minimum length is 1000 words or eight minutes. There is no maximum length.
• It must be posted before the exam. Last year several people waited until the last minute, much to their frustration and exasperation. I can help you every step of the way, but not if you procrastinate.

Suggestions for writing:

• Start writing right away. Get down as much as you can. It is always easier to get rid of stuff than create it. Ideally, you will finish the writing part before the long weekend, so you can worry about the video over the weekend. 
• Your progress this week is part of your grade.
• It can be written as a personal essay or as a narrative or slam-style poem.

Suggestions for the video:

• Remember KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
• Your words are the most important piece of the pie; the video is a way to present your words in a container of beauty that will be shared with the Fenn community many years hence.
• If you are comfortable with iMovie, it offers more options than an Adobe Voice Video. 
• The voice video is a simpler approach, and done well, they can be very moving—and they have templates already set up that you can use.
• Imovie allows for more creativity, the addition of actual video clips and manipulation of images. You can even include clips and audio from work you have already completed this year!
• The final choice is up to you. I honestly do not have a preference.

Is there a rubric?

• As much as I love my rubrics, you are not required to use a specific rubric. Many of your ideas are probably better than mine, and I consider you all fine writers with you own minds. As long as it is a memoir—a reflection and collection of your finest thoughts about your time at Fenn—it is fine with me.
• That said: The Personal Essay Rubric, The Personal Memoir Rubric, and The Slam Poem Rubric can give you a structure that you find helpful. All of these are on the Rubrics & Resources page on thecraftedword.org 

Timeline:

• You have about one week’s time to complete this project, which is a good chunk of time, but not a big chunk of time—and the chunk gets smaller every day.
• Friday: Submit a rough draft of your writing and ideas for video.
• Weekend: Finalize your writing piece and begin the video process.
• Tuesday/Wednesday: complete video.
• If you need it, I will be available Tuesday afternoon from 1:00-4:00 to help anyone who needs help finishing and uploading videos.

During the Exam Period:

• The time during exam period will be devoted to watching and commenting on each other’s videos in supportive, substantial, and specific ways. 
• I will give you a list of classmates you must comment on first before moving on.
• You are free to comment before the exam period as well if videos have been posted early.
• At the conclusion of the exam period, you will be asked to write a brief metacognition of this final exam experience.

Grading:

• Rough writing draft: 20%
• Final Writing Piece: 30%
• Final Video: 30%
• Commenting and Metacognition: 20%

I am looking forward to this. You have been an amazing class to teach and share the year with on so many different levels!

~Fitz

 The steps are listed below:

1. write the script and record each step in separate Garageband band recordings
2. collect video clips and images to include in your video
3. create the video
4. share on your blog

Scene One: Introduce All Quiet on the Western Front. 

• Open with  a scene from All Quiet on the Western Front with a 30 second narration of an excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front.  (30 seconds)

Scene Two: Summary of All Quiet on the Western Front.

• Narrate (or video) a brief summary of All Quiet on the Western Front. (1 minute: 200 words is about a minute)  

Scene Three:  Your Personal NarrativeEssay

• Tell your personal story about your experience studying "All Quiet on the Western Front" and discussing the novel in class. Be sure to touch on how your thoughts evolved and even perhaps changed as we dug deeper into the book and you thought “deeper” and more thoughtfully about the reality of war. This is a good place to steal some of your reading responses from All Quiet on the Western Front.  (5-7 minutes or 500-700 words). 

Scene Four: Analysis of  All Quiet on the Western Front.

• Weave in at least two analysis paragraphs (you may use analysis you have already written!), but rework them slightly to reflect your narrative voice: (3-5 minutes)
  

Scene Five: The Takeaways.

• How are Remarques’s ideas still valid today? What are the takeaways you got from this experience? (1-2 minutes)
  

Scene Six: The Conclusion.

• Give your viewer some final thoughts to ponder—and maybe even end with an excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front.  (1 minute)

DUE: Wednesday, May 19th

We read The Odyssey not because it is a good story, but because it shows that life is livable and that greatness is alway possible. Your 8th grade reflection wants to mirror the heroic journey of Telemachus and Odysseus who overcame the difficulties of life by accepting the challenges put to them, who found ways "through" the problems of life, and who were rewarded with a greater and more profound life. It is essentially a narrative essay (and we have rubrics for this) that attempts to follow the heroic cycle (and we have a rubric for that!) which all great stories tend to do by default.

DUE: Before the exam period!

Actively read chapters 10-12. Instead of filling out the active reading rubric, use the highlighting and note feature of iBooks to to create a rubric of your own: You may color code the way you feel is best for you. Be sure to include notes where necessary and helpful. Include of final "note" at the end of the chapter summarizing what you learned AND experienced.

1. Cool Words: new to you and/or interesting words
2. Fantastic phrases: the effective use of groups of words
3. Powerful Passages: sections of text 
4. Character Sketches: how are characters portrayed (note needed)
5. Enduring themes: themes that are common in a universal way (note needed)
6. Quotable Quotes: Brief passages that are worth remembering.
7. Thoughtful Response: a final reflection on the chapter and the active reading you have completed.

I will meet with each of you to go over your note taking. It is a wise skill to learn well and practice diligently, and will help you immensely in your future academic work.

We will use your notes and rubrics to help you write a wham dammer of a final essay using my literary analysis rubrics.

The class and homework should also be on the Final Site calendar:

• The Chapter 7 Analysis should be posted to you blog
• By Thursday: Read chapter 8: complete an active reading rubric; write a literary analysis paragraph (using this rubric) The literary analysis paragraph is the thoughtful response. You may work with a partner.
• Post The Chapter 8 reading analysis to your blog.
• Before Friday: Read Chapter Nine 
• Weekend Homework: Complete a rubric, and write a "Personal Reading Response" using the Response Rubric.

I'll be back in school on Friday.

All you are required to have completed by tomorrow is

1. Read through Chapter 7
2. Complete Active Reading Rubric (located on my blog)
3. Post the "Thoughtful Response" on the discussion board and Finalist.
4. One 'interesting to you" blog post. (due Tuesday)

Chapter 8 will be due on Tuesday--and we will be filling out an active reading rubric for that.




I will be gone Tuesday-Thursday for father-inlaw's funeral. The classwork and homework will be posted in Final Site.





Your blog work for last week was great. I will post comments and grades as soon as I can. It has been hectic at my house, as you can imagine.

I am out today. 

Spend the class period commenting on your classmates (all of them) writing pieces from last week...be sure to post "specific" (as in your refer to something in each post) "supportive" (as in find a nice way of offering a response--even if it is a criticism or you are pointing out a writing mistake) and "substantial" (meaning there has to be some meat in your sandwich!)


For Homework, read Chapter 7.

For journaling this week you can write:

Four small entries: Minimum 150-200 words each.

OR

Two medium: minimum 350 words each (or a Ewing Style Video Entry or a podcast with a written intro.)

OR

One Fitz-style: minumum 600 words  (Or a narrrative Adobe Voice Video)

Post everything to your blog before Tuesday

You can also do all of these for double the credit!

Crazy that we have not had class yet! I LOVED your first Voice Videos--as did my wife who listened to all of them as I commented on them last night. A few of you still need to get your videos posted.

Because so many of you are still on school revisits, I will post the work for the week, and we can work on this in class and at home:

READING:

1. Read Chapter 3 by Wednesday
2. Reading Chapter 4 by Friday

WRITING: (We can work on this in class and as homework over the weekend)

1. Personal Essay: Using the Fitz Style Journal Entry Rubric, write a journal entry that reflects on some aspect of your Fenn Experience. Be sure to follow all the details of the rubric! Post on your blog and comment by mid week next week.
2. Voice Video:

• Option #1: Write a literary analysis paragraph about a theme of All Quiet on the Western Front that strictly follows the Fitz's Literary Analysis Rubric. Complete as a voice video.
• Option #2: Write a narrative paragraph--using the rubric-- about some aspect of reading All Quiet on the Western Front. Complete as a voice video.

Post video to your blog.