Boo.

Readin' + Writin'

How about some reading and writing activities for the day? This semester, I am teaching English Composition and Children’s Literature, and here is what I had my students work on this week:

English Composition: Halloween Rhetoric Mash-Up

So far, we’ve studied extended definition, personal narrative, compare/contrast, and process-analysis forms of rhetoric. Let’s do a little rhetoric mash-up with Halloween and writing. (Doesn’t that sound like so much fun?) Think of something that has to do with Halloween: trick-or-treating, costumes, pumpkins, fear, suspense, ghosts, etc. Come up with topics to write about that fall under each form of rhetoric we studied.

Mrs. Feyen’s Topic: Frankenstein

Extended Definition:

• What it means to create

• What it means to offer up something

• What it means to nurture

• What it means to be a parent

• What it means to let something (or someone) go

Personal Narrative:

• Braided essay on the backstory of how Frankenstein came to be, my experience getting an MFA, and the release of Guillermo del Toro’s movie version. Strand = the grotesque as bringing forth grace

Compare/Contrast:

• Reproduction vs. pro-creation

Process-Analysis:

• How to read a difficult story (content as well as context)

• How to go back to school when you’re scared

Children’s Literature: What can you make with what you are afraid of?

I try to read this story every October to anyone who will listen: emergent readers, middle school students, college students, adults. It is so good, so important, so fun. Then I ask them: What can you make with what you are afraid of? Can art be made from fear? Can we find a story? If we look at fear long enough, can we see something more than what it is we are afraid of?

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Happy Halloween, everyone. I’m off to see Guillermo del Toro’s version of Frankenstein and I expect to be totally and utterly terrified, proving once again that Mary Shelley wins. Always and forever. #don’tmesswithwomenwriters