th
9
grade writing journals
Why do we write? To document and
organize thought
Imagine yourself on this beach. Describe what it
is like being there, in at least 5 sentences.
Beauty or Brains?
“Beauty is only skin deep,” the cliché claims. If
you had to choose between beauty and brains,
which would you pick? Which do you think
would get you further in life? Which do you think
would make you happier?
1
Mystery Location
Imagine yourself in a location, and
without including its name, write a
short description using imagery, so that
the reader could imagine themselves in
this location.
Homework: Roll the dice, and whatever
number comes up, you will describe this
location with detailed imagery, using all your
senses except vision. (8-10 sentences)
Challenge: If you
want to challenge
yourself, see if
you can write a
complete
description using
only one sense
other than vision.
1 Pirate Ship
2 Jungle
3 Corn field
4 Amusement Park
5 Desert
6 Sport Stadium
Partly Cloudy
How many words relating to weather can you
think of? List as many words as possible in
alphabetical order, before the timer goes off. Try
to think of one word for every letter.
2
Survivor
What does it take to be a survivor? In a test of
survival, what traits or qualities allow someone to
succeed? What kind of situations would you need
to use those skills in? Do you think you are a
survivor?
Write:
Compare and Contrast Characters
Each word or phrase is a character trait. Explain
if these traits describe Rainsford, Zaroff, both,
or neither. Explain your answer.
1. honorable
2. clever
3. experienced hunter
4. cruel
5. arrogant
6. moral
Compare and Contrast Characters
Each word or phrase is a character trait. Write R
if it describes Rainsford, Z if it describes Zaroff,
and B if it describes both characters.
1. honorable
2. clever
3. experienced hunter
4. cruel
5. arrogant
6. moral
Write:
Personal Personification
Personification is a literary device that gives a non-living
object the characteristics of a living thing. For example,
a writer might say that the wind sighs, the rain laughs,
and the leaves whisper. The poet Carl Sandburg wrote
a poem called “Fog” that begins with personfication:
“The fog comes on little cat feet”.
Write a second line, rhymed or unrhymed, to follow
Sandburg’s line. For example…
The fog comes on little cat feet
And creeps silently past my bedroom window
The Woman and the Bandit
In your journal, number 1-6 and make sure you
have a few lines below.
When the bell rings I’m going to tell you a short
story about a woman, her husband, a bandit, a
ferry captain, a lover, and a pickpocket…
Then I’ll ask you three questions that you’ll
answer in your journal
Write:
What if?
Arranged Marriage
In some cultures, marriages are arranged. The
parents, sometimes with the aid of a matchmaker,
choose mates for their children. If your parents had
to choose a mate for you, what kind of
characteristics and qualities do you think they
would look for? How would your parents’ choices
differ from your own? Would you want to marry a
person they picked for you? Why?
Present
What is the best gift you were ever
given? Why’d you get it? What made it
so great? Who gave it to you?
Vocab Matching
1. Vestibule
2. Covet
3. Ravages
c
b
a
6 Word Story
The famous writer Ernest Hemmingway once
supposedly wrote a story with only 6 words to win a bet.
(For sale: baby shoes, never worn) It had to have
emotion, and a beginning, middle and end. Whether or
not the story’s true, it’s inspired other writers to try the
same. Here are some examples from other writers:
-Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
-Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
-It’s behind you! Hurry before it
-K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket
-Two wives, one funeral, no tears
Now, write your own 6 word story!
Hidden Similarities
Sometimes things that are not alike really do have
something in common if you look hard enough.
You have to challenge yourself and think outside
the box, there is no one right answer.
• How is a jar of peanut butter like a train?
• How is a kitten like a truck?
• How is a baby like a fork?
• How is a football like spinach?
Answers, Answers, Answers
In school you’re used to being asked questions,
but there’s often only one right answer. For the
questions below, there can be a lot of answers. For
each question, write 3 possible answers.
1. What is beautiful?
2. What is depressing?
3. What is striped?
4. What is empty?
5. What is complicated?
6. What is green?
Freewrite
If everyone lived underwater…..
Dream Vacation
Think about all the places in the world you would
like to see. If you could have a free one week
vacation anywhere in the world, where would you
go? Why? What do you like about it? What
would you do there?
A Christmas Memory- Mood
Based on the following details from the story,
how would you describe the mood so far? Suspenseful?
Peaceful? Sad? Nostalgic? Explain your thinking.
“the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town” “a
cheery crunch, scraps of miniature thunder sound as pecan
shells collapse”
“dusk turns the window into a mirror: our reflections mingle
with the rising moon as we work by the fireside in the
firelight”
“the black stove, stoked with coal and firewood, glows like a
lighted pumpkin”
Writing Journal- Lottery
• If you won the lottery for 10 million dollars
this week, what would you do with the
money? (Think about what you might buy,
who you would give it to, would there be any
left over, would you save it for something?)
Figurative Language
Below are quotes from “A Christmas Memory.” Each of
them are examples of what type of figurative language?
Define it, then write 2 examples of your own. (hint, starts
with an s)
“ we unreel our kites, feel them twitching at the string like sky
fish as they swim into the wind”
“As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites
hurrying toward heaven”
“dollar bills, tightly rolled and green as May buds”
“The black stove glows like a lighted pumpkin”
“the sun, round as an orange”
“red berries shiny as Chinese bells”
“my friend wants our tree to blaze like a Baptist window”
Vocab Matching
1. Squander
2. Suffuse
b
3. Goad
a
c
Freewrite
Questions, Questions
Try to think creatively, and come up with a
question for each of the answers below.
1. The answer is Corn Flakes.
2. The answer is upside down.
3. The answer is black and white.
4. The answer is never.
5. The answer is cool.
6. The answer is bumpy.
Revenge
Are you the kind of person who gets even, or gets
revenge on people? What would someone have
to do to make you mad enough to want revenge?
What would you do to them?
Cask of Amontillado
In the video of “Cask of Amontillado” how did
the director create the mood and the setting, and
help the story seem suspenseful or frightening?
What were some techniques he used?
Imagery or not?
1. “Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a
snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes, at an aurora
that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a
sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time”
2. “TIME SAFARI, INC. SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST.
YOU NAME THE ANIMAL. WE TAKE YOU THERE. YOU SHOOT IT.”
3. "Makes you think, If the election had gone badly yesterday, I
might be here now running away from the results. Thank God
Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States.“
4. “They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds' cries blew on a
wind, and the smell of tar and an old salt sea, moist grasses, and
flowers the color of blood.”
5. It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty
feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate
watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest.
Paradox
Grandfather Paradox
I am
a liar
Time-Travelling Paradox
Is time travel
possible?
Sentences? Tell if the following are
complete sentences or not. If not, fix them!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?
Your Safari guide in the past.
Safaris to any year in the past.
We guarantee nothing, except the dinosaurs.
He glanced across the vast office.
The light of the time machine on his thin face.
Sound of Thunder Analogies
1. annihilate: injure :: flood :
a. breeze b. damage c. leak
2. Eckels : Travis ::
Eckels
a. butterfly b. dinosaur c. Travis
3. Infinitesimal : Gigantic :: Energetic :
a. sluggish b. terrific
c. tiny
Analogies- An analogy compares words or
concepts, based on how they are alike or related
to each other.
Ex. Dog is to puppy as cat is to kitten (a young dog
is a puppy, just like a young cat is a kitten)
scissors : cut :: broom : ___________
a. clean b. dust c. sweep d. dirty
kindness : friend :: cruelty : ___________
a. meanness b. enemy c. war d. unkindness
Types of Analogies include:
• Synonym (happy : joyful :: sad : depressed)
• Antonym (inflation : deflation :: frail : strong)
• Characteristic (tropical : hot :: polar : cold)
• Part/Whole (finger : hand :: petal : flower)
• Degree (mist : fog :: drizzle : tropical storm)
• Type (golden retriever : dog :: salmon : fish)
• Tool/Worker (pen : writer :: voice : singer)
• Action/Object (fly : airplane :: drive : car)
• Item/Purpose (knife : cut :: ruler : measure)
• Product/Worker (poet : poem :: baker : pie)
Through the Tunnel- Imagery or not?
1. “He was an only child, eleven years old.”
2. “From where he stood, the bay was a scoop of
moving bluish-green fringed with white.”
3. “He floated on the buoyant surface and looked
back at his mother”
4. “There she was, a speck of yellow under an
umbrella that looked like an orange peel”
5. “A warm sea where irregular cold
currents from the deep water shocked
his limbs”
What sense is the imagery appealing
to?
• “Two grayish shapes steered there, like long
rounded pieces of wood or slate”
• “the water sparkled as if sequins were
dropping through it, it was like swimming in
flaked silver”
What could the scarlet ibis symbolize?
Analogies 2
1. Lifejacket: boat ::
: car
a. Medicine b. seatbelt
c. emergency
2. Ignite: extinguish :: harvest:
a. Plant b. relax c. autumn
Resolutions
Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions? What
are they? What would you like to have happen
this year?
Writing Journal
Which is more important,
success or failure? Why? This
is opinion, but you have to
explain your answer.
Explain yourself!
You’re getting back your attitude survey
about obstacles and success. Pick one of
the statements and explain your answer,
defending your thinking.
List the 5 most important things about
this house
Essay 1
We’ve read several texts that deal with
overcoming obstacles and experiencing both
success and failure. Which is more important,
success or failure? Defend your answer using
support from “Blind to Failure,” “Seabiscuit,” and
your own experience or an event from history.
Write:
“To be nobody but yourself in a world which
is doing its best, night and day, to make you
everybody else means to fight the hardest
battle which any human being can fight; and
never stop fighting.”
e. e. cummings
Do you agree or disagree with the quote above?
Why? What does the quote make you think
about?(3-4 sentences)
Please put on paper that can be
turned in.
1. Define “individualism”2. Define “conformity”3. What are 3 things you remember from the
Walden excerpt?
4. What is one piece of advice that H.D.
Thoreau would give?
Rights-Writing Journal
What rights do you have as an American
citizen? What gives us these rights? How
would you react if someone tried to take your
rights away? What could you do?
July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united
States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and
Happiness.
Writing Journal
Explain how Thoreau’s concepts of civil
disobedience and individualism relate
to Rosa Park’s actions and the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Bathtub
We all know what a bathtub is supposed to be
used for. Let your mind go and try to list as many
uses for a bathtub as you can before the timer
goes off.
Writing JournalJohn Donne Quote
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
…any man's death diminishes me, because I
am involved in mankind, and therefore never
send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls
for thee.”
What do you think the famous quote above is
trying to say? How does it relate to our
discussion about the townspeople in Sighet
and the other bystanders?
“The Holocaust was not an accident in history—it
occurred because individuals, organizations, and
governments made choices that not only legalized
discrimination but also allowed prejudice, hatred, and
ultimately mass murder to occur.”
National Holocaust Museum
Explain what you think the statement above means, in
your own words.
Pick 1 to analyze
•
•
•
•
Message?
Persuasive Techniques?
Target Audience?
Effectiveness?
Write:
Never Ever
Think about all of the older people you knowteachers, parents, coaches, neighbors, friends,
relatives, acquaintances. Probably one or several of
the adults you know have provided you with an
example of how not to live your life. Look ahead
to your future, and think about the one thing you
will not let happen. Begin by writing: The one
thing I will never do is…
Animal Alphabet
How many animals can you think of? Try to think
of as many as you can, in alphabetical order,
before the timer goes off.
Finish the statement
Something that scares me is….because…..
Writing Journal- I’m proud of…
• What are 3 things about yourself you are the
most proud of? Why? (it can be a skill,
something about your personality,
something you accomplished, etc). If you
had to sum up yourself or your life, what
would you say?
Analogies
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Foot: Inches
bathtub: gallons
meter: miles
pound : ounces
fork: spoons
2. Torch: Illuminate
a. stove: bake
b. vacuum : clean
c. car: run
d. phone: write