What Makes You? A Creative Writing Unit Ray Callahan Jr.

Name_______________________ What Makes You? Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. -Dr. Seuss Writing is like you. Complex and diverse. Because of this I want to know what makes you tick. I want to know YOU. For this assignment, we will be creating a multi-genre writing folder. A multi genre writing collection is not as complicated as it seems. You will get to choose your favorite types of writing and tell me about yourself through these choices. You will be allowed to write about yourself through 6 or more styles. We will be discussing these styles over the next couple of days before writing will begin. (DO NOT be afraid to start early if you already have ideas!!) Any questions you have of additional genres, I will be more than happy to answer and explain. Some types of writing that you can choose are: Character Sketch Drama Letters Cartoons Essays Obituary Eulogy Song Lyrics Receipts Screen Plays

Newspaper articles Poetry Advertisements Shopping List

Interior Monologue Editorial Musical scripts Journal Entry

Micro fiction Book Talk

ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN THINK OF IS ENCOURAGED!!! Please discuss it with me once you decide on a different style though so I can help you master it! You have a lot of options here on how YOU want to express yourself. Tell me a funny story about something you did or something you saw. The options go as far as your imagination takes it! If you can think it, you can do it.

Requirements: The piece you produce should incorporate six or more separate genres. Any styles you choose outside of the list presented to you can be talked to about with me to enhance your writing. You get to create a cover page with a clever title. Ive heard you all in the hallways, so I know you can be clever.

Grading: This assignment allows you to earn 150 points.(JUST FOR TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF!!! ). You will earn these points by showing me that you understand the concepts of the different styles. Creativity is also encouraged and can help you get your full points. We will be engaging in editing techniques as well to help your writing get even stronger. You will turn in your previous drafts that you edit as well. This helps me see how your writing process develops (also provides you with a lot of free points). These are important for me to see but it also helps you see how much editing can do for your writing. It also helps catch spelling errors(more points!). 6 Genres: __________(120 points) Genre 1: Genre 2: Genre 3: Genre 4: Genre 5: Genre 6: Spelling and Grammar: Editing Sheets: (15)pts (20)pts (20)pts (20)pts (20)pts (20)pts (20)pts (15)pts

The most important part of this assignment is that you HAVE FUN!!!!

Poetry

Football Coach A small piece of metal tied to a rope loosely fitted around his neck His lips holding the metal in place with a full breath The sound pierces the air Green splotches among a thick brown muck He forces others into it His voice hoarse from pushing them to the limit He dreams of brutal contact The perfectly executed hit that he spends weeks to teach them The progress of his players IS worth all of his pains The complexities of a finely tuned machine Deuce Right Gun Wing 17 Sweep Option on 2 Ready, Break! 22 hands clap Hours of painstaking blood sweat and tears For 7 seconds of success or failure Its not a job for the weak minded A normal human being would not abuse themselves this way But we arent exactly normal Im not even sure were human -Ray Callahan Jr.

Short Story The Game The grass is freshly cut, the lines are freshly painted. I step into the locker room, its quiet; silent. The room smells of sweat, dirt and grass. A spare thigh pad sits on the ground in a corner where someone didnt pay attention when they closed their locker, and a clump of dried mud over by the back door. Its game day. Weve spent weeks preparing for the first game of the year, but Im nervous as hell. My knees are weak, my hands are twitching, and my mind is racing. Did I cover captain coverage well enough? Are they going to remember when to play on or off the line? Am I really this nervous? Its 8th grade football, come onMan up, youve got this. The first player walks into the locker room. Its Kaden, our Split Wide Receiver, one of the quietest kids on the team, but hes one of m y favorites. We give each other a head nod. It says everything that needs to be said; lets get after it today. Slowly but surely, more guys start coming in; theres Cooper, a Slot Receiver, he waves to me; Deacon, a monster of a lineman, hes 61, 265 pounds, another quiet kid. Then theres Ross, a 65 tight end who is a stud of a basketball player, hes already getting scouted for college, and has a decent shot at the NBA, but for now, hes a quarterbacks dream of a tight end. A couple more walk in, my brother Trevor walks in,

hes the quarterback; a Red headed lefty, that runs just as well as he throws. He comes up to me, and we talk for a few minutes, going over the game plan, and what the first 10 plays of the game will be, and what changes may be made to them depending on the situations we find ourselves in. I remind him of what his check downs are on certain passes, and I conclude with, Just stay calm, remember the assignments, and hit your spots, and lets get the season started on the right foot. We do our handshake, and he goes to get ready. I look around and almost everyone is in the locker room, the only couple of guys not in yet are the guys who dont play much anyways (and they wonder why). The Head Coach walks in, and we talk a bit, just going over last minute details of how we want to do certain plays. Once the team is ready I have them take a seat. Guys, its a brand new season, I start, Weve been working hard for almost a month now. Some of us have made more progress than others, but one thing is true for all of us. We are all better today than we were 3 weeks ago. We are all better than we were last year. Now this team smoked us 36-0 last year. But I dont care about last year. If we remember our assignments, if we make our blocks, we run our routes, we make our throws, we run with authority. If we tackle well, we flow to the ball quickly, if we do what we need to do, and we do it the whole game, at the end of the game, that scoreboard will tell the story. Guys, lets go out there, and lets represent our school with pride, and lets play Buccaneer football. Everyone on me, helmets up! The guys crowd around me, all of their helmets up high, bunched up together, WIN THE DAY ON THREE; ONE, TWO, THREE!

WIN THE DAY! we all yell. They pair up in twos, arms linked, and begin walking out to the field. They are a united front, ready to go out to battle. They get to the fence ready to get to the field. I stop them, wait for them all bunched up together. All ready? I ask them. Yes, Coach! they all yell. Alright guys, lets go out there and lets put in work! I say They walk out onto the field, and the clapping and cheers begin. Once they get to the end zone, they run together down the sideline to the 50 yard line where they all huddle up, and Trevor leads the team in a breakdown. They finish their pregame breakdown chant, and line up for warm up stretches. The coaching staffs and referees meet and exchange pleasantries. The officials ask about injured players, trick plays, and captains. The coin toss, we win it, and elect to defer to the 2 nd half. So we go to defense first after the kickoff, that is, until the other team runs the opening kickoff back for a Touchdown on us. Down 6-0 before a play is even ran. What a start to the season. Alright guys, our head coach says when we all huddle back up preparing to receive the kickoff, we dug ourselves a hole, now lets get out of it. Teams exchange punches over the first half, and as we get to half time, we are tied 12 to 12, but we get the ball to start the half. Our defense has been solid. Outside of

the opening kickoff, and one other play when they just beat our corner back on the outside and scored, the other team had struggled to move the ball on us. Their stud running back who had almost 300 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns against us last year has been held up by our defense, and doesnt even have 50 rushing yards so far, and outside of the opening kickoff that he ran back, he really hasnt done anything. I can see the look on the eyes of my players, they are excited, they know that the game is within reach and that as long as they just keep doing what they are doing, they can win this game. We do our warm-ups and get ready to go for the second half. We receive the kickoff and take over at our own 30 yard line. We move the ball well, but our drive stalls at their 45, so we punt and pin them back at their own 17 yard line. As the other team comes out, I can see the looks on their faces. They are frustrated. Clearly, the y didnt expect us to put up as good of a fight as we have, since they beat us so badly last year. I can sense frustration and frustration means mistakes. They run 3 plays and fail to get a first down, so they punt to us. We take over at our 36 yard line. Before our offense goes out, I gather the team together. Guys, we have them on the ropes. I begin, I can see it on their faces. We came out swinging, we punched them in the mouth, and they are shocked right now. You guys have them frustrated, now is when they will start making mistakes. They were not ready for this, and we were. Lets go punch this in for a touchdown and seal it up right now! Bucs on three, ONE, TWO, THREE! BUCS! they all yell as the offense heads out.

Maybe I spoke too much, and hyped them up too much. The center messes up the snap and snaps it way over Trevors head and he has to scramble around to fall on the ball. Its second and long, and we call the same play, and tell the center to calm down and get his snaps down. This one doesnt leave the ground, and Trevor has to fall on it again. Its 3rd and 26. Trevor throws a pass on the next play, and he hits Ross for a great pass, but hes 4 yards short of a first down. Its 4th down and 4. Theres 6 minutes to go, the game is still tied, we decide to go for it. The snap is bad again, and it goes way over Trevors head, so we turn it over on downs. They move the ball on us until they are at our 23 yard line. We have them stuck in a 3rd and 8 situation. Their stud running back has been bottled up all game. They toss it to him on the right, we have him stopped, until, trick play, half back pass. He throws it right over our corner who comes up for run support. The receiver is wide open in the end zone. Touchdown. Theres not enough time left on the clock for us to get a drive going, so time runs out on us. We lose 18-12.

AutoBiography The Life of a Torn Reader My literacy background is both typical and unique. I was taught how to read by my parents who strongly stressed for me to get an education throughout my entire academic life, and still do so to this day. None of this is unique until the context is put into a bit of perspective. My parents had me extremely young and neither of them graduated high school. My dad dropped out in the 10th grade and my mom dropped out her senior year. Though I do not remember their teaching me how to read, I do know that they taught me at a young age and always pushed for me to read. Until I was in the 5th grade it was very rare for me to go to sleep without my parents reading to me and it was rare for me to ever want a book from the store and me not to get it. I lived in the poorest section of Lansing, MI during my early years, but my formal education began at Attwood Elementary in Lansing, MI, where I enrolled in Kindergarten a year early after my parents had me test into an early start to my education. I excelled at school finishing Kindergarten among the top of my class. This great launch to my academic career was negated during 1st grade when I switched schools and attended Parkview Elementary in Charlotte, MI after my family had moved out of Lansing. It was here that the next several years of my education would become damaged. My first grade teacher told my parents that I lacked the attention and discipline to make it to high school and that I would not graduate. This label made its way to my future teachers and I was repeatedly put with teachers who ascribed to this theory that I was a bad kid and I was continuously put in the back

corner of the classroom, removed from the other students. Needless to say, this put a damper on my enthusiasm to learn. As I entered Charlotte Junior High School the label began to fade a bit as we would only be in classes for an hour at a time, but it still was there as a few teachers treated me as a trouble maker. To compound matters and shake the psyche of a 10 year old, my parents decided to move about two months after I started junior high, and we moved 2 and a half hours away to Grand Haven, MI. As someone who already did not have a strong liking for school, being in an entirely new school without any friends did not exactly help me like school. This led to me being less than the most engaging of students and teachers tended to write me off and bunch me amongst the group of troubled kids. This constant labeling of me as a student as a troubled kid continued to push me away from education and literacy. It was not until high school that I was finally able to break from this. I was extremely blessed to get a 9th grade English teacher that changed my life forever. Maybe its because he was a young teacher who still was untouched by some of the toxicity that comes in the profession, or maybe his soul really is that golden. I tend to think it is the latter since he still is someone I talk to even today and he has never deviated from his kindness. This teacher showed a belief in my abilities and after a couple months he pushed for me to take the test to get into the advanced literature class for 10th grade. The school would only take 30 10th graders each year (in a class of 400). I told him he was crazy and that I stood no chance. He told me to try it anyways and see what would happen, the worst being I didn t make it and I was in regular

literature with everyone else and no one else would be any the wiser. After a couple weeks I had not heard back and had assumed I had failed to qualify for the test. Shortly after, my teacher asked me to stay after class. Once the class left, he called me over to his desk and handed me a half sheet of paper. It was the letter I never expected. I had made the cut and was going to spend 10th grade in the Advanced American Literature class. This young teachers belief in me and willingness to push me for better things gave me an instantaneous positive outlook on myself. I got an A- in my advanced English class the next year, and even enrolled in an A.P. class my senior year. Though I never took the ACT because I knew with my financial situation I would be at community college anyways, so I felt paying the money was a waste, I did take a sample ACT and got a 27. Once at Community College I struggled to adjust to the difference in time management and was put on academic probation with a 1.333 GPA. I then took a Political Science class with an extremely intense and challenging professor. Given I was in risk of getting kicked out of community college and how tough this professor was, I was put in the situation of figure it out or be kicked out. Eventually, I learned the college game and made my way to the Deans List by the time I transferred to GVSU. I think my story shows how much effect positive and challenging teachers can have on a student. As students we do want to be challenged, since without challenge, we get bored, but if teachers are like my 1st grade teacher and dont care about us as people we shut down. A teacher who shows that they care about the student is much more likely to get maximum effort from that student, and that student is more likely to perform better. To get maximum literacy, I feel it starts with a caring educator.

Help Wanted Raymond Callahan Jr. is looking for other teachers who are looking to become coaches. Callahan has been a coach since 2009 as an assistant and will be taking over the position of Head Coach this fall and is attempting to hire a new staff for the Middle School level that can teach his future teams the system that he guarantees to be successful. Applicants must be able to match Callahans passion, patience, love for football and, most importantly, a never ending love for teaching young people.

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BookTalk Book Talk for My Story (not a real book) The first time he doubted his intelligence came in the first grade when his teacher told him he lacked the intelligence and the attention span to graduate high school. Neither of his parents graduated high school, so why should he expect to? Never mind the fact that he was almost a year younger than many of his classmates because of his early entrance into kindergarten because he showed the academic abilities to do so. That early praise was gone now because of what this one piece of dynamite can cause to a 5 year old. For years he was labeled stupid and a trouble maker because he spoke out in class. Continuously put in the corner, away from the rest of his peers, he just wants someone to show they care for him. What happens to this young boy? You will have to read My Story to find out.

REFLECTION I chose to do a multi genre unit in my minor (English) for a variety of reasons. First, I am currently spending 3 of my 4 hours a day in an ELA class, so this may be something I can use. Also, in the event I obtain a job in ELA instead of S.S. it would be nice to have this as a part of my repertoire considering how much S.S. I am obtaining in my content seminar class. I feel like this unit also provides me, as a teacher with a very unique and fun way to truly get to know my students. In a real unit, I may not actually assign 6 genres, but instead, 3-4 with consideration to the time aspect that I would like to keep considering that these writings are designed to get me to know my students better, and if it takes 3 weeks, the class would already be well into the swing of things. I also chose this format for the fact that I knew that there were many Social Studies units being made, so by providing an ELA unit allows myself and the class to see another discipline of study. This is also a unit that many disciplines could use to get to know their students, whether through their own instruction, or simply by reading the ones that are turned in to me. A unit like this also allows me to see what types of writing my students are good at, what styles they like, what they dislike as well as what they struggle with. This gives me an enormous amount of information to use for the rest of the year because it helps me know what the students will need more or less time on and what will grab their attention the best.