Welcome to your End-of-Semester Seminar!

Take a seat on a desk with a worksheet and sticky note �(tip: sit where you’ll be productive)

AGENDA

• Pre-Reflection/Commitment
• Part 1: Top Value (Whiparound)
• Part 2: Key Quote, Window-Mirror (Seminar)
• Part 3: Writing Reflection TQE (Whiparound)
• Part 4: New Poem by Acevedo
• Post-Reflection, Wall Signing

Pre-Reflection + Commitment

Which of these six things is going to be your priority in this final discussion and why? Explain w/ 2+ sentences on your sticky note why this is important for you.

If there’s something else you want to focus on, that’s okay! Just write it clearly and then explain why.

#1 “Top value → Top Value” (one more time)

“Top Value → “Top Value (in box)

In 3+ sentences, explain the “story of your year” as far as your top value. [1] Has it changed or is it still the same? [2] What is a moment in which you lived out this value? [3] Or what is a moment in which you came up short of your value? [4] Or why does it matter to you going forward?

#2 most important quote/text

The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger

I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go.

The House on Mango Street - Cisneros

I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much. I write it down and Mango says goodbye sometimes.

Twelve Angry Men - Rose

TEN: Do you believe the kid’s story?

EIGHT: I don’t know whether I believe it or not. Maybe I don’t.

They Called Us Enemy - Takei

Shame is a cruel thing. It should rest on the perpetrators but they don’t carry it the way victims do.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The only thing that can break that cycle [...] is forgiveness. Without forgiveness there is no future.

Born a Crime - Noah

“Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.”

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Copy one of the following quotes into your second box (bottom-left) and then write a 3+ sentence explanation of why you find it meaningful as a window or a mirror—being prepared to explain!

#3 writing reflection TQE

You’ve written the following things formally this year:

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Creative Vignette with Figurative Language

(Unit 1)

Rhetorical Appeals Presentation/Project

(Unit 2)

Literary Analysis Essay on Catcher in the Rye

(Unit 3)

Graphic Novel Narrative Page + Self-Analysis

(Unit 4)

Research Paper on System of Apartheid

(Unit 5)

Narrative Anecdote with Multimodal Element

(Unit 6)

Of the writing tasks above, which was most important as far as you learning about yourself as a writer? Copy this into your third box (top-right) and then offer a TQE of your overall learnings this year:

Thought: something you noticed/was important

Question: something you wondered (or still wonder!)

Epiphany: what you now realize about you as a writer

“You Mean You Don’t Weep at the Nail Salon?” - Elizabeth Acevedo�

Stanza 1

it’s the being alone, i think, the emails but not voices. dominicans be funny, the way we love to touch — every greeting a cheek kiss, a shoulder clap, a loud.

Stanzas 2 and 3

it gots to be my period, the bloating, the insurance commercial where the husband comes home after being deployed, the last of the gouda gone, the rejection letter, the acceptance letter, the empty inbox.

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a dream, these days. to work at home is a privilege, i remind myself.

Stanza 4

spend the whole fucking day flirting with screens. window, tv, computer, phone: eyes & eyes & eyes. the keys clicking, the ding of the microwave, the broadway soundtrack i share wine with in the evenings.

Stanzas 5 and 6

these are the answers, you feel me? & the impetus. the why. of when the manicurist holds my hand, making my nails a lilliputian abstract,�

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i close my fingers around hers, disrupting the polish, too tight i know then, too tight to hold a stranger, but she squeezes back & doesn’t let go & so finally i can.

Post-Poem Reflection (Box #4)

1. What is the theme/message of this poem?

2a. How does it relate to one of the other texts we read this year?

2b. How does it relate to today’s world or your own life?

Post-Seminar Reflection

With your partner, how did you do at your goal—and why is this a priority for you going forward? (If it’s not, then what is?)

One Final Wall Signing