9/11/09: Patriot Day Edition

On the anniversary of a day when so many died, I will be away saying goodbye to one more as we lay my good friend Dmitri to rest. Mr. Dalton will be covering for me and I'm sure you'll find that he's a much better teacher than I.

Bellwork: Read the poem "Names" by Billy Collins. This poem was written by the National Poet Laurette on the one year anniversary of September 11th. It is a poem that I found so powerful that I started a poem of the week project, which amazingly enough continued until at least April of this year at Weber State University. In your journal write about September 11th for about 5 minutes.

Show, Don't Tell: After you watch the video below, complete the worksheet and turn it into the box. When you start your second draft of your memoir, look closely at all of "be" verbs and consider whether or not you should replace them with more active sentences.