Day in the Life of Ukraine
A cooperative writing project in Ukraine
How-to Ideas
So, you want to participate in A Day in the Life of Ukraine? Great!
Below, you’ll see a few suggestions, whether you’re writing by yourself or using this activity in class, a club, or with friends.
FIRST: Remember, this is your story. No one else will have quite the same day as you, and this is what makes your story special. Don’t sell yourself short, thinking ‘My day isn’t that interesting…” Please, share with us!
Review everyday activity verbs[to wake up, to brush one’s teeth, to go to school, to do chores, to eat dinner, etc.]
- discuss daily routines
- ask students to produce verbs
- clarify/ correct/ add as necessary
- develop a word/verb bank
Review the present simple and the past simple Every morning I walk my dog before school [present simple], but today I woke up late and so my dad walked my dog [past simple].
My Day/ What do you do?
http://www.cpli.net/eslmaterials/LAEiMovies.html
Review transition words and phrases [then, later, next, after that, etc.]
Read good creative non-fiction Creative non-fiction
- tells a true story
- uses language carefully and powerfully
- describes by showing, not telling
- is relate-able to readers
- includes both action and reflection
- has more than one layer of meaning, often a universal theme
Keep a journal
- make a list or notes of the day’s events
- expand on especially interesting happenings, both with actual details and emotional reactions/ feelings
- read others’ journals and blogs– the entries of friends and other famous people [Anne Frank, George Washington, Virginia Woolf, Peace Corps Volunteers, etc.]
- write journal entries in the form of letters to a friend– this will help to keep your audience clear and consistent and your personal voice strong
Become a reporter Take on the perspective of an outsider observing your own life.
- What would someone else be surprised by?
- What do you that makes total sense to you, but would seem confusing or strange to someone else?
- Why do you do the things that you do? Would these reasons be clear to others?
Explode a moment Choose one minute from your day and describe it in detail.
- Choose your minute wisely! Why are you choosing this minute?
- use sensory information: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, physical feelings/sensations
- use figurative language: metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia
Try this exercise once per day and see how it changes your awareness.
Consider genres
You may submit your entry in the form you think will work best. Consider…
- poem
- story
- essay
- news article
- letter
- diary entry
- etc!
Read examples of each of these genres to decide which will best suit your voice and what you have to say.
If, as Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” let us improve our lives by examining them and by sharing what we find. Maybe this project will lead you to include more writing in your life, to live and observe with a greater sense of awareness, or to read about the lives of others with greater interest. Whatever it is, enjoy each day in your life, whether you’re writing about it or not.
As a side note, I truly believe that the more stories we tell, the more stories happen to us! Become a storyteller, and your life becomes more interesting!
Send you story to
adayinthelifeofukraine@gmail.com.
Proofreading your Story
Work from a printout, not the computer screen. (But see below for computer functions that can help you find some kinds of mistakes.)
Read out loud. This is especially helpful for spotting run-on sentences, but you’ll also hear other problems that you may not see when reading silently.
Use a blank sheet of paper to cover up the lines below the one you’re reading. This technique keeps you from skipping ahead of possible mistakes.
Use the search function of the computer to find mistakes you’re likely to make. Search for “it,” for instance, if you confuse “its” and “it’s;” for “-ing” if dangling modifiers are a problem; for opening parentheses or quote marks if you tend to leave out the closing ones.
If you tend to make many mistakes, check separately for each kind of error, moving from the most to the least important, and following whatever technique works best for you to identify that kind of mistake.
For instance, read through once (backwards, sentence by sentence) to check for fragments; read through again (forward) to be sure subjects and verbs agree, and again (perhaps using a computer search for “this,” “it,” and “they”) to trace pronouns to antecedents.
End with a spelling check, using a computer spelling checker or reading backwards word by word.
But remember that a spelling checker won’t catch mistakes with homonyms (e.g., “they’re,” “their,” “there”) or certain typos (like “he” for “the”).
Country Studies and Literature 