Oct. 20th
Today we practised marking up our texts. This is where you underline something that strikes you and you explain in note form what new thought or question the line gave you. Most caught on, but because a few were confused, some students volunteered to share their answers with the class. Thanks for that; it was helpful. Next, we read the shortest short story ever: Sentry.
Students were surprised by the ending and I asked them to go back and highlight lines where they realized the author was trying to fool the readers. We wrote a paragraph that followed the format of Tanya Tucker.
"Sentry" by Fredrick Brown in a story about....
The author purposely misleads the reader.
Firstly, (how? example/quote? explanation)...
We are trying to find three examples and save our best ideas for last.
Also, we are trying to use transition words to signal the shift from one idea to the next. Transition words are words such as firstly, secondly, furthermore, in addition, additionally, what's more, accordingly, in turn....
Students either handed in their rough drafts or will work to complete their rough drafts for next class.
Week of Oct. 13th
Sorry about the time lapse but there was a publishing glitch. All paragraphs from Tanya Tucker are either waiting to be marked or are marked. If you haven't submitted it, you now must write on a different topic. There are just a few of you who are missing this assignment.
Today we continued with our novel and focused on the characters. Groups worked together to come up with a list of characters where you named their problem and came up with a metaphor for the character. We ended with the short story cards, but you're still a way of the record!
Oct. 8th
Mr. Page visited the first half of the class to prepare you for graduation. After that, we had a random question about the most amazing things we've ever seen. From here, we moved onto our paragraph on Tanya Tucker. The rough copies were given feedback and the goal of this class is to finish a good draft today. If you were away (and a lot of you were absent), you now have homework and must ensure that your good copy paragraph is due ASAP. See me if you need help. Responses from Of Mice and Men were also returned. These had grades on them, so we are looking at how to improve the responses to improve the grades. I won't see this class for a week because of the holiday so I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. See you next week.
Oct. 3rd and 6th
I was away on Oct. 3rd, but after a random question based on dining with anyone in the world, the class viewed some YouTube videos about the Great Depression. We went over the responses today and I was pleased how many of you were able to hit some of the key ideas. We used this and Robbie Burn's line "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" as openers to our novella, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. We read the first chapter and focused on the relationship between George and Lenny. Many of the inferences provided were quite insightful. We finished the class with a quick run through of the cards. (It seems to me that we need to practice our terms more! Yikes!)
Oct. 1st
After today's time machine random question, we practiced our terms with the term challenge, but so far we have not beaten the best time of 2:48, although we were close. We finished that with a mock quiz on the story terms. Most of you seem to be getting better at your terms. If you feel a bit behind, look over the notes a bit. We then got a solid start on our Tanya Tucker paragraphs. A few even finished. By next class, the rough drafts should be completed.
Sept. 29th
Today we began class with a discussion about coincidences. We will often open classes with a small discussion, so thanks to those of you who participated. (Most topics will be easier.) Also, we had our first run of the terms challenge. Our best time was 2:48. We need to get it down to one minute! Finally, we started formal writing. In formal writing, we want to be as convincing and polished as we can. We don't want to use the words I, you, slang like gonna, wanna... We used the Tanya Tucker story to answer the question "Which character is the alligator?" By the end of the class, everyone tried to have three reasons for their answers, and a few tried to support their thinking with a line from the text.
Sept. 26th
Story switch! We read "The Dirt on Tanya Tucker" and used it to practice our short story terms.
Sept. 24th
We spent a fair bit of time getting to know each other. We played the six-questions guessing game and after that, we started reading a story, "Just Lather, That's All." We will pick up the story next class.
Sept. 22nd
I'm pleased to be able to finally welcome everyone back! I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone. For your reference, please find a copy of my course outline below.
comm_11_outline.docx | |
File Size: | 17 kb |
File Type: | docx |