English 8: Block 7/8

Have a great weekend! You guys were great worker bees today!

We started off the day with silent reading. After that, we looked at the structure of paragraphs and students were assigned a Descriptive Character Paragraph. We looked at a variety of character traits and examples to complete the paragraph. Students were given time to complete the Paragraph Planner and a rough copy for this assignment. You guys worked so well on this!

We then watched the Simpsons version of "The Monkey's Paw", and finished off class with a Jeopardy game on Parts of Speech.

Reminders:

• Parts of Speech Quiz (open-book): Monday, Mar. 2, 2015
• Short Story Test: Friday, Mar. 6, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

Tuesday Feb. 24- Thursday Feb. 26, 2015

Over the past few day, students continued with silent reading and completed two worksheets for identifying Parts of Speech. 

During Tuesday's class, we finished our notes on elements of short stories. We also read the story "The Street That Got Mislaid".

Today, we completed questions and a character sketch for "The Street That Got Mislaid". We also went over different types of point of view by looking at various excerpts from stories and novels. Additionally, we read the story "The Hockey Sweater", completed corresponding questions, and watched the N.F.B. video version of the story.

We finished off the day reading "The Monkey's Paw" and watched a video version of the story. Thank you to the students who read aloud!

Reminders:

• "The Street That Got Mislaid" questions: due Friday, Feb. 27, 2015
• "The Hockey Sweater" questions: due Friday, Feb. 27, 2015
• Parts of Speech Open-book Quiz: Monday, Mar. 2, 2015

English 11

Tuesday, Feb. 24 - Thursday Feb. 26, 2015

During Tuesday's class, we finished reading "The Yellow Wallpaper". I provided students with some background information on the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and the historical context of the story. After that, students split up into groups and wrote out the literary analysis on chart paper; they did this by identifying the main story elements (theme, characters, conflict, etc. )

Today, I displayed the chart papers on the board and we went over the different elements of plot as a class. Great work! After that, we watched the 2014 short film "The Yellow Wallpaper" (30 mins). I then introduced the Short Story Project. Students (groups of one or two) were assigned a selected short story and they must prepare a literary analysis to present to the class. I am still working on getting us some library time, so I don't have a due date for this assignment yet. Students spent the rest of the period working on this project.

English 8: Blocks 3/4

Have fun skiing this afternoon!

Tuesday Feb. 24- Wednesday Feb. 25, 2015

Over the past few day, students continued with silent reading and completed two worksheets for identifying Parts of Speech. 

Yesterday, we read the story "The Street That Got Mislaid" and completed a character sketch for the story. We also finished our notes on irony.

Today, we went over different types of point of view by looking at various excerpts from stories and novels. Additionally, we read the story "The Hockey Sweater", completed corresponding questions, and watched the N.F.B. video version of the story.

After that, we looked at the structure of paragraphs and students were assigned a Descriptive Character Paragraph. We looked at a variety of character traits and examples to complete the paragraph. Students were given time to complete the Paragraph Planner for this assignment. 
We finished off the day reading "The Monkey's Paw". Thank you to the students who read aloud!

Reminders:

• "The Hockey Sweater" questions: due Friday, Feb. 27, 2015
• Paragraph Planner worksheet: due Friday, Feb. 27, 2015

English 11

Don't forget to hand in "The Lottery" questions and movie worksheet!

Today we read the short story "The Elephant" aloud. We then went over the historical context of the story, the reasons why it's a satirical allegory, the hidden meanings, and the themes. This included a small review of WWII events and communism. Students were then given a worksheet to complete.

We also started reading the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and we will continue this next class.

Reminders:

• "The Lottery" questions and movie worksheet - due today!
• "The Elephant" worksheet: due Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015

English 8: Blocks 3/4

Silent reading and notes on 'adverbs'.

To continue with our assignment, the Letter to Ms. Jones,  I paired up students for a peer-edit. I also gave a bit of time to work on the good copy of the letter. The assignment is due Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015.

We finished discussing the short story "Catch" and completed corresponding questions. We ended the day with notes on elements of short stories (types of characters and irony).

Reminders:

• "Catch" questions: due Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015
• Letter to Ms. Jones (plan, rough copy, peer edit, and good copy): due Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

Silent reading and notes on 'adverbs'.

To continue with our assignment, the Letter to Ms. Jones,  I paired up students for a peer-edit. I also gave a bit of time to work on the good copy of the letter. The assignment is due Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015.

We finished discussing the short story "Catch" and completed corresponding questions. We ended the day with notes on elements of short stories (types of conflict and point of view).

Reminders:

• "Catch" questions: due Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015
• Letter to Ms. Jones (plan, rough copy, peer edit, and good copy): due Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015

English 11

Have fun this weekend! I hope "The Lottery" doesn't give you nightmares!

We started off class reviewing "The Lottery" and going through a literary analysis of the story (using Powerpoint). We mainly talked about the importance of the setting, the dynamic of the characters, the transformation of the mood, symbols, and the main protagonist. We also focused on the main themes: the inequality of choosing scapegoats, the dangers of conformity, the evils hidden in life, etc. Thereafter, students completed questions for the story.

We also watched the movie version of "The Lottery", which took up most of the class. Students have a movie-analysis sheet to complete for Monday.

Reminders:

• Literary paragraph for "The Black Cat": OVERDUE
• "The Doll's House" questions: OVERDUE
• "The Lottery" questions: due Monday, Feb. 23, 2015
• "The Lottery" movie questions: due Monday, Feb. 23, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

Have a great long weekend!!!

Students started off class with notes on adjectives and worked on questions for the short story "Thank You Ma'am". After that, students were introduced to their first writing assignment; based on the story "Thank You Ma'am", they must write a letter to the character Ms. Jones. Students were given time to fill out the planning sheet and write a rough copy. The rough copy is due Monday.

We then went to the library and students picked books for their Independent Novel Study Assignment.

During the second period of class, students read silently for ten minutes before we moved onto an activity on 'themes'. We watched four Pixar short videos ("Twit Twit", "Presto", "For the Birds", and "Partly Cloudy"), then students split up in groups of four, and wrote out the types of conflict and  themes for each video on chart paper. We then went over the ideas as a class. To finish, we read the story "Catch" in Sightlines 8. 

Reminders:

• Finish ROUGH DRAFT of the letter to Ms. Jones: Monday, Feb.  23, 2015

English 8: Blocks 3/4

Great brainstorming session today!

Students started off class with notes on adjectives. We then went over questions for "The Veldt" and "Tell-Tale Heart". After that, students were introduced to their first writing assignment; based on the story "Thank You Ma'am", they must write a letter to the character Ms. Jones. Students were given time to fill out the planning sheet and write a rough copy. The rough copy is due Monday.

We continued the class with additional notes on elements of short stories (conflict and point of view). We then went to the library and students picked books for their Independent Novel Study Assignment.

During the second period of class, students read silently for ten minutes before we moved onto an activity on 'themes'. We watched four Pixar short videos ("Twit Twit", "Teamwork", "For the Birds", and "Partly Cloudy"), then students split up in groups of four, and wrote out the types of conflict and  themes for each video on chart paper. We then went over the ideas as a class. To finish, we started to read the story "Catch" in Sightlines 8. Finish this story for homework.

Reminders:

• Thumbprint Profiles:OVERDUE
• Finish reading "Catch": Monday Feb. 23, 2015
• Finish ROUGH DRAFT of the letter to Ms. Jones: Monday, Feb.  23, 2015

English 11

I hope you enjoyed one of the most controversial stories in history!!!!

We started off class with a small discussion on "The Doll's House"; we talked about themes of status, material values, superficiality, and the division of social classes. Students then worked on questions for the story.

After that, we read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and discussed its history/significance. We will continue the literary analysis of the story next class.

Reminders:

• Literary paragraph: due Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015
• "The Doll's House" questions: due Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

We started off the day with notes on verbs (passive/active and verb tenses).  After that, we finished our worksheet for "Tell-Tale Heart" and watched a short animation of the story.

Moving onto our next short story, we read the article "Doing Time", which is about a teenager conflicted with jail time. We then had a discussion on motivations and stereotypes of criminals (students submitted a worksheet for this). Finally, we read Langston Hughes's story "Thank You Ma'am".

Reminders:

• Thumbprints due today!
• Make sure you submitted you 'Motivations/Stereotypes' worksheet

English 8: Blocks 3/4

Thumbprint Profiles are looking great!

We started off the day with notes on verbs (passive/active and verb tenses). We then continued reading "Thank You Ma'am". Additionally, we read the article "Doing Time", which is about a teenager conflicted with jail time. We then had a discussion on motivations and stereotypes of criminals (students submitted a worksheet for this). Finally, we worked on questions corresponding to "Thank You Ma'am". Since we had a bit of spare time, we watched the "Schoolhouse Rocks" videos for nouns and verbs.

Reminders:

• Thumbprint Profiles due today!
• "Thank You Ma'am" questions: due tomorrow, Feb. 18, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

I'm glad you guys enjoyed the Ono Cho cultural fair today!

We started off the day with some notes on pronouns (as a continuation of our 'parts of speech' unit). Additionally, we went over the questions for "The Veldt". After that, as an introduction to our next story, I showed a Prezi outlining the life and works of Edgar Allen Poe. I even showed the Simpsons adaptation of his most famous work, "The Raven". We proceeded to read "Tell-Tale Heart" in Sightlines and discussed the story. We also started a worksheet, but we will finish it tomorrow during class. Students spent the rest of class at the cultural fair.

Reminders:

• Thumbprint Profiles: due Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015

English 11

Today, we reviewed the structure of literary paragraphs. Students were given a choice between two topics and must write a literary paragraph on "The Black Cat". Please come see me if you need help getting started on this. I gave students about 45 minutes to work on this.

For the last portion of the class, I demonstrated close reading and taking literary notes. We also read the first two pages of "The Doll's House" by Katherine Mansfield. Please finish this by tomorrow.

Reminders:

• "The Black Cat" questions were due today!
• "The Black Cat" paragraph: due Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015
• Read "The Doll's House" for tomorrow's class

English 8: Blocks 3/4

I hope you had a restful weekend!

We started off today with some notes on pronouns (a continuation of our unit on 'parts of speech'). We then continued reading "The Tell-Tale Heart", discussed the story, and watched a sort animation adaptation. We also went through some notes on 'unreliable narrators' and worked on comprehension questions for the story. After that, students took more notes on elements of short stories (plot, setting, theme and foreshadowing). To conclude class, we started reading "Thank You Ma'am"
 in Sightlines 8. We will continue this story tomorrow.

Reminders:

• Course Outlines!
• Thumbprint Profiles: due tomorrow, Feb. 17, 2015
• "Tell-Tale Heart" questions: due tomorrow, Feb. 17, 2015

English 11

Happy Friday the 13th!!!

To start off the day, I showed two examples of verbal irony ("Mean Girls") and dramatic irony ("Modern Family"). Students then took notes on elements of Gothic Horror. Before we started the analysis of "The Black Cat", I showed a quick Prezi outlining the life of Edgar Allen Poe and we watched the Simpson's adaptation of his poem "The Raven". We spent the rest of class going over the literary analysis for the story "The Black Cat". Students were given questions, which are to be completed as homework.

Reminders:

• "Identities" questions: due Today
• "The Black Cat" questions: due Monday, Feb. 16, 2015

English 8: Blocks 3/4

We started off today with some notes on nouns (common/proper/singular/plural). We also discussed "The Veldt" and worked on comprehension questions. We then watched the short film of "The Veldt". If you were absent, the link to the video is listed below.

As an introduction to our next short story, I showed a Prezi outlining the life of Edgar Allen Poe. We also watched the Simpson's adaption of the poem "The Raven". Finally, we started Poe's story "Tell-Tale Heart" in Sightlines 8, which we will continue next class.

Link to "The Veldt": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhOf-CN7xRc


Reminders:

• Bring back signed course outlines!
• "The Veldt" questions : due Monday, Feb.16, 2015
• Thumbprint Profiles: due Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

We started off today with some notes on nouns (common/proper/singular/plural). We then watched the short film of "The Veldt". If you were absent, the link to the video is listed below. After that, we worked on our Thumbprint Profiles and went to the Ono Cho Assembly.

Link to "The Veldt": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhOf-CN7xRc


Reminders:

• Bring back signed course outlines!
• "The Veldt" questions : due today
• Thumbprint Profiles: due Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015

English 8: Blocks 3/4

Thank you for working hard on your Thumbprint Profiles today!

We started off the day with notes on 'parts of plot' in short stories. We then went to the library to take out our Sightlines 8 textbooks. After that, I told two ghost stories aloud and we filled out a 'parts of plot' worksheet that identified the events in the stories.

During the second half of class, students worked on their Thumbprint Profiles and we read the story "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury.

Reminders:

• Bring back your signed course outlines!
• Thumbprint Profiles: due Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015

English 8: Blocks 7/8

I am sorry for the technical difficulties today with Internet streaming. I guess we learned an important lesson from our short story "The Veldt": DON'T RELY ON TECHNOLOGY!!!

We started off today with notes on the parts of plot. These are key terms that we will be using for this unit, so do not lose your notes! I then told two ghost stories aloud and we filled out a plot diagram worksheet, identifying the parts of plots of the stories. After that, I gave students time to continue working o their Thumbprint Profiles.

During the second half of class, students took more notes on the elements of short stories (theme and foreshadowing). I didn't get to do my activity on themes because the Internet wasn't working, so we read Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt" from the Sightlines textbook. Students then completed corresponding questions.

Reminders:

• Have your course outlines signed and returned!
• Questions for "The Veldt" : due Friday, Feb. 13, 2015

English 11

Thanks so much for your attention during note-taking today!

Today I went through a PowerPoint demonstrating all the literary terms you will need to know for short stories. These are terms that will appear on tests in the future, so don't lose your notes!

After our long session of note-taking, we watched the music video of "The Suburbs" by The Arcade Fire (directed by the amazing Spike Jones). We then analyzed the lyrics to the song and found many parallels with the short story "Identities"(themes of isolation, security enforced by the law, barriers between upper and lower classes, boredom, and false perceptions of security). I went through a PowerPoint that showed the story analysis of "Identities" and highlighted important quotations that demonstrate imagery. After that, students had time to work on questions that were assigned. These are due next class.

During the second period of class, we discussed the stereotypes of 'the crazy cat lady' and the history of this theory. I also showed a clip of Sheldon and his cats from "The Big Bang Theory" to reinforce this notion in media culture. We then started reading "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe, which is another example of madness arising from feline pets. Please finish this story for next class.

Reminders:

• "Identities" questions: due Friday, Feb. 13, 2015
• Finish reading "The Black Cat" for Friday, Feb. 13, 2015

English 11

I am very excited to be teaching this course! English 11 is amazing, and I'm not just being biased.

I started off class today by introducing myself and talking a bit about my background.  Students then filled out a survey (to help me learn a bit more about them). We proceeded to go over the course outline and the expectations of the class.

We mainly talked about the major themes in English 11: Tragedy and the Tragic Hero, Good vs. Evil, Gothic Horror, and Power. We also watched the NFB video "Neighbours", which encompasses all of the major themes. I know it is quirky, but many of you found it entertaining. I arranged chart paper with the major themes around the classroom; students circulating the room, writing down people, characters, movies, or thoughts that connected to that theme specifically. We then discussed it as a class.

To conclude the day, we read the short story "Identities". We will be continuing with this next class.

English 8: Blocks 7/8 and 3/4

Welcome to English 8! It was very nice to meet all of you today!

Today I started off with a small introduction of myself.  I then went over the course outline and expectations. As a class, we came up with specific ways the expectations can be achieved. Students also completed a questionnaire and a 'Learning Profiles' quiz. This will help me get to know them better.

To conclude the day, we started our first English assignment (Thumbprint Portraits). We will continue working on these next class.

Reminders:

• Have your course outlines signed and brought back for marks!

English 8

I hope you guys feel ready for your test tomorrow!

For the first half of class today, we had an open-book quiz on Commonly Confused Words. We then played two rounds of Jeopardy to review literary terms. I also gave about 15 minutes to complete poetry assignments.

For the second half of class, we did a practice reading comprehension test, we read through a "Star Trek" drama script as a class, and completed some punctuation and grammar exercises.

Reminders:

• Poetry booklets due today!
• Marks are posted - please check for missing assignments
• FINAL EXAM: TOMORROW, FEB. 5, 2015 (A.M.)
• Last day to hand in work: Friday, Feb. 6, 2015

English 10: Blocks 5/6

Today we spent time in the library taking E-exams from past Provincial Exams.

After the break, we went over our Speak Test, and we did a practice multiple choice test (as a class). We then played another Jeopardy review game and finished the class with some rounds of Scattegories (for vocabulary building).

Reminders:

• ENGLISH 10 PROVINCIAL EXAM: TOMORROW, FEB. 3, 2015 (A.M.)