Thursday Content Test

After discovering today that many of you hadn't read the story, I've decided to make the content test really comprehensive. You need to read all of the stories.

Earth Day Assembly

I wasn't in class before you headed off to the Earth Day Assembly, so I didn't remind you, but you should be prepared for your quotation analysis for Tuesday's class. It's going to be on Part 3 of Gulliver's Travels. You will be given a passage which has something to do with women.

Fresh Air Friday

Well, so much for daily blogging. I've been a little busy, what with report cards and all. So, just to make a bit of an effort:
today we finished the Quotation Analysis work with group analysis based on Dickenson's "A Light Exists in Spring" which I analyzed for you and handed out as a photocopy. I handed out your report cards, and then we went outside to sit in the bleachers and read short stories. Next week, I have scheduled a content test for the short stories sometime before the first seminar on Friday. I will give you as much time as possible to read the short stories before the test (think about that and you'll know when the test is). Also, we need to have one final quotation analysis evaluation on Gulliver's Travels, and that will also happen next week. So, I don't like to schedule significant work for Mondays, and I want to model a seminar for you before I expect you to do your first seminar. I'm thinking that I'll model my seminar for you on Wednesday...

You are awesome!!

I can't remember the last time I got everyone's essay in on time.!!! WOW. I'm really impressed, and perhaps inspired to mark all weekend since you have all worked so diligently to complete the assignment on time.
We also did a little bit of work on coordination and subordination of ideas, and then my expectations for your seminar presentations. Make sure you have a plan for a technological failure.
And finally, we began some work on how to find and state significance.
Have a great break.

Wednesday

We finished the literal and figurative level interpretations of Part III of Gulliver's Travels with mini-presentations by the class.
I set the dates for the April Seminar Presentations and we finished off the class with a few minutes work on Sentence Structure and variety.

Tangibly Tethered Tuesday

If you were not in class today, you still need to participate in peer editing using the sheet from the class. Make sure that you have two people edit your essay appropriately. You will be submitting your thesis and outline, your rough draft, your peer-edit sheets, and of course your final good copy of the essay itself.

I also outlined what we will be doing in class for the week. Tomorrow we finish Part III Presentations. Thursday we will be arranging specific dates for seminar presentations and going over seminar presentation expectations. If you will be away the last week of April, you need to let me know so I don't schedule you for a presentation on that day.

Monday, Just Monday

Today, I subverted your SURF by giving you assigned readings, and then the class broke into groups and began to make note of the literal and figurative significance of Part III of Gulliver's Travels. We were able to take up Chapter One, and we'll continue with the remainder on Wednesday.
You handed in your Modest Proposals - which I will try to have marked before Easter break.
I handed back most Quotation Analysis assignments - I still have about five to hand back tomorrow. Tomorrow I will have sheets for you to follow when you do your rough draft peer editing. Don't forget that your good copy is due on Thursday.

Fatalistically Feral Friday

Grammar lessons 17, 18, and 19. Since you've already done these but aren't sure of them yet, I had you drill each other on the answers. We'll do that again on Monday.
You finished working on your Modest Proposal after a brief tangential discussion about Reason and Martin Luther.

Your Modest Proposal

Continuing our work with satire, you set to task today to create your own modest proposal, incorporating satiric devices where possible and following a marking structure I handed out. I'm leaving the form and length up to you and evaluating the effectiveness of your satire. Be creative.
We also did Subject Complements for grammar.
If you missed your Quotation Analysis yesterday, you did it today at lunch in the classroom.
Tomorrow you will continue working on your satire and make sure you are writing chapter summary notes as you read ahead for Part III. I'll let you know when I expect you to hand them in. We will have a content test for Part IV.

Quotation Analysis

Today we had our in-class Quotation Analysis. Tomorrow we will continue with grammar and satire.

Tuesday

Grammar - Indirect and Direct Objects
Satire - a Modest Proposal + Questions
Quotation Analysis will happen in-class tomorrow. Bring your hand-out on How a Quotation has significance.

Oops, missed some posts

I can't imagine how time got away so quickly, but it seems I missed Thursday and Friday's posts...
Today, we had SURF, then you handed in your thesis outline resubmissions. We did one grammar lesson, then I read you a story. Tomorrow, we'll talk a little bit about satire, and then you will try your own creative attempt at satire of whatever genre you choose.
Thursday and Friday I showed you exemplars and handouts to help improve your quotation analysis.

Wednesday Grammar and Quotation Analysis

So - I hope I created a really painful review class for you - I do my best:

We reviewed Parts of Speech, 5 Necessary Elements of a Sentence, and Four Most Common Sentence Structure Errors. You will have a test on these on Friday. We did this review at the beginning of the semester, but most people didn't seem to know it, so the test should help to solidify your learning. I've posted a sheet on conjunctions for your further edification.

We also covered Clauses and Sentence Construction. This information will not be on your test, but you should know it because understanding clauses and sentence construction does help you to eliminate most of your sentence structure errors.

I also handed back most of the assignments, and I'll return the ones which came in today on Thursday. You will be resubmitting these for an actual evaluation on Monday. One friendly reminder that your final essay copy will be submitted on April 9th. Keep working at this so you don't get stressed out at the end.

Tuesday

Today we had a bit of a juggle at the beginning of class. You handed in your thesis outlines (most of you). We all wrote the grammar quiz and those students who didn't hand in their chapter notes yesterday wrote the Gulliver's Travels quiz today.

After that was finished, we turned to a study of Part II - Voyage to Brobdingnag. We looked at how Part II is a complete reversal of Part 1, including Gulliver being ridiculously pompous about his mighty Kingdom, just as the King's advisor had been with him. I then had you get into groups and compare what Gulliver is actually saying to the King versus what is really being said to the King. You could use the king's response to Gulliver to help you to understand what Gulliver is not aware he is saying.

We'll continue with this comparison tomorrow.

Welcome Back - Thesis and outline due tomorrow

A little bit of grammar to begin - reviewing the first unit in preparation for the quiz tomorrow. Also tomorrow is a content quiz for those students who did not hand in the chapter summary notes in class today.
Finally, we discussed, at a fairly superficial level, the difference between satire and parody, defining humour and sarcasm to start with. You should be aware that parody is imitative, generally amusing, and intended to ridicule, whereas satire is not necessarily funny (often quite deadpan), generally political or social in nature, and is intended to reveal problems in order to bring about change.

Thesis and outline are due Tuesday, March 24th, as per my blog posting of Friday, February 20th.

Next ISU Rubric

I most likely have your rubric for the ISU, so here's a copy of it...

Friday!!!!

I continued with my in-class meetings with students about thesis statements.

The major decision we came to today is that we won't have content tests on the book, but rather you will write three major point summaries for each chapter you read, and you will do this from Chapter 7 of Part I to the end of Part II. I will collect these on Monday when you return from March Break.

NB You will NOT be rewarded for writing more than 3 main points- I just want to make sure you are reading and I know the content tests are a little tricky when there is so much detail and you are reading ahead so much.

Bottle caps and confusable words

After a brief lecture on removing bottle caps from bottles before you dispose of them, we resumed our grammar lesson on unit one, finishing the unit with confusable words.

You will have your unit 1 test on Tuesday when we return from the break, and to prepare we'll do the review on Monday. I let you read Gulliver's Travels for 30 minutes, and then I asked you to fill in a chart with Reldresal's speech outlining the greatest conflict in the universe and then to explain how the speech is satire.

Wednesday

We began class with the content quiz for chapters 1-3 of Part One. We discussed the chapters and some of the underlying jokes which contribute to the satire of the work. I gave you the remainder of the class to read.

There is no grammar test tomorrow as we did not finish the grammar review today. I'll schedule it for the Tuesday after the March Break.

Tuesday's class

We did two lessons from the grammar book, and I collected your Reading Journals. I gave you today as a reading period for Gulliver's Travels, since I'm giving you a content quiz tomorrow.

I conducted all of the scheduled interviews for the period, plus a few other people who were ready. I spoke to some of you who need to revisit me with a more fully developed thesis.

It is seemingly increasingly unlikely that I will have your reading journals marked by Friday. They are taking a very long time to mark...

Last Monday before March Break

We did the lesson on figurative language in the grammar workbook after SURF, and we took it up as well. I outlined the grammar schedule for the week, with a grammar quiz slated for Thursday.

I handed out your Interim reports, and handed back any reading journals you didn't get on Friday if you were away. Your second part of the ISU is due TOMORROW!!!

We discussed further distancing techniques in the Publisher's letter which you worked on independently. You should have a really good sense of how reliable this "true tale" is. What you don't know is why Swift wrote it, so I should remember to tell you that tomorrow. I let you use the last 20 minutes of class for reading the novel. There will be a content quiz on chapters 1-3 since we agreed that we won't read the novel aloud together, and once you get past the two introductory letters, it's actually quite easy to read. I hope you are enjoying it. I'll give you most of the class tomorrow to read it as I have scheduled meetings with students to discuss their thesis during the period in order to fit all the meetings in before Reading Week.

Friday!!

I handed back your Reading Journals today, but of course, forgot your Progress Reports, which is a pain, since I spent my prep period yesterday finishing them. I'll hand them out on Monday. We did a grammar lesson on language register (standard, colloquial, slang) and also one on Canadian, American, and British spelling variations.

I showed you the exemplars for the second part of your ISU - quotation analysis, Frye, and your secondary source. If you don't have the sheet on how to do a quotation analysis, check my post for useful handouts and you'll find one there. I let you read chapter one of Gulliver's Travels for the rest of the period. I will tell you how much of the book I expect you to have read when you come back from March Break - it's not the entire book, but you should at the very least be using your SURF period to keep up if you won't have time while you are away.

Thursday organization

Today I checked your homework from grammar, took up the questions, and laid out the seminar schedule for sign-up. The seminars will be in April, May, and June, but I'll give you specific dates as we get closer.

In class, we connected Frye to Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock", then moved on to Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd to his Nymph", Raleigh's response, and finally Swift's satiric completion "Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed". Hopefully an interesting perspective on Swift, an intro to Satire, and practice applying Frye to literature.

For homework, I want you to have the answer to the question "What is Satire?". We will go over the exemplars for the ISU and continue with Gulliver's Travels.

Persuasive Essay

Here is a great, real example of a persuasive essay which ties in with the topics you were given to discuss. I'm thinking of the technology or the alienation options specifically.

Ooops, I forgot Tuesday

Tuesday I showed you the two overheads detailing the Indo-European Languages family tree, place the English language within the Germanic Family, and then showed you two other overheads with examples of Old English and Middle English. We returned to our Grammar books for lesson one and two on the English Language - Two was for homework.

We spent the rest of the period going over the Frye piece - and you handed your reading journals in.

Wednesday, we took up Lesson Two, which most of you hadn't done, and we worked on lesson Three, which is for homework. We quickly finished Frye (for the people who were absent on Tuesday), and discussed once again the expectations for what is coming in as part Two of the ISU. I distributed Gulliver's Travels and we read through the very funny letter from Mr. Gulliver to his cousin after briefly connecting the book to the history of fantasy fiction and satire.

Monday March 2

We started with SURF, then skipped grammar because I want to show you an overhead of the astonishing Indo-European Languages family tree before we look at the history of the English Language.
You took turns taking up the lessons out of Echoes - make sure you are referencing the text when you respond. What is the author actually saying?
I handed you out the critical excerpt from The Educated Imagination plus the rubrics for part 2 of the ISU. We didn't have time for the exemplar, and we'll continue discussions and the exemplar tomorrow.
Reading Journals are due Tuesday.

Peruasive Essays due and class work

You can continue working on the essays from Echoes. I discussed the specific responses I'm looking for for question #2.

You handed in your persuasive essay. If you weren't in class, my rule of sending the essay by email the day it is due still applies. I need it by 4:30 today otherwise the standard late mark will be deducted.

I handed back your grammar tests as well. Monday we will have an organization day getting ready for the seminar schedule and I'll prep you for the next stage of your ISU. Reading Journals are due on Tuesday at the beginning of class.

Thursday - Supply Coverage

There is a questionnaire from UofG to fill out at the beginning of the period.
Grammar Lesson 29, 30, 31 from Book I – Verbs
We have been using “state of being” or “stative” instead of “linking” verbs. We went over this very quickly as part of a review of verbs, but now this time through everyone should actually be doing the lessons. I expect 50% of each lesson to be complete, and we’ll take it up on Friday.

Echoes – Persuasive Essays
There are three essays in total to read, and two days to read them. Full sentence responses…
To Err is Human, p. 306 Answer questions # 1 and # 3.
Science and Beauty, p. 311 Answer question 2 in chart form, #4 do a one sentence each, paragraph-by–paragraph summary and explain the transitions used between paragraphs.
Forget Prince Charming, p. 322 Questions 3 and 4.

Peer Editing

We finished discussing the persuasive strategies used in "America on $195 a Week", and I gave you the names and page numbers of three other persuasive essays you can refer to for ideas about structure, strategies, and organization.

We used the rest of the period for peer editing. If you missed it, get the sheet from yesterday's post and work on this on your own.

Here's the handout on Unity and Coherence (if you need a refresher).

From the blackboard:
Persuasive Essay Essentials
Content - Insight, ideas, reasons, examples, quotations, logic.
Organization - ideas in distinct sections, develop thesis so that everything else ties into it - sequence, periodic, circular
Coherence - sentences are clear and complete with effective transitions
Diction - interesting (but don't eat the thesaurus), appropriate word choices
Mechanics - CCVI format (Communication Guide) English is one of the Humanities, so use MLA format (endnotes)
edit for spelling and sentence structure

Tuesday's class

We had our grammar test today - written and marked - so I'll record the marks and return the tests to you tomorrow. Then we can start on learning the material actually planned for the Eng4U course.

We took up your responses to The Lady of Shalott, discussing different perspectives and what to do with your insights once you generate them. Make sure you are doing something with your observation - extending the insight into a connection you can make with the effect of the poem and various theses you could argue.

We were also able to discuss some of the persuasive strategies used by the writer of "America on $195 a Week". We didn't have time to go over the persuasive essays you can find in your Echoes text, but here they are now:

To Err is Human, p 306
Science and Beauty, p 311
Forget Prince Charming, p 322
We'll be looking at these essays in class, and I'll be assigning the reading for homework, so you may want to read these for SURF.

Peer Editing Review Sheet

We will be spending the period tomorrow working on the peer editing process. If you will be absent, you can work on the process on your own.

Monday, Feb., 23

Today's class was preempted by an assembly for a motivational speaker. I handed you out an example of a persuasive essay at the beginning of class, "America on $195 per week" which I want you to read. Please identify five different, specific strategies which the author uses to try to persuade you. Write in full sentences (you think more clearly that way) and then state the author's thesis. You should bring this with you to class tomorrow.

I rescheduled the grammar test for Tuesday, so there's still time for a little more studying, and I did post a review on Friday's blog.

I was also able to squeeze in another example of a persuasive essay which I speed-read to you at the end of the period. I'm sure much was lost in my haste, and I know it's hard to comprehend things when you are just listening, but I hope that you were able to see that a thesis can be presented effectively through an almost strictly narrative structure (with didactic elements embedded in the dialogue).

Your rough draft is due on Wednesday for peer review, and then the good copy will be due on Friday. If you don't have a rough draft on Wednesday, you will be working independently in C121 and will miss a valuable formative opportunity. If you will be away, get a copy of my peer review sheet on Tuesday and work on it with a partner or two outside of class.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Stephanie has told me one of the dates on the ISU is incorrect. The thesis is due on Tuesday March 24th, and not Tuesday March 25th.
We had an ISU Reading period today. You have a grammar test on Monday.

I posted a grammar review test here, but I've taken it down now since the test is over.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Your ISU Reading Journals are due March 3rd. That's less than 2 weeks away. You should be almost finished reading your novel by now. If you aren't, you are behind. I'm not giving you much homework right now because I expect you to be reading for about 1/2 an hour every night. You should also have about half of the rough work done for your journals. You need to be taking notes as you read along. What do you find interesting? Signficant?

Today, we did Mortal Syntax and Grammar Review pg 52. Your test is on Monday and I'll post some extra review work on Friday.
I handed out your Persuasive Essay Assignment. It is due Friday, February 27 - one week from tomorrow.!!!
In class, you also reassembled into your expert groups to review what you learned yesterday, and worked on applying some of you new ideas to a fresh interpretation of "The Lady of Shalott". You needed to develop a thesis on your own and to provide appropriate evidence to support your interpretation.

Tomorrow will be an Independent Novel Study reading period.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Note: I've moved the grammar quiz to Monday. We still need to do the review before the test.
Today, we had our morning Mortal Syntax lesson on the lack of a singular, gender neutral, 3rd person pronoun (fitting because we are also reviewing pronouns in general. The grammar review was lesson 39 and 40 - pronouns and pronoun antecedents. Review reflexive pronouns so that you don't over-correct and use "myself" when you just mean "me".
Kara brought us up to speed on the professional qualifications of a certain doctor, and then we launched into our academic conference, which I think went quite well. Bring you Echoes text to class tomorrow. YOU WILL NEED IT.
Levy reminded me that I promised a grammar review before the test, so I'll have that for you on Friday.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

You handed in your assessment pieces on "What Matters Most to Me", then Kyle presented his mini grammar lesson on rifle/riffle, an interesting example of the changeable nature of the English language and descriptive/prescriptive usage manuals.
We reviewed subject/verb agreement and the difficulties English presents us with its lack of a gender neutral, 3rd person singular pronoun. I've scheduled your grade 11 grammar review test for Thursday of this week.
You had the remainder of the period to work on your expert groups for your schools of literary criticism. Tomorrow you will be presenting in the form of a rotating colloquium. Each person in the group will have a chance to be the expert for his/her school while the other group members rotate around to learn about the other ways of interpreting literature.

Friday February 13, 2008

Here's what I wrote on the board:

Mortal Syntax - you were assigned lessons to master and share with the rest of the class
Grammar Review - p. 35, 36
Take up Echoes essay "How wise is it to separate our emotions"
"Seminars" on different schools of literary criticism:
Formalism/structuralism
Mythopoeic criticism
Reader Response
(Neo-) Marxist Criticism
Feminist Criticism
Deconstructive/Post-structuralist Criticism

You worked in expert groups to master your "school" - you will continue on Tuesday - then on Wednesday we will have a seminar/colloquium to share your new knowledge. Thursday we will apply this knowledge to "The Lady of Shalott".

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Here's the outline which I wrote on the board in class today:

Mortal Syntax - between you and I;
Grammar Review: 30, 31, 33;
Take up Closing of the (North) American Mind;
assign "How Wise is it...?" (p 406) answer question 2 in complete sentences and use direct evidence to support your answer.
assign "essay";

Assessment "Essay"/Piece "What Matters Most to Me"
looking for: focus and clarity re: priorities
effective us of examples
clear and convincing conclusion
proper paragraph structure
mechanics

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I moved on to the next Mortal Syntax "lesson" - I feel good. Then I handed out the verb chart with tense and aspect and together we conjugated the verb swim in simple present and present perfect.
We reviewed the sheet on argumentation together, then Heather and Mariah took up the questions from Echoes. I assigned question #4 from Closing of the (North American Mind) and Amman will be our expert tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Still reviewing grammar - pages 21-24. I have the answers to these questions if you want/need the feedback. Remember, I'm just reviewing the lessons, not actually teaching them, so you'll need to do most of the actual work on your own.
I gave you a handout on Reader Response and on Argument. I reviewed the reader response page with you, and I'll go over argumentation tomorrow.
I showed you two exemplars of reading journals on the overhead. Remember, your notes should be a minimum of 5-6 pages and hand-written (but legible). If you are a plot reader, be prepared to read your book twice.
Finally, I assigned "Of Revenge" by Francis Bacon from your Echoes text (p 344). Answer questions 1, 2, and 4.
I'll take Revenge and Brave New World questions up tomorrow.

Useful links for literary discussion and analysis

I've put several pages online. They are a mixture of old handouts that we don't use anymore (but are just too great to throw out), information I never got around to making a handout for in the first place, and possibly the duplicate of a handout you received in an earlier grade. Use them if you find them useful, but do read through them to see if there is anything helpful in there for this course.

Critical Reading
Writing a Literary Critical Analysis
Unity, Cohesion, Emphasis
Integrating Quotations Seamlessly
Strategies for Finding and Stating Significance
Argumentation and Persuasion
Writing an Effective Quotation Analysis

That's it so far. I'll post more things here as I type them up, think of them, or unearth them from the many files of paper I seem to have collected.

Week 2 Overview

Today, the plan is to review Grade 11 grammar lessons 17, 18, & 19, plus read a little from Mortal Syntax.
We will take up questions from "Perils of Indifference" and "Thinking through the Essay".
What I hope to accomplish this week is a review of essay writing - both the different types of essays plus Rhetorical Devices and Strategies employed within the essay.
You will have a short assessment piece before you submit a persuasive essay for evaluation.
We will be reading several pieces from Echoes:
Brave New World excerpt p. 331; "The Closing of the (North) American Mind" p. 325; The Role of the Teacher" p. 337; "Of Revenge" p. 344; "How Wise is it to Separate Our Emotions from the Rest of our Being?" p. 406. I'll assign questions from the text for each of these readings in tomorrow's blog.
Remember to incorporate direct quotations from the text into your answers.

Friday!!!!

Nice, easy class discussion based on the Ideas question sheet. We also worked a little on civilized discussion styles and the importance of sharing your voice (your opinion) and not being a sponge and not brutalizing people with your opinions (that's something I still need to work on!) Some of your are still finalizing your ISU novel. Mrs. Skrinda has let us know that there is a link to quality secondary sources on the library page now:

On the library website, there is a bar called "seconday sources" (on the left hand side of the page) that leads to websites that have quality reviews of books (New York Times Book Review for example) It might give them a start, at least. You can thank Mr. Rowe for this resource.

Great library and librarians! Make sure you thank them for their great work before you graduate.
So, if are struggling a little with the secondary source part of the assignment, look here first for some ideas.

We start grammar for seriously on Monday (yes, I _know_ that's not proper grammar - I'm being funny), so bring your money, your grammar book, or your photocopied pages of the grade 11 grammar expectations to class on Monday, as well as your Echoes text.

Third Day of Class

I handed out two different pieces of writing at the beginning of class. One is called Ideas, the other "Thinking through the Essay" You read Ideas today, answered the questions on a separate handout, and then got together to discuss you response to the article. We finished the class with a bit of a class discussion about our personal response to the article.
I assigned the questions for the Frye article for the students leaving for the DECA trip:
#1, 2, and 4. You can't do either 3 or 5, and I'd like to to answer in complete sentences.

Second Day

You picked up your textbooks from the library, we went over the grammar lesson numbers you should have done in grade 11 and will do in grade 12, and I showed you a copy of the grammar review test from grade 11. For the remainder of the period, you read "The Perils of Indifference" and answered, in full sentences, questions 1 a,c, 2, and 3. We'll take those up tomorrow, continue narrowing down novel choices for your ISU, and read an interview with Northrop Frye "Thinking through the Essay". The fun never ends.

Incase you missed it, the lessons which you should have covered in grade 11 are:
17, 18, 19, 21-24, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 52.

First day + ISU Assignment

Today was mostly just an overview - I went over the course outline, handed out the ISU assignment, and gave you a sheet of the Top Ten grammatical errors which you need to be aware of in your writing. I'll be posting a few lists of award-winning American authors in the classroom for you to refer to when you select your ISU novel, which you need to do ASAP.

Review Week and Intro to Course

We'll spend most of our time this week reviewing basic concepts for discussing literature, some of the essential English language conventions covered so far in your high-school English career, and general expectations for the course. This course is quite heavy up-front, with most of the major assignments completed by the time your marks get submitted to university. You need to hit the ground running, and then we relax a little with more creative or participatory assignments in the second half of the semester.