English 10
Today we shared our first quatrain with our group. Other group members would then try to determine the foot, meter, and rhyme scheme. Don't forget - the first step is always counting syllables!

After our opening activity, we began work on the last two quatrains. You must bring in a typed version of this poem tomorrow, Wednesday June 1. This is your draft copy. We'll do a quick peer edit tomorrow, and make good copies to hand in the following day.

Homework
Complete the draft version of your 3 quatrains. Type it and bring it in tomorrow.

English 12AP
Today we'll return to Milton's Paradise Lost.

English 9 SPECTRUM
Today was our first editing day for our short stories. There was a lot of enthusiasm today! Make sure you go through the following steps before we reconvene on Wednesday:

1. Find a partner who will be your editing buddy.
2. Exchange essays and contact information with that person.
3. Read the essay, and do the following:
1. Was it interesting? yes/no - and why.
2. Write feedback directly on the story that addresses grammar and content concerns.
3. At home, write 6 - 8 sentences that describe your overall impression. Feedback should be constructive.

Homework

Complete the feedback for your partner. You will be marked for your feedback, so be sure to complete all the above steps.

English 12AP

Some of you are returning the novels you borrowed over the course of the semester. Keep them coming in!

English 10

Today we learned about using rhythm and meter in practice. We begun work on our symbol poem.

Remember, a quatrain has 4 lines and a rhyme scheme. You may pick your rhyme scheme and your foot and meter.

Homework
Finish ONE quatrain for your symbol poem.

Today is soliloquy day!

English 12
Yes, we are performing our soliloquies today.

Reminder: Tomorrow is the deadline for submitting your creative assignments to apbooksubmission@gmail.com

EDIT: If you would like to extend your skits to Wednesday, June 1, please post a comment under this post by midnight tonight!

English 10
Today we took a pause from poetry to check out the effect of symbolism in "The Smile" by Ray Bradbury. Then we did more poetry - but this time, with a symbol!

Homework
Be sure to complete your diamante. Colour it in. Make it pretty. Rainbows and stuff. Cut it to a square.

English 10
Today we presented our group poems and began working on our own diamantes.

Here's the diamante form we're using:

                      Noun
        Adjective    Adjective
   Verb         Verb          Verb
Noun    Noun    Noun    Noun
   Verb         Verb          Verb
        Adjective    Adjective
                      Noun

Make it pretty. Put some colours and drawings on it. Print the text. Cut the poem down to a nice square shape. Due on Monday, May 30.

English 12
Today we got our soliloquies back and took a day to practice our soliloquies and skits. Tomorrow is soliloquy day!

English 9 SPECTRUM
Today we observed the ENEX project presentations for the grade 10s. Take notes, people - this will be you next year!

Reminder: The first draft of your Strathcona narratives is due on Monday next week.

English 10
Today we finished up our good copies of the narrative essays. If you need extra time, please come and see me during lunch.

We returned to poetry analysis, and are now looking at some points as groups. On Thursday, we'll present our findings and respond to the big questions we examined on the board:

1. What message is the speaker trying to convey?

• How do you know? (make references to the text)

1. Foot/Meter/Rhyme Scheme?
2. Poetic Devices? Use your package!

• Locate devices and explain how it adds meaning to the poem.

English 12AP
We'll be getting class time for Othello skits/videos on Thursday this week. Don't forget - we have two deadlines coming up:

1. Friday, May 27 - This is the day for your soliloquies.
2. Tuesday, May 31 - This is the day for your Othello skits/videos.

It's time for some Shakespearean Sonnets! Here's our sonnet signup list for today:

1. 138
2. 43
3. 116
4. 18
5. 130

Yes, you need to edit your writing. Guess what we'll be doing!

English 10
Today we handed each other's feedback back to the essay author. We took some time to review possible revisions and went back to work on our good copy. We'll have some time tomorrow to finish our good copies, but not the entire class.

Once you are finished, staple the good copy on top of your draft. Do not staple the feedback form to your essay. Hand in your partner's feedback form in a separate pile at the front of the room. This way there will be two hand in items: Your essay, and your partner's feedback.

English 12AP
Today we discussed your soliloquies, which you all have been practicing over the long weekend! Here's what I'll be looking for in your presentations:

1. Clarity: Is it English?
2. Eye contact: Does the audience exist?
3. Inflection: Do you use inflection or do you speak with a robot voice?
4. Memorized

Soliloquy presentation day is Friday, May 27.

The provincial has 3 written responses on it. A short, one paragraph response to a poem or short story, a synthesis question, and an open-ended composition question. On Thursday, we did a practice run of the final composition question. For revision, we discussed the two big items we should include for the final essay topic: A twist or surprise in the narrative, and a cathartic return to the topic as your final thought.

We'll be making skits for Othello. These are group assignments that can be recorded or presented in front of the class. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your knowledge of genre and adapt original scenes into a language appropriate for your genre selection. 

Groups:

1. Joel's Group - Act 3 scene 4 (Romantic Comedy)
2. David's Group - Act I scene 1 (Law & Order)
3. Dorothy's Group - Act 2 scene 3 (Reality TV)
4. George's Group - Act 4 scene 1 (High School Drama)
5. Jill's Group - Act 5 scene 2 (Black Comedy)

We'll be performing/showing these skits on Tuesday, May 31.

English 9 SPECTRUM

Today we took a look at the rubric for our creative writing assignment. The first draft of this assignment is due on Monday, May 30:

1. Typed
2. Size 12, Times New Roman
3. Double-spaced/Double-sided
4. Name/Date

The revision of our narratives is a significant step and will take at least one class. Don't worry about the revision steps until you complete your first draft.

For class, we'll be discussing our last big unit - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Greetings! Time to get this road on the show!

English 10
Today we did another English 10 provincial practice. Remember: your peer feedback assignment is due next class. Tuesday, May 24, 2016.

English 12AP
The word is out, our next big assignment is the presentation of our soliloquies. We'll share these on Friday next week. You may also trade with a partner. In cases where there is some dialogue before the soliloquy, other students can help you along to establish the context.

Hey, here's a list of Composition Topics From Previous Provincials.

Good morning team, and may the sun shine ever in your favour!

English 9 SPECTRUM
Today we expanded a highlighted section of our story notes using one of the following approaches:

• Narrative
• Imaginative
• Descriptive
• Personal

Also, we worked on our first sentence, and discussed what makes a good opening sentence.

Homework

Expand another highlighted component of your story and decide on a good first sentence.

English 10
Today we'll be finishing up our narrative/persuasive compositions and do some peer editing. Be sure to put your name on the peer editing sheet you complete so that I know who did it!

Did anyone notice that scent? It's the scent of lit circles!

Here is the Google Slide document that I used to show you the questions you need to answer. You should have 5 questions and 1 paragraph for your feedback form.

Homework
Complete your feedback work to be handed in on Tuesday, May 24.

English 12AP
Today we'll be looking at Emilia before moving on to Act IV.

1. Why doesn't Emilia tell Desdemona about the handkerchief?
2.  Is it unlikely that she is truly unaware of Iago's plot regarding the handkerchief?

IV
1. How does Iago enable Othello's jealousy in IV.i?
2. How do we know that this has utterly unraveled Othello's character?
3. How do the themes of Othello to this point appear similar to Shakespearean comedy?
4. Is Emilia actually aware of Iago's plot in IV.ii? Is she playing coy, or is she genuinely naive?
5. What is the meaning behind Desdemona's song in IV.iii?
6. What can we infer about Emilia and Desdemona's character based on their conversation about infidelity that follows Desdemona's song in IV.iii?
7. What meaning can we extract from Emilia's final comment before she leaves Desdemona for the night in IV.iii?

English 10
Today we discussed the basic elements of a persuasive essay and began work on our narrative essay! We also briefly touched on persuasive writing, but keep in mind that persuasive writing doesn't play as significant a role in English 10 as it does in English 11 or 12.

English 12AP
Today we examined some major questions regarding Act III in Othello. Tomorrow we'll be discussing Emilia's intentions - regarding her behaviour and the handkerchief as well as Act IV.

Homework
Read Act IV!

Greetings all!

English 9 SPECTRUM
Today we wrote about our experiences in Strathcona. The goal is to write (in point form) about the events that actually happened - this is not a draft, only an overview of what actually happened. Next we highlighted certain points of our experience that we would like to "spice up"

English 12AP
Today we did a practice run of a EN12 provincial, and to our shock and horror, there are some pretty ambiguous questions! Keep your copy of the provincial and we'll revisit the essay content later.

Homework
For now, we'll be returning to Othello. Please read Act III before tomorrow so we may discuss it!

English 10
We took a closer look at section C of the provincial and learned some of the basics of narrative writing. You have done this kind of thing before. Section C is essentially asking you to respond to a topic. Using the narrative form is often beneficial here where you can respond with a personal experience that reveals your position on the subject.

Homework
Complete an outline for section C before tomorrow. You may bring in your first sentence in complete form, but the rest should be in point form.

On that note, the photos for Strathcona are ready, but due to regulations regarding student data on servers in the USA, I can't share them via One Drive. I can, however, share them if you bring in a USB stick.

There are 322 photos (some are duplicates) that take up about 2.2 GB.

English 12AP
Today we took a gander at some synthesis writing with poetry. We'll be combining English 12AP and English 12 approaches to synthesis - but as you know I'll be assessing you at the English 12 level.

English 10
Today we learned about examining poetry and took a look at a couple examples.

English 12 AP
Hey, here's something to check out. What does a good synthesis essay look like? Here's a good break down.

Today we took a closer look at the kind of essay and work you'll be doing for the remainder of English 12AP.

English 10
Today we finished (nearly) all presentations. Very nice! Tomorrow we'll return to poetry and take a look at the steps of parsing a poem.

Homework
If you haven't handed in your written response yet, please do so by Friday, this week!

English 12 AP


You have completed the test! See you all tomorrow, AP12!

English 10
More presentations completed today, more to go tomorrow!

English 12 AP
Behold: the complete literature resource. Many of these items we have used on our practice essays and MC, but there are a few things here we haven't used. Enjoy!

AP LIT 12 PACKAGE.

Good luck on your test tomorrow. GET SOME SLEEP TONIGHT.

English 10
Today we began our song presentations! Remember: you've had a week to work on these. You'll have to do a lot more than press play to pass. Check below for the big questions you should address in your presentation.