English 12 — Period 4 — Mon. May 7 & Tues. May 8

Monday: We began to look at texts on the class-selected theme of “motivation”. We started with the RSA Animate video of Daniel Pink discussing his book Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. We discussed his main points about how rewards do and do not work and about the three key motivating factors: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Tuesday: We turned to poetry, which will be our focus for this unit. We first read “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, reviewing literary terms and discussing what aspects of this poem make it motivating and inspirational.

We then read “Imagine the Angels of Bread” by Martín Espada and brainstormed connections and similarities between the two poems.

Next: We will work in pairs and triads to collaboratively construct synthesis essays on the topic: “Compare and constrast optimism in ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou and ‘Imagine the Angels of Bread’ by Martín Espada”.

English 9 — Mon. May 7 & Tues. May 8

Monday: We continued to work on our personal narratives (see previous posts) focusing on certain key elements including capitalizing the word “I” (!!!), using our descriptions of people and places to support the main ideas and effects we want to create in the composition, and including some reflection at the end in order to develop our ideas and think through the full significance of the story we have told.

Tuesday: We peer-reviewed our personal narratives on Google Docs. Those narratives are now due. Please share them with me when they are complete.

Homework: Borrow a book from somewhere other than our school library which needs all books returned by May 17th.

English 12 — Period 1 — Mon. May 7 & Tues. May 8

Monday: We began to read poems related to our class-chosen theme of “Relationships”. We first read and discussed “Cigarettes” by Michael Crummey.

In addition to using this as an opportunity to review literary terms, we focused on the theme of “acceptance”.

We ended by reading “I Invite My Parents To a Dinner” by Chen Chen. How does this poem compare and contrast with “Cigarettes”?

Tuesday: We worked in groups to generate ideas for our topic: “Compare and contrast acceptance in ‘Cigarettes’ by Michael Crummey and ‘I Invite My Parents to a Dinner’ by Chen Chen.

Tomorrow: We will work in pairs and triads to collaboratively construct synthesis essays on this topic.

 

English 9 — Fri. May 4

Today: We started drafting our personal narrative on one of the following topics:

• Fears can be overcome.
• Some fears will stay with you forever.
• Guilt comes with regret.
• We can use our best abilities to deal with our fear.
• We will anticipate the future more positively if we can overcome our fears.
• Strong emotions can affect us in unexpected ways.

Homework: If you are less than halfway done your story, keep working on it at home. We will have more time to finish on Monday, but I will be interrupting you to make sure you are including certain specific elements. It would be best if you are finished or almost finished your story before Monday.

English 12 — Fri. May 4

Today: We finished going through the example provincial exam, reading and marking example synthesis essays.

Homework: Find a book that you can read during silent reading which is NOT from our school library. This assignment is due May 17.

English 9 — Wed. May 2 & Thu. May 3

Over these two days: We completed the package about the personal essay “Tripp Lake” and generated the following themes. Pick one to write your own personal narrative about.

• Fears can be overcome.
• Some fears will stay with you forever.
• Guilt comes with regret.
• We can use our best abilities to deal with our fear.
• We will anticipate the future more positively if we can overcome our fears.
• Strong emotions can affect us in unexpected ways.

Homework: Pick something from your personal experience that you can use as the basis for this personal narrative so you can come to class tomorrow ready to write.

English 12 — Wed. May 2 & Thu. May 3

Wednesday: We selected new topics for our unit on synthesis writing. Period 1 selected “Relationships” and Period 4 selected “What motivates us”.

We then looked at an example of the English 12 provincial, using the analysis section to review analysis and some literary terms.

Thursday: We continued going through the provincial exam.

English 9 — Mon. Apr. 30 & Tues. May 1.

On Monday: We completed our short stories about being “fearless” inspired by the scientific journal article about the woman known as “SM”.

On Tuesday: We read the personal essay, “Tripp Lake” and started to do a number of study questions for it.

Next: We will continue to discuss the essay and work through the study package, ultimately coming up with similar topics and themes for our own personal narrative about our experience with fear or another strong emotion.

English 12 — Mon. Apr. 30 & Tues. May 1

On Monday: We peer reviewed one of our previous two compositions.

On Tuesday: We revised and submitted our peer reviewed composition.

Next: New unit! We will be focusing on synthesis essays (compare & contrast, for example) and selecting a new universal theme to focus on as a topic.

English 9 — Fri. Apr. 27

Today: We started to write a short story based on “SM” from the scientific paper we read yesterday. Assignment description here.

Homework: Continue to work on this short story this weekend. We will have one more class period (Monday) to complete it.