Staying in the Loop

English 11: poet and poetry connections

Big idea: The exploration of text and story deepens our understanding of diverse, complex ideas about identity, others, and the world.

Big question: What can we learn about the poet through their writing?

Today’s Task:

1. search for poems that appeal to you that are all written by the same poet.
2.  become familiar with as many poems as you can written by that poet.
3. pay attention to the theme, the tone, the imagery of the poem. What are you noticing?

 

How do the poems reveal the poet’s values, morals, opinions and thoughts?

 

 

English 11: playing with poetry begins

Most times when I suggest we study poetry, students moan. I really mean this. They moan. They ought not to. I work hard to preventing moaning. It’s a drag to be the recipient of such noises.

1. Let’s look at someone who was considered avant garde in the world of poetry: e.e. cummings.
   • get the gist of his poems (there are SO many at poetryfoundation.org)
   • choose a song and “e.e. cummings” it
   • justify your choices (and connect to the reading you did on e.e. cummings – online or with this summary sheet
2. Let’s play with words… choose some interesting words and write a poem. It really does not matter what it’s about or what it looks like. Our goal is to work with sounds of words, with rhythms and with purposeful placement. Beware: you may be recording these works of art.

English 9: Citing Sources in and out of text

English 11: how I’ve missed you

It’s been a long while since a post was posted.

Here’s the update in a nutshell: we have been focussing on short stories.

1. we looked at children’s literature
2. we ensured we fully understood the difference between narrative and plot
3. we talked about the plot structure of a story (the inciting incident, the conflict moving the story forward, the thing that happens that results in a “new” normal)
4. we wrote our own stories (audience: teens)
5. we rewrote our own stories within a word count frame
6. we shared our stories for feedback and the worked on them some more (or started over again)
7. we wrote a 100 word “poem” of our story
8. we field tripped to Alexander Park for a walk down memory lane (you were such lovely little primary students) and to read with a grade 2 partner from Ms. Baller’s class.

English 9: using databases

To access our databases at school, you need to follow this pathway:

1. goldensecondarylearninghub.com
2. clink on ERAC on the right side of the screen
3. scroll down and find the databases that will best suit our needs for this project
   • World Book
   • Explora
   • EBSCOhost
4. using the ADVANCED SEARCH option, you can narrow your search including things like full text and reading level.
5. once you find an article, click on the file folder to save it.
6. from the file folder, you can email the article to yourself or save it to your google drive account for future reference.

Note: use KEYWORDS when searching in these databases. This is NOT Google or any other search engine on the internet so asking a question (for instance “what are the causes of fear) does not work well.

English 9: evaluating information sources

It’s important to explore the validity of the sites you are accessing when cruising the World Wide Web. There’s a lot of “stuff” out there, so we need to do the CRAAP test when we come across something that looks good.

We learned the hard way… some of us.

You’ve taken notes in class, but here is a handout if you need another copy or an access point if you want to see this again in the future.

https://gsseagleslibrary.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/craaptesthandout.pdf

English 9: skimming and scanning with purpose

We talked, today, about purposeful skimming and scanning when conducting research,  Essentially, we want to be looking for the “gems” in the articles we’re searching for to support the answering of our complex inquiry questions.

The evidence we find to support the “answering” of our question can be found in all sorts of places. Often, through the search, we have to sift through information.

Today we looked at an article called “Henry Ford’s FEAR OF CHANGE“. While we listened to the article being read aloud, we looked for things that where interesting or surprising (marking them with a !); things that we wondered about or wanted to know more (marking them with a ?); and things that we agreed with or liked (marking them with a check mark).

Next, we searched for THREE pieces of information that would help to answer our inquiry questions about fear. We had to sift through the clutter (Ford’s opinions of the idle upper classes) to locate the information relevant to fear. We worked together as a class to narrow down our key finds.

It’s important that, when we read, we do not abandon articles before giving them a fair chance in providing us insight into our inquiry. Skimming and scanning help, and reading for “gems” is key.

Happy researching!

English 11: the formulaic essay

We are using the focused paragraphs on plot, subject, protagonist and author’s point of view – all related to Monroe’s “Red Dress” – to write our first essay without a lot of guided instruction.

Assignment: write a basic FIVE paragraph essay (introduction, body, conclusion) on the theme of “Red Dress”.

A couple of points we talked about in class (THANK YOU for 100% attendance):

1. the introductory paragraph needs to make me want to read the rest of your essay. Seth mentioned the word “hook”. I said YAY!  Here is the link to the page that you will find Introductory Paragraph Options that may make your heart soar (or mine when I read your introduction).
2. each body paragraph needs to follow PEE (point – evidence – explanation). Here’s a link to an explanation if you need one beyond the explaining I do in class (sometimes it’s helpful to read someone else’s writing).
3. your conclusion needs to restate the reason you are writing the essay (seems obvious that you would mention theme) and the three key reasons you believe the theme is what it is.

For those of you who might be interested (and those of you who know you should be interested even if you are not), have a listen to one of my favorite podcasters, Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, talk about creating a strong essay outline. This will be invaluable for many of you. If you don’t have headphones, you can read what she says as well. Here’s the link: How to Create a Strong Essay Outline

Finally, before you submit your essay, you will be required to READ IT ALOUD to yourself, recording it so that you can listen back to yourself. Why? Because I FIRMLY believe that you will find errors in your writing (or clunks or wordiness) by reading your writing aloud. You will fix your writing as a result of the read aloud and then… VOILA, your writing will improve. #winwin

English 11: 4 paragraphs (collecting evidence to lead to theme)

After reading “Red Dress”, refer to the article”How to Identify the Theme in a Work of Literature” and write 4 paragraphs.

1. Plot of the work.
2. Subject of the work.
3. Protagonist.
4. Author’s point of view.

You are showcasing your talent as a writer who can seamlessly make a point with evidence and explanations to support.

English 9: Places we can find GOOD information

There are so many talks and videos available through TED Education and TED.

Here are a couple that might help in your exploration of fear.  At the very least, you have one more place to look in your search for the evidence that will help you discover answers to your personal inquiry.

First, why is being scared so fun?

And then, what can fear teach us?

Watch. Take notes. Rewatch. Create further questions. It’s all interesting.