From My Bookshelf

WOW! That was a whole lot of talking and information I gave you on Thursday. I'm sure that some of you were sitting there watching my words float right over your head and there were others who were just starting to see where all the concepts and ideas were leading.No need to panic. We will be going through these terms, definitions and ideas again often over the course of this semester.

In our quest to become better writers and engaged learners it is important to learn the rules of literature. Before we can get to the "fun, creative stuff" we will have to learn the basics. If we start to think of this lesson in relation to our first unit - Conflicts, Challenges and Choice - then we can being to make connections between the lectures and the assignments.

During this lesson we came up with a definition for "well-crafted". We asked ourselves what a well-crafted work looked like. Now we are going to apply the definition to the novels we have been reading and articulate (say out loud) what actually makes it a "good" book.

Homework: Due Monday Nov.1st. (for both 9A and 9B)
Look through your bookshelf and decided which book is your favourite and why. Choose one "well-crafted" book that you are going to share with the class. Come to class with some ideas of what you would put on the front cover. Make a list of symbols, imagery, characters or themes that are present in the book and some thoughts on how you could represent them on a book cover.

Presentation and Assignment due date is November 10th, 2010.

Crazy busy short week

Homework due for Tuesday, October 26th.

It just seems like every single week we have a day off or something special that disrupts our school day. This week (Oct 20th to 22nd) we will not be having classes because the teachers are off to Calgary for a convention.

Since you will be having a few extra days at home you will be given a package of information to work on. The first package will deal with Quoatation Marks, Punctuating dialogue, Effective Adjectives and Using Transition words. I found that many of us know about these different elements of writing but forget how to use them to make our writing more effective. It is important to have these reminders so that we can get to the point where the reader is able to concentrate on the content of your work rather than the mechanics.

The second package - Comma Splices, Simple Sentences, Independent and Subordinate clauses, and Combining sentences must also be completed.

Please pay careful attention to the instructions. If you have any questions or concerns make a note of them on the side of your paper so that we can address them in class.

Both packages are due for Tuesday, October 26th.

Assessment Questionnaries

In order for the school board to fully diagnose the Persuasive writing assessment we just completed they would like to find out your thoughts by completing a questionnaire. Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions to the best of your ability.

The questionnaire should take no more than 20 mins. The link below will take you directly to the website where you may answer the questions.

Student questionnaire

Welcome back to Writing Thursday!

Today we will go back to Writing Thursday (I can see your smiling and eager faces - so beautiful)

The prompts (yes, prompts!) will be a little unique today. Instead of writing about one idea or prompt for the whole 50 mins we will try something new. There will be a hat full of prompts and one will be picked out at a time. You will get a chance to write on that prompt for 5 mins then we move on!

Sharpen your pencils and get set to write!

Persuasive writing assessment

Well, the time for writing assessments has come again. We will be working on a city wide assessment package. You will have the opportunity to show how you construct a piece of persuasive writing using pre-writing, drafting and editing procedures.
This will not be a part of your report card mark but is a requirement.

If you have any questions about the assessment or how the results will be used please make sure to ask me.

Persuasion

For the next week we will be working on Persuasion letter writing. The activities and class work will be in preparation for our participation in a city wide assessment. This assessment assignment and the evaluation will not be part of your report card mark but it is a great way of finding out your creative writing strengths and areas to work on.

We will start working on the assignment on Thursday so there will be no Creative Writing Thursday.
(Stop crying, you are big boys and girls now).

Your "gifts" from last week are still in the process of being marked. I will hand those back to you on Oct 14th, 2010.