Novel study reminders

Two weeks into our novel study and we are starting to get a bit deeper into the story of Alex. His adventures exploring the streets of Beijing and his adjustments to the culture allow us to experience a life so apart from our own.

The student demonstrations and the government reactions are a part of the history of China. Tian An Men square is an actual place and the events that occured there that smoggy day in June of 1989 are a real part of our human history. William Bell has worked had to bring the events to life through the eyes of this seventeen year old boy.
While you continue to read I hope that you are thinking about the events and reactions of the people. How would you feel if you were a student living in China at this time? What would it be like to live in a country where your opinion or voice is squashed if you go against the government?

Key question of the week: Why did William Bell choose to name the novel Forbidden City, even though the real Forbidden City does not play a major role in the book?

iPublisher Assignment

The Independent Novel study assignment which is due Jan 6th, is now available in the ELA Handouts link on our blog. (Top left corner).

It is your responsibility to read through the assignment carefully then let Miss Gokavi know which book you have chosen by Friday, November 26th. You can do this by posting a comment to this blog post. In it you should include: Your full name, the novel title and author's name. You can try to leave a comment on the blog post or hand in the paper copy - either way it is due Friday!!

This project will be done in conjunction with the Computers 9 course. You will receive a mark for the ELA content and also a Comp 9 credit for the technical aspects of the assignments.

Novel Study begins

Today we started our novel study for this term. Forbidden City by William Bell.

William Bell was born in Toronto in 1945 and graduated from the College of Education in 1970. He has taught at the Harbin University of Science and Technology and the Foreign Affairs college in China and at the University of British Columbia. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Literature and a a Master of Education.
He began writing at a very young age. Starting with short stories and poetry which he did not share with people outside of his family. In 1978, after a meeting with his favorite author, John Metcalfe, he decided to pursue a story idea - resulting in his first book Crabbe.
Although, most of his books are fictional Forbidden City and Speak to the Earth are based on actual events. He enjoys writing for young people because he feels they are very loyal to writers and are enthusiastic readers. His ideas often deal with someone who has reached an important stage in his/her life and realizes something they didn't know before.
The idea for Forbidden City came from actual events which took place in June 1989. He wanted to tell the story of the tragedy as accurately as possible. He was familiar with the city of Beijing, having taught there and he had bicycled around the city himself. He has said his greatest challenge while writing this book was how to put fictional characters in the center of actual events.

For further information about the author and his other books make sure to click on the novel link in the top right hand corner of the blog.

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!