ELA 10 Marks

Attention all parents of grade 10 students:

I have sent home an update of your son or daughter's marks. Please make sure to ask them for the print out. I have asked them to share them with you, but they might forget!

I will be sending home mark sheets for the other ELA classes next week.

$100 Holiday Gift from Novica

$100 Holiday Gift from Novica

ELA 20 - Recollections Essat

Thanks to all of the Grade 11 students who handed their essays in on time this morning, at the beginning of class. This is stipulated in their General Class Contract that was handed out at the beginning of the year. This is taken right out of the document:

 5. Hand-in Procedure:

All assignments must be handed in. Assignments are to be collected at the beginning of class.

I received eight out of fifteen essays at the beginning of class. A great improvement! Other students have promised to get their essays in before the end of the day. They will not have any late marks taken off. In fact, if it is in before midnight (via email) there will be no late marks. Please don't show up at my door at 10 p.m. baring the gift of your essay. I will not answer.

For the students who do not get the essay in today, normal late charges apply. These can be found in the General Classroom Contract as well. I will copy and paste them too, just for fun.

7. So, What Happens When I Hand Something In Late, Procedure:

Good question. I understand that you are people, that you have lives, and that sometimes “stuff” happens. That is why you have two “Get out of Jail Free” cards (apparently I like Monopoly?). These can be used twice over the course of the semester and should be applied only to major projects, essays, etc. You must fill out the form and submit it to me at least ONE WEEK before the assignment is due. This will grant you a one week extension from the original due date.

The form must be completed in its entirety and brought to me. I will then approve or reject the request, sign it in front of you, and give you verbal verification as to whether it is granted.

Keep in mind that if you hand things in late, there is no guarantee that they will be handed back with the rest of the assignments that were handed in on time.

Those students who do not use their “Get out of Jail Free” cards can sign them and return them back to me at the end of the semester to receive two bonus points per card that will be applied to his/her assignment marks.

What if you didn’t use your card and it is still late? Simple. You have five days to get it into me, losing 10% per day, after that, it’s zero.

And there you have it.                                                                                                                                 

"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork." ~ Peter De Vries

The above title is a bit ironic, don't you think? The grade 9 class has been focusing on irony the last few days. We looked at three different types of irony: verbal, situational, and dramatic. To really observe irony in action, we read the story "Lamb to Slaughter". It's a great story and is extremely creepy, so of course they loved it. We watched Alfred Hitchcock's version on Youtube. You can check it out here.

We are now working on symbolism. We read "The Scarlet Ibis" and are looking for symbols of red within the story. All very exciting.

Today in ELA 30, we started looking at the Literary essay. The students will be writing a literary essay on Mirage and Canadian Gothic, as described before. I am going to post the notes on Literary essays that we looked at today, just as soon as I figure out how to do that. The due date for this essay is December 16th and the students can expect to have about 5 class periods to work on it.

The Narrative essay due date for grade 11s is quickly approaching. It is December 7th, which is next Tuesday, a week from today. The students have been asked to bring their rough drafts (which should be pretty much completed) to class and they will be given time to revise and do peer editing as well as some typing. I stress that they please have a paper copy of it so it is easier to be edited by their partner.

In grade 10 ELA, we are almost done reading Ender's Game. They have homework for Thursday, and that is to read the rest of chapter 12. Their major project will be due on the 16th of December. Today some students were expressing some concern over this, and yes, they will have class time to work on it. They can expect 3 -  5 classes to work on the project, depending on how well they use their time, of course.

Until next time!

Upcoming Assignments

I am a big advocate for wrapping up coursework before the holiday season (no pun intended). I do not like being in the middle of a Unit or a novel over Christmas break, and I absolutely loath giving homework during that time, mostly because you wouldn't catch me doing any marking or planning either. So, in the interest of starting fresh in January with short units or novel studies until exams, there will be a lot of assignments due in the upcoming weeks.

ELA 10
The students are reading a novel called Ender's Game. Most of the reading is done in class and there are questions an vocabulary to accompany the readings. They also received their major project last Friday and are welcome to begin working on it. It will be due December 16, as decided by the class.

ELA 20
Last week we began working on narrative essay writing. The students have the opportunity to write about a memory from their childhood. This is due December 7. The students have already had 3 periods to work on this essay.

ELA 30
The Mirage poster assignment is due this Friday. Most groups are done and they are looking great. We are going to start reading Canadian Gothic this week and then we will be writing a literary essay before Xmas. Due date is to be announced.

ELA 9 Quiz

ELA 9 has a quiz on Friday, November the 19th. They will be asked to know about Short Stories, and the main elements of short stories. They should know how to draw a plot diagram and how to plot a story on that diagram.

The following is a link for a great review of the elements of short stories:
SHORT STORY REVIEW