English 11AP

Week of March 28th- April 1st:

This week we will be continuing with the character development we started before the break. You will discuss and develop your characters furthur as we will be doing several excercises around this.We will also look at different ways in which you can start your stories, (narrative leads.) By the end of the week, you will have started you short stories. Please make sure to pick up a copy of the character sheet from last class if you were away. There are extra copies in my room.
See you soon!
Ms. Zanrosso

English 8: "Seedfolks"

Week of March 28- April 1st:

This week we will be continuing with "Seedfolks" and your inquiry into how you can impact your school and it's community. Please be sure to have completed your group questions, (started in class.) If you have been absent, they are listed below.

GROUP QUESTIONS FOR Seedfolks

1.     How does the garden itself become a metaphor for what happens among its members? Explain using examples from the text.

2.     What are some of the ways in which the characters work around language barriers to communicate. Use examples from the text.

3.     List some of the problems that the gardeners encounter. How do they help one another with these obstacles? Give detailed examples from the text.

4.     Discuss Sam’s observations on how some of the gardeners deal with conflict in the community garden.

5.     How is the problem of getting water to the garden solved?

6.     Describe Sae Young’s traumatic experiences in America. How does the garden help her overcome them?

Welcome Back!

Hello all,
I hope you enjoyed your break! I will now be using this blog on a weekly basis so that you can keep up with what we have been doing in class. If you have any questions that are not addressed on here, please email me anytime.
See you soon!
Ms. Zanrosso

Week at a Glance: Feb 28 - March 4

If you missed a class, please check out the archives.


English 8
Term Reflection Week.

English 11AP
Term Reflection Week.

Writing 12: Next class tba.
NOTE: "Feels So Write" is our public reading event! You must be available to read a piece (your favourite or your best or whatever you choose) that you've written this year. DATE: MAY 6th - a Friday night at the Municipal Library. I think it starts at 6:30pm, but I'll double check that and get back to you. Bring your friends and family because how often do you get a mic and the chance to say whatever you want?!

• Due Feb 28th: by this date, please email me the text of a spoken word piece (slam poetry) that you have written. If you'd like examples please look for the following poets on YouTube: Shane Koyzan, Alicia Keys, Def Jam Poetry, and others.
• Due March 7th: Below is a poem I wrote using a formula. Some of you have expressed that you're finding it difficult to write a poem - well, I'll make it easier for you. I'd like you to write a poem using the formula below too. The formula follows the poem below. Feel free to break or change the formula as you see fit. 
  
  Lucas
  
  Whenever I see
  toy alligators or infants
  it is Vancouver, 1981
  and I am buying an
  alligator, with goofy
  and googly eyes.
  
  I am hearing the organized
  confusion of the nurses
  shoes.
  
  But that is not my story.
  My story is my brother,
  on his third and last day
  of life, and I sit here,
  holding his goofy little
  alligator.
  
  FORMULA FOR ABOVE POEM (please write it about an instant from your own past, real or imagined.)

(Title)

Whenever I (see,hear,taste,feel,smell)
(noun) or (noun)
it is (place), (time/year)
and I am (verb phrase)

I am (hearing, smelling, tasting, seeing, feeling) (noun)
But that is not my story.
My story is (anything you want).

Your memoir and feedback will be available for pick up at lunch on Feb 28th in W201. If you don't pick it up at this time, I will hand it over to the teacher taking over for me and she or he will return it to you at the next meeting.

Week at a Glance: Feb 21 - 25

If you missed a class, please check out the archives.

English 8

• Silent Reading with an Adult Presentation: You will present on the experience of reading this book with an adult. You can choose to focus your presentation on what you learned about the adult, on what you learned about reading, on what your discussions were like, on the best and worst part of reading with your adult, etc... You will also have a visual to aid you in communicating your ideas to your audience. The visual should relate to the experience but it can also relate the the book itself if you like. You will not be summarizing the book - but you can set the context by explaining in one or two sentences what the book is about if that helps you communicate the experience of reading that book with your adult.
• DUE on Wednesday the 23rd for 1.3 and Thursday the 24th for 2.1.

English 11AP

• Your project is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday the 22nd.

Writing 12: Next class tba.

1. Please hand in your memoir to the office in manuscript form (as per instructions in last week's post - see archives) with this attached.
   
   
1. Writing my memoir felt...
2. I started my memoir on ...
3. Overall, it took me about _____ hours to write.
4. I spent ____% of that time on revision.
5. I wrote ____ drafts.
6. Here is what I did to challenge myself:
7. Here is what I would do different next time:
2. Due Feb 28th: by this date, please email me the text of a spoken word piece (slam poetry) that you have written. If you'd like examples please look for the following poets on YouTube: Shane Koyzan, Alicia Keys, Def Jam Poetry, and others.
3. Due March 7th:
4. Due after Spring Break: 
5. Your memoir will be available for pick up at lunch on Feb 28th in W201. If you don't pick it up at this time, I will hand it over to the teacher taking over for me and she or he will return it to you at the next meeting.

Week at a Glance: Feb 14-16

If you missed a class this week, please go to the archives to see what you've missed.

English 8

• You should be finishing your reading with an adult book and reflecting on how the experience went. Here are some things to consider: how did it feel to talk to an adult about a book? What did you like best about your discussions? What did you like the least? What was the best discussion you had and what made it so good?
• Garden Nerds:
• 1.3: on Tuesday you should bring your finished article to class - printed out on paper - and have it in a digital copy as well (email it to yourself or bring it on a flash drive).
• 2.1: on Wednesday you should bring your finished article to class - printed out on paper - and have it in a digital copy as well (email it to yourself or bring it on a flash drive).

Grade 11
Do what you need to do with the due date in mind.

Writing 12: next in class meeting is Feb 21st at 7am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Please email me to schedule an appointment to go over your memoir. We must meet before the 21st.
• Due on Feb 21st - your final draft and at least 2 rough drafts of your memoir. FORMAT: your final draft should be as follows:
• Size 12. Times New Roman. Double Spaced. 12 pages long not including a title page with a solid title and your name as authour.

Week at a Glance: Feb 7 - 11

Please see the archives to catch up on missed assignments if you have missed class.

 

English 8

• You should be almost done your book and thinking about your presentation now. Please bring your book to each class.
• By the end of this week, all of you should have cited your url into Noodlebib (for the Garden Nerds Wiki).

 

English 11

• Do what you need to do to get your tasks done. Feel free to email some things to me for feedback. Email me drafts!

  Writing 12: Next meeting: Feb 21st at 7:00am.

Our next meeting will be a song writing workshop. Your memoirs are also due on Feb 21st. 

To see details regarding the last month's assignments, go to the archives.

Please email me to schedule one-on-one appointments should you feel the need for clarification, a push, or help with your memoir. 

 

WRITING CONTESTS

The Writers' Union has some awesome contests - deadlines range from Feb to the Spring: http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp

 

The Poetry Institute of Canada's Young Writers Creative Writing Contest: Cash prizes are available. See Ms Moore for more details or go to http://www.youngwritersofcanada.ca/.

Week at a Glance: Jan 31 - Feb 4th

Please see the archives to catch up on missed assignments if you have missed class.


English 8
You should be about halfway through the book that you're reading with your adult. Please bring it to each class.

2.1: Due on Feb 4th, please hand in a letter to me which details/discusses what you think about your reading with an adult book so far. What do you think of the characters/issues/problems/events? Do you connect to it personally at all? Remember - when we discuss books we always want to go beyond the obvious - to make connections and read between the lines.

1.3: Due Feb 3rd: a short, 4 line "goodbye" poem. It can be fiction or non-fiction, angry or loving, sad or happy - whatever!

English 11
Do what you need to do to get your tasks done. Feel free to email some things to me for feedback. Email me drafts!

Writing 12: Next meeting: Feb 21st at 7:00am.
Our next meeting will be a song writing workshop. Your memoirs are also dur on Feb 21st.

To see details regarding the last month's assignments, go to the archives.
Please email me to schedule one-on-one appointments should you feel the need for clarification, a push, or help with your memoir.

WRITING CONTESTS
The Writers' Union has some awesome contests - deadlines range from Feb to the Spring: http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp

The Poetry Institute of Canada's Young Writers Creative Writing Contest: Cash prizes are available. See Ms Moore for more details or go to http://www.youngwritersofcanada.ca/.

Week at a Glance: Jan 24 - 28

Please see the archives to catch up on missed assignments if you have missed class.

English 8
You should be about halfway through the book that you're reading with your adult. Please bring it to each class.
1.3: Due on Friday the 28th, please hand in a letter to me which details/discusses what you think about your reading with an adult book so far. What do you think of the characters/issues/problems/events? Do you connect to it personally at all? Remember - when we discuss books we always want to go beyond the obvious - to make connections and read between the lines.

2.1: Due on Monday the 31st, please hand in a letter to me which details/discusses what you think about your reading with an adult book so far. What do you think of the characters/issues/problems/events? Do you connect to it personally at all? Remember - when we discuss books we always want to go beyond the obvious - to make connections and read between the lines.

English 11
Do what you need to do to get your tasks done.

Writing 12: Next meeting: Feb 1st at 7:15am.

To see details regarding the last month's assignments, go to the archives.

First assignment: Write your earliest memory. Help the reader experience that memory. Email it to a peer for feedback when you're done, then revise and email it to me with a question you'd like me to focus on and give you feedback about.

2nd assignment: Get a large piece of paper (or do this on a prezi or whatever suits your fancy) and make a massive web of everyone in your past and present life who you've had a signifiant connection to. From each person on your web make branches which explore the story that lies in that connection to each person. Ask your parents or siblings to fill in the years that you don't remember as well. This is brainstorming. Do not let any idea be censored. Shut up your inner critic and just go nuts with the web.

3rd assignment: Consider the web you created for the last assignment and choose thread around which you will build your memoir. By memoir I mean that you will be writing a story of your life - you are not writing the entire story of your life from birth to now (that is an autobiography). Choose a thread and develop it into a 12 page memoir. A draft is due in class on Jan 25th at 7:25am (double spaced). If you have troubles and would like more guidance, please email me to set up an appointment.

We'll meet Feb 1st at 7:15am. Please bring as much of your memoir as you have completed. We only have a few more weeks until your final draft is due, so get in as much writing this week as you can. The final draft will be 12 pages long, double spaced, and will have gone through at least 3 revisions - all of which you will hand in as well. I will give you list of the style of revisions at next week's class. Until then, happy writing!


Please email me to schedule one-on-one appointments should you feel the need for clarification, a push, or help.


WRITING CONTESTS
The Writers' Union has some awesome contests - deadlines range from Feb to the Spring: http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp

The Poetry Institute of Canada's Young Writers Creative Writing Contest: Cash prizes are available. See Ms Moore for more details or go to http://www.youngwritersofcanada.ca/.

Week at a Glance: Jan 17 - 20

If you missed a class last week, please go to the archives and find out what you missed.


English 8
Test on The Outsiders: Monday and Tuesday.
Reading with an Adult Presentations: Feb 21st and 22nd.
English 11 AP
Do what you need to do on your unit.

Writing 12: Next meeting: January 25th at 7:15am.
To see details regarding the last month's assignments, go to the archives.

First assignment: Write your earliest memory. Help the reader experience that memory. Email it to a peer for feedback when you're done, then revise and email it to me with a question you'd like me to focus on and give you feedback about.

2nd assignment: Get a large piece of paper (or do this on a prezi or whatever suits your fancy) and make a massive web of everyone in your past and present life who you've had a signifiant connection to. From each person on your web make branches which explore the story that lies in that connection to each person. Ask your parents or siblings to fill in the years that you don't remember as well. This is brainstorming. Do not let any idea be censored. Shut up your inner critic and just go nuts with the web.

3rd assignment: Consider the web you created for the last assignment and choose thread around which you will build your memoir. By memoir I mean that you will be writing a story of your life - you are not writing the entire story of your life from birth to now (that is an autobiography). Choose a thread and develop it into a 12 page memoir. A draft is due in class on Jan 25th at 7:25am (double spaced). If you have troubles and would like more guidance, please email me to set up an appointment.


WRITING CONTESTS
The Writers' Union has some awesome contests - deadlines range from Feb to the Spring: http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp

Week at a Glance: Jan 10 - 14

If you missed a class last week, please go to the archives and find out what you missed.

English 8

• Bring and HAVE FINISHED READING "The Outsiders"
• Due Jan 10/11: by now you have found your adult and chosen your book for the "Reading with an Adult" project. Bring that book to class for silent reading from now on. 
• 2.1: on Wednesday please bring a song (the title is fine but if you can get the song itself onto an iPod that's good too) that you think connects to THE OUTSIDERS.

English 11 AP
Do what you need to do on your unit.

Writing 12: Next meeting: January 25th at 7:15am.
To see details regarding the last month's assignments, go to the archives.

First assignment: Write your earliest memory. Help the reader experience that memory. Email it to a peer for feedback when you're done, then revise and email it to me with a question you'd like me to focus on and give you feedback about.

2nd assignment: Get a large piece of paper (or do this on a prezi or whatever suits your fancy) and make a massive web of everyone in your past and present life who you've had a signifiant connection to. From each person on your web make branches which explore the story that lies in that connection to each person. Ask your parents or siblings to fill in the years that you don't remember as well. This is brainstorming. Do not let any idea be censored. Shut up your inner critic and just go nuts with the web.

3rd assignment: Consider the web you created for the last assignment and choose thread around which you will build your memoir. By memoir I mean that you will be writing a story of your life - you are not writing the entire story of your life from birth to now (that is an autobiography). Choose a thread and develop it into a 12 page memoir. A draft is due in class on Jan 25th at 7:25am (double spaced). If you have troubles and would like more guidance, please email me to set up an appointment.

WRITING CONTESTS
The Writers' Union has some awesome contests - deadlines range from Feb to the Spring: http://www.writersunion.ca/cn_main.asp