Monday to Friday / January 17th – January 21st

https://bced.vretta.com/#/en/bced-landing/grad/sample/literacy10

Monday:

This is a class where you finish the first part of the literacy exam today. Part A.  Multiple choice, the writing and the response. 

I will tell you a little about the test. I have printed it out (Part A) and you will have the block to complete it. This includes the writing that you’ll be turning in to teams.

On Wednesday, You will turn in part B after you complete it. This part might take a little longer.

Thursday is the day we will go over the test, now that you have figured things out on your own. The final will be the same.

I’m still figuring out Friday – I will give very brief feedback on the two parts to the test and explain the government rubrics. 

So Friday, snacks and a movie, perhaps? I’m up for suggestions. I’ll give you those final papers back on this day. 

Monday to Friday / January 10th – January 14th

Notes from Tuesday Class for Manamana Final Paragraph

Per 2 and 4 Manamana Notes Class

First business: 

What’s going on with Tuneful Tuesdays?

TTFINAL_Signup2021

What a start to the year. I thought that instead of our novel unit, I will reiterate skills that we have learned in a more formal manner. This is the ‘theme paragraph.’ you worked on with the lenses. I have a belief that if you can write one strong paragraph, you can write a strong paper – no matter what length. You ace this, you have a fighting chance to internalize how academic writing is shaped.

So there’s this bizarre unit I’ve had kicking around for years. It’s based on ‘the Muppet show’.  I used to use it for provincial prep. Since you’re all taking the government exam in a few weeks, it’s imperative you know these basic skills before we do a Provincial (or Literacy) boot camp in the final week.

So here it is: The Manamana Unit.

Manamana – Critical Writing- UbD unit

NOW – On Tuesday and Friday of this week, we will be doing Tuneful Tuesdays presentations, so this unit will only be three days. Here is the breakdown for those three days:

DAY 1:

Manamana: 

Remember: Keep this in mind for tomorrow on theme statements…

Facial Expressions of the pink puppets / Implied message of their expression / shaggy puppet’s reaction

Theme statement attainment check.

DAY 2

Write your own theme statement from “Manamana” keeping in mind this question:

The identical puppets are interrupted by the shaggy headed puppet. What effect does the reaction of the twins have on the shaggy headed puppet?

The writer of “Manamana” develops a theme through this short skit. Look over the facial expressions and the body gestures of the twins, and consider the effects they have on the shaggy-headed puppet. Or, consider the reverse situation. What might a theme of this skit be? (Come up with a few. You will be writing a rough draft that will be peer edited.)

DAY 3

Continue writing your rough draft for the Manamana literary paragraphs. You need to be finished by the middle of class at the latest. It would be good to come into class with your rough draft finished so that I can look at it before we jump into the peer assessment.

Peer assessment – get into pairs (or triplets) and use the checklist as a guideline for some very worthy constructive criticism. After giving back the completed sheet, you will be able to apply the feedback to your good copy. Don’t do the good copy yet, however.

Start work on your own rough draft of Manamana, using the completed puzzle to help you with your own writing and ideas. I will be circulating around while this is happening. Try to complete the draft by the end of class. 

Friday, December 17th

Final day of the Calendar year for us.

  1. Get in your groups. Practice your spoken words with each other.
  2. I will come round to your group randomly. Each of you will do your spoken word.
  3. I will tell you your grades at the end of class individually if you would like to see them.

These are the groups. Find a place in the school that’s quiet to practice. Tell me about it. I will come to you.

PERIOD 2:

  1. Callum, Lochlan, Michael, Owen, Trevor
  2. Einas, Sophia, Zahra, Fiona, Alysha
  3. Nour, Jenna, Miah, Emma, Maxine
  4. Connor, Lakin, Alex, Tony
  5. Christopher, Duriel, Matthew, Nima
  6. Andrea, Arawyn, Emma, Negar, Tamsin

PERIOD 4:

  1. Monika, Nicholas, Adam, Alex, 
  2. Sunghyun, Reeve, Charlie, Finnley, Daniel
  3. Gianna, Connie, Yulia, Caroline, Brooklyn
  4. Christianna, Sara, Ryder, Jade, Shaila, Kimberly, Tiana
  5. Joshua, McKenzie, CJ, Cali, Bradyn, Nicholas

Thursday, December 16th

Today is a work block to get ready for the spoken word in your podcast groups tomorrow.

NOTE: This is not a collaboration project. Your podcast groups will only be your audience.

For those of you who would like to go further and do their presentations in front of the class, let me know at the beginning so that we can plan time accordingly. 

Wednesday, December 15th

Reminder – 

Poetry Package due Friday at Midnight. (5 poems)

Spoken Word this Friday. 

Today and tomorrow are work blocks. I will give you magazine paper for your found poem that we can do together.

As for the sonnet – let’s look at that tomorrow as a class. I can see you one on one for personal instructions on how a sonnet is constructed.

Tuesday, December 14th

What Makes a Christmas Song Christmassy?

Partial Adapt. from https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music

We listen to Christmas songs starting in November and they blast through the 25th of December. Some people hate Christmas songs, as the season itself can be tough and emotional. Another reason for the hate is that the season is cliché and the songs remain the same (or a cash grab from the newest artist ex. Ariana Grande sings Xmas Hits!! Yet Christmas is a multi-billion-dollar industry, so they’re not going to stop for a few people that don’t like the tunes.

Today, we will spend a little time looking at some of my favorites from the season. Then we will look at what elements make a song into a Christmas song.

Finally, you are to choose a song and tell me the elements of why it is such a “Christmas” song in a 250–300-word paragraph. You can present it as well, but this is tentative to the class. The instructions for the mini assignment are on the next page after the write up.

Classic songs that are worth Listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjQzJAKxTrE

Some 80’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY

Some Maria

 

Write up on the Question: What Makes a Christmas Song Christmassy?

From Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker to Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas. These are all the elements that have to be in a Christmas classic

A touch of bitters –  some minor chords

But it’s Christmas, the season of joy, we hear you cry. And caramel tastes even better with a sprinkling of salt.

The point is, sprinkling minor and diminished chords through a song or piece that’s otherwise in a major key – or even changing key to a minor key for a section – only enhances that warm Christmas fuzzy feeling (to be technical about it).

Take a listen Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. That chord under ‘presents’ in the opening line is a scrunchy half diminished chord. It’s D minor 7 flat 5 to be exact. That chord on its own does not a Christmas song make.

BUT what that chord does do is bring in that delicious sprinkle of salt that makes your sweet caramel all the sweeter.

A stirring melody

Let’s go all the way back to Tchaikovsky for this. Because he is the original and best master of Christmas music.

Let’s take his Nutcracker ballet – a work that’s set at Christmas and is performed every winter around the world.

We’ll take the ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ as our example. (But really you could stick a pin in any part of The Nutcracker and find an absolutely storming tune).

The waltz opens with a simple but catchy tune before the harp comes in with a shimmering interlude. And then it’s over to the brass and winds who pave the way for the centre-piece of the melody, a soaring, whirling waltz tune from the violins that demands to be hummed along to.

Classic Tchaikovsky.

A story from the past

Christmas is 90 per cent nostalgia, so if your Christmas tune can hint at past times, broken hearts (oh hi there Wham!) but a determined optimism for the times ahead – all the better.

Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’ ticks this box and then some.

It was written in the 1940s and become a massive hit in a recording with Bing Crosby. It’s since been covered over 500 (500!!) times.

Those lyrics are doused in more nostalgia than your nan puts sherry on her Christmas pudding:

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

In Crosby’s recording the second half of the song is performed by a choir – they sound more distant and fainter than Crosby’s voice. They could almost be ghostly voices from those past Christmases…

And the fact that the recording has that evocative warm crackle of vinyl only feeds that feeling that Christmas really was better in the 1940s.

Finally… sleigh bells

This is crucial. In fact, if you don’t include sleigh bells you’ve failed to write a Christmas hit.

And for our example we’re returning to Russia. It’s Prokofiev’s Troika. The piece was originally written as music for a film called Lieutenant Kijé. But the key thing here is that this is essentially a concerto for sleigh bells.

Listen to this and we defy you not to come over all Christmassy. Right, we’re off to eat a mince pie.

 

Your Task Today

 

  1. Find your own Christmas song. Listen to it and copy down the lyrics right here. (In the box underneath the instructions
  2. Determine through medley, lyrics, story & legacy what makes this song you’ve chosen a Christmas song.
  3. Write a 250 – 300-word reflection style paragraph on the impact the song has on you (if any) and how this song is representative of the season – despite your celebration of the holiday itself.

Here is the exact same thing on a word document:

MM_Xmas2021

If we have more time then you can work on your poetry packages / slam poem.

 

Monday, December 13th

Welcome to the last week before break.

So you have done a few exercises in regards to the slam poetry – and you have a little knowledge on what a slam poem really is.

It’s time for you to create something of worth. 

We will go over a little bit of an official ‘poetic devices’ worksheet in order to get you up to speed on both your skills as a poet and a refresher on the devices that we use in poetry.

I will also go over what a sonnet is and if all goes well, we can do one together in class.

Here is the link to the poetic devices:

Poetic Devices PREassess

And just in case you forgot, here is the poetry package again:

POETRY 5-9’s

Some ideas for the slam:

https://www.digitalpoet.net/99-poem-topics

Friday, December 10th

Firstly, I’m going to explain the poetry package that is due next Friday, December 17th.  Here it is:

POETRY 5-9’s

After, I will let you work on and complete the assignment due tonight. I have opened a teams folder for you to submit this work. I have also created a separate document for you so that this assignment (The translation one) is more accessible. 

This will be our day. Have a great weekend.

Thursday, December 9th

Per. 2

We have Emma’s group going today at the beginning of class, then,

ALL Periods:

Today will be more of a workshop, a warm up for you to get ready and enjoy writing the final paper. These are exercises that help you find poetry in places you didn’t think were there.

The first one is called Blackout Poetry or Found Poetry. We will do a practice, then I will find a more exciting version of the assignment with other sources.

The second one is finding old poems and giving them a reboot.

I have handouts (Physical) for both of these assignments. I hope that you enjoy them and get involved. At any time, if there is an idea that sits with you, then you can use some lines for your final poem.

Wednesday, December 8th

If we have time after the presentations, I have a poetry assignment for you to complete that is very low key, but interesting how we find poetry anywhere. Kind of a word search for original content.

Until then though…

Tuneful Wednesdays:

Period 2:

Tamsin and Miah  

Christopher and Callum

Emma and Andrea

Period 4:

Gianna

Yulia

Sara

Tuesday, December 7th

FIRST THING: 

FILL THIS OUT:

Fill out this reflection on the podcast:

https://forms.office.com/r/eNQfYcgGXr

What is Spoken Word Poetry?

This video that you will be watching is one that will define the beginnings and success of this art form. I would like for you to fill out the paper copy handout and have something to turn in for Wednesday. I also have a digital copy for you on page 2-3 of the following document:

Poetry Slam overview

This is a completion mark, but I will be discussing these questions with you on Thursday, so have it done by then: Thursday!

TUNEFUL TUESDAYS IS POSTPONED! Wednesday, these groups are going:

Period 2:

Tamsin and Miah  

Christopher and Callum

Emma and Andrea

Period 4:

Gianna

Yulia

Sara

 

Monday, December 6th

PERIOD 2:

Thank you for your submissions. A lot of your projects look really good. I’ll try and have them all back by the end of the week. If you’d like your project returned, just tell me. 

We will start spoken word today. You are critically looking at some spoken words and then we will come up with a definition as a class. I will also break down the schedule for the next two weeks for you as well. I have combined both this spoken word and the creative poetry writing unit into one.

January will be our novel study – a quick read and a final that will get us to the end of the semester. Until then, this unit will be one to have fun before break and still learn a few things that you can take with you into grade 11.

Here are some documents that we will be looking over:

Poetry Slam overview

POETRY 5-9’s

PERIOD 4:

This is the final day for your podcasts. Tomorrow, we will be looking over the Slam Nation movie and getting into spoken word / poetry. 

Friday, December 3rd

Welcome to class. Here’s what’s happening in Period 2:

Finish all of your podcasts. Go to wherever you were yesterday or somewhere quiet. Get it done for Monday. I will open a Teams file for you to submit your work over the weekend. 

Fill out this reflection by Monday at midnight:

https://forms.office.com/r/eNQfYcgGXr

We will start Spoken Word on Monday.

Per. 4:

Here is the line up for the Tuneful Fridays:

Shaila and Kimberly

Cali

Ryder.

If there is any time, get with your groups and plan out what will be happening over the weekend and what you can finish on Monday. The schedule, since we will behind the other class, is tentative to your success in today. Let’s see how it goes. 

Fill out this reflection by Monday at midnight:

https://forms.office.com/r/eNQfYcgGXr

Thursday, December 2nd

Groups for Podcast:

PERIOD 2:

  1. Callum, Lochlan, Michael, Owen, Trevor
  2. Einas, Sophia, Zahra, Fiona, Alysha
  3. Nour, Jenna, Miah, Emma, Maxine
  4. Connor, Lakin, Alex, Tony
  5. Christopher, Duriel, Matthew, Nima
  6. Andrea, Arawyn, Emma, Negar, Tamsin

PERIOD 4:

  1. Monika, Nicholas, Adam, Alex, 
  2. Sunghyun, Reeve, Charlie, Finnley, Daniel
  3. Gianna, Connie, Yulia, Caroline, Brooklyn
  4. Christianna, Sara, Ryder, Jade, Shaila, Kimberly, Tiana
  5. Joshua, McKenzie, CJ, Cali, Bradyn, Nicholas

Podcast assignment:

Independent Project Podcast_2021

This is a comprehensive version 1. We will look over it for inconsistencies that I’ll change.

Wednesday, December 1st

Work block today. It’s your final one.

Your project is due on Friday. This is the last day for you to complete it in class.

Tomorrow, I put you in groups for the podcasts.

Tuesday, November 30th

We have a full schedule today, so we can start with independent novel study check up, then get into it:

Period 2:

  1. Tony & Locklan
  2. Connor
  3. Lakin

Period 4:

  1. Alex and Homies
  2. Christianna
  3. Possibly another

Monday, November 29th

Work block for independent novel study. See me if you have any questions. You can work in the library if you would like . I have told the librarians to save some room for you. 

Friday, November 26th

Today you will be will working on a proposal that’s due today at the end of class.

A proposal is a formal plan for how you will attack the project.

Independent Book Project Proposal

Thursday, November 25th

Classroom discussion. We’ll move the desks.

10 minutes to answer these three questions:

  1. What was your book about? Give a brief summary.
  2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your book?
  3. Describe a scene that sticks out to you without effort – why does it stick out? What’s the context?

Prepare to share your answers with the class in a round table discussion.

SO now:

What is the independent Novel Study Project? Why have we been reading for 2 months?

Here is the project:

Independent Project Final_2021

It’s broken down into two parts.

And here is the rubric:

Novel-Study-Project-Rubric-2018

Today, you will commit to and outline what your final will look like. It will be due next Wednesday for final project / Friday for Podcast.

Wednesday, November 24th

Final short story due tonight at 11:59PM.

I have a structured outline for the day for people that need it. 

Tuesday, November 23rd

Today, we have Tuneful Tuesdays presentations:

Period 2:

Independent reading 10-15 mins

  1. Einas & Zahra

(After this, please spend time working on your final drafts.)

Period 4:

  1. Reeve

        2. Monika & Nick

        3.Bradyn

Monday, November 22nd

Today is a day for your peer reviews. I have a copy of it in this blog.

PEER REVIEW SHEET: Short Story Peer Editing Checklist

This is a 1-5 score for each element. Looks specifically for time travel elements / paradoxes / workable ideas. If the thing doesn’t work for you, it won’t work for me on Wednesday when I read them.

I have printed out 20 of the peer reviews as well, but it is better to open with a word document and then share the document with the writer whose work you are looking at. 

Wednesday, you have time to work on your final. It’s due on Wednesday Nov. 24th at midnight.

Thursday, we will start the independent reading unit. This unit shouldn’t take too long. After that – book study.

Friday, November 19th

Finish your rough drafts today. Let me know if you need any help with anything. I’ll be grading things.

Thursday, November 18th

Finish those basic outlines for comprehension. I’ve opened a teams assignment folder. It’s due tonight at midnight for a completion mark. 

So today, I am first checking for how much you have completed on the flash fiction and if you’ve started something for your first draft.

Today through tomorrow, you need to complete a rough draft of a story. I would like you writing. If you do want to just have social hour, I’ll ask you to do it outside the classroom. (Library, hallway etc.) In the classroom, I would like to help those who are struggling and need ideas. 

By the end of class, as a takeaway, please have about 500 words minimum. This is a good place to be.

Here is the rubric for the final story:

Short Story Rubric

Wednesday, November 17th

We are continuing the short story workshop with flash fiction. Some of you had some really good ideas yesterday that I hope you can expand upon.

For the last 30 minutes of class, I have a small worksheet I’d like for you to complete, so tomorrow, which continues into Friday, is a time where you write a rough draft of sorts. My schedule for this will be extended, as I want you to make something you’re proud of. 

Task Part 1:

You will take the flash fictions you have written and, with a partner, come up with an idea on how you can take this mini story and make it have an element of time travel.

These are the time travel concepts we came up with at the beginning of the unit – please review them first with me, then with a partner. This exercise is more of a review. You don’t have to commit to anything yet:

  1. Seeing the Future

In these stories, it is actually information that travels through time. And this might be the most scientifically plausible form of time travel, one that is already happening all the time on the quantum level.

Visions of the future have shown up in literature and mythology for millennia, it’s just that we used to call them prophecy. But the fundamental storytelling device has changed little, even as it evolved with the times, manifesting in various communication technologies. Characters connect to the future through newspapers (the film It Happened Tomorrow, which inspired the show Early Edition), letters (The Lake House), radio (Frequency), photography (Time Lapse) and now, the Internet (my own recent novel The Future Is Yours, the reason I’m interested in sorting all this out.)

All these stories of peering forward in time differentiate into two categories on the basis of one crucial question: If you see the future, can you change it?

1a: Stories of Inevitable Foresight 

These are stories where the future can be seen—but ultimately, what you see can’t be stopped.

The archetype for this form is one of the oldest works of dramatic literature in the Western canon—Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, where the titular king is warned by the seer Tiresias that he will murder his father and wed his mother… and despite his best efforts to the contrary, he ends up inadvertently doing just that (and then gouges his eyes out for good measure).

Stories of inevitable prediction speak to one of our deepest fears: that we have no free will, no agency, no power to control our fate. A glimpse of the future, foreknowledge of what’s to come, only ends up causing the events we aim to prevent.

Sound depressing? Maybe that’s why it’s a theme that spoke to sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, author of Minority Report— which is, for all its superficial differences, a story very similar to Oedipus Rex. It features a trio of precogs who dream of future-murders, and a cop assigned to prevent such killings—until he finds himself accused of one himself.

Dick was a pessimist about the prospect of free will, and in his story (spoiler alert!) his character ends up going through with the predicted murder. But perhaps unsurprisingly, when Steven Spielberg got hold of the same material, the outcome changed, and Tom Cruise’s version of the character was able to alter his destiny. How? Sheer force of movie-star charisma mostly. Which brings us to—

1b: Stories of Preventable Foresight

Other stories of seeing the future treat altering the timeline as quite evitable. In fact, the very act of viewing what’s ahead empowers the individual to change things, and prevent the foreseen events from coming to pass. That’s how Early Edition worked, with Kyla Chandler given the thankless daily task of averting tragedies only he could foresee.

But the prototype for this story form can be traced at least to 1843, in A Christmas Carol. Yes, even Dickens wrote some timey-wimey shenanigans; what else are the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Yet To Come? And when Scrooge beholds the pitiful sight of Tiny Tim dead, and his own neglected grave, he is promised a chance to rewrite the narrative if he can merely change his ways.

Which means that Dickens was much more of an optimist than Sophocles or Philip K. Dick. Being able to see the future and change it, whether through an epiphany or a magical newspaper, is the sort of world most of us want to believe in… whether that’s the way things actually work or not.

But in other types of stories, it’s not only information that travels through time. Many stories concern people getting to do so too—and the way authors treat those journeys says just as much about who they are and how they view the world.

  1. Traveling to the future

One of the clearest progenitors of the time travel narrative, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, is about a man zipping off into the distant future. But the world he encounters—one full of peaceful Eloi and belligerent Morlocks—is so disconnected from our own, it’s hard to know why it’s not simply a story about aliens on another planet.

This points to a problem with time-travel forward. The future feels so unknowable, it often ends up being less interesting than we’d expect. That’s why some “travel into the future” stories make our present the future of the characters—like Time After Time, which features Jack the Ripper fleeing 1890’s London and winding up (via a time-machine that belongs to H.G. Wells) in 1970’s San Francisco (it’s as ridiculous as it sounds, and well worth a watch). But this plot device is really no different from the fish-out-of-water Rip Van Winkle premise, dressed up with technology.

Perhaps this is why “travel into the future” has perhaps been used most effectively as a last-minute twist ending, as in the original Planet of the Apes.

In other words—time-travel into the future is just not that special… maybe because we’re doing it all the time, at a consistent rate of 60 minutes per hour. And given that our own lifetimes have witnessed such seismic changes in technology and society, do we really need to imagine a cosmic leap forward to see things that will blow our minds?

That’s why the most interesting physical-time-travel stories have focused on…

  1. Traveling to the Past

Some of these stories are just touristy jaunts that don’t bother with the ramifications of intervening in history (like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court). Which is fine and well, but more interesting are stories that grapple with the question: Can we alter the past? And by implication… can we alter our own present? Which breaks the category down into two distinct groups…

3A: Changing History

Perhaps the most intuitive mode of time travel is where characters travel to the past, and in doing so, alter the present they left behind. Back to the Future is probably the most popular of all. It’s fun to meet your teenage parents, but if you mess things up, you risk erasing yourself from existence. So then you have to… fight off your mom’s sexual advances and help your dad save her from getting raped? (Yeah, I didn’t really get how messed-up that was as a kid either…) Fix the past, fix the present, life goes on.

Of course, beyond just keeping your parents married and yourself in the family portrait, what people dream of is using time travel to fix history, the easiest go-to being the plot to kill baby Hitler. But in the massive time travel canon, it’s almost exclusively villains who try to rewrite the past. Very few stories feature heroes changing history for the better. Butterfly effects are almost always negative, and even the most well-intentioned time travel plans (like saving Kennedy from assassination in Stephen King’s 11/22/63) result in horrible misfortune for the world (catastrophic earthquakes in that case, for, ya know, reasons).

All of which points to the fact that on some profound level, as much as our minds love playing with the possibilities of altering the timeline, we are deeply attached to the one we have, and innately suspicious of any effort to correct it. Which is why we have…

3B: Immutable Timelines

Stories where characters find themselves fundamentally incapable of altering history,  regardless of their level of intervention. 12 Monkeys (and the French film it’s based on, La Jetee) tells the story of a time traveler seeking to prevent an apocalyptic manmade plague. He ultimately fails and realizes, too late, that as a child he witnessed the death of himself, as an older time traveler. The ending is incredibly satisfying—despite the fact that it’s profoundly fatalistic, suggestive of a world in which not even high-tech time-bending can save the human race from killing itself.

A less fatalistic example of this approach to time-rules is found in Avengers:Endgame, in which the characters travel to various moments throughout Marvel history to steal Infinity Stones (think Oceans 11 with a lot of fan-service). Smart Hulk (yes, seriously) gives the stipulation that history will “heal” itself of their interventions, preserving the timeline. On its face, this sounds like a lame gimme of a screenwriting rule — but turns out, it’s actually reasonably well-supported by recent experiments on quantum time travel. Science and sci-fi both point to the same idea: we can’t change the past.

  1. Time loop

Which brings us to the final category—the pinnacle of unalterability—stories where a character is stuck reliving the same day again and again. The prototype here is the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day. The formula it set out brilliantly has been replicated in other genres, including but not limited to YA melodrama (Before I Fall), slasher-horror (Happy Death Day), sci-fi action with aliens (Edge of Tomorrow), sci-fi action without aliens (Source Code, ARQ), episodic existential-dramedy (Russian Doll) and then circling all the way back to comedy again in last year’s Palm Springs.

These films don’t merely share a high-concept, they all have essentially the same theme: life doesn’t change until you change. Which would seem to make them remarkably unoriginal, if not for the surprising fact that they’re ALL good. (Seriously, I’ll go to bat for Before I Fall). No doubt there are some bad time-loop movies that I missed, but the fact that one hyper-specific premise has resulted in so many excellent movies points to the fact that there is a deep, resonant truth to the notion of being trapped in time.

Of course, this is only a partial taxonomy of time travel, but even this incomplete catalogue points to a few key takeaways. Most time travel stories are cautionary tales. Attempting to meddle with history is punished; defying prophecy is futile; the best we can do is pull a Marty McFly and close the Pandora’s box we opened in the first place. These stories, for all their far-flung leaps through space and time, are ultimately about how, if we want to change our lived reality, we need to start with ourselves.

Our job is to look through these four types of stories and find a universal truth to why we are obsessed with the notion of time – the true ruler of us all.

Task Part 2:

Come up with a rough outline for one of these time travel plot ideas:

Time Travel Short Story Ideas

Tuesday, November 16th

So today, you will be participating in student centered Tuneful Tuesdays. I’m excited.

Here is the menu for today:

Per. 2:

Jenna

Negar

Per. 4

Brooklyn

Charlie

CJ

Here is the plan for the rest of the semester:

TTFINAL_Signup2021

If we have time after the presentations, then we can continue the flash fiction work for tomorrow.

Monday, November 15th

Today is a day of finding concepts to explore. It’s an exercise in connectivity.  All of the elements of your short story will come on Wednesday. Today is brainstorming.

The first thing we’re doing is making what are called “short shorts” in the business. Kind of like the concept of hot pants, they reveal a lot but don’t have much in the way of word count. 

Think about these important questions first:

  1. What kinds of stories do you like to read and why?
  2. What characters do you remember the most from fiction?  Why do you think you remember those characters so well?
  3. What are some kinds of stories do you not like to read?  What makes you not like that genre?
  4. What are some of the most important things that have happened to you in your life?  What do you think you learned from these experiences?

Remember: This has to be a time travel short story, so there should be an idea in the back of your head that connects one of the theories we’ve learned to a bigger time travel picture. Don’t worry about that yet. Focus on this:

100 Days of Flash Fiction Prompts

Also you need to have an example of what flash fiction is. Let me explain this to you:

7 Flash Fiction Stories That Are Worth (a Tiny Amount of) Your Time

Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice for Short Story Writing: (Perhaps copy this? It’s good advice.)

  1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
  2. Give the reader at least one character that he or she can root for.
  3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
  4. Every sentence must do one of two things – reveal character or advance the action.
  5. Start as close to the end as possible.
  6. Be a sadist – no matter how sweet or innocent your leading character, make awful things happen to them in order that the audience may see what they are made of.
  7. Write to please just one person.
  8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible.

Discuss this. 

You will now write three flash fictions – 10 minutes per story. Look at the prompts for guidance. Wednesday, you will share the fictions. The peer will tell you how you can make it a time travel story.

 

Friday, November 12th

Today is the final day for you to hand in your Seventh Voyage reader response.

This is, in essence, a silent final. Please respect others who are finishing the response. If you are done, then this is a good time to finish your independent reading book.

I will politely ask you to leave if you are disrupting class.

Wednesday, November 10th

We have a shortened schedule today, so I have made a decision. Read this, as it is very specific to what it is you’ll be doing for the next two days.

THE READER RESPONSE IS NOW DUE ON FRIDAY November 12th AT THE END OF CLASS.

You have finished the story The Seventh Voyage by Sanislaw Lem.

Here is the link: THe Seventh Voyage Text

You should have answered the questions to be ready for the write today. They are the ones following:

PART 1

  • Do you agree or disagree with the writer’s choices in the story? Would you have made different choices to make the text better?
  • What’s the overall message? Does the message clash with your personal views?
  • How does the text relate to you personally?
  • To what extent did the text challenge or change your opinions or beliefs?
  • Did you learn anything from the text? If so, what did you learn?
  • What is your overall reaction to the text? Why did you [dis] like the text?

PART 2

  • Summarize (briefly) the text
  • give your own opinion on why it was good / bad.
  • Connect the thematic statement to a personal anecdote or philosophy that you have.
  • How does your view fit in the bigger picture?
  • Use characters and plot, literary devices, ideas, to make a question / claim for further analysis.

Now you should finish the reader response. Since this is seen of as a final, I cannot read it and give you feedback. Here are the requirements for the final. This rubric is based on what we all came up with. I synthesized the best parts from both classes.

Final Reader Response Rubric

 

Emerging

Satisfactory

Extending

 

 

 

Work is not well thought out and does not have any control to the content

 

Content does not flow well and is peppered with informal vocabulary

 

Writer keeps to the minimum, and has a lazy writing style

 

 

 

 

 

Structure is informal with I statements, and the theme statement does not exist

 

 

Word count is under 250 words and is mostly filler

 

 

 

Grammar has many errors (7 or more) and flow of sentences is fragmented or run-on.

 

 

CONTENT

 

Work is well thought out and is a direct answer to a specific question

 

Content flows well and is filled with good choices of fitting vocabulary

 

Writer follows guidelines and has a strong writing style

 

 

STRUCTURE / GRAMMAR

 

Structure is formal with I statements, and the theme is somewhat connected to the body paragraph

 

Word count is over 300 words of quality, and the piece is transitioned well

 

Grammar has minimal errors (6 or less) and flow of sentences are well put together

 

 

 

 

 

Work is extremely well thought out and is detailed to a specific question

 

Content flows very well and is filled with excellent choices of varied vocabulary

 

Writer takes chances, and has original writing style

 

 

 

 

 

Structure is formal with I statements, and the theme is clearly connected to the body paragraphs

 

Word count has a rich variation, and the piece is transitioned expertly without any filler

 

Grammar has minimal errors and flow of sentences are very well put together

 

 

Tuesday, November 9th

FINAL GUIDELINES: Musical Mondays Final guidelines

This class is to create an outline for your final. This is where you ask questions. Your outline is due at the end of class. It is a participation mark. 

NOVEMBER 9th ASSIGNMENT: TT-Final-Practice

Musical Mondays Final Presentation Guide

Now that you’ve seen six different styles of how musical genres and themes can be connected, it’s your turn to come up with a final presentation and paper that is a culmination of all the connective tissue of writing and presenting in class. I will list them for you.

  1. Literary Lenses
  2. Literary Analysis
  3. Musical / Poetry Analysis
  4. Creativity
  5. Reader Response Evaluation

Today is the first day of your preparation for the final. Here are some things you need to do so that when you write your paper, you will have all of the necessary evidence and prerequisites.

There are two parts to the final. You will be graded as a group.

Part 1 – Paper guidelines (Do this first):

Critical response multi-paragraphs do not simply summarize the text or evaluate whether you like the text; they are a three paragraphs, persuasive, and focused analysis, argument, or interpretation about the text. They not only help you think critically about the texts you read but also help you formulate ideas that can be expanded into longer essays. There are four parts to a critical response multi-paragraph:

You will be doing your own analysis / question and answer on lyrics or musical elements. I would like to see the outline (which are the questions I’ve been making you do for seven weeks) and a final paper that is well polished with a thesis and topic sentences with evidence from the songs themselves.

1) an argumentative topic sentence,

 2) evidence in the form of quotations or paraphrases for the argument you are making,

3) interpretation of your evidence in relation to the argument, and

4) a strong concluding statement.

Note: This is a review and collaboration of your lens paragraphs and reader responses – an extended idea that is fully developed and flows well.

 

Questions for Consideration (Data for Response) TODAY:

 

  1. Do you like this song, why or why not?
  2. What do you think is the most important line and what stands out to you?
  3. Can you make a connection to your personal life with this song?
  4. What does this song mean to you?
  5. What do you think the theme of this song is and why?
  6. In your opinion, why do you think Elton wrote this song?
  7. When listening to the song, what mood did it put you in and do you think that it was intended?
  8. What makes this song so appealing and why was it a hit when it was released?
  9. Why do you think artists keep making breakup songs? Don’t say because they breakup, go deeper
  10. How important are the lyrics? Would this make a good instrumental?
  11. How do we think this song relates to the artist’s personal life?

 

Part 2: Presentation guidelines

 

Follow these directions in a PPT / Presentation:

 

Before you play the song – discuss this / present this to the audience:

  1. What is your song?
  2. What Genre is your song?
  3. Explain the lyrics of the song
  4. Hand in your written paper to me (see above, example below)
  5. Play the song
  6. Hand out discussion questions
  7. Discuss
  8. Provide everyone with a final ‘takeaway statement’

Monday, November 8th

Today, you will have your ‘final’ of sorts for reader responses. 

First, we need to finalize the rubric I have used in past years. Both Period 2 &4 will have a say in this.

After we have come up with this, I will post it this evening.

FINAL:

Here is the final story: It’s called The Seventh Voyage by Stanislaw Lem. (Translated into English from Polish!)

Monday:

You will read the piece and answer these questions:

THe Seventh Voyage Text

PART 1

  • Do you agree or disagree with the writer’s choices in the story? Would you have made different choices to make the text better?
  • What’s the overall message? Does the message clash with your personal views?
  • How does the text relate to you personally?
  • To what extent did the text challenge or change your opinions or beliefs?
  • Did you learn anything from the text? If so, what did you learn?
  • What is your overall reaction to the text? Why did you [dis] like the text?

Wednesday:

You have until the end of the period to finish a 1-3 paragraph reader response for a major letter grade. I will be using the rubric we finalized together.

RUBRIC_V3 TBA

  • Summarize (briefly) the text
  • give your own opinion on why it was good / bad.
  • Connect the thematic statement to a personal anecdote or philosophy that you have.
  • How does your view fit in the bigger picture?
  • Use characters and plot, literary devices, ideas, to make a question / claim for further analysis.

Tomorrow is the final Tuneful Tuesdays (except  for a Christmas special) that will be more of a workshop to answer all of your questions for the final that will be spread throughout the next 2 months.

 

Thursday, November 4th / Friday, November 5th

FIND A THEME STATEMENT FOR “Yesterday was Monday” Yesterday was Monday

(Check the TEAMS assignment for the whole list)

You have until midnight tonight to finish this assignment.

Follow the steps!!!

PART 1

  1. Do you agree or disagree with the writer’s choices in the story? Would you have made different choices to make the text better?
  2. What’s the overall message? Does the message clash with your personal views?
  3. How does the text relate to you personally?
  4. To what extent did the text challenge or change your opinions or beliefs?
  5. Did you learn anything from the text? If so, what did you learn?
  6. What is your overall reaction to the text? Why did you [dis] like the text?

PART 2

  • Summarize (briefly) the text
  • give your own opinion on why it was good / bad.
  • Connect the thematic statement to a personal anecdote or philosophy that you have.
  • How does your view fit in the bigger picture?
  • Use characters and plot, literary devices, ideas, to make a question / claim for further analysis.

 

Wednesday, November 3rd

Revisiting the Reader Response:

Yesterday was Monday (Sturgeon):

Yesterday was Monday

Permanence in linear time

Besides time, we sense that history, science, craftsmanship, and perhaps even theology all come together in this Gordian clockwork of “Yesterday Was Monday”, and all these presented as the almost-believably realistic scenes and events experienced by an ordinary guy who happens to wake up on Wednesday before it’s quite finished.

Reader Response:

  1. A. You should have all the following questions completed:
  2. Do you agree or disagree with the writer’s choices in the story? Would you have made different choices to make the text better?
  3. What’s the overall message? Does the message clash with your personal views?
  4. How does the text relate to you personally?
  5. To what extent did the text challenge or change your opinions or beliefs?
  6. Did you learn anything from the text? If so, what did you learn?
  7. What is your overall reaction to the text? Why did you [dis] like the text?

 

  1. B. After that, you come up with a theme statement.

Ex. Very special conditions must be satisfied before one may assert the identity in time, the duration of a given existent. The permanence of marble, over which time passes almost imperceptibly, differs so essentially from the permanence of a living being that one questions the usefulness of joining them under the same concept.

 

  1. C. Choose a theme statement to use that works with your personal views.

 

  1. D. Now you have all the ‘data’ needed, structure the 1-3 paragraph response like this:
  2. Summarize (briefly) the text
  3. give your own opinion on why it was good / bad.
  4. Connect the thematic statement to a personal anecdote or philosophy that you have.
  5. How does your view fit in the bigger picture?
  6. Use characters and plot, literary devices, ideas, to make a question / claim for further analysis.

Tuesday, November 2nd

Songs that Define a Generation

 

Every generation has an anthem or song that defines them. Music, as we’ve found out, is subjective and personal. Yet there are some songs, factoring in where those songs were played, (For example – an American wouldn’t think that the Korean song “Come Back Home” by Seotaiji would define their American cultural experience in the 1990’s) contribute very heavily to the generation it was played.

I have touched upon North American generational connections from 1968-2004 for this assignment. After 2004, I stopped caring because I moved away:

 

  1. Say it loud, I’m Black and Proud – James Brown 1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0A_N-wmiMo

 

  1. God Save the Queen – Sex Pistols 1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMxqcgBhWQ

 

  1. Don’t You Forget about Me – Simple Minds 1985

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdqoNKCCt7A

 

  1. Fight the Power – Public Enemy – 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmo3HFa2vjg

 

  1. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana 1991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

 

  1. Hey Ya _Outcast 2003

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw

 

  1. Neighborhood #1 – Arcade Fire 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU_2R1rjbD8

 

These seven songs are not the definitive voice of a 35-year period, but their lyrics were cutting edge; the songs themselves were completely new and fresh, daring and authentic.

Your job is to look for a connection between self and society. What is the song of your generation? Go through these questions for the criteria to be met:

 

  1. Describe your generation in five descriptive words (Adjectives).

 

 

  1. What is the music that you and your peers are into (if anything?) Who are your heroes? What is ‘popular’ now currently? How has that changed from your past? As a contrast, what is uncool? Be as specific as possible.

 

 

  1. Focus on other areas of popular media (the collective) that have to do with your generation. What are they? Why are they important to you and your friends?

 

 

  1. Create a slogan (phrase that is marketable) for your generation.

 

  1. Example: We don’t care about your rules! Freedom unites us all!

 

 

  1. Choose a song that is an emblem (guidepost) for your generation OR goes with the slogan you’ve just created. Analyze that song using the “Tuneful Tuesday Generic Questions” (Part B)

V6_MM_6_V1.0

Monday, November 1st

So after the silent reading section, we will be finishing that All you Zombies Timeline – the one I said we’d be doing on Monday.

So – finish the timeline with help from the bullet points of the story I have put on the Friday blog.

Next, probably about 45 minutes in, we will be continuing our Time Travel short story adventure. This story, a little easier to understand, is called: Yesterday was Monday. There are lots of religious symbols in this story, but I think that the author put them in just to be cool. 

This is how Apple and Motley Crue came up with their names, by the way – and it’s a good little reminder that in your own fiction, write what you think is cool.

Here is the story:

Yesterday was Monday

Tomorrow, we will be doing our second reader response. I’m not sure that I can finish the corrections by tomorrow, but I will try my best.

Friday, October 29th

Today we’re reading a new story: All You Zombies. (Fact: It’s not about zombies)

You will also learn a new word: Solipsism. Look it up.

Here is the text:

Robert-A.-Heinlein-All-You-Zombies

Now today’s assignment is going away from the usual written response / comprehension questions.

I will give you paper  – on which you are to draw a timeline. You have to sort out this story so that it makes sense to you. At the end of the class, I will take your “Timelines” and see if you came up with something that is tangible and related to the story.

Let’s practice with this 1950’s song:

“I’m My Own Grandpa“

Here is some help: TIMELINE OF ALL YOU ZOMBIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER / GRAPHIC

1. On September 20, 1945, the Bartender drops off baby Jane at an orphanage. She grows up there. She dreams of joining one of the “comfort organizations” dedicated to providing R&R for spacemen.

2. Nearly 18 years later, the man who refers to himself as “an unmarried mother” is dropped off at April 3, 1963, by the Bartender. He meets and, after some weeks of dating, seduces and impregnates the 17-year-old Jane, who has an intersex condition. From Jane’s point of view, he then disappears. Actually, he has been retrieved by the Bartender, and taken to 1985 (see sixth bullet point).

3. Jane learns that she is pregnant by the now-missing unknown man. After giving birth by C-section, she is found to be a “true hermaphrodite” who has been severely damaged by the pregnancy and birth; on waking she learns that she has been subjected (without her consent) to a “sex change” which reassigns her sex to male.

4. On March 10, 1964, the Bartender kidnaps the baby and takes it back in time to the orphanage (see first bullet point). Jane, now male, becomes a stenographer, and then a writer. Whenever he is asked his occupation, he replies, somewhat truculently, “I’m an unmarried mother—at four cents a word. I write confession stories.” He becomes a regular at the bar where the narrator, the Bartender, works, but does not interact with him significantly for six years.

5. On November 7, 1970, the Bartender meets the Unmarried Mother, yells at the customer playing “I’m My Own Grandpa“, conducts the Unmarried Mother into the back office, and takes him back to 1963 to “find” (and, ostensibly, get revenge upon) the man who got him pregnant (see second bullet point). He returns to the bar, seconds after going into the back room, and allows the customer to play the song. From his own point of view, he has carried out his mission of ensuring his own existence.

6. On August 12, 1985, the Bartender travels to 1963 and retrieves the Unmarried Mother — whom he had left there (then?) during the events of the fifth (and second) bullet point(s) — to the Rockies base and enlists him (actually a younger version of himself) in the Temporal Bureau.

7. On January 12, 1993, the Bartender, who is also Jane/mother/father/Unmarried Mother, arrives back at his base from 1970 to think about his life.

Thursday, October 28th

Reader Response. Today is the day to finalize your reader response. I will repost the details of what to do. Check the Assignments folder. All of the theme statements we came up with are attached to the assignments folder.

Today:

  1. Summarize (briefly) the text
  2. give your own opinion on why it was good / bad.
  3. Connect the thematic statement to a personal anecdote or philosophy that you have.
  4. How does your view fit in the bigger picture?
  5. Use characters and plot, literary devices, ideas, to make a question / claim for further analysis.

We will share some of the questions for further analysis. Make these questions bigger, and connected in some ways to your thesis. Here is an example:

Text Shows that there is no linear timeline when it comes to the unpredictability of love.

So the question for further analysis would be like this:

Why is love so predictable in the first place? What could make love more predictable? Would that be a good thing?

Wednesday, October 27th

Reader Response:

A. You should have all of the following questions completed (I revised for clarity).

  1. Do you agree or disagree with the writer’s choices in the story? Would you have made different choices to make the text better?
  2. What’s the overall message? Does the message clash with your personal views?
  3. How does the text relate to you personally?
  4. To what extent did the text challenge or change your opinions or beliefs?
  5. Did you learn anything from the text? If so, what did you learn?
  6. What is your overall reaction to the text? Why did you [dis] like the text?

B. After that, you come up with a theme statement. We will do this in class.

Ex. Text Shows that there is no linear timeline when it comes to the unpredictability of love.

C. Choose a theme statement to use that works with your personal views.

D. Now you have all the ‘data’ needed, structure the 1-3 paragraph response like this:

  1. Summarize (briefly) the text
  2. give your own opinion on why it was good / bad.
  3. Connect the thematic statement to a personal anecdote or philosophy that you have.
  4. How does your view fit in the bigger picture?
  5. Use characters and plot, literary devices, ideas, to make a question / claim for further analysis.

Hand in for a completion mark at the end of today.

Tuesday, October 26th

Tuneful Tuesdays #5

Narrative in Song.

Every song has a story to tell. Yet some stories are better than others. The artist actually has a narrative in mind when they pen the thing, so what we have as listeners is a fully fleshed out story, characters, rising action, climax, the lot. The following four songs have stories to tell. It’s your job to understand what the plot is. Then at the end of the analysis, you are to write your own lyric based on the prompt given. 

Choose 1! Democracy Rules.

Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven

https://genius.com/Led-zeppelin-stairway-to-heaven-lyrics

Pink Floyd – Shine on You Crazy Diamond

https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-shine-on-you-crazy-diamond-pts-1-5-lyrics

Skid Row – I remember you

https://genius.com/Skid-row-i-remember-you-lyrics

Thriller – by Michael Jackson

https://genius.com/albums/Michael-jackson/Thriller

  1. What is the story about? Give a summary of the story as you understand it.
  2. What is the effect of this story as a song? How do the lyrics and sound combine to make a cohesive whole?
  3. Now that you know a little bit about stories in general, how is a short story different from a lyrical story? What are the pros and cons of both?
  4. Put this idea into a lyrical narrative:
    1. A talented young man’s deepest fear is holding his life back. Your character’s biggest fear is your story’s secret weapon. Don’t run from it, write about it.

Complete the following document by Wednesday at 11:59PM (October 27th) for a minor letter grade.

V4Music analysis guide_2021

Monday, October 25th

New week, new story.

Needle in a Timestack

So by now, I’m sure you’re aware that if one changes even the slightest thing in the past, then the consequences could be dire.

This next story is one that is similar in theory, but has a few differences. Basically, it’s about a jealous ex-boyfriend trying to mess up a happy marriage by trying to erase the married couple’s past. Pretty cool idea.

Yet this is the day I will teach you about “reader Response. Look at this graphic I stole of the internet:

So I will put down these questions that are in the graphic – please write out in a 1-3 paragraph response your reaction to this text after you finish reading it:

  • Do you like or dislike the text?
  • Do you agree or disagree with the writer?
  • Does the text clash with your personal views?
  • How does the text relate to you personally?
  • To what extent did the text challenge or change your opinions or beliefs?
  • Did you learn anything from the text? If so, what did you learn?
  • What is your overall reaction to the text?

For the discussion, you are to look back at the response you have just written and come up with a claim (thesis) summarizing everything you’ve written.

Example: You wrote about how both Mikkelsen and Janine are both fighting to keep their love in tact. So you can summarize with “Love is seen of as fleeting, yet something worth fighting for in Silverberg’s “Needle in a Timestack.”

On Wednesday, we will review our first reader responses. You have until tomorrow night to finish them.

Thursday, October 21st

Finish these packages today.

I will go over the questions 1-10 comprehension and explain some of the terms you might not know. 

Then have a good weekend!

Wednesday, October 20th

I will read for you this short story. Please read along with me. 

We will do a pre / during / post reading of this text in a worksheet.

Here is the story:

Sound of Thunder

Here is the worksheet. It is due tomorrow at midnight.

SOund of thunder Questions

Tuesday, October 19th

Musical Mondays #4

Alternative rock came about in the 90’s. Some of you might have heard about it , some not. I am giving you three songs that had their moment in the sun, then passed away. These are one hit wonders – in my own time growing up. We love songs then hate them after some time has passed. These songs were some of those songs for my generation.

DISCUSSION QUESTION: Why do we hate songs we once loved? What is over-saturation? Think deeper than ‘ it got boring’.

Here are the songs. The rest of the day is normal. We’ll discuss them during and after you finish the work:

V3Music analysis guide_2021

Here’s something to do before you finish the work, however:

  1. Find song from your past that got ‘over saturated.’ Play it for your people / classroom buddies.
    1. Discuss these three questions and make sure to be ready to discuss the answers to me personally.
      • What made this song old and stale to you? (Besides repetition) Why is it that songs become loved, hated, then loved again?
      • What memories does this song invoke?
      • Are the lyrics even important or is it the beat? Something else entirely? (Nostalgia, aesthetic, etc.)
  1. Harvey Danger, Flagpole Sitta: https://genius.com/Harvey-danger-flagpole-sitta-lyrics
  1. Marcy’s Playground, Sex and Candy: https://genius.com/Marcy-playground-sex-and-candy-lyrics
  1. Whetus, Teenage Dirtbag: https://genius.com/Wheatus-teenage-dirtbag-lyrics

Tuesday, June 1st

Monday, October 18th

I am excited to publish the new unit: Time Travel.

Today, we will take it rather easily. We’re going to have a discussion on what Science Fiction genres are. 

Here is a run down of what we will be doing – 

V3.5_21_Time Travel Short Fiction Introduction

Discussion Questions: (Write, then discuss with a partner)

  1. What is the definition of Science Fiction?
  2. What are some examples of science fiction stories? (Movies, Manga, Fiction etc.)
  3. Is science fiction an effective genre? Why or why not?
  4. What sub-genres of science fiction can you think of?

This little treat is from a student in class:

On Wednesday, we will be starting a short story that might hurt your brain.

The short stories I have chosen for this specific unit are ordered and as follows:

A Sound of Thunder 

Needle in a Timestack 

All You Zombies

The Seventh Voyage

Yesterday Was Monday

And if we have time: This is one of the academic skills I want you to take away:

V2_Reader Response TTU

Friday, October 15th

I will repeat the steps that I covered yesterday.

  1. Today you are to put all of your ideas in a coherent essay. You can work with others after you’ve finished in order to help each other a little more. I have different peer review sheets and a self evaluation if you need it.
  2. Tomorrow, we will work on mechanics for a little bit. Mechanics are what is expected of you when you hand in any final paper. (12 pt. font; Times New Roman; Double spaced etc.)
  3. I will help those that need help. If I see you struggling, I will help. If I see you socializing and doing nothing, I will politely ask you to leave the class.

For about 10 minutes, I will show you what I (and most of your other academic writing teachers) expect of you from now on when it comes to ‘good drafts’. Please memorize these rules:

I will need a volunteer to Email me their paper.

REMINDERS:

  • Verbs should be in Present Tense
  • Use Objective Point of View (no ‘I’ statements)
  • It’s not simply your opinion. You are making a plausible interpretation of a writer’s work.
  • A quote should not sit as a sentence. A quote should become part of your sentence.
  • convey, portray, depict, evoke, and any literary term… are good words to use!
  • Refer to the reader, the writer, the speaker

CONVENTIONS: (MLA FORMATTING)

  • Times New Roman
  • 12 Point font
  • Double Spaced
  • Name, Date, Period in upper Right hand corner
  • Numbered Pages
  • 1″ margins

Thursday, October 14th

You have a peer review completed (some better than others) and now you have seen many examples of a good vs. a mediocre analysis. So here is the plan for today and tomorrow.

Independent reading for 15 minutes.

  1. Today you are to put all of your ideas in a coherent essay. You can work with others after you’ve finished in order to help each other a little more. I have different peer review sheets and a self evaluation if you need it.
  2. Tomorrow, we will work on mechanics for a little bit. Mechanics are what is expected of you when you hand in any final paper. (12 pt. font; Times New Roman; Double spaced etc.)
  3. I will help those that need help. If I see you struggling, I will help. If I see you socializing and doing nothing, I will politely ask you to leave the class.

The final is due Tomorrow at Midnight. (Friday, October 15th 11:59PM)

V3_Essay Rubric

Wednesday, October 13th

I have a few sheets for you to look at before we go over our peer editing:

Grammar Lecture  Literary Writing Mechanics

Grammar practice: LS11 – WRITING MECHANCIS copy

HERE is a copy of the peer review sheet that I would like for you to go over before we start.

PEER REVIEW SHEET: Peer-Edit-Sheet-1 V2

Instructions for peer review:

  1. Read the essay
  2. Fill out two boxes that have not been completed on the peer review sheet to help the student with their second draft. 
  3. Pass the essay on.
  4. If there are no more boxes on the peer review sheet, answer the final question: What would you change / revise?

Tuesday, October 12th

Today is the day for your in class writes. 

Please use all materials that you have prepared in both Thursday / Friday classes and over the weekend. 

You will turn in your rough drafts today at the end of the class that I will check for completion before printing them all out tomorrow with peer review sheets for you to fill out for your classmates. 

Please use the whole class.

If you’re finished, you can read your independent reading book. 

Thursday, October 7th & Friday October 8th

Optional Thesis Statements (Made by Period 2)

  1. In Back to the Future, Zemeckis uses specific camera angles and framing techniques to highlight the different power-dynamics and project emotion onto the audience. 

  2. In Back to the Future, Zemeckis uses editing techniques to show the urgency of time the characters face throughout the film.
  3. In Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, the lighting  demonstrates different lighting techniques to enhance the characteristics of the protagonists.

  4. Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future 1 utilizes camera movement to draw in the audience and provide maximum engagement by emphasizing the expressions and actions of each character, while simultaneously adding more depth to the plot of the film.  

  5. Robert Zemeckis in Back to the Future I(one), use both Diegetic & non- Diegetic sounds in order to create anticipation or inform us of coming events and create an emotional connection from character to audience.  

Optional Thesis Statements: (Made by Period 4)

  1. Zemeckis in Back to the Future shows Editing techniques in order to portray Marty McFly’s actions and their consequences in the past. __________
  2. Zemeckis in Back to the Future shows sound in order to draw in the attention of the audience for the entirety of the film.
  3. Zemeckis in Back to the Future shows Lighting in order to enhance the personalities of the characters in the film.
  4. Zemeckis in Back to the Future shows camera movement in order to accentuate the characters struggles and triumphs as well as make the message of the film clearer.
  5. Zemeckis in Back to the Future shows camera angles to show the power differences between characters and display the main focuses on this power structure throughout each scene.

We have now finished the movie. We will do this paper in steps. First, I will go over a little about essay structure, so you’re not completely lost.

e-Essay-BasicsDownload

Literary-3-Paragraph-Specific-OutlineDownload

This is for specific areas in which you need help for your writing. This resource is fantastic for brushing up on grammar, punctuation and writing skills. We will look at this during the week. 

https://media.openschool.bc.ca/osbcmedia/english_10v5/wotr/

Step 1.

Fill out this section. Your thesis is what will drive the 1-3PP essay:

Robert Zemeckis in Back to the Future I, uses _____________________________ in order

                                                                                                          Cinematic element

to ____________________________________________________________________.

                                             Achieve what purpose

For example,____________________________________________________________.

                           Provide evidence from the text to support  the topic sentence.

_______________________________________________________________________.

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________.

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________.

                                             Reflective commentary

 

_______________________________________________________________________.

                                                Sentence of closure/summary

You are to work with what notes you have to come up with a cohesive paper that is a representation of your learning of the terminology and of the analytical paragraphs you have worked on up until this point.

Another way of looking at this is to think about the lens paragraphs you had for the last major assignment and then apply it to this paper – as they are both “Literary Analysis” papers.

The Ten-Sentence Critical Paragraph – A Variation of P.E.E.

Like any model for composition, this is open to criticism. For instance, these paragraphs tend to become formulaic and predictable in structure. Excellent paragraphs, certainly, don’t always follow this or any guide. This guide might help, however, especially in the beginning stages of writing about literature.

Sentence 1 – Topic Sentence – contains the title of the piece of literature, the writer’s full name, and your topic. If this is an answer to an assigned question, then your topic sentence might be a rewording of the question into a statement. (a thesis statement, your statement to prove)

Sentence 2 – Main Point #1, One way the writer does what you say he or she does is through…

Sentence 3 – Example/Reference or quotation #1. The best example from the piece of literature which supports you main idea #1.

Sentence 4 and 5 – The explanation in your own words of how/why this example/quote does what you say it does. This section is where you develop your answer and prove your thesis.

Sentence 6 –   Main Point #2. Another way the writer does what you say he or she does is…

Sentence 7 – Example/Reference or quotation #2. The best example from the piece of literature which supports you main idea #2.

Sentence 8 and 9 – The explanation of how/why this example/quote does what you say it does. This section is where you develop your answer and prove your thesis.

Sentence 10– Concluding Sentence. Minimally: summarize your paragraph repeating some of the key words from the question. Better: relate this literary device/technique to the effectiveness of the whole composition and how the device/technique helps the author develop the theme, or, relate the composition’s theme to real life.

Wednesday, October 6th

  1. Wednesday: 30 minutes watch – meet in expert groups & share / runner shares with other groups.

So we continue with our Back to the Future groups today. 

Here are the groups in case you have forgotten:

PER 2:

Camera Movement: Tony, Locklan, Lakin, Andrea, Nima, Connor

Editing: Fiona, Sophia, Tamsin, Alex, Alysha, Matthew

Music/Sound: Arawyn, Einas, Maxine, Callum, Mia

Framing / Angles: Duriel, Chris, Jenna, Nour, Emma

Lighting: Owen, Mike, Zahra, Negar, Trevor, Maxine

PER 4:

Lighting: Connie, Sunghyun, Alex, Adam, Monika

Editing: Yulia, Cali, Brayden, Caroline, Jianna

Music/Sound: Daniel, Brooklyn, Ryder, Christianna, Reeve

Camera Movement: Finnley, Charlie, Jade, CJ, Joshua, Tianna

Angles/ Framing: Kimberly, Shaila, Sara, Nick, Mackenzie

 

Only move into your groups AFTER we have watched the film.

Per 2: 48 Minutes

Per 4: 67 Minutes

Tuesday, October 5th

Neo Soul (Contemporary) What is Soul? Where is Soul / R&B Going?

This past year, I have really gotten into Neo-Soul. But what is it? Where did it come from? People argue that it was Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo and Erykah Badu that started the movement, really. This was in the 90’s, early 2000’s.

In these next few videos, I’d like you to think about contemporary music as a whole. Think about these questions that you can share with a partner:

  1. What is a musical movement? How does it start? (You might need to do a bit of research.) Ex. Where does rap come from / How did music become popular?
  2. Based on the classes we’ve had for Tuneful Tuesdays, can you see the evolution of R&B throughout the years? Give examples of this.
  3. Pick an R&B song that you think is classified as Neo Soul. These are the elements that make up Neo Soul:

https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-neo-soul-2851222

These two songs are classed as neo soul. They are two very talented artists. One is from the 90’s, one is from today. You can also place this genre in ‘alternative R&B’ as well. There is a heavy guitar focus, because this is the exact kind of music I’m in to and I want to share it with you in this presentation.

https://genius.com/Lauryn-hill-everything-is-everything-lyrics

 

https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Isaiah-Sharkey/Time

Here is the file to complete with the instructions. This is due tomorrow at the end of the day:

V3Music analysis guide_2021

Monday, October 4th

  1. Monday: 40 minutes watch – meet in expert groups & share / runner shares with other groups.

Independent reading 15 minutes.

You have a TOC today in block 4. Please continue to watch Back to the Future for 45 more minutes. After that, continue to meet with expert groups, confer with each other, then:

Send a runner to check all of the other groups notes and share them with each other. If you don’t have the film package, either write the notes longhand or use a separate word document.

Friday, October 1st

Friday, October 1st

You have been working continually with the film terminology for a week now. These words should come to you more naturally.

We are starting Back to the Future today. The class schedule will be strict for the next week and as follows:

  1. Friday: 40 minutes watch – Meet in expert groups & share / runner shares with other groups.
  2. Monday: 40 minutes watch – meet in expert groups & share / runner shares with other groups.
  3. Wednesday: 30 minutes watch – meet in expert groups & share / runner shares with other groups.
  4. Thursday: With now acquired data, come up with a 3 paragraph (1000 word approx.) paper on what bigger themes are achieved with your specific expert group element of cinema. (See structure in film package)

Here is the script to Back to the Future:

Back+to+the+Future

Friday: Finish the paper – Turn in paper and film package by the end of class.

Wednesday, Sept. 29th

15 minutes independent reading.

Please open your film unit packages. I will show you where to go.

  1. Meet Joe Black (2 times with and without sound)
  2. Apocalypse now (With sound / without sound)

Film as Lit BFI 10’s

Everything will be in here. You should have already completed your survey.

This part of the unit will be an application of your film terminology understanding. This is a pre-requisite for the big project. Back to the Future.

We will start Back to the Future on Friday after I put you in what we call “expert Groups”. These groups will be random.  

Tuesday, September 28th

How Jazz Continues into Blues and why the two are interchangeable.

What is Blues? You tell me.

Check out this video:

BB King How Blue Can You Get?

https://genius.com/Bb-king-how-blue-can-you-get-lyrics

Then, with his influence, there came a type of blues that is synonymous with ‘Rock.’ since you know what rock music is, how are these lyrics / pieces different?

Hendrix Red House Live

https://genius.com/The-jimi-hendrix-experience-red-house-lyrics

Then some iconic British boys took the blues concept as well. This is Led Zeppelin with ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’.

https://genius.com/Led-zeppelin-since-ive-been-loving-you-lyrics

Fill this out and turn it into teams by next week:

https://mycharlesbest.sd43.bc.ca/rpurdy/files/2020/11/Music-analysis-guide-9s-Wednesday-Q2.docx

Monday, September 27th

Independent reading 15 mins.

Today is a day to work on the film terminology project.

This is what you will be doing:

  1. Finalize your work, get everything set up for small group presentations.
  2. Each group / individual will present their movie clip and explain what shots / angles / sound / editing / movement they found in the clip. I will walk around as this is going on.
  3. I will pick five strong groups to present in front of the class. These groups will get an extra percentage point for when they need it in future assignments.
  4. By the end of class, you should know these vocabulary words, so when we get to Wednesday, we will have experts in the class.
  5. This is a completion grade. You get an A for showing your knowledge of the terminology regarding film. 

Here is the film terminology sheet just in case for your review:

Film-TerminologyDownload
screen_shot_referenceDownload

Monday – Thursday / September 20th – 23rd (Friday ProD)

Monday, September 20th

What is the independent Novel Study Project?

Here is the project:

Independent Project Final_2021

And here is the rubric:

Novel-Study-Project-Rubric-2018

We will finish the Lion King today. 30 minutes left.

After that, you have the rest of class to ask questions about the final paragraph. The final paragraph will be due on Tuesday, September 21st at 5PM. You have class today to get everything sorted out. You have half of the class tomorrow to write the final.

THIS IS THE RUBRIC FOR THE LENS PARAGRAPH: (also on Teams)

Purdy Lens Rubric

Tuesday, September 21st

Finish Lion King lens paper today. 30 minutes in class to finish. Due Tonight at 5PM. I will introduce Tuneful Tuesdays – play a few songs and then introduce my expectations. Here is the info for the Tuneful Tuesdays unit – today will just be passive; no turn ins:

Musical Mondays #1. Jazz

This will take a bit of explaining. Here are my notes regarding this continuing unit:

Musical-Mondays-IntroductionDownload

Here is the homework sheet that you will be using each week to explore each of the songs. I will have two for you to complete. This is the .doc you’ll be using for each lesson:

Music-analysis-guide-9s-Wednesday-Q2Download

When you analyze a piece for perceptive reasons, then the basic questions asked are the ones that seem simple, but provide evidence for good discussion.

Here are the links to the lyrics & the video today:

https://genius.com/Nina-simone-just-in-time-lyrics

https://genius.com/Billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lyrics

September 22nd – 23rd

New Unit!

This is everything you will need for the unit:

Film as Lit BFI 10’s

At the end of the unit, all you will do is turn in this package – fully completed. The thing is, I will guide you through each page. I am not going to tell you exactly how long it will take us, but it has taken usually about a week and a half for other classes.

I will constantly update this page and explain what we have done. There will be other minor assignments and completion checks that will be due throughout the unit as well. Please keep up with this, as each part makes up a whole. 

The unit itself is a perfect bridge for us to jump into our sci-fi short story unit. It is also a chance for you to review analytical paragraphs.

Film Terminology:

Film-TerminologyDownload
screen_shot_referenceDownload

We will go over shots. Here is a video we will watch:

Your exercise will be to find a clip from your favorite movie and show me some of these vocabulary words explained.

September 13th-17th

Let’s finish the lens presentations first. Then:

We will watch the show.

Let’s think about these three questions:

  1. What lens best represents the episode and why?
  2. What two pieces of evidence can you find (in the transcript or your notes) that backs up this lens?
  3. What does this mean as a ‘bigger picture’? For example – what can we take away and learn from this episode?

First, you can have a discussion with partners, and then begin to make a good idea of this in your writing. Make sure to answer the questions based on the lens you have chosen. I will hand out a paper that is a matrix of lenses so that it can help you. This will also be used for the full length film

.Introduction-to-Literary-Theory-Grid-Grade-10.11Download

This informal paragraph is due Wednesday at 11:59PM

For you 10’s we will be going to the library first thing.

Read the transcript (below) and have a background head-start on what lenses to look through.

How I Met Your Mother: The Best Burger in New York. (E402)

Transcript Link:
https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=11657

Discussion of the episode through lenses – informal Paragraph response (Due Wednesday at 11:59PM)

Library for 20-30 mins at the beginning of class.

September 15th

IN CLASS WRITE – INFORMAL LENS PARAGRAPH BEST BURGER IN NEW YORK

September 16th, 2021

So it’s time to put everything together.

The three questions were your thesis statement.

The questions on the worksheet were the body of your essay.

I will use someone as an example to show how easy it is to put together a beginner’s literary paragraph using the information you have gathered.

What perspective (lens) shows the major theme of Before Sunrise / Lion King?

Structure you need to follow for final paper: (Copy and paste to a word document)

The Ten-Sentence Critical Paragraph – A Variation of P.E.E.

Like any model for composition, this is open to criticism. For instance, these paragraphs tend to become formulaic and predictable in structure. Excellent paragraphs, certainly, don’t always follow this or any guide. This guide might help, however, especially in the beginning stages of writing about literature.

Sentence 1 – Topic Sentence – contains the title of the piece of literature, the writer’s full name, and your topic. If this is an answer to an assigned question, then your topic sentence might be a rewording of the question into a statement. (a thesis statement, your statement to prove)

Sentence 2 – Main Point #1, One way the writer does what you say he or she does is through…

Sentence 3 – Example/Reference or quotation #1. The best example from the piece of literature which supports you main idea #1.

Sentence 4 and 5 – The explanation in your own words of how/why this example/quote does what you say it does. This section is where you develop your answer and prove your thesis.

Sentence 6 –   Main Point #2. Another way the writer does what you say he or she does is…

Sentence 7 – Example/Reference or quotation #2. The best example from the piece of literature which supports you main idea #2.

Sentence 8 and 9 – The explanation of how/why this example/quote does what you say it does. This section is where you develop your answer and prove your thesis.

Sentence 10– Concluding Sentence. Minimally: summarize your paragraph repeating some of the key words from the question. Better: relate this literary device/technique to the effectiveness of the whole composition and how the device/technique helps the author develop the theme, or, relate the composition’s theme to real life.

Remember the Conventions of Critical Writing (writing about literature) –         
Verbs should be in Present Tense –         
Use Objective Point of View (no ‘I’ statements) –         
It’s not simply your opinion. You are making a plausible interpretation of a writer’s work. –         
A quote should not sit as a sentence. A quote should become part of your sentence. –         
convey, portray, depict, evoke, and any literary term… are good words to use! –         
Refer to the reader, the writer, the speaker
 

Transcript of The Lion King

https://lionking.org/scripts/Script.html

Transcript of Before Sunrise:Before-SunriseDownload

Let me know when you need help.

In [Richard Linklater’s film Before Sunset,] the theme of _________________ is shown through [the character’s discussion] of __________________________________________________________ .

A major frame of the film would be seen through a ________________ lens.

This is exemplified / explored / shown / highlighted because _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Remember:

Theme

Lens

Evidence

Explanation

Evidence

Explanation

Conclusion

Final due Sunday (11:59PM)

Sept. 8th / 9th / 10th, 2021

Welcome to class.

Here’s the syllabus. Let’s go over it briefly. Each pair should come up with a question that you need clarified.

Grade-10-2018-IntroductionDownload

Here’s the introduction to the unit:

10-Lenses-IntroductionDownload

10 Essential Questions (out of 100)

https://www.signupgenius.com/groups/getting-to-know-you-questions.cfm

  1. Brainstorm with class on questions
  2. Find someone you don’t know
  3. Ask 10 of the questions from the board – answer them – Vice versa
  4. Get ready to present your partner to the class

Let’s get started.

2_critical_lenses_of_literatureDownload

Now, things might get a little strange right away, but I’d like for you to take notes on this video to reflect on the content. I’ll hand out paper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cOEFnppm_A
  1. Structuralism:the significance of the changing balance between text and image and its relationship to an interpretation of the story as a fantasy – a figment of Max’s imagination, oppositions.
    b. Feminism: the role of the mother (and the absence of the father), the balance of power between mother and son, the role Max adopts with the ‘wild things’, the representation of the ‘wild things’ as gendered or genderless.
    c. Postcolonial: the role Max adopts with the ‘wild things’, his colonising – and subsequent desertion – of the creatures, the behaviour of the ‘wild things’, the colour symbolism of Max’s clothing.
    d. Psychoanalytic: what the ‘wild things’ might represent, Max’s relationship with his mother, the absence of the father, dream/reality distinctions, sublimation of desires into fantasy.

Look for fairy tales. Either by yourself or with a partner. Pick a lens in which to view your fairytale.

Look at this document. There are 8 lenses to choose from, but you only need to familiarize yourself with four.

Eight-Critical-LensesDownload

Here’s some fables from Aesop etc. you can choose from:

http://www.ivyjoy.com/fables/

Tomorrow, you’ll present your fairy tale for class. You will do these three things:

  1. Summarize the fairytale
  2. tell the class what lens you are looking through and why
  3. explain why this lens is relevant to the story.