The Pearl - Ch 5

Read chapter five for Monday, December 21st. There will be a quiz.

Quebec Roots Writing Assignment

Write a 100-word text.

Choose one of the following tasks.

• Think of a person who you used to feel connected with but no longer do. Write about your relationship and how it feels to be disconnected from them.
• Write a poem to someone who means a lot to you.
• Write a letter to someone to whom you are now disconnected.

Quebec Roots

Students are completing writing assignments for Quebec Roots.

The Pearl

Students are reading The Pearl by John Steinbeck. While reading, they are learning about literary devices and how to write a strong reading response.

Shakespeare 2.0

Students are currently working on a project where they create a myspace page for a Shakespeare character.

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Hamlet's City

Elsinore, Denmark

Picture Sites

http://www.photography-now.net

http://www.poyi.org

http://magnumphotos.com

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/

Shakespeare Essay

Students will be working on their Shakespeare essays this week.

Act 3

Read act 3 and write summaries for each scene. I will be marking the scene summaries on Thursday.

Scene Summaries

Summarize scenes up to and including II.ii.

See you Monday

Shakespeare Essay Topics

1 – Shakespeare’s Personal Life
2 – Shakespeare’s Professional Life
3 – The Renaissance
4 – The Language of Shakespeare
5 – Shakespeare’s Theatre
6 – Staging Shakespeare
7 – The Authorship Debate
8 – An approved topic of your choice

Hamlet (a little easier)

Here's two resources that should help out.

Hamlet: the original text with a translation beside it.

Scene summaries from SparkNotes

Hamlet Iii

Read Hamlet I.ii.

Do a close reading of I.ii.1-14

Write summary for first two scenes.

Hamlet is coming

Due to an upcoming conference, I have rescheduled the Shakespeare unit. We will be reading _Hamlet_ after the celebrity unit.

The Wilderness Downtown

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ is an innovative text that you've watched in class. Write a reflection about the text while considering the following.

• How did the text tell the story?
  
• What is different about this text compared to others? Compare to film, webpages, etc.
• What are your thoughts about the text? Did you enjoy it?

A quick half page reflection is sufficient.

Welcome back

Student and Parent/Guardian,

Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed a nice summer. I am looking forward to this year and have planned a bunch of engaging and challenging units of study.

English 3 - 4 is an exciting, interactive course focusing on the student’s literacy. Through work in literature and media, students will develop and build upon their interpretive skills, research skills, critical thinking, and creativity. Students will have opportunities to explore a wide-variety of texts, including, novels, plays, poetry, film, advertisements, graphic novels, and etcetera.

The course is comprised of three competencies: uses language/talk to communicate and to learn, writes a variety of genres for personal and social purposes, and reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts. More detailed information about the curriculum outcomes can be found on the ministry’s website.

You can always get a hold of me if you have any questions or concerns. The best way to contact me is through my school email: jkent@wqsb.qc.ca. You can also call the school and leave a message with Rosemarie at 819-762-2706.

I do not to overload students with homework. However, students are required to complete assigned readings at home, as well as complete assignments that they were unable to finish in class. I do my very best to post assignments on the class blog at NorandaEnglish34.blogspot.com. Occasionally, I will post handouts on drop.io/jordankent in case a student has lost a handout and requires it at home. Students can always benefit from completing extra work at home including reading a good novel, writing creative stories, completing grammar activities that I can provide, and even watching English television if they don’t normally do so.

The following is a breakdown of this year’s plans for English 3-4. I have provided some detail for the first two units so that you and your child know what to expect. In between units, students will complete grammar assignments, creative writing assignments, and other single-class lessons. The schedule may change or be adjusted.

Month	Unit Description
September	Celebrity Culture Unit: Is being a celebrity worth it? This unit examines fame, paparazzi, gossip, and obsession.
October	Advertising Campaign: Students will study marketing and develop the ability to analyse ads and create marketing strategies. The students will create an advertising campaign and present it to an audience of parents and administration.
November	Novella Study: Students will read The Pearl by John Steinbeck. This short unit is designed to focus on their ability to derive meaning from a text and respond to it.
December	LES (Learning and Evaluation Situation): An LES is the Ministry of Education’s term for a unit of study. The ministry provides some LESs for teachers in the province. I use at least two of the LESs provided by the ministry to ensure that I am providing texts and assignments at the appropriate level. The LESs provided by the ministry are typically on fun, engaging topics and are completed within 7-10 classes.
January	Shakespeare: This year students will be challenged with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Students will learn essential reading strategies and important literary devices. The unit will culminate with an innovative project which combines social media and Shakespeare.
February	Independent Action Research or Ethnographic Project: Details to follow
March	Poetry: Is poetry still relevant in today’s world?
April	Writing Portfolio and Independent Novel Study
May/June	Final ES (Evaluation Situation)

Newspaper articles

Here is the link to the newspapers' special reports we read in class.

http://www.learnquebec.ca/quebecexams/websecles/water/index.html

or

http://www.learnquebec.ca/en/content/deela/water/index.html

Independent Novel Project

Students are working on an independent novel project.

Part 1 of Project: February 19th, 2010
Entire Project Due: March 9th, 2010

Water Research

Some great resources for extending your research beyond the water study:

Council of Canadians:
http://www.canadians.org/water/index.html
United Nations:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001444/144409E.pdf
BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/world/2003/world_forum/water/default.stm
TVO: (podcast, very interesting and informative)
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=7&bpn=379076&bpn_segment_id=2399&ts=2007-05-23%2020:00:00.0

Writing Portfolios

Reminder: Writing Portfolios are due January 29th

Water Documentary

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/flow-for-love-of-water/

http://www.documentary-film.net/search/watch.php?&ref=212