September 30

ELA 20: Sept 30 Computer time.. for poems or blogging…

– I was away sick today. –

  1. Students were given computer access today to either type out their Should’ve Been poems or any other missing / late assignments. They were to be reminded that they have to draw an image along the side of their poems that symbolizes some aspect of the role their poem was about. (Ex: Clown shoes for what the clown “Shouldv’e Been” like.)
  2. I had given the sub their next blog post topic, but was told they weren’t ready to move to that step so it is not required yet.
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September 30

ELA A10: Sept 30 Mothman Prophecies…

– I was away sick again today. –

  1. The students began watching this movie during a lunch break that they owed me. Since I was away still today I allowed them to continue watching it during class time. Apparently it took some time to get it started, so they continued the next day when I returned.
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September 29

ELA 20: Sept 29 Should’ve Been Poems…

– I was away sick today. –

  1. Yesterday, I had given students their next assignment and explained what was required. They were also given two student examples of the same assignment, to see good examples of the project. Today, while I was away, they had the class to develop their poems.
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September 28

ELA 20: Sept 28 Redo Poetry Questions…

  1. We have recently studied two poems and students were given very typical questions related to analyzing those poems. The questions covered content such as author’s purpose, style created by the author, the theme and evidence to support it, who the speaker of the poem is along with what point of view it is written from. All of these questions surround the elements of literature that this group has been learning / reviewing since their last semester of English last year. They should be quite comfortable in understanding what each element involves and how to properly respond to it.

    I was displeased, though, that some were copying answers from other students. They are not developing their own skills in this regard. I was also unimpressed that a majority of answers were incomplete, because it was only a question sheet and not to be marked. I can understand this, as long as that student understands that it’s incomplete and would do better for marked work.

  2. Today, students were given back these question sheets, but they were marked – not marked with numbers but corrected just the same to indicate to them where they were lacking or wrong. This should indicate to them what type of result to expect had this been an exam instead. They also had to focus on answering the questions entirely alone.
  3. They were also interrupted because they had to go for their group and individual pictures.
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September 28

ELA A10: Sept 28 Poetry Presentations / Reading…

  1. Students who were prepared presented their scary poem of choice this morning, as per the assignment. (Other students were away with Driver Training and a few were unprepared.) I was very pleased with the quality of their efforts in this project – they had them memorized, they had a prop or costume, and spoke it like it was intended to be delivered. Well done!
  2. For the rest of the class, they were given a booklet of short ghost stories to read. These are stories from the Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan series, including the story of the St. Louis Train, where I actually substitute taught for a fair bit. After reading each of the ghost stories and the articles about crop circles, students are supposed to ponder it and make a personal conclusion about whether they believe it or what about it seems too bogus to them.
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September 24

ELA 20: Sept 24 Poetry quiz and questions…

  1. After going through the two poems yesterday, students were given a little quiz at the beginning of this class to see if they could identify several of the types of figurative language we pointed out yesterday. (I had mentioned yesterday that they might be quizzed on finding the f. l. so they were given an advance notice.) They also had to identify three examples of the author’s style of writing, a topic of literature analysis that we focused on quite a bit in their last semester of English.
  2. Once they had completed the quiz, they were asked to work individually on filling in their answers to yesterday’s questions for “The Piano” as well as answering the questions related to “Warren Pryor”. They were also asked to paraphrase the five stanzas for the first poem and the four stanzas for the second.
  3. There was a lot of excess talking today. Some students finished early or found the work easy and thought they had opportunity to chat, while others who could have benefitted from a more quiet and focused environment were easily distracted into joining the conversations. I’m not unlike many other teachers when I say this is frustrating and has to change.

    Also… no one should be copying anyone else’s responses to questions. Do the work yourself! I consider it cheating (cheating yourself, at least) when you take the easy route and get someone else’s answers. You may as well leave your questions blank – it would be more honest. And for those who willingly give away their answers, you’re not helping like you think you are.  (There’s my rant.)

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September 24

ELA A10: Sept 24 Poetry Analysis cont…

  1. We continued on through our booklet of mystery / suspense poems. It’s clear they’re becoming more familiar with identifying the figurative language and being able to answer the poetry questions for each. They were so animated, at times, in pointing out the f. l. that it seemed like a game show or contest!
  2. Tomorrow, they’ll write a short unit test. It’s a skills-based test meaning the questions on the test are the same as what I would ask them to do during class. It’s not something they can necessarily study for and memorize anything, other than to be sure they understand the elements of literature and what’s being asked in the short story / poetry questions.
  3. Students were given a copy of the short story for the test tomorrow. They can read the story tonight and become familiar with it. This way they won’t use up test time by having to read the story.
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September 22

ELA 20: Sept 22 How to do Battle with Students… err… Grown Ups…

  1. After yesterday’s challenge from Evan and John’s little outburst regarding the literature, it seemed fitting that I arrive to my classroom to find both the boys sitting at the front of the classroom at the teacher’s desk with an air of authority surrounding them. (The fact that they had their feet up on my desk, like a banker, also kind of surprised me. lol)
  2. The boys then took it upon themselves to teach today’s class – one with slightly more success than the other. They gave it a (mostly) good effort though. Apparently, I make for a really poor student! They had students take turns reading through the article, led the discussion of the questions well, and did a good job of summarizing the main points of the author’s purpose.
  3. Considering the story was about the strategies used by adults and children, it seemed kind of fitting to let them reverse our roles for the day. I tried different tricks they often use to get me off task, and they mirrored a lot of the same behaviour that I find myself showing in an effort to maintain things on task. All in all, for building a bit more rapport, it was an interesting class!
  4. Tomorrow, things will return to normal and I’ll go over the story again carefully. We have some really cool poems to study as well.
  5. Reminder: The reflective essay is due Friday and the Body Paragraph assignment is due on Thursday. (I’ll be forgiving on the due dates within reason, so do your best to complete your work quickly.)
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September 22

ELA A10: Sept 22 Figurative Language test…

  1. Students were anxious to write their figurative language test today. They were given two poems and a list of ‘types of figurative language’ to search for in each poem. They seemed to struggle somewhat, if their moaning and groaning were any indication, but we’ll see how their test results turn out.
  2. We’ll get into analyzing our poetry tomorrow.
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