September 20

ELA 20 Sept 20/16 Student-developed reflection questions for post-inquiry project

You’re working through a Guided Inquiry Project to explore and develop a personal conclusion or judgement related to the role of modern fairy tales in today’s childhood development. When you’ve finished the steps and have made your ultimate decision on this topic, you’ll be reflecting on the process of inquiry and submitting an audio reflection recording.

To help you with some self-reflection discussion points, you as a class will create a list of possible questions to consider. They’ll be added below when we get to the end of the inquiry process.

Possible self-reflection questions for this section:

  1. What is different for you between the questions you respond to alone, on your own and the questions you discuss with others? Do you mostly come out of a group discussion having heard ideas you’ve already thought of or do you most often hear new ideas in group discussions?
  2. How much thought did you put into this section’s questions? How much did this section’s topic affect how developed your responses are? (Ex: If you enjoyed the topic, did you develop more in your responses?)
  3. This section is designed differently than the other sections you usually complete. Can you pinpoint what was different about it? If so, explain whether you like the regular sections you work on or this type of section more. 
  4. How much discussion was there in your group discussion(s)? What were you thinking during it? What kinds of thoughts were you aware of while the discussion was happening? Did you initially rush through the discussion or did you have a thoughtful talk on the subjects?
  5. How much do you typically contribute to group discussions? Which would you rather – have a discussion on a topic or debate about it? Why?
  6. Is it your preference to work alone or in a small group? What’s the difference for you, or are there times you want to work with others and times you don’t?
  7. Which task within this section did you find the most challenging and why? Which task within this section did you enjoy the most, if any?

 

Category: ELA 20 | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 15

ELA A30 Sept 15/16 “Canada is not Canada” – Gord Downie reflects on Canadian myth

In section A3, since you’re all selecting different non-fiction works to read, the “Connecting Text to Text” section on page 1 of the handout won’t apply to you.

Instead, take a moment to read this article of a recent new release by The Tragically Hip frontman/lead singer/ song writer Gord Downie where he makes the comment that “Canada isn’t Canada”.

  1. In the box given, list a few of his reasons for making that claim.
  2. Explain what he means by saying “Canada isn’t Canada”.
September 12

ELA A10 Sept 12/16 Poetry Activity C – “Six Blind Men of Hindostan” visuals

Poetry is intended to elicit many ideas and senses in the reader/listener, but some are constructed to activate one sense over another. The following poem easily does this with visualizing. This poem also is narrative, meaning it tells a story that progresses.

  1. Read the poem and discuss each stanza to ensure you understand the poem’s larger meaning.
  2. For this task, you will read the poem and decide with your partner on an image that would suit each stanza’s message.
  3. You can choose what program/app to use to put these images into order, like Google Slides.
  4. Include a type of transition between slides, but be mindful of your use of class time.
  5. Publish/share your Visual Slideshow as a comment below. You can add it to your own individual blogs as well.

 

The Six Blind Men of Hindostan

It was six men of Hindostan,
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

 

The first approached the elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl,
“Bless me, it seems the elephant
Is very like a wall.”

The second, feeling his tusk
Cried, “Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp
To me ‘tis mighty clear
This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a spear.”

The third approached the animal
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Then boldly up and spake;
“I see”, quoth he, “The elephant
Is very like an snake.”

 

The fourth stretched out his eager hand
And felt about the knee;
“What most this might beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he;
“Tis clear enough the elephant
Is very like a tree.”

 

The fifth who chanced to touch the ear
Said, “Even the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant
Is very like a fan.”

 

The six no sooner had begun
About the beast to gropeTha
n, seizing on the swinging tail,
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” cried he, “the elephant
Is very like a rope.”

 

And so these men of Hindostan,
Disputed loud and long,
Each with his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And each was partly wrong.

Category: ELA A10 | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 12

ELA A10 Sept 12/16 Poetry Activity B – “Silver”

Some poems are written as Choral poems, meant to be read aloud but in groups to really explore the rhythm and rhyme of the wording. For this poem activity, you and your partner will practice reading the poem out together with exaggeration to develop the rhythm and then you’ll record and publish a Fotobabble of your poetry reading/speaking.

You can publish the Fotobabble to

  1. both your blogs under the A2 section label
  2. and post a Link to your Fotobabble as a comment to this post.

“Silver”
Walter de la Mare

Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees,
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws and a silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

September 12

ELA A10 Sept 12/16 Poetry Activity A – Alphabetical Order -“The Listeners”

It’s challenging enough to try to understand some poems when their lines are in order, but in this activity you’ll try to understand the background of a poem when the lines are switched out of order and put in alphabetical order.

With the poem lines below, study them to:

  1. look closer at the word choices, not the message, and make judgements about the
    1. tone of the poem
    2. topic the poem may be about
    3. characteristics of the author’s word choice – repeated phrases, unusual word choices/pairing
  2. predict what lines may connect with each other to try to piece the poem back into order – what’s the topic?
  3. what other observations can you make of the lines of the poem out of order?

After studying the poem together with a partner and discussing what you can infer from the line order, leave a comment below to explain what conclusions you came up with.

(title not included for now)

Above the Traveller’s head:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
And how the silence surged softly backward,
And the sound of iron on stone,
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
But no one descended to the Traveller;
But only a host of phantom listeners
By the lonely Traveller’s call.
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
From the one man left awake:
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
Is there anybody there? he said.
Is there anybody there? said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Louder, and lifted his head:
Neath the starred and leafy sky;
Never the least stir made the listeners,
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Of the forest’s ferny floor:
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That dwelt in the lone house then
That goes down to the empty hall,
That I kept my word, he said.
Their stillness answering his cry,
Though every word he spake
To that voice from the world of men:
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Where he stood perplexed and still.
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

Category: ELA A10 | LEAVE A COMMENT
September 9

ELA A30 Sept 9/16 Collecting Trending Tweets – MakeaMovieMoreCanadian

As we’re studying and looking into the collection of literature and authors that have contributed to Canadian Literature, we’re also watching for things connected to that in our every day lives. We just finished creating lists of #CanadianStereotypes, so it’s a bit timely to find a Canadian topic is trending on Twitter today: #makeamoviemorecanadian . Each student picked a fave and we’ve collected them here in a Storify post. I’m sure you’ll get a laugh from it!

 

 

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September 7

ELA Sept 7/16 Testing Your Skills Identifying Poetic Devices

We review poetic devices found in poems in ELA and often-times the poems hold little interest for you outside of the context of the course topic. In this sample, these phrases are taken from popular songs you may be aware of.

The challenge is to a) see if you can identify the figurative device used, b) see if you can identify the song or artist as well, but also c) recognize that poetry and music are much the same and the same plays on word sounds and meanings are used by artists every day!

Here’s the audio of the Figurative Devices Test. You can use the paper copy to watch for which device is included in each. Of the 40 examples given, see if you can get an accuracy score of over 35 correct!

The audio is 12 minutes long.

Choose which handout you want to use: Level 1 (gives hints) or Level 2 (has no hints)

 

Image result for figurative devices