October 29

ELA A30 Oct 29/16 People supporting peaceful protesters on F.N. soil – Chris Hemsworth

We just had this discussion in class today looking at the images of the Oka Crisis, which you remembered from your History 30 class once you saw the images of the vehicles blocking the road, comparing the event to what’s currently happening today in North Dakota on First Nation’s territory. Oka happened in 1990 and divided the nation while the North Dakota event looks strikingly similar and is happening in an era of social media where people have a much stronger way of voicing outrage and showing individual support.

Below is a collection of posts from different social media accounts related to yesterday’6-hour long police raid on the peaceful protesters.

In particular is Chris Hemsworth’s photo from the set of his new Thor movie. Ironically, he also discusses feeling guilty/sorry for wearing a “Native American” costume last year at a “Lone Rangers Party”. We also talked today in class about the difference between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation. How could we fit both today’s discussion topics into one Instagram post by a Hollywood actor??

Standing with those who are fighting to protect their sacred land and water. #nodapl #waterislife #mniwiconi @taikawaititi I would also like to take this opportunity to raise something that has been bothering me for sometime. Last New Year’s Eve I was at a “Lone Ranger” themed party where some of us, myself included, wore the traditional dress of First Nations people. I was stupidly unaware of the offence this may have caused and the sensitivity around this issue. I sincerely and unreservedly apologise to all First Nations people for this thoughtless action. I now appreciate that there is a great need for a deeper understanding of the complex and extensive issues facing indigenous communities. I hope that in highlighting my own ignorance I can help in some small way.

A photo posted by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) on

#NoDAPL #standwithstandingrock #waterislife

A photo posted by Coastal Bend (@coastalbendforbernie) on

Category: ELA A30 | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 28

ELA 20 Independent Novel Reading – Book Options

In the past for ELA 20, we’ve read one novel together as a class – To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a great story and young readers become easily attached to the one supportive character, Boo Radley, but there are so many great books to choose from and such diverse interests, so last year we developed a collection of book titles that would fit our course theme of “transition from youth to adolescence”.

These are the book options you can choose from this year and, if you know of another title that would fit, run it by me and we could maybe add it to this growing list!

Each selection is linked to a novel summary page that includes other reviews and includes the visual summary as well. 

  1. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
    to-kill-a-mockingbird
  2. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Husseini) – the female story
    thousand-splendid-suns
  3. The Kite Runner (Khaled Husseini) – the male story
    the-kite-runner
  4. Medicine Walk (Richard Wagamese) – Canadian text
    medicine-walk
  5. My Sister’s Keeper (Jodi Picoult)
    my-sisters-keeper
  6. The Book of Negros (Lawrence Hill) – Canadian text
    the-book-of-negroes
  7. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
    the-secret-life-of-bees
  8. An Abundance of Katherines (John Green)
    an-abundance-of-katherines
  9. The Beginning of Everything (Robyn Schneider)
    the-beginning-of-everything
  10. Eleanor & Park (Rainbow Rowell)
    elanor-and-park
  11. Throwaway Daughter (Ting-Xing Ye) – Canadian text
    throwaway-daughter
  12. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Kim Edwards)
    the-memory-keepers-daughter
  13. Shine (Lauren Myracle)
  14. The Glass Castle
  15. April Raintree
  16. A Quality of Light
  17. The Pact
  18. All the Bright Places
  19. Educated
  20. From the Ashes (Sask. author)
  21. Beartown
  22. Born a Crime -Trevor Noah (nonfiction)
  23. Is Everyone Hanging out Without me? – Mindy Kaling (nonfiction)
  24. Lion – based on a true story
  25. Ready Player One -sci fi
  26. Memoirs of a Geisha
    shine
Category: ELA 20 | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 21

ELA 9 Sample paragraphs for I am Sam writing

Here are some sample paragraphs from another student’s work last year:

 

5.) The movie centers around questions about Sam’s abilities and mental capacity, but there are times when Sam proves to be more insightful than other mature characters. What examples do you notice of this while watching?

In some parts of the movie Sam is more mature than the other adults talking to him. When they are in court arguing about Lucy’s well being, Sam keeps explaining to them that you don’t need to be super smart to be able to love and raise a child, you just need to know how to love them. He explains that you just need to be patient and loving even when they are being difficult. When he is talking to Rita about how he loves Lucy, he tells her that you don’t need to always be smarter than your kid to raise them, you just need patience and you need to know why you love them. This gets to Rita and she kind of gets mad and starts to kick things around and get mad at herself. She thinks about what Sam said and realized that she needs to spend more time with her son instead of just leaving him to raise himself.

6.) Rita’s life parallels Sam’s; this means his lawyer’s life has many similarities to his own. Can you identify those parallels?  

Rita’s life has some similarities to Sam’s. Sam and Rita both have a child that they love unconditionally. They can both be impossible sometimes like when they are ordering food in the cafeteria and Sam doesn’t want his greens and yellows together so he tells the worker and Rita tells him to stop being impossible. Rita then goes and orders a very complicated omelette with egg whites and chives and extra things that someone would have a difficult time making. They are both single parents raising a child and they are both having difficulties with the relationships with their children.  They also get judged by other people. Sam gets judged because of his mental disability. People think that he isn’t good enough of a parent and that he doesn’t deserve a child. People also judge Rita. They think that she is kind of mean to Sam at first but when she takes his case Pro Bono people think she is strange and that Sam isn’t worth her time.

Category: ELA 9 | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 13

ELA 20 Oct 13/16 AR Task – planning for Dramatic Reading Assignment

Your next assignment is to choose a text to then record or perform live your dramatic narration of the text. What is dramatic narrative, though? Here are a few fun samples to help make it especially clear.
Note: Your performance or recording will be audio only.

 

After viewing the two samples given, in your AR task:

  1. Identify qualities or techniques used by the two people in the videos that made their narration Dramatic Narrative
  2. Look through the Rubric and make a list of the things you’ll have to consider or include in your recording/performance to meet the requirements.
  3. List a few strategies you could use to prepare well for this oral recording assignment.
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October 13

ELA 20 Oct 13/16 Assignment: Dramatic Reading Texts to Choose From – pdf

You’ll select a piece of writing that continues to explore the relationship between children and adults/parents and perform a dramatic reading of the text choice. Sample texts available here range from a portion of a short story, personal essays, or excerpts of books. One distinct difference between them is the emotion you would try to portray ranging from raging anger, frustration and regret, sarcastic reflection, and caring humour.

12 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Voice Actors | Mental Floss

To prepare yourself to have a really good understanding of what type of emotional performance will be required, you could complete or review the AR Task attached with SectionA3 that views Yelp Reviews acted out dramatically.

Text Options:

 

 

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October 12

ELA 20 Oct 12/16 AR Task – Reviewing/Improving Reflective Essay Assignment

You’ve got a class set aside to make improvements and learn from errors you made in your Reflective Essay writing. Use the Curriculum Guide Objectives/Indicators below and submit to me some method of personal self-assessment or self-reflection that meets some of those indicators provided.

It can be submitted in the form of:

  • an audio reflection
  • a written reflection
  • a chart of sorts

The Assessment level of your AR work, however you submit it, will be dependent on how thoughtful, detailed, and purposeful your reflection is.

 

 ela-20-ar

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