Friday July 26, day 19

Today was the exam day ... and we rocked it.

I had to get the marks in at noon today - I've already gotten two or three items I can't get on to the marks, as they've closed the web page for that.

But, we are done.

See you Monday!

Thursday July 25

We finished the presentations ... with about three minutes to go before we started part A of the exam.

Whew!

Wed July 24 Day 17

Well, we did a number of CA Presentations and then did a mark update / conferencing today.

And I finished marking the CA Essays ... whew!

Tuesday July 23 Day 16

Today we finished Hamlet.

Woot!

Anyway, after that we got the Character sketches done for the class and we also got the first ten or so CA presentations completed. We are ticking along nicely.

I did give back a number of things today, too. Keep it up, everyone! Almost done!

Moment of Zen for the day:

I so look like the guy on the right of this pic.

Monday July 22 Day 15

Whoa, I'm doing this way after school.

Sorry about that, eh.

Anyway ... we got a fair amount of stuff done today. We started with the last quiz ... we did a quiz on Hamlet part 1 and then we handed in the material for Hamlet part one ... sort of.

I'm going to reassess using a gmail account for next year. I'm getting the vast majority of work in to me via email. I'd like to be able to respond and mark it online too but can't at the moment. Well, to be honest, all of this is going to be on D2L next year. You'll see more of it come September, to be sure.

After that, we worked through Hamlet and got a bunch of questions for homework. We also got Wednesday as the due date for Hamlet, part 2.

We did also get an Exit Ticket for Hamlet ... I thought it was pretty cool, anyways.

I also handed back Frankenstein stuff and should ... SHOULD have a mark update by Wednesday. I'm not going to make that a promise, as I'm swamped with marking at the moment.

And ... we chatted about this poem too:

Friday July 19 - Day 14

It was Culminating Activity in-class essay day today.

That was a long morning. We got through it and then got on to the task at hand - Hamlet.

We worked to just past the famous "To be or not to be" speech. Hashtag awesome.

Here are the questions we have been assigned - they are due on Monday.

And here it is:

Thursday July 18 Day 13

So then today we worked to the end of Act 2 in Hamlet.

We didn't quite get there, but we tried really hard.

We also got a chance to chat with people about their CA Essays that we will be doing in class on  Friday.

Wed July 17 Day 12

We got a chance to see this in class today. Epic throwback for me.

At the start of the day, we did the Frankenstein Part 2 quiz and handed in the journal, too. After that, we did a bit of Hamlet and almost got to the end of Act 1. I posted the due dates and we got questions 1-8 for homework.

After lunch, we got a few pointers on how to do a better essay, got some feedback on the Frankenstein essay and then chance to conference with the teacher ... at least most students did. I will finish the list off tomorrow.

Hamlet and CA left to get done! Wooooo!

Tuesday July 16 Day 11

So today we let the teacher get a few things done while working together on the Character Sketches.

Stuff is due tomorrow - including the Sketches. We also watched the Robert diNero/Kenneth Branaugh version of Frankenstein and did squeeze in some of the 1931 version of the film, too.

I did post the webquest for Hamlet below and we did some chatting today about updated marks.

I will post the Hamlet links, including those that you can use for the Webquest

Just as an update ... I've marked all of the Frankenstein essays and will now update the marks.

Monday July 15 Day 10

So ... we finished Frankenstein.

Yup ... all chapters done.

Here are the questions we need to hand in on time tomorrow, July 17

Whew!

Man, it was a long day, but we got it done.

Due date posted on the right side of this blog and we will get things done.

Next up is essay hand in tomorrow and Hamlet!

Friday July 12 Day 9

I did hope that we wouldn't lose the entire morning to a 20 mark quiz ... but we did. I also got Part One of the Frankenstein Journals in today. Should be cool to mark them.

We started poet presentations at 10:10am, after the break and got them all done today. 18 of them in total.

"Shaka when the walls fell."

We did get a chapter of the novel read for the sake of moving forward today and we did get some time to listen to poems, too. We read to the end of Chapter 18.

We also got a few of the questions for the start of Part 2 to do for Monday.

And we finished the conferences with all students today, too.

And with that ...

 
via GIPHY

Thursday July 11 Day 8

We made a few things happen today.

We got some poems read and some Poet presentations were done, too. 

We got the last of the questions for Part One of the Journal handed out. They are due tomorrow.

And finally, we also got the topics for the CA essay, too. That is going to be done in class on July19.

Wed July 10 - Day 7

So ... we had some discussion about one of the options for the CA yesterday and today.


Here is the information for Dream in High Park. I'm thinking it should be fun. We'll be doing that July 17th

During class today, we read to the end of Chapter 12 and got the questions to do for homework is in the picture on the right side of this post.

We also did some work on the Frankenstein essay and got the due date shifted to July 16th. See the back of the class and the due date posted on the right-hand side of the blog.

We also got a bunch of the Poet Presentations done from the Poetry Unit, and we also got the first Quote Journal from the novel. Details on that are here.

Cool. That was a lot of stuff we did today. Woot!

Oh, and we also watched children everywhere in the English world get revenge on Shakespeare in this video:








And just as an afterthought ... I had someone ask about the rubric for the writing part of the Journal for the novel. Here it is:

	Level 4	Level 3	Level 2	Level 1
T	▪ Excellent analysis provided; explicit connection made explaining how the quote relates to the text as a whole	▪ Good analysis provided; good explanation of the quote, making clear connections explaining how it relates to the text as a whole	▪ Some analysis provided; some explanation of the quote, some connections explaining how it relates to the text as a whole	▪ Minimal analysis provided; limited explanation of the quote, few connections explaining how it relates to the text as a whole

Tuesday July 9 Day 6

Today we read to the end of Chapter 7 in Frankenstein. We did also chat briefly about the questions at the start of the day, too.

I did post the due dates for part one of the novel on the wall of the classroom. I'll post them shortly here, too.

I also pointed out the essay topics for Frankenstein. They are in the package with the questions you already have. I will change the due date for the essay to July 16 in order to satisfy the CA, as well. I'll make sure I post that up on the walls tomorrow too.

We also did some poetry today and finished off the Story Unit Presentations.

I also got a chance to check in with everyone about their CA's and to make sure they had made at least some progress in it.

Frankenstein II 

Monday July 8 Day 5

I'm posting this very late.

On Monday we started Frankenstein and got to the end of Chapter 2. We got 1 - 9 and 11 for the questions for the Journal part one.

I will post the due dates tomorrow, July 9th. Pinky promise.

We also got through the middle of the Story Presentations. We have about 9 left to go in the class. We also heard some great poetry today as well. I look forward to hearing more.

After that, man ... I hit the pool and recovered from the day.

Friday July 5 Day 4

I forgot to post this yesterday - I'm making that up today.

Well, we did the story quiz in the first part of the day. A full two hours to read a story and do seven questions.

Yup.

We picked our CA Plays - lots of people trying to cheat the system, I'm sorry to report. Meh, we got it figured out and we're going to move forward together.

After that, we did some poetry and we did some Task Two Story Unit presentations. We are having difficulty with the technical side. I'm going to recommend that my students start to have a backup of their presentations on a USB or a flash drive. Both are rather cost effective at the moment.

Having it on a stick or flash drive will speed things up. We did get through 11 presentations Friday. That's pretty good. When the CA Presentations come at the end of the course, we need to be very efficient with our time.

I did want to get to the start of Frankenstein but was unable to. We will start that on Monday. Make sure you look at the Webquest on Frankenstein - I posted it on Wednesday .... see below!

We will also continue our Poetry Unit and some Poet Presentations next week, too.

Thurs July 4 Day 3

Today we did one of my favourite plays, Waiting for Godot. Yes, it was weird. Yes, we performed it as a "cold run" at the front of the class. I hope your ideas about what a play can and should be were challenged while we did this together.

Temba his arms open! ;)

Anyway, we chatted about the Poetry unit and got a chance to pick our poets today - I'll be following up tomorrow to confirm dates.

We did also read some poetry today, too. I did the Ode to Joy in German, always a big hit with my classes. We also chatted about the Shakespeare plays for the CA. We will choose those tomorrow.

I did post the Webquest to Frankenstein here on this post, but that wouldn't be due until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest. We have a lot of other things coming up.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

1. Why might the teacher include this piece of drama in a 4U course?

2. Do a character sketch of Vladimir and Estragon.

3. Poke around and find a definition of “postmodern” and suggest three reasons why this play is “Postmodern”.

4. How do the characters show a “loss of purpose” in this piece of drama?

5. In your opinion, what is up with the ending? Is it funny, ironic, absurd?

Here is the short little "Webquest" for Frankenstein - this would not be due until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest.

Webquest on Frankenstein

1.     Go poking around on the Wikipedia page for the author Mary Shelley. After doing some poking around on these sites, what are five things you can tell me about the author?

2.     In an informal piece of writing of about 150 words, answer this question: “Why, do you think that Mr. Chesser would include this novel in the 4U course of study this summer?”

3.     Pick five quotes that are attributed to Mary Shelley has said and click and paste them into this assignment. What “Made” you pick those quotes?

4.     What does this quote mean to you: “often terror arises from a pervasive sense of disestablishment; that things are in the unmaking”?

5.     In a second piece of informal writing of about 150 words, write about a time you learned something outside of the traditional school environment – like at a cottage or as a part of a team or club. What, if anything, did you notice about the way you absorbed the lessons versus the way you absorb information in a classroom setting?

Categories and
Criteria	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Thinking/Inquiry Ideas and Theme	·    presents some simple ideas and some details to support a central theme	·    presents ideas and details to support a central theme	·    presents ideas and details of some complexity to enhance a central theme	·    presents a variety of complex ideas and details to highlight a central theme
Application Language Conventions	·    uses English language conventions with limited accuracy and effectiveness	·    uses English language conventions with some accuracy and effectiveness	·    uses English language conventions with considerable accuracy and effectiveness	·    uses English language conventions with accuracy and effectiveness