Should it Stay or Go?

Homework for Wednesday, February 1st

On your own time please either email to me or Tweet out each of our words worth knowing in a sentence. You should have a total of 25 examples. Ensure to use the word in context to show you understand its meaning. As well, find a poem that speaks to you and email this or tweet this out 140 characters at a time. See my Tweet for an example.


Homework for Monday, January 30th:

Your homework for Monday is to choose three criteria the Ministry of Education would use to determine whether a book should be included in the grade 8 Language Arts curriculum. For each criteria or feature of a good novel, you are to find 2-3 different examples from your book that provide evidence as to whether your book should stay in the curriculum or go. For example, if you chose rich use of language, you would find quotes where this was used in your book, or quotes where this was absent.

For this assignment, I am looking for specific supporting details in the form of direct quotes from your novel. Please no general statements, I need evidence.

Key features of a good novel:

1. __________________ 2-3 examples from your book:

2. __________________ 2-3 examples from your book:

3. __________________ 2-3 examples from your book:

Final Writing Task: Five paragraph essay due Friday, February 3rd

Magazine due Monday, February 6th

In this final task you are asked to write a five paragraph essay responding to the following question:

Write a letter to the Ministry of Education arguing for or against the inclusion of your novel in the Grade 8 Language Arts curriculum.

Your letter must be sent to an individual or organization with the power to make decisions involving whether a novel should stay or go. Groups include the Ministry of Education, Miss Alden, or any of the admin. staff (i.e., Mr. MacKinnon, our superintendent).

To write this letter, we will be using a five paragraph essay format and you will be evaluated using the grade 9 Provincial Achievement Test writing rubric. Note that this rubric has five criteria for evaluation including: word choice, supporting details, coherency and flow.

Begin by working in groups of four to consider the following questions:

What is your favourite book of all time?

What is the best book you have read for school?

Once you have recorded your responses on chart paper, further consider and write down the qualities or characteristics of these books. What made them so good? What are the elements of a good book? Responses may include:

• suspense continues to build in a way where you can't wait to find out what is going to happen next
• an appealing character that you strongly identify with

Now write down some ideas as to what criteria the Ministry of Education might consider for whether a book should be used in the curriculum:

• rich use of language
• a message or theme that appeals to a broad audience
• age appropriate (reading level pushes a grade 8 reader but is not too difficult that they would give up)

Using the T-chart e-mailed to you, please choose three criteria you believe the Ministry of Education should use when deciding to choose a book for a particular grade. Please write these down in the T-Chart:

Key features of a good novel:

1. __________________ 2-3 examples from your book:

2. __________________ 2-3 examples from your book:

3. __________________ 2-3 examples from your book:

Your homework for Monday is to find in relation to each of the criteria you chose (remember this needs to be criteria the Ministry of Education would use), 2-3 different examples from your book that provide evidence as to whether your book should stay in the curriculum or go. For example, if you chose rich use of language, you would find evidence that this was used in your book or evidence of writing where this was absent.

Task #5 Where I'm From Poem

Create a Poem for your main character-Due January 23rd

Based on the poem Where I’m From by George Ella Lyon, create a ‘Where I’m From’ list that reflects all the things that make up the identity of one of the main characters in your novel. Begin by brainstorming a list of images, experiences, sights, and smells ect. that could be used in your poem.

This poem will go on page 8 of your magazine. You will be assessed on your ability to create rich imagery using descriptive and figurative language. Use the template below as a model to create your own poem. Your poem should be at least four stanzas (paragraph in poetry) long and include at least four lines per stanza. To represent your poem I encourage you to use the following link to create an image using the words in your poem: Creating a picture with a thousand words.

Where I'm From I am from clothespins, from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride. I am from the dirt under the back porch. (Black, glistening, it tasted like beets.) I am from the forsythia bush the Dutch elm whose long-gone limbs I remember as if they were my own. I'm from fudge and eyeglasses, from Imogene and Alafair. I'm from the know-it-alls and the pass-it-ons, from Perk up! and Pipe down! I'm from He restoreth my soul with a cottonball lamb and ten verses I can say myself. I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch, fried corn and strong coffee. From the finger my grandfather lost to the auger, the eye my father shut to keep his sight. Under my bed was a dress box spilling old pictures, a sift of lost faces to drift beneath my dreams. I am from those moments-- snapped before I budded -- leaf-fall from the family tree. -Ella Lyon

http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html

Task #4 Poetry in Song

Final copy due: Thursday, January 19th

Please download this PowerPoint for suggestions on how to enhance the following:

• Opening (draws the reader in, signals the theme or topic of the paragraph)
• Transitions (creates unity, flow, and coherence)
• Quotes (proper punctuation, how to integrate into a sentence)
• Word choice (using powerful verbs, more descriptive adjectives, and adverbs to enhance your writing)

Assignment

In this assignment, you will think critically about this genre of poetry by analyzing the way figurative language or poetic devices (i.e. metaphor, personification) are used in songs. Further, you will explain the theme of your song and how it relates to your book.

Assignment Layout:

1. Choose 1 song that relates to your book and possesses rich examples of figurative language.

3. The work you produce will go on a 2-page layout of your magazine. This will include key parts of the lyrics of your song, title and author along with your analysis.

4. Please provide a typed reference list with the following format.

Name of songwriter (last name first). “Song Title.” In Album Title. By name of artist or group. Name of production company. Place of publication: name of publisher, year of publication.

Example:

McLauchlan, Sarah and Peter Marchand. “Building a Mystery.” In Sarah McLauchlan: Surfacing. By Sarah McLaughlan. Tyde Music. Canada: Pierre Marchand, 1997.

1. Illustrated Song: On your two-page spread of your magazine include images suggested in the song lyrics. These images can be drawn or computer generated.

2. Song Analysis: This needs to be completed for the song that you have chosen.
1. Identify the overall theme of the song – what is the author’s message? Avoid clichés and predictable interpretations by trying to dig deeper and drawing out more sophisticated insights. Ensure to develop your ideas and provide examples in the form of at least two quotes from your song to back up your interpretation.

2. Identify at least three examples of poetic devices used in the song (alliteration, assonance, cliché, hyperbole, idiom, metaphor, simile, personification, Onomatopoeia). Discuss the effect they have within the song and why the songwriter might have chosen a particular poetic device?

i. How does this poetic device make the song better? For example, what kind of imagery does a particular metaphor create in your mind? How does this draw you into the ‘world’ the song creates? If hyperbole (exaggeration for effect) is used which is not meant to be taken literally, why might the songwriter have chosen this device?

3. Write a personal response to the song indicating why you chose it and how it specifically relates to your novel. Your response should be at least one paragraph. Again, ensure to develop your ideas and provide at least two specific supporting details in the form of quotes from your book.

Song lyrics, in many ways, have become the ‘poetry’ of our current society. Lyricists and songwriters express emotions, make statements, promote change, and impact beliefs and value systems with the words they use in their songs.

"In God’s Country”

U2

Desert sky


Dream beneath the desert sky


The rivers run but soon run dry


We need new dreams tonight



Desert rose


Dreamed I saw a desert rose


Dress torn in ribbons and in bows


Like a siren she calls to me



Sleep comes like a drug


In God's Country


Sad eyes, crooked crosses


In God's Country



Set me alight


We'll punch a hole right through the night


Everyday the dreamers die


See what's on the other side



She is liberty


And she comes to rescue me


Hope, faith, her vanity


The greatest gift is gold



Sleep comes like a drug


In God's Country


Sad eyes, crooked crosses


In God's Country



Naked flame


She stands with a naked flame


I stand with the sons of Cain


Burned by the fire of love


Burned by the fire of love

1. Find six examples of poetic devices in this song (i.e., metaphor, simile, personification)

2. What might be one interpretation of the author's meaning? What message might the author be trying to communicate here?

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Magazine Tasks #1-3

Independent Novel Study Magazine Inquiry Project

Welcome Back!

By Friday the 13th (ooh) the following parts of your magazine are due:

Task #1-Create a cover for your magazine: Use this How to Create a Music Magazine Cover in InDesign (start with step 9) as a guide to complete your cover. This YouTube tutorial is also helpful (continue on with part 2). As the example to the left illustrates, ensure to include the following: Dateline, Main Image, Masthead (name of magazine), Main Cover line, Barcode (optional-but more authentic) and Cover lines.

Draw on the following sites to ensure you use copyright free images:

Flickr

Creative Commons

Free Digital Photos.net

Press F8 or FN F8 to check the resolution

To increase the resolution of a pic up 100 place in photoshop go to image and then change the resolution number to 300.

defont is a great site to find creative fonts

To push wrapped text away from the image press command B then choose the second icon in text wrap around image then below increase the numbers to create more space between your image and the text.

To change transparency click on image, click object, effects, and transparency.

Ensure that all the images you use are at least 300 dpi when stretched to the size you wish to adopt-otherwise they will come out blurry when we print your magazine. Ensuring that you info palette is on, see this Increase the photo resolution in Photo-shop on how to check and increase resolution. As a general rule you can only increase an image by 100 dpi at the most. However, this How to make a smaller picture larger with no loss of quality tutorial can help you stretch this.

Task #2-Page 2-quote page/table of contents:

Option 1-quote: For this page you are asked to pull out a quote from your story that speaks powerfully to the main themes in your novel. Alternatively, you could also find a quote that is not in your story but also speaks powerfully to the themes in your novel.

Option 2-prologue: If you are reading a book that requires quite a bit of background information (i.e. fantasy, science fiction) for someone to understand the story, instead of doing a quote, write a short prologue outlining events that have come before the book began. This should include circumstances that form the setting of the events in your novel.

Page 3-Table of Contents: For this page draw inspiration from table of contents in Magazines in the class or on-line to create a table of contents for your magazine. We are creating a twelve page magazine and the main pages are as follows: p. 4-5-Interview, p. 6-7-Soundtrack for your book and analysis of one song, p. 8-poem for your book, p. 9-11-Feature-review of your book, p. 12-advertisement. Get creative as to what you call these sections.

See this link for over 20 examples of visually appealing table of contents examples.

Task #3: Page 4 and 5-Interview: Begin by watching this on-line tutorial to help you identify the elements to include in your spread.

Then, finishing up the work we did before Christmas, please complete your two page spread of your interview. This should include a short bio of the character you are interviewing (50-75 words) and the interview itself. For the bio focus on word choice and sentence variety. For the interview, focus on explaining the circumstances your character finds themselves in. This should be at least 400 words.

See this slide show for Four Elements to consider when designing your layout. Note in the example at the top how the questions are clearly distinguished from the answers.

Your two page spread must include: a bold title that gets the reader's attention, columns, author's name, call out (pulled out quote), and symbol at the end to indicate article is finished.

For example:

Interview with Matt Damon

Matt Damon talks to Brian D. Johnson about celebrities rescuing Africa, Harper's betrayal, and actors in the white house

BRIAN D. JOHNSON | November 28, 2007 |

Recently, People magazine named Matt Damon the Sexiest Man Alive. He was the first to scoff at the title, treating it as more of an embarrassment than an honour. Nicest Guy in Show Business might be a more fitting label for the boyish actor from Boston. With the Bourne franchise under his belt, Damon, 37, is a major Hollywood player, but he's the anti-Cruise superstar. Face to face, he seems remarkably ordinary and self-effacing. Before sitting down for this conversation, he strolled into the room, unannounced and unnoticed. Later tonight, he and his buddy Ben Affleck will hop on a private jet to embark on a fact-finding mission in Africa — where Damon is now heavily engaged in the fight against child poverty and disease.

Your interview would then go next.

You will be marked based on word choice, transitions, and sentence variety.

Along with sentence variety, the interview will be marked based on your ability to create the "voice" of your character as well as your ability to provide the background events and context necessary to understand your character's responses.

Please paste a final draft into the google doc so I can provide feedback. Each spelling or grammar mistake in your finished version will result in 1 percent taken off your final mark.

Getting started with inDesign:

There are a great deal of on-line tutorials to help you achieve the design you wish on YouTube. Here are some examples, but by doing a simple Google search, you can often find exactly what you are looking for on your own.

Overview:

• Designing a newspaper page part 1
• Designing a newspaper page part 2

InDesign Basics:

• Placing and formatting text
• Properly setting up columns
• Adding images and editing

Working with Images and Objects:

• Mixing images over and under text
• Remove a picture background in five seconds
• Creating a picture with a thousand words
• How to blur sections of pictures

Creative use of Text:

• Wrapping text-placing text within an image
• How to wrap text around a graphic
• How to push an image into text
• How to place text on a path

Borders and Background:

• How to create a cool background
• How to create borders
• How to send an object to the back

• How to change the background colour

Magazine Novel Study Project

Homework for Monday December 19th

Now that you have been introduced to the elements of inDesign, for Tuesday December 19th please complete the interview portion- pages 4-5- of your magazine. Ensure to include a title, images, and a pull out quote. See this slide show for Four Elements to consider when designing your layout.

By the end of this week I am hoping we can have a good start on the cover, inside page with quote or prologue, and table of contents for your Magazine. Continue to read magazines to get inspiration for your cover, table of contents and general style of your magazine.

Please post your interview into the Google doc. and I will begin marking it this week. Note the elements I will be looking for.

Word choice-

Ensure to introduce sophisticated and descriptive language.

Flow-Using transitions

Basic transitions (i.e. Further, In addition)

Repeating parts of previous thought (i.e. Not only does he do racing but he also... )

Setting time (Recently, Meanwhile, Last week, Now, After this)

Introduce a variety of sentence types-Avoid a continual stream of Subject-Verb-Object sentences (i.e., Hanna was extremely beautiful)

Start with a ing verb i.e.

Forsaking Hollywood blockbusters, he opted to appear in a series of eclectic roles.

Fighting his greatest nemesis, Charlie now must face his toughest challenge yet.

Provide context and be concise:

Ensure that someone who has never read your book has enough background knowledge to understand what is going on in your book.

Humanities 8 Independent Novel Study

For this independent novel study the goal is to discover a fascinating piece of literature, dig deep into the themes and conflicts within the story, and powerfully represent what you have learned through a variety of mediums including poetry and art. To accomplish this goal you are asked to work through a series of tasks designed to expose you to these different mediums. As a way to bring your work together in one space, you are asked to imaginatively represent your work for each task in a 1 or 2-page magazine spread, which will be showcased using the on-line publication program issu.

See this blog post on CSS Connect (scroll down to the bottom) for the kind of magazine layout we are looking for.

12 pages total:

p. 1 Cover

P. 2 Quote or prologue

P. 3 Table of Contents

P. 4-5 Interview 1

You can change the order for the following

Soundtrack for your book (1 page)

Song Analysis page (1 page)

Poem (1 page)

Poem analysis (1 page)

Feature Long essay-Book Review (2 pages)

Ad (1 page)

Assignments

Task 1:
By Monday December 12th you should be 1/4 of the way into your novel.

Task 2:

Please finish three journal reflections reflecting on events and developments using the talking to the text framework below:

• Identifying main ideas and summarizing
• Making connections to other things you have read or seen
• Asking questions
• Monitoring for meaning by writing down new and unfamiliar words
• Sketching out images that connect to what you are reading
• Pulling out golden nuggets-key quotes, ideas, and passages
• the novel, key quotes, and emerging themes and conflicts

For the first entries take particular note of your main character's problems/struggles, opinion of other characters, and personality/physical traits including how they speak. For each entry take note of the date and the page that you are currently on. This will be collected on Tuesday December 13th to see how your progress is going.

Task 3

As part of your talking to the text entries, identify and write down the definition for 15 unfamiliar words or words worth knowing. From this list, choose one in particular to post on a classroom word wall. Do this in a Pages or Word Document using a cool font that can be seen from far away and include the definition and a sentence where the word is used in context.

Task 4: Interacting with the characters (choose one): Due Friday, December 19th

1. Interview: Take on the role of a reporter and interview one of the major characters in your novel. Your questions should involve how this character feels about the other characters, their thoughts on the problems they are facing, and how they think things are going to turn out. Ensure to ask the kinds of questions that will be of interest to your readership.

Begin by going on-line to find some examples of interviews. Interview Magazine is a good place to start. Notice the design elements in the spread. There are two more interview examples here and here.

2. Advice column: Take on the role of an advice columnist and choosing two characters in your novel have them write a letter to you outlining the central problems or conflict they are facing. Provide a response as to how you feel they can effectively deal with these problems or conflicts.

Begin by going on-line to find some examples of advice columns. Here are some sites to get you started: Advice-The Globe and Mail, Elle, Sweet Designs Magazine.

Artistic Expression (choose one):

1. Create a collage of images that speak to either the theme in your book including noticeable symbols or the central conflict/struggle of the main character. In this 2 page spread creatively incorporate 3-4 pieces of dialogue or passages from the book that powerfully reflect this theme or conflict.

2. Do the same as above, but create your own piece of artwork to illustrate a central theme or conflict within your novel. Include 3-4 pieces of dialogue or passages from the book that powerfully reflect this theme or conflict.

Musical Expression (complete both)

1. Find a song that speaks powerfully to a theme or conflict within your novel. Find the lyrics on-line and then using a powerful image (you could create your own image as well) write an explanation on the relationship between this song and your novel. Represent this by creating a visually appealing spread in your magazine.

2. Create a five-song play list for the main character in your novel. Link these to videos on YouTube.

Poetic expression (complete both)

1. Choosing from the poetic mediums provided, create a poem that speaks to the central theme and conflict within your story.

2. Find a poem that similarly speaks to the central theme and conflict within your story and explain the connection between the two.

Book Review (not a book report!)

1. Write a concise review of the novel either recommending it to a friend or taking on a more critical stance by outlining the strengths and weaknesses of your book. Include this review both in your magazine and post this on a blog.

Extension

1. Write an alternative ending for your book.

December 1st Update

I plan to have the SES paragraph, debate, and podcast marked by the end of the weekend which will allow me to give you an indication of your progress to date on Monday.

Note that many people have not posted their podcast on Box.com. If you haven't done so already you have until Friday to do so. After this you will receive a 0 on this project and then I will only accept it after a conversation with your parents and you coming in at lunch hour next week. See the post below to place it in Box.com:

http://www.box.com/files/0/f/157617123

The first three Renaissance questions I provided yesterday are due Tuesday December 6th.