8 English Language Arts

Comic Strip Assignment

Due: May 18th, 2012

Literacy 8 pages 156-157; 158-161;162-163

Students will brainstorm and create a character web and rough ideas for a comic strip. Each student will create a comic addressing social justice issues.

15 frames
using speech balloons
attach rough ideas and character web

Scoring guide

theme                                                                               5
dialogue                                                                            5
structure/organization and conventions of comic strips       10
neatness                                                                            3
drawing ability                                                                     2
including brainstorm/character web                                     5


Total score                                                                        30

Grade Eight Students are asked to bring leads/crayons/markers and rulers to the next ELA class to produce comic strips as part of the media literacy unit.

Read pages 70-73 from Literacy 8 Textbook for homework.

Today, we covered pages 58-61 from Literacy 8 and discussed the side questions as a whole group.

Poetry Test

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Unseen Poem

5 Selected Response
5 Constructed Response

Students should practice analyzing poems from handouts.

Secretly by Ruth Roston

Allusion:
Jack and the bean stalk
"falling/down bean stalks"
"fee-fo-fuming"
"your harp/to play you to sleep"
"a vistor comes all sweaty/ with climbing/... too/stringy/to eat..."

The Brave Little Tailor
"the gutsy tailor"

David and Goliath
"the boy/with the slingshot"

Greek Mythology
"titans"

"Miller's End"

1. Write a paragraph (4 lines) describing the literal situation of a poem
2. Write out the rhyme scheme
3. Look up the following words: quavered and flagstones. Provide the defintions.
4. Find one example of metaphor, alliteration and imagery
5. What purpose did the punctuation "--" serve in this poem?
6. What is the name of the stanzas used in this poem?
7. Describe the mood of the poem. Provide examples to support.
8. What form (sonnet, free verse, lyric, ballad, etc...) is the poem? Provide support.
9. What is the theme or message?
10. What is the purpose of the dialogue in the poem?

write a poem based on the painting by Pablo Picasso
"Man playing Guitar"

10 lines
use imagery
use figurative language to describe the painting
use some rhythmical devices

Finishing "Identity" on March 2nd

Thursday, March 1st

Finishing "Oranges" by Gary Soto

Introducing "Identity"

Tuesday, February 28th

Birdfoot's Grandpa

Introducing

Oranges by Gary Soto

Whole class discussion

Individual Written Response

Responding to the poem with a free verse poem about a childhood memory

Quiz One

Tuesday, February 28th
20 Terms 10 fill in the blank with word bank and 10 selected response

Quiz Two

Friday, March 2nd
21 Terms 11 fill in the blank with word bank and 10 selected response

Poetry Terms

Acrostic: When a poem is formed from the spelling of another word.

Alliteration: the repetition of the beginning sounds in groups of words, usually at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable: descending dew drops; luscious lemons.

Allusion: a reference to a familiar literary or historical person or event, used to make an idea more easily understood… Allusions may be classified as: classical - “The man was Atlas personified”; Biblical - “My friend acted like a Judas”; Historical - “He was a Napoleonic figure”; literary - “He was a real Romeo”.

Anachronism: is the poetic device which places a person, thing, or event in a time frame where it does not belong. E.g. The clock has stricken three. (Julius Caesar)

Apostrophe: is a poetic device which uses words of address to someone or something absent or silent, as if it were present and alive, or capable of making a reply.

Assonance: the close repetition of the same vowel sounds between different consonants. Examples: brave-vain; lone-show; feel-sleet

Audience: the people for whom a piece of literature is written.

Ballad: a narrative poem or song that tells a popular story, often of physical courage,  love, or  death. It consists of four lines, with the second and fourth lines rhyming and it often contains a refrain.

 Cacophony: The use of words that have a harsh or discordant sound due to the presence of letters such as c, k, g, b, and p.

Cinquain:  a verse form of five lines with lines of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables.

Cliché: an idea or expression that has become tired from overuse, its clarity having worn off. Example: the bottom line is...

Colloquial Language: language characteristic of everyday informal speech.(E.g. You’re getting on my nerves!

Concrete poem: a poem in which visual elements are part of the poems structure and play a large part in the poetic effect.

Connotations: the associations a word or image evokes. Connotations go beyond the literal meaning. E.g., “home” connotes “comfort, love, security, etc”

Consonance: occurs when words appearing at the ends of two or more verses have similar final consonant sounds but have final vowel sounds that differ, such as with “stuff” and “off.”

Couplet: two lines of verse with similar end-rhymes

Denotation: refers to the specific, exact, and concrete dictionary meaning of a word, independent of any associated or secondary meanings. E.g., “home” denotes” a place where one lives”

Dramatic irony: a technique that increases suspense by letting readers know more about the dramatic situation than the characters know.

 Dramatic Monologue: A type of poem in which a character in fiction or in history delivers a lengthy speech explaining his or her feelings, actions, or motives. The monologue is usually directed toward a silent audience, with the speaker's words influenced by a critical situation.


Ekphrasis: A literary description or commentary on a visual work of art.

Elegy: a type of lyric poem that expresses sadness for someone who has died; traditionally a solemn meditation on a serious subject.

Enjambment: The running over of the sense and structure of a line of verse or a couplet into the following verse or couplet.

Epic: a long, narrative poem dealing with the actions of legendary men and women or the history of nations, often presented in a good ceremonious style.

Euphony: The use of words that have a pleasing sound or melodic sound due to letters such as s, l, m, w, and v.

Figurative language: language that uses figures of speech, such as simile, metaphor, personification, and alliteration which are used extensively to create imagery.

Form: genres are the larger divisions and forms are the smaller divisions (i.e. poetry is a genre and haiku which is a type of poetry is a form).

Found: A poem created from words selected from public communications (newspapers, magazines, menus, signs) and then re-arranged into lines and stanzas.

Free Verse: poems characterized by their nonconformity to established patterns of meter, rhyme, and stanza.

Haiku: A seventeen-syllable poem set out in three lines in a five-seven-five syllable pattern. Haiku often captures a moment in nature.

Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement used not to deceive, but for humorous or dramatic effect. example: “It rained cats and dogs”.

Imagery: language that creates pictures in a reader’s mind to bring life to the experiences and feelings described in a poem. Often, the word the poet chooses appeals to the reader’s senses. Language helps us see, hear, smell, taste, and touch what the writer is describing.

Limerick: A five-line, often humorous and ribald poem with a strict meter. The rhyme scheme is usually "A-A-B-B-A", with a rather rigid meter.

Literal meaning/language: language that means exactly what it says.

Lyric poem: a poem with a single speaker who expresses personal thoughts or emotions about a subject.

Metaphor: a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, without using the word like or as.

Extended Metaphor: A metaphor that is extended throughout an entire passage or work of poetry.

Mood: the overall feeling – light and happy or dark and brooding, for example – created by an author’s choice of words.

Narrative poem: a poem that tells a story and has a plot.

Octave: an eight-line stanza

Onomatopoeia: the sound of a word resemble its meaning. (E.g., buzz, hiss, etc.)

Oxymoron: is a figure of speech in which contradictory words are placed together for the purpose of expressing deep feelings, or to emphasize a point. examples: cold-fire; feather of lead; honorable villain; silent speech.

Personification: a literary device in which human qualities or actions are attributed to inanimate objects.

Pun: the humorous use of words that sound the same or nearly the same but differ in meaning. Example: “to make dandelion biscuits, you need two cups of flower”.

Quatrain: a four-line stanza.

Quintain: a five-line stanza.

Refrain: a phrase, line, or lines repeated in a poem. In song lyrics they are often called the chorus.

Repetition: the deliberate use of the same word, words, or events to create an effect.

Rhyme: the repetition of similar or identical sounds at the end of two words or more words.

End Rhyme: occurs when the rhyming words appear at the end of lines of poetry.

Internal Rhyme: occurs when the rhyming words are the same line of poetry.

Rhyme Scheme: the repeated patterns of end rhyme in the stanzas of a poem.

Rhythm: the pattern of accented and unaccented, stressed and unstressed, syllables in written or spoken language.

Sestet: a six-line stanza.

Simile: a comparison between two unlike things using like or as or than. E.g. “My love is like a red, red rose”.

Sonnet: A fourteen-line poem that follows a set rhyme scheme and rhythm. There are two types: 1) Shakespearean/English Sonnet: 14 lines, three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. abab cdcd efef gg. 2) Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet: 14 lines, ocatave and sestet.

Stanza: a stanza to a poem is what a paragraph is to a piece of prose. Like paragraphs, stanzas are separated from one another by the use of spacing.

Symbolism: a symbol is a person, object, image, word, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance. Symbols are educational devices for evoking complex ideas without having to resort to painstaking symbols have meanings that are widely recognized by a society or culture. Some conventional symbols are the Christian cross, the Star of David, or a nation’s flag. Writers use conventional symbols to reinforce meanings.

Theme: the story’s main ideas – the “message” that the author intends to communicate by telling the story. Themes are often universal truths that are suggested by the specifics of the story.

Tone: the author’s attitude towards the subject that he/she is writing about. Since there are as many tones in literature as there are tones of voice in real relationships. The tone of a literary work may be one of anger or approval, pride or piety—the entire gamut of attitudes toward life’s phenomena.

Tercet: a three-line stanza.


Sources:

Dawe, Robert (1999). Resourcelines 9/10. Scarborough: Prentice Hall.

Gale Literary Group

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/glossary/index.htm#a

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ELA Poetry Unit

- Appreciation of Poetry
- with class and small group discussions
- personal response journals
- creative writing with different forms of poetry

- Two Poetry Term Quizzes

- Poetry Analysis
- poems selected by teacher
- poems selected by students

- Out of Class Assignment

- Poetry Test Unseen Poem

Drama Club members please read the message under Mr. Parab's Drama Club

Feb 13th

Richard Deane
Laura Prior
Danielle Pynn
Meghan Crane
Nikki Duffy
Stephen Snow
Julia White
Mark Howells

Feb 14th

Luke Bhatia
Adam Manual
Thomas Roberts
Selina Zhao
Caitlyn Murray
Madeliene Hallett
Michael O'Brien
Julian Garcia




Feb 15th
Claire Genest
Abbi Morris
Emily Walker
Jens Hansen
Anna Orozco
Juliet Lacey
Richard Smith
Henry Power
Liam Lewis
Alison Sheppard
Grant Lane

Sample Speeches:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U-ecOk0gWA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuAbGJBvIVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsDliXzyAY

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Tips for Scoring

Voice

How effectively does the speaker express a sense of engagement in topic? Variation in tones? Sense of conviction behind the words? Compelling personal interest?

Modulation

How effectively does the speaker use inflection, stress or pitch to convey meaning? Do need to adjust and maintain different levels of the above for effect?

Enunciation

Are all words articulated well? Is pronunciation clear and correct?

Pace

Is the rate of delivery controlled? Varied? Does it reveal intention of construction in the writing?

Deportment

How effectively does the speaker conduct him/herself? Are behaviors and mannerisms reflective of the formality required by the topic?

Content

Does the speaker establish purpose clearly? Does the speaker select and integrate ideas and information, events, emotions, opinions or points of view to achieve an overall purpose? Do the speaker include enough detail, evidence, anecdote, examples, descriptions, etc. to support their idea or argument?

Development

How effectively does the speaker create an opening? Does the speaker establish and maintain focus? Does the speaker order and arrange details in a meaningful, logical, coherent way? Does the speaker transition between parts smoothly and necessarily? Are the relationships between parts of the speech clear?

Interest

Is the topic of interest to you? Does the speaker establish and sustain interest?

REVISED MARCH 2011

Essay Writing Resources:

http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/

http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/essay/

http://essayinfo.com/

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/five_par.htm

http://www.studygs.net/fiveparag.htm

Classroom Oratorical Speeches will commence between the following dates:
January 30^th to February 10^th

*Students should have their speeches memorized with cue cards used mostly for prompting

St. Bonaventure’s College

Oratorical Competition 2011/2012

This year’s Oratorical Competition is now upon us. The final competition is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, March 8, 2012. In-class selections will be completed in the weeks prior for grades 5-12.

The topics for Grades 7-12 for this year are:

1. A world/social justice issue which you believe we need to know more about.

2. What would a food crisis mean for us?

3. To what extent, if any, have overseas wars of recent years made the world a safer place?

4. In light of the nuclear disaster in Japan, what, if any, should be the future of nuclear power in the Canada?

5. The Search for Clean Energy - what does this mean for Newfoundland and its Oil Industry?

6. The Occupy Movement - Social Activism - do social movements mean anything to young people today?  Should they?

7. The Continuing Development of Social Media - examine some aspect of social media

8. Vancouver Riots - is our social order fragile? 

9. Concussions in Sports - what concern should we have for this issue?  Examine the issue is some way.

10. Why should you avoid student debt as you consider university?

11. Should marijuana be legalized?

12. Should advertising be regulated?

13. What can video games teach us?

14. A topic of your choice - you MUST clear this with your teacher in advance.

 

Speeches are to be 3-5 minutes, and while they need not be entirely memorized, cue cards should only serve as a prompt.

We look forward to another year of successful speeches.

English Department

St. Bonaventure’s College

Students are to write a narrative paragraph containing at least 10 sentences. It must have an introductory sentence (topic), a body paragraph (with three supporting details), and a concluding sentence.

Due: Friday, January 13th 

Students are asked to write a descriptive paragraph about an object, person or thing in their house for homework.

It should be about ten lines in length, have a topic sentence, 3 supporting details and a concluding sentence.

EXAM OUTLINE

PART A
UNSEEN SHORT STORY
5 Selected Response
5 Constructed Response

PART B
UNSEEN ESSAY
5 Selected Response
5 Constructed Response

PART C
NOVEL STUDY
2-3 multi-paragraphed responses


PART D
DEMAND WRITING
Personal Essay
News Article
Short Story

The Outsiders

Scrapbook Questions:

1. Is the title effective? Why or why not?

2. Would you consider yourself a greaser, or a soc? why?

3. Complete a character web on both the greasers and the socs.

You must bring your scrapbook to class for the rest of this novel study.

Due: Tuesday, November 15th

The Outsiders Novel Unit

Participation 10%
- coming to class prepared with novel, notebook and pencils/pens
- coming in-class and homework assignments
- contributing to discussions and asking valid and thoughtful questions
- reading portions of the novel

Group Assignment 20%
- creating a newspaper (5-6 pages) for the novel
- Teachers will form student groups of three or four
- Each group will prepare a newspaper with anything a paper may contain: news articles, obituaries, court reports, cartoons, editorials, advertisements, movie listings, photographs, etc... Keep in mind the time and setting-- late '60's in Tulsa, Oklahhoma
- Marks will be alloted for content, presentation in newspaper style and creativity
- Relevant information, documents, and links will be posted on the homework page

Personal Scrapbook/ Reflective Journal 30%
- Directed questions will be given periodically for a reflective journal on this unit. You may use these questions, or choose to write on something specific in the novel which touches you personally.
More Suggestions
- You should also include some pictures from magazines or drawings that tell a story about you or your specific identity (likes/dislikes/goals/dreams/pets/sports/etc...)
- Include a personal character web of who you are and what you want to become.
- Interview your grandparent about what it was like in the late 60's.
- You will be notified in advance when your scrapbook/journal is due.

Unit Test 40%

Grade Eight students are reminded to bring the novel THE OUTSIDERS to the next class on Thursday, November 10th. Anyone without a novel will be penalized as part of the participation score.

Thank you,

Parab

http://www.fiction-writers-mentor.com/direct-and-indirect-characterization.html

Another link of Characterization

http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/characterization.html

More on Direct and Indirect Characterization in this link.

Grade Eight Short Story Test has been moved to Wednesday, November 9th.

Sorry for the delay.

8 LA Short Story Test will take place on Wednesday, November 2nd.

"The Fifty-First Dragon" assignment

News Article is due Monday, October 24th

Students are to make detailed notes on the short story, "The Fifty-First Dragon" on page 63.

Consider the parts of short story:

plot
climax
character
theme
mood
irony
title

Due: Monday, October 17th

Students are to write a journal entry on the short story, "The Fifty-First Dragon" on page 63.

Next, students are to write down vocabulary from the short story and write out definitions.

GREAT ANIMATION OF EDGAR ALLEN POE'S CLASSIC TALE - THE TALE-TELL HEART

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4s9V8aQu4c

8 Language Arts Non-Fiction Test on Tuesday, October 18th

Students will read a non-fiction piece and then respond to 3-5 selected response questions and 5-7 constructed and pesonal response questions.

Be familar with the following terms:

thesis statement

paragraphs

topic sentence

5-part essay structure

headings/sub-headings

captions

photos and illustrations

the function of bolded and italicized text

title and its significance

The Anti-Child Slavery Ad Campaign/Poster is due Monday, October 3rd.

Students are to write a journal entry (#3) on either a quote from the class or of their own choice; a news article from the class or their own choice.

This journal entry must be at least one page in length.

Due: Monday, September 26th

Read the magazine article in 8 Literacy and complete the three reflection questions that follow.

There will be a homework check.

Grade Eight Language Arts students are asked to complete:

- Journal Entry #2 - "Don't let the world change your smile, let your smile change the world"

- Read pages 2-7 of new text book and complete the questions under :

Reflection
Metacognition
Media Literacy