Description:
This Optional Language Arts credit provides students with a chance to work on various writing projects/assignments covering various genres of text. As there is no final exam in this course, all work assigned in the classroom must be completed.
Assessment and Evaluation Plan
Expressive Writing 25%
Transactional Writing 25%
Poetic Writing 25%
Media 25%
Modes of Writing Breakdown
1. Expressive Writing: autobiography, journal responses, descriptive essay, etc.
2. Transactional Writing: news article, advertisement, brochure, research, etc.
3. Poetic Writing: graphic story, poetry, script, short story, etc.
4. Media: magazine article, news article, movie reviews, etc.
Important Dates
May 2 - How to/Life List Booklet
This Optional Language Arts credit provides students with a chance to work on various writing projects/assignments covering various genres of text. As there is no final exam in this course, all work assigned in the classroom must be completed.
Assessment and Evaluation Plan
Expressive Writing 25%
Transactional Writing 25%
Poetic Writing 25%
Media 25%
Modes of Writing Breakdown
1. Expressive Writing: autobiography, journal responses, descriptive essay, etc.
2. Transactional Writing: news article, advertisement, brochure, research, etc.
3. Poetic Writing: graphic story, poetry, script, short story, etc.
4. Media: magazine article, news article, movie reviews, etc.
Important Dates
May 2 - How to/Life List Booklet
Autobiography Project
Below you will find attached the completed project details. Students will be doing a combination of this assignment in class and at home on their own. They will be assigned one-two sections per week with a rough draft copy of those sections due typically by week's end (this may change based on work ethic in the classroom). Students will create a final product once all individual parts are completed, edited, and revised through a combination of teacher-student conference, self, and peer work, Students will also be using the textbook throughout the process to learn various techniques in conjunction with what is being asked of them to complete.
Below you will find attached the completed project details. Students will be doing a combination of this assignment in class and at home on their own. They will be assigned one-two sections per week with a rough draft copy of those sections due typically by week's end (this may change based on work ethic in the classroom). Students will create a final product once all individual parts are completed, edited, and revised through a combination of teacher-student conference, self, and peer work, Students will also be using the textbook throughout the process to learn various techniques in conjunction with what is being asked of them to complete.
autobiography_project.docx | |
File Size: | 36 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Turning Points:
This program is designed to build character awareness and literacy in Grade 6-12 students through a process of self reflection and discussions with the teacher and peers. The culminating activity is a narrative essay on a specific turning point in their lives. A selection of students from each participating class will submit their essay in the spring for a chance to win prize money against other participating class in their region.
Activities will be completed in class that will lead students to determining their turning point in an effort to guide them towards the turning point that had an impact on their life. Students will also be completing quickwrites throughout the year in relation to this program. See more details below.
More information can be found at http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/student-programs/turning-points
Lesson 1:
1. Quickwrite #1: A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is lo be slowly reborn. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery, missing in action World War II
2. Turning Points briefing
3. Establishing a Bank of Value Words
Lesson 2:
1. Quickwrite #2: What memory would you bottle up? When would you take it out? Describe the memory in vivid detail.
2. Prioritizing Value Words
Lesson 3:
1. Quickwrite #3: Using the Bank of Value Words handout, select one word that best represents you. Describe why that word represents you, means something to you, and provide examples.
2. Inferring Values from Actions through Literature - Use http://www.slideshare.net/peneglos/thegivingtree and previous narrative essays from anthologies available online at program website
Lesson 4: Recognizing Positive Value in Others
1. Quickwrite #4: Candle/lightbulb visual
2. Bethany Hamilton values
3. Values in two other people
Quickwrite #5: Seven doors
Lesson #5: Inferring Values From Actions Using Media Texts
1. Quickwrite #6: Thomas Edison - I haven't failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work.
2. Previewing questions
3. Values Chart
4. Movie Review handout (Media category; see attached file below)
5. Post Viewing questions (Media category)
This program is designed to build character awareness and literacy in Grade 6-12 students through a process of self reflection and discussions with the teacher and peers. The culminating activity is a narrative essay on a specific turning point in their lives. A selection of students from each participating class will submit their essay in the spring for a chance to win prize money against other participating class in their region.
Activities will be completed in class that will lead students to determining their turning point in an effort to guide them towards the turning point that had an impact on their life. Students will also be completing quickwrites throughout the year in relation to this program. See more details below.
More information can be found at http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/student-programs/turning-points
Lesson 1:
1. Quickwrite #1: A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is lo be slowly reborn. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery, missing in action World War II
2. Turning Points briefing
3. Establishing a Bank of Value Words
Lesson 2:
1. Quickwrite #2: What memory would you bottle up? When would you take it out? Describe the memory in vivid detail.
2. Prioritizing Value Words
Lesson 3:
1. Quickwrite #3: Using the Bank of Value Words handout, select one word that best represents you. Describe why that word represents you, means something to you, and provide examples.
2. Inferring Values from Actions through Literature - Use http://www.slideshare.net/peneglos/thegivingtree and previous narrative essays from anthologies available online at program website
Lesson 4: Recognizing Positive Value in Others
1. Quickwrite #4: Candle/lightbulb visual
2. Bethany Hamilton values
3. Values in two other people
Quickwrite #5: Seven doors
Lesson #5: Inferring Values From Actions Using Media Texts
1. Quickwrite #6: Thomas Edison - I haven't failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work.
2. Previewing questions
3. Values Chart
4. Movie Review handout (Media category; see attached file below)
5. Post Viewing questions (Media category)
movie_review.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Lesson #6: A Teacher in All of Us
1. Quickwrite #7: There is a teacher in all is us and a teacher for all of us.
2. Values in Freedom Writers (media)
3. Values in "A Moment of Clarity" (narrative essay)
4. Writing activity: Write a one page letter to a person that has positively impacted your life. Be as specific as possible.
Lesson #7: A Tree Like Me
1. Quickwrite #8: Why fit in when you were born to stand out? - Dr. Seuss
2. Quickwrite #9: Choose a tree from those on the desks and write why the tree represents you.
3. A Tree Like Me handout
Lesson #8: Understanding Ourselves, Our Values, and Our Traits
1. Quickwrite #10: To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. Prompt: What are some elements in the world that affect/change who we are?
3. Mind map: Actions, Words, Thoughts, and Feelings
Lesson #9:Gifts given and recieved
1. Prompt: What is a gift?
2. The Red Gloves
3. Received: What gift did you receive? Who gave it to you? Why was this gift important?
4. Given: What gift did you give? Who did you give it to? Why was this gift important?
Lesson #10: Packing Positive Qualities in Self-Esteem Backpacks
1. Quickwrite #11: Take care how you speak to yourself because you are listening.
2. Read Aloud: What were the great tresures that were placed in the backpack? How does each one guide us in our life's journey?
3. Pairs: read the story given to your paired group and answer the two previous questions.
4. Independent: What positive qualities are in your metaphorical backpack? (minimum of 5)
Lesson #11:Identifying Personal Values
1. Quickwrite #12: All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. (Pablo Neruda)
2. Teacher Model: 5 values, their meaning, practice in daily life
3. Examples of representation
4. Indepedent: 5 values then choose one to represent
Lesson #12: A hundred Years From Now
1. Write a 300 word Wikipedia entry based on the following prompt:
A hundred years from now your descendants find an article about you on Wikipedia. What would the article say? What kind of person were you? What did you do with your life? Is there a quote or action that you are remembered by? Why were you interesting enough to be on Wikipedia?
2. Ub ibe paragraph, explain what the article says about your values.
Lesson #13: Life Line
Choose five pivotal moments in your life (small, medium, and/or big; positive or negative) and create a life line (similar to a timeline but does not have to be in a straight line). In one to two sentences, briefly describe the event then determine which value the event best represents and explain why.
1. Quickwrite #7: There is a teacher in all is us and a teacher for all of us.
2. Values in Freedom Writers (media)
3. Values in "A Moment of Clarity" (narrative essay)
4. Writing activity: Write a one page letter to a person that has positively impacted your life. Be as specific as possible.
Lesson #7: A Tree Like Me
1. Quickwrite #8: Why fit in when you were born to stand out? - Dr. Seuss
2. Quickwrite #9: Choose a tree from those on the desks and write why the tree represents you.
3. A Tree Like Me handout
Lesson #8: Understanding Ourselves, Our Values, and Our Traits
1. Quickwrite #10: To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. Prompt: What are some elements in the world that affect/change who we are?
3. Mind map: Actions, Words, Thoughts, and Feelings
Lesson #9:Gifts given and recieved
1. Prompt: What is a gift?
2. The Red Gloves
3. Received: What gift did you receive? Who gave it to you? Why was this gift important?
4. Given: What gift did you give? Who did you give it to? Why was this gift important?
Lesson #10: Packing Positive Qualities in Self-Esteem Backpacks
1. Quickwrite #11: Take care how you speak to yourself because you are listening.
2. Read Aloud: What were the great tresures that were placed in the backpack? How does each one guide us in our life's journey?
3. Pairs: read the story given to your paired group and answer the two previous questions.
4. Independent: What positive qualities are in your metaphorical backpack? (minimum of 5)
Lesson #11:Identifying Personal Values
1. Quickwrite #12: All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. (Pablo Neruda)
2. Teacher Model: 5 values, their meaning, practice in daily life
3. Examples of representation
4. Indepedent: 5 values then choose one to represent
Lesson #12: A hundred Years From Now
1. Write a 300 word Wikipedia entry based on the following prompt:
A hundred years from now your descendants find an article about you on Wikipedia. What would the article say? What kind of person were you? What did you do with your life? Is there a quote or action that you are remembered by? Why were you interesting enough to be on Wikipedia?
2. Ub ibe paragraph, explain what the article says about your values.
Lesson #13: Life Line
Choose five pivotal moments in your life (small, medium, and/or big; positive or negative) and create a life line (similar to a timeline but does not have to be in a straight line). In one to two sentences, briefly describe the event then determine which value the event best represents and explain why.
Poetry Unit
Students will be creating eight specific poetry types over the course of the next week to two weeks. They will submit a final creative version of the poems to be graded. The following are the poem types they are responsible for creating:
1. Acrostic/Name
2. Haiku
3. Concrete
4. Six word memoir
5. Free Verse
6. Limerick
7. Quatrain
8. Cinquian
Students will need to include a visual with each of their poems (eight in total) to to create a further visual appeal and to demonstrate layout appeal and communication effectively. Each poem will also need a title. Final format is up to students - poster, booklet, papper, etc.
Students will be creating eight specific poetry types over the course of the next week to two weeks. They will submit a final creative version of the poems to be graded. The following are the poem types they are responsible for creating:
1. Acrostic/Name
2. Haiku
3. Concrete
4. Six word memoir
5. Free Verse
6. Limerick
7. Quatrain
8. Cinquian
Students will need to include a visual with each of their poems (eight in total) to to create a further visual appeal and to demonstrate layout appeal and communication effectively. Each poem will also need a title. Final format is up to students - poster, booklet, papper, etc.
Advertisement Unit
1. Interpreting Visuals and Media Text
2. Assignment (see below)
1. Interpreting Visuals and Media Text
2. Assignment (see below)
advertisementassignment.pdf | |
File Size: | 481 kb |
File Type: |
Short Stories Unit
1. Elements
2. Brainstorm
3. Original creation
Personal Narrative (Turning Points Essay Unit)
Students are to write a personal narrative about something that has impacted or changed the way they think about themselves or the world. It can be a small or big event. They are to incorporate sensory detail so that their reader is fully immersed in their essay. It is to be written from a first person point of view and have a creative title linked to what they have written. It should showcase a value that is important to their life (i.e., courage, understanding, caring, etc.). They have had a bank of value words since November. The essay should be between 800-1000 words size 12 font, 1.5 spacing.
They can draw on anything we have done over the past couple months (see Turning Points section on course website) and even on their autobiography for inspiration or necessary details. There are examples online that they can read to get ideas from students that have participated in this program in past years (http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/student-programs/turning-points/turning-point-anthology). We have looked at and read some of the past winners in class. Three essays from our class will be submitted to the essay contest which is in late March/early April (will ask students if they want to be submitted because it requires presenting their essay if they win for our region to other winners).
A scoring guide and other basic information will be given to them in class so that they can fully see how they are being graded on their essay for this assignment.
Textbook lessons (Writing Techniques)
1. "Making it Memorable: Using Parallel Form” (254-261) Questions 1-5, 7-8, 11
2. “Variety is the Spice of Life: Sentence Structure” (262-269) Questions 1-6, Handout
3. " Omit Needless and Overused Words" (248-252) Questions 3-4 plus rewrite sentences
a) I think that we need a break from all of our hard work in order to eat a snack every once and a while.
b) In the event that it rains or it is too cold, all of the track events will be cancelled and rescheduled for another date and time in the future.
c) The reason that I did not finish my homework was owing to the fact that there was a tournament on all of last weekend.
d) Chris talks incessantly all the time about his pet snakes and other animals he keeps in his room.
4. "Verbs: It's About Time" (202-209) Questions 1-4, 6-9
Drama: Script Writing
Students will go over script writing elements (see Drama 2206 resources) then proceed to brainstorm a short play based on the topic of "Vision". Students will use the proper techniques of script writing to create a 3-4 page length play to be passed in.
Brochure Assignment
Students will create a brochure about Mealy Mountain Collegiate. It will be geared towards attracting new students to the building.
1. Elements
2. Brainstorm
3. Original creation
Personal Narrative (Turning Points Essay Unit)
Students are to write a personal narrative about something that has impacted or changed the way they think about themselves or the world. It can be a small or big event. They are to incorporate sensory detail so that their reader is fully immersed in their essay. It is to be written from a first person point of view and have a creative title linked to what they have written. It should showcase a value that is important to their life (i.e., courage, understanding, caring, etc.). They have had a bank of value words since November. The essay should be between 800-1000 words size 12 font, 1.5 spacing.
They can draw on anything we have done over the past couple months (see Turning Points section on course website) and even on their autobiography for inspiration or necessary details. There are examples online that they can read to get ideas from students that have participated in this program in past years (http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/student-programs/turning-points/turning-point-anthology). We have looked at and read some of the past winners in class. Three essays from our class will be submitted to the essay contest which is in late March/early April (will ask students if they want to be submitted because it requires presenting their essay if they win for our region to other winners).
A scoring guide and other basic information will be given to them in class so that they can fully see how they are being graded on their essay for this assignment.
Textbook lessons (Writing Techniques)
1. "Making it Memorable: Using Parallel Form” (254-261) Questions 1-5, 7-8, 11
2. “Variety is the Spice of Life: Sentence Structure” (262-269) Questions 1-6, Handout
3. " Omit Needless and Overused Words" (248-252) Questions 3-4 plus rewrite sentences
a) I think that we need a break from all of our hard work in order to eat a snack every once and a while.
b) In the event that it rains or it is too cold, all of the track events will be cancelled and rescheduled for another date and time in the future.
c) The reason that I did not finish my homework was owing to the fact that there was a tournament on all of last weekend.
d) Chris talks incessantly all the time about his pet snakes and other animals he keeps in his room.
4. "Verbs: It's About Time" (202-209) Questions 1-4, 6-9
Drama: Script Writing
Students will go over script writing elements (see Drama 2206 resources) then proceed to brainstorm a short play based on the topic of "Vision". Students will use the proper techniques of script writing to create a 3-4 page length play to be passed in.
Brochure Assignment
Students will create a brochure about Mealy Mountain Collegiate. It will be geared towards attracting new students to the building.
brochure_assignment.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Netiquette Poster
Create a netiquette poster for sharing personal information online. Focus should be placed on creating a poster that can be seen clearly from a distance of one-three feet. Varying fonts, visuals, color, and five (5) rules must be incorporated in the design.
Rubric: 5 rules = 5 points
Color = 1 point
Varying fonts = 1 point
Visuals (2) = 4 points
Clarity (distance) = 1 point
Creativity = 1 point
Graphic Story
Students will work in groups in larger than three (3) people to create a graphic story. They may wish to use their short story from earlier in the year as a basis, a story already written, or an original creation. Focus will be placed on the elements of a graphic story for assessment purposes.
Create a netiquette poster for sharing personal information online. Focus should be placed on creating a poster that can be seen clearly from a distance of one-three feet. Varying fonts, visuals, color, and five (5) rules must be incorporated in the design.
Rubric: 5 rules = 5 points
Color = 1 point
Varying fonts = 1 point
Visuals (2) = 4 points
Clarity (distance) = 1 point
Creativity = 1 point
Graphic Story
Students will work in groups in larger than three (3) people to create a graphic story. They may wish to use their short story from earlier in the year as a basis, a story already written, or an original creation. Focus will be placed on the elements of a graphic story for assessment purposes.
graphic_story_rubric.doc | |
File Size: | 38 kb |
File Type: | doc |
How to/Bucket List Booklet
Students will create a minimum of ten pages how to/bucket list booklet with information and visuals on each page. Points will be awarded for creativity, accuracy, mechanics, etc.
Example of Life List - John Goddard (http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm)
Example of How to - How to make a soft pretzel (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Soft-Pretzels)
iSearch Research Paper
Students were given a packet of materials for a research paper. The packet plus a finished product must be submitted for a complete grade.
Students will create a minimum of ten pages how to/bucket list booklet with information and visuals on each page. Points will be awarded for creativity, accuracy, mechanics, etc.
Example of Life List - John Goddard (http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm)
Example of How to - How to make a soft pretzel (http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Soft-Pretzels)
iSearch Research Paper
Students were given a packet of materials for a research paper. The packet plus a finished product must be submitted for a complete grade.
writing_2203_i-search_2017.docx | |
File Size: | 22 kb |
File Type: | docx |