Thursday, Feb 28, 2013

ENG1D -

Paragraphs - CHECK

Inferring - reading the lines

Interpreting - using your own perspective to come up with a conclusion about something

Just like with a language: interpreting means turning the other language into a language that you know.

Interpreting in our use: reading something and figuring out the meaning for yourself

When you infer, what you are doing is interpreting some information from what information you get from a source.

Inferring is looking at more than just the obvious, or more than the little bit that is given, and APPLYING YOUR OWN BRAIN - INTERPRETING

We’re going to make a T-chart - left side - WHAT I SEE - right side - WHAT I THINK


What I See: (REALLY SPECIFIC) - EXPLICIT - BASED ONLY ON THE “THING”


What I Think: (REALLY INTERPRETIVE) - IMPLICIT  (understood - stuff you know) - BASED ON THE THING PLUS YOUR SCHEMA (PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, BIAS, etc)
- the interesting aspect of interpretation is that it is a LOT about us

We need to learn how to infer and how to apply our thinking to what we read in order to create some kind of understanding.

There are levels of thinking in English class.

Level 1 - Explicit - the answer is in the text or obvious in the thing.

eg. there is a cat in a photo - what is in the photo? Answer: a cat.

This is about MEMORY - and I am not too worried about that.

Level 2 - INFERRING (implicit) - the answer is in your interpretation of the thing

eg. why is the cat happy? - who the heck can say for sure? It’s information YOU have to fill in - you have to read between the line

example from life - we read our friends’ moods by their body language, facial expression, tone, etc.

This is about your THINKING about what you SEE.

Level 3 - MAKING CONNECTIONS - you think of new associations and new ideas on your own

eg. think about endangered species, or how to look after a pet, or how to heal a certain animal injury or something.

really taking information and bringing yourself into it in a new way, or taking the information somewhere else in a new way’

- it is ALL about what you know, what you think, what you have in your SCHEMA

Monday, Feb 25, 2013

Paragraph Writing - an Evaluation

here is my opinion
here is my evidence to support my opinion
here is my restatement of my opinion

Restate from the question

eg Prove that Mr. Lobb is a bad teacher.

How do we restate?

“I think that Mr. Lobb is a bad teacher for three reasons.”

In a regular paragraph you may not have to use three pieces of TEXT SUPPORT or REFERENCES or PROOFS or POINTS or EXAMPLES

Body of my paragraph - I have to show that my topic sentence is true. I have to back it up with reasoning. And I have to show the reasoning in an example or reference.

We need to see a difference between a REASON and an EXAMPLE.

A difference between a POINT and a REFERENCE.

A difference between a PROOF and TEXT SUPPORT.

Let’s see how this works -

I think that Mr. Lobb is the worst teacher at GDCI.  (topic sentence)

Yesterday he punched Laine Fincher in the eye and she is blind. (example)

If you write this EXAMPLE, you may need to have some explanation as to what this means as a REASON.

Maybe this is an example of him being irresponsible. Or, being cruel. Or, not caring about the health and safety of his students.  Hey, these sound like REASONS.

Writing the example without any reasoning is not giving the reader a full idea of the point you’re trying to make.

The reasoning is the CONNECTOR between your topic idea and the example.

IT IS THE WHY. THE EXPLANATION. THE REASONING IS THE LEVEL 3+

That flow of logic - “this makes that” and “this proves that” and “this shows that” is what makes a paragraph or an essay or an answer or an argument work.

Here is an EASY WAY to remember this pattern:

What am I saying? (topic) Mr. Lobb is a bad teacher.

How do I know that this is true? (reasoning) How is this a sign of something bad? How is this behaviour a bad teaching practise? What is the negative?

Can I prove that reasoning with a real life example? (reference) Humiliates Laine when she ventures an answer - actually describe that time.

Then I guess what I am saying was right.

Friday, Feb 22, 2013

Who are you?

What are you all about?

as a student
as a person
as a thinker
as a media consumer
as a hobbyist
as an athlete

good writing
sense of your personality
idea of you as a student
multimedia (pics, video, music)
spelling and grammar issues (not mark them, I note them)
tone - a sense of overall feeling or mood or a way that the words work to give an attitude

Paragraph - evaluating that video

Substitute Paragraph - about anything where you are evaluating something

NOTE: When we evaluate something we are considering the quality of its ATTRIBUTES

Paragraph Structure -

1. Topic Sentence - restate some point or some question or simply state your view

Body Sentences - what are these? REALLY, what am I doing in here? you are in some way proving that what you said in the topic sentence is, in fact, worth saying - ie it is true and real.

You make a point, then your prove or illustrate your point with a REFERENCE.
Then, you might EXPLAIN how that reference and your point shows that your topic sentence is true and real and valid.

Our Evaluation Paragraph.

I want you to evaluate the teaching style of Mr. Lobb so far. BE HARSH


Today we:

Picked on some students (like Laine and Sean).

We recapped our iPad work on blogs.

We recapped our blogging.

We started a paragraph in correct structure that was an EVALUATION. (in this case, of Mr. Lobb)

And then, we did the work we needed to get our blogs in and on Mr. Lobb's list

Here is a recap of what we've been doing and what is due:

Blog

All About Me

Read those short stories - Charles, The Nest, The Sniper, Ice Bangles.

Can answer questions about character - like the Graphic Organizer

We discussed a way of approaching a story - a process - using RESEARCH! we did this in more detail with Ice Bangles

We want to know about Irony and be able to define it and see it at work in a story and consider it

Paragraph written about evaluating something (Mr. Lobb) -we are looking at your structure - looking for evidence that you know the style

Memoir - a childhood story about Kindergarten (Kindergardiner) - could be blogged

Summatives are in bold

Thursday, Feb 21, 2013

We talked a LOT about Ice Bangles

What If I Am Having a Problem Understanding a Short Story?

Re-read that short story. SLOWLY.

Jot down a little bit on each character. Maybe in a MATRIX.  (graphic organizer?)

2.b) Find EVIDENCE to support any observation or conclusion you make about a character

If you find something you don’t understand - GOOGLE IT - research anything that you can’t figure out on your own.

example - we followed some ideas that came from the story that allow us to have a whole new set of ideas about it - Pakistani - women - dark skin vs light skin in the culture - African American women and hair - white and black culture - etc

Finding ASSOCIATIONS - WHAT COULD X MEAN?

Friday, February 15, 2013

Mr. Lobb’s ENG1D - Friday, February 15, 2013 

Hello. 

I am still speaking with a very sore, raspy little voice like an old man. An old man in a gangster movie, actually. 

However, I can still type, so here we go. 

I heard from a few students, when I dropped into the school yesterday, that there were some problems and a general sense of confusion. 

If you have work questions, send me an email! (thelabcoatguy@gmail.com)

Today I want you to read “Ice Bangles” (p.122, Elements of English 9) which is a good
little piece to show some very descriptive story writing and to consider TONE. 

Before you read the story, grab your iPad and look up Tone (literature) on Wikipedia. Read a good chunk of this and think about what it means. 

Once you’ve read it, get a few people to discuss it with and, together, come up with a little note (maybe half a page or so) on what you think tone means. 

THEN read the story, and do the following responses from p. 127 - 1, 2, 3 a,b, 4, 7a. 

The idea here is that you are extending your ability to respond to a piece of short fiction, and you are cementing in your head the idea of IRONY. If you need to, do a little more reading online about irony once again. You want to have that pretty well understood. 

AND, if you’ve been having problems with any of the work up to this point, it is time to take steps. 

Form a little group (maybe the same group you are working with on TONE) and exchange your notes, and specifically your responses, from the material we’ve been doing this week while I’ve been out. 

Compare what your group members have with what you have and then, together, come up with some change you can make to your work to improve it. 

Remember! You are almost always expected to be able to collaborate on your work to improve it and to help yourself to better understand whatever you’re doing. 

Hopefully, I will see you on Tuesday! 

Mr. The L

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Mr. Lobb’s ENG1D

Today it is time to learn about IRONY.

What is this IRONY, you say?

Well, luckily for you, there is a good way to find out.

Using your iPad, and working with a partner, peruse the Internet and try to figure out definitions and examples of the THREE MAIN KINDS of irony.

Here they are now:

VERBAL IRONY

SITUATIONAL IRONY

DRAMATIC IRONY

There is a fourth type of irony that is referred to as COSMIC IRONY, which you may also define (finding an example would also be good).

Once you have recorded your definitions and put them into your notes, use the iPads once again to find a short story online called The Sniper, by Liam O’Flaherty.

Hint: You might even find it on this blog. ..

Read this story and respond to the questions afterwards.



The Sniper

by Liam O'Flaherty (1897-1984)
Word Count: 1619


The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey. Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.

On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.

He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning. He had been too excited to eat. He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short drought. Then he returned the flask to his pocket. He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk.

Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light. Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof. The sniper took another whiff and put out the cigarette. Then he swore softly and crawled away to the left.

Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet. There was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head. He dropped immediately. He had seen the flash. It came from the opposite side of the street.

He rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet. There was nothing to be seen--just the dim outline of the opposite housetop against the blue sky. His enemy was under cover.

Just then an armored car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the street. It stopped on the opposite side of the street, fifty yards ahead. The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. His heart beat faster. It was an enemy car. He wanted to fire, but he knew it was useless. His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.

Then round the corner of a side street came an old woman, her head covered by a tattered shawl. She began to talk to the man in the turret of the car. She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer.

The turret opened. A man's head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper thought the noise would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn't lift it. His forearm was dead. "I'm hit," he muttered.

Dropping flat onto the roof, he crawled back to the parapet. With his left hand he felt the injured right forearm. The blood was oozing through the sleeve of his coat. There was no pain--just a deadened sensation, as if the arm had been cut off.

Quickly he drew his knife from his pocket, opened it on the breastwork of the parapet, and ripped open the sleeve. There was a small hole where the bullet had entered. On the other side there was no hole. The bullet had lodged in the bone. It must have fractured it. He bent the arm below the wound. the arm bent back easily. He ground his teeth to overcome the pain. 

Then taking out his field dressing, he ripped open the packet with his knife. He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the wound. A paroxysm of pain swept through him. He placed the cotton wadding over the wound and wrapped the dressing over it. He tied the ends with his teeth.

Then he lay still against the parapet, and, closing his eyes, he made an effort of will to overcome the pain.

In the street beneath all was still. The armored car had retired speedily over the bridge, with the machine gunner's head hanging lifeless over the turret. The woman's corpse lay still in the gutter.

The sniper lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning escape. Morning must not find him wounded on the roof. The enemy on the opposite roof coverd his escape. He must kill that enemy and he could not use his rifle. He had only a revolver to do it. Then he thought of a plan.

Taking off his cap, he placed it over the muzzle of his rifle. Then he pushed the rifle slowly upward over the parapet, until the cap was visible from the opposite side of the street. Almost immediately there was a report, and a bullet pierced the center of the cap. The sniper slanted the rifle forward. The cap clipped down into the street. Then catching the rifle in the middle, the sniper dropped his left hand over the roof and let it hang, lifelessly. After a few moments he let the rifle drop to the street. Then he sank to the roof, dragging his hand with him. 

  Crawling quickly to his feet, he peered up at the corner of the roof. His ruse had succeeded. The other sniper, seeing the cap and rifle fall, thought that he had killed his man. He was now standing before a row of chimney pots, looking across, with his head clearly silhouetted against the western sky.

The Republican sniper smiled and lifted his revolver above the edge of the parapet. The distance was about fifty yards--a hard shot in the dim light, and his right arm was paining him like a thousand devils. He took a steady aim. His hand trembled with eagerness. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath through his nostrils and fired. He was almost deafened with the report and his arm shook with the recoil. 

 Then when the smoke cleared, he peered across and uttered a cry of joy. His enemy had been hit. He was reeling over the parapet in his death agony. He struggled to keep his feet, but he was slowly falling forward as if in a dream. The rifle fell from his grasp, hit the parapet, fell over, bounded off the pole of a barber's shop beneath and then clattered on the pavement.

Then the dying man on the roof crumpled up and fell forward. The body turned over and over in space and hit the ground with a dull thud. Then it lay still.

The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out in beads on his forehead. Weakened by his wound and the long summer day of fasting and watching on the roof, he revolted from the sight of the shattered mass of his dead enemy. His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody.

He looked at the smoking revolver in his hand, and with an oath he hurled it to the roof at his feet. The revolver went off with a concussion and the bullet whizzed past the sniper's head. He was frightened back to his senses by the shock. His nerves steadied. The cloud of fear scattered from his mind and he laughed. 

Taking the whiskey flask from his pocket, he emptied it a drought. He felt reckless under the influence of the spirit. He decided to leave the roof now and look for his company commander, to report. Everywhere around was quiet. There was not much danger in going through the streets. He picked up his revolver and put it in his pocket. Then he crawled down through the skylight to the house underneath.

When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed. He decided that he was a good shot, whoever he was. He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army. He decided to risk going over to have a look at him. He peered around the corner into O'Connell Street. In the upper part of the street there was heavy firing, but around here all was quiet.

The sniper darted across the street. A machine gun tore up the ground around him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped. He threw himself face downward beside the corpse. The machine gun stopped.

Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face. 



Questions on The Sniper

1. From whose point of view is the story told? What is the value of using this character’s point of view over another character's?

2. How might this story be different if it were told from the third person omniscient point of view? (if you don't know what that means, you'd better Google it up!)

3. What do you think this story tells us about human nature? What about war? Use specific references from the story to back up your view.

4. What kind (or kinds) of irony can you find in this story? Give an example and explain how it is used.

5. Using your iPad, and working with a partner, do any research or reference checking to follow up on anything mentioned in this story that you don't understand and explain those references. For example - Dublin, Liffey, Four Courts, etc. Find out the CONTEXT for this story.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Read the short story "The Nest" on page 80 of Elements of English 9.

Respond to questions 1, 2 and 3 on page 83.

THEN complete the handout called: Story Structure - Parts of a Story

This should be review for you, as you will have done this in other years.

Consider this a little diagnostic of how well you remember your work on short stories from previous grades.

Once you have done that, go to page 229 in the textbook and review the material on grammar (!) up to page 234.

Again, I know you already have this stuff locked down, but we are going to be building from there when I come back, and we want to be sure that you're on top of your game...

If you get done all of these things, it would be a good time to get a reading book that you will be reading along every day and using to do some journal work.

Either get one from the library or check the iPads and see if there is one in iBooks that you can read.

Have that ready tomorrow as well. 

Thanks,

Mr. The L

Thursday, Feb 7, 2013

ENG1D - Thursday, Feb 7, 2013

Yesterday you read “Charles” - by Shirley Jackson

(page 64 in the textbook)

And then you were assigned Questions 2, 4, 6 on pagbe 68

Question 6 becomes a summative paragraph to be posted on your blog.

Thanks!

Here is some info and taking up below...

What does “fresh” mean?

How many people looked up this word if they didn’t know it?

If the answer isn’t EVERYBODY, then you are a doofus.

You NEED to learn to look up ANY word that you don’t know. Ignorance is unacceptable.

We have to get to the point where we can self-teach when we get caught in a corner.

NOW! I will admit that this requires a mind-set - you need to MAKE yourself care about stuff that you don’t know about.

A SKILL SET WE NEED!

You get something to read. Now what? Immediately Google the author. This will tell you some things you might need to know.

Prereading check of title, questions, any responses. This gets you thinking and engaged, which will make your reading smarter. We read better when we read with purpose.

Google words you don’t know (or dictionary define). Not every one, because you can context-learn some words. One of the KEY things to Google is a reference to something else that we maybe don’t know - eg a Biblical character, a town name, a TV show, an event, etc.  ie Reading a story that takes place in 1943 might be more meaningful to you if you know a little bit about World War II. When you have these references, and this crucial information, you suddenly understand WAY more about the story you’re reading.

Read the story once for a normal read. Check the questions and REFER back.

Jot down some general ideas about the story in this way:

observations - responses - reasons - possible meanings (hey, this looks like analysis!)

Charles -

rationalization - possible reason for Laurie’s creation of this “scapegoat” kid is to make himself distanced from his poor behaviour school

Maybe he’s just a little fiend and creates this persona character to avoid punishment.

Could Charles be a way of getting extra attention? If he wanted that attention, he would proudly exclaim I AM THAT BAD KID! LOOK ON ME AND MARVEL!

We know that kids will go to great lengths to avoid punishment - this is probably what’s happening.

However, the deeper psychology of rationalization is pretty interesting

Surprise Ending is Foreshadowed?

Is there evidence given in the story that Laurie is lying about this “Charles”?

It is an interesting coincidence that Laurie has to stay after school the same day Charles does. Hmmm...

Laurie only has Charles, with no mom, no family, no other kinds of behaviour, in his stories. There is a shortage of other proof.

Laurie’s behaviour at home is EERILY consistent with Charles’ behaviour at school.

And then, you will write a little memoir in your blog.

What have we been doing? What is due? What is marked?

Formative - I read, I see, I know what you’re up to. I can give comments to help you improve whatever it is.

Summative - I read, I mark, I record. If you are not happy with the mark, you check comments for improvement and resubmit.

Blog - summative
Email me your blog link - Formative
Paragraph about your video (evaluation) - Formative (diagnostic)
A short paragraph memoir (on blog) - Summative (paragraph style)

Making that first blog post

It is important that you ALWAYS get 3 or higher on every assignment.

I will not mark anything that is under a 3.

You will get it back and you will have to resubmit until you get a level 3.

You can also resub anything you like, knowing that I will only have 1 mark for the major elements we are studying. (essay, presentation, test, creative writing, poetry analysis, etc) - Resubmission to Mastery - you need to MASTER skills

This can make Mr. Lobb seem cruel. But it is also awesome, because he does not take this personally.

We will start with some technology -

www.blogger.com - owned by Google and it uses your Gmail address (username)

What makes a good blog?

One thing that makes a good blog is use of multimedia.

Having photos, graphics, videos or music can make your text come to life.

 This is video that we put in by copying embed code from Youtube - from the video link itself.

What if I want a photo? Of a kitten and a wolverine?

400 × 358 - burnthwaitessiamese.co.u

What if I want to plug in a web link to this blog?

What if I want to link to a news site for you to research?

What is the underlying plan here? It is simple - to manipulate Mr. Lobb.

What? Yes. Manipulate means to control or make perform or think in a certain way.