Symbolism Continued

We began our class with a short exercise on homophones and idioms.  Who knew that "hit the road" really means get going, and not punch the concrete?!?

We then finished the story "The Hand of Fatima."  Many of us were unhappy with the quick ending.  We felt like the author had done such a great job of building suspense, and then all of a sudden, we learn the ending, and it's over.  We discussed the symbolism of the gold charm at the end of the story.

Finally, I asked students to gather evidence from the story (phrases or sentences) which supported the ideas we came up with related to symbolism.  So, for example, when the gold charm symbolized Aneesi's father's love and support, which phrase or sentence from the story could be used as support for that idea?  We will continue with this exercise next day.

"The Hand of Fatima"

We began reading the short story, "The Hand of Fatima" today, as a means to better understanding symbolism.  We made it through most of the story, and we are tracking how the gold charm (the Hand of Fatima) changes its symbolic meaning as we progress through the story.

We can't wait to see what happens to Aneesi and her father!

"Just Lather, That's All"

We spent most of today's class reading "Just Lather, That's All" and practicing our ability to apply the  elements of fiction to the story.  We worked through the story, identifying aspects such as conflict, symbolism, character, point of view and theme.  Students seem to feel quite comfortable with most of the elements related to plot and character; however, we agreed that more time spent on symbol, point of view and theme might be a good idea.

We will continue this work with the elements of fiction next class. 

Narrative Feedback

Narratives were returned today, with my feedback about what's working, and what still needs improvement.

Students completed a short package on verb tense, which should help with narrative writing, as many students are having trouble maintaining consistent verb tense.

Finally, last day's narratives were returned, and students continued to write those stories, to be submitted for feedback next day.

Writing a Narrative using a Provincial Exam Prompt

We spent the first part of class working through some homophone pairs/threes.  Try to be aware of these in your writing... they are easy to confuse!

We then spent the remainder of class writing our narratives, using the prompt "Some of our greatest struggles can be with ourselves."  Students were given 35 minutes to begin their narrative, and really challenged themselves to just push through the opening, to get going on the writing of the story.  Our intent is to practice this "under pressure" writing, so that come exam time in June, people feel fairly comfortable writing with a time constraint.

Working with Exam Prompts

We began today's class by working with four narrative prompts, from previous Provincial Exams.  Students worked in groups to come up with story ideas for each prompt.  There were many unique, workable ideas generated!

We then discussed some strategies for approaching the prompts, to make the writing of our stories less stressful and more successful.  We came up with the following tricks and tips:

• consider disagreeing with the topic
• don't necessarily go with your first story idea (lots of people will write on their first idea)
• common gr. 10 topics are school, exams, driving tests, relationships... you might want to avoid these
• consider key words and focus in on those
• don't use the actual prompt sentence in your story

Next class, we will work on developing a plot plan using a prompt, then write an opening for the story, all under time pressure.  We are going to begin to simulate exam situations, to get you practiced and prepared for that day in June!

Using Powerful Verbs and Specific Nouns

Wow, did we ever learn many new words this morning!  We began with a vocabulary exercise which worked with powerful verbs and specific nouns.  We learned that searching for the EXACT word is worth it!  It will make our writing so much more detailed and interesting.

We finished off the class by going over the rubric that will be used to mark our narratives on the Provincial Exam.  I have asked students to complete their narratives for Monday, and to hand them in to me at that time.

Narrative Writing... continued

We used the story, "So... What Are You, Anyway?" as a model piece, to consider the importance of having an effective opening, authentic characters, an intriguing conflict and a meaningful theme.  We agreed that the story had all of these components.

Students then spent time continuing to write their narratives. I have collected these and will return them on Thursday.