Short Stories

Wednesday April 1st, 2020

Please check the Poetry tab for instructions.

 

Monday March 30th, 2020

Hello Everyone,


I wanted to let you know that I did not end up traveling to Europe over the break. I was able to get my wife back home on an earlier flight and we spent a fun spring break in our apartment . I’m sorry I haven’t communicated with you earlier, but at this point I don’t know much about what is going to transpire, and I don’t want to cause any undue stress in your lives. Information is changing and being updated daily if not by the hour. When I know more, I will communicate using this medium. We will be working on POETRY next so you should be checking the POETRY tab under New Media 11 once we begin in earnest.  More timely information will come through our administration in the form of e-mails to Best Families. 
Stay safe, as I’m sure you are going stir crazy sitting at home and waiting for information to be shared.

 
Mr. Celenza

 

 

Friday March 13th, 2020

Finish “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” film

Class discussion

  • see questions on whiteboard

Fun stuff before Spring Break!!!!!

 

Tuesday March 10th, 2020

Silent Reading

Please refresh your memory on the story Red-Convertible

Be ready to discuss some of the questions we prepped for last week

Questions to think about

  • What can you infer about the characters based on the setting of the story?
  • Why does money come easily to Lyman? What is the relationship between luck, attitude, and work ethic?
  • Why is the red convertible so special to Lyman? What does the car symbolize?
  • How does Vietnam change Henry? How do most people around Henry react to this change?

Homework: Please write a well thought out reasoned paragraph response to the following question. Due Thursday March 12th, 2020 ****Post to Class notebook****

What type of Character traits help best describe Lyman in the short story “Red convertible”? Please provide evidence with your response. You mark will be based on the evidence you use as well as your reasoned expression.

 

Monday March 9th, 2020

Final Revisions for short story

Please make sure your project is in the proper order when turned in:

  1. Final Draft
  2. Rough Draft (must have a 25% highlighted revision rate) Print another copy if you need to.
  3. Plot Pyramid
  4. Brainstorm

Homework: Short Story Project is due Tuesday March 10th.

 

Friday March 6th, 2020

Peer Editing day

The Final Draft for your short stories will be due Tuesday March 10th. You’re Welcome!

 

Thursday March 5th, 2020

Silent reading

You have the remainder of the block to work on your short story assignments.

Homework: Short story rough draft due Friday

 

Thursday February 27th, 2020

Silent reading

Go over how to post to class notebook

Class Discussion: Warm up Agree vs. Disagree

Class discussion: Red Convertible.

Homework: None. 

 

Wednesday February 26th, 2020

Class time to work on “Setting” assignment.

Red-Convertible

Questions to think about for tomorrow

  • What can you infer about the characters based on the setting of the story?
  • Why does money come easily to Lyman? What is the relationship between luck, attitude, and work ethic?
  • Why is the red convertible so special to Lyman? What does the car symbolize?
  • How does Vietnam change Henry? How do most people around Henry react to this change?

Homework: “Setting” assignment due tomorrow February 27th, 2019. 

 

Tuesday February 25th, 2020

Silent Reading

Lots of Reading today… check these stories out.

grace-period

There-Will-Come-Soft-Rains-2mp0eos

Writing Assignment: Working on Setting

Please write a descriptive “story” of a type of setting you have in mind for a story. Please use as much descriptive imagery as you can to describe your “world” (place, time, people, animals, colours etc) Minimum 300 words. Paragraph format!!!!

You must use Simile, Metaphor and personification at least once each.

Homework: “Working on Setting” writing assignment – Due Thursday Feb. 27th, 2020

 

Monday February 24th, 2020

Stereotypes: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Examples:

  • Guys are messy and unclean.
  • Women aren’t as smart as a men.
  • All Canadians play hockey.

Famous Poll at Jodys Bar

  1. What are some stereotypes you can find in the story.
  2. Do they help you understand the types of people the characters are?
  3. How does this story depict love?
  4. Does it depict love differently for men and women?

Class activity

Homework: none…..Yay!!!!!!

 

Friday February 21st, 2020

Homework: Play around with Blog write responses to multiple intelligence questions under New Media 11. Due Monday

 

Thursday February 20th, 2020

Silent reading

*****Tomorrow- BRING YOUR DEVICE**********

Collect Homework

Please go to this website and take this Multiple intelligence quiz. This is a different one than what we did a few weeks ago.

https://alis.alberta.ca/careerinsite/know-yourself/multiple-intelligences-quiz/

Please answer the questions below.

  1. Read more about your intelligence on this site. Note your top three strengths. If you remember, did you get the same results as the other test?
  2. Write a correctly structured paragraph about yourself that includes a reflection on your intelligence’s, your interests and hobbies, and your future goals. Include your strengths and weaknesses.
  3. Write a paragraph “How does society’s view of ‘intelligence’ affect your identity? Do you think you define yourself based on these intelligences or do you mask these strengths because you feel you should be someone else?” We have discussed this in class so you should have an idea on how you want to respond.

Homework:

“No Bikini” response paragraph and Article Response Questions: Due Friday February 21st.

*****You will have some class time to work on your Multiple intelligence responses tomorrow***

 

Wednesday February 19th, 2020

Silent reading

Fun Clip

Homework class review: Pull out your Ivan Cayote paragraph. Today we are going to follow along with how I would have done a response.

No bikini paragraph response practice

Read the article and record the following in a well thought out, detailed responses:

  1. What are your opinions and thoughts about the article? Do you agree or disagree on any part of the article? (2-3 sentences)
  2. Does this article give you more insight into the short story we read? Why or why not? (2-3 sentences)
  3. Inclusion and understanding are listed as important concepts of Ivan Cayote’s work. Do you think inclusion, understanding and belonging are closely linked to how we see ourselves and our identity? (Paragraph response. You may use evidence from any of the sources we have used so far in the course as well as your own knowledge and opinions.)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/83178100/ivan-coyote-i-always-knew-i-was-not-the-same-as-other-little-girls

Here are the questions on a word document if you prefer responding that way.

News Article Response Ivan Cayote

Homework: Character sketch due Thursday February 20th.

“No Bikini” response paragraph and Article Response Questions: Due Friday February 21st. 

 

Tuesday February 18th, 2019

Please use 20 minutes to work on your character sketch. This is the last bit of class time you will have to work on it. I have re-posted it today so you can easily find the instructions.

Step 1: Character Creation: Today you will have the block to work on creating a character for a story. You are free to create any type of character you want. The focus today should be on using characterization (direct and indirect) to create a fully formed character. To start by brainstorming the following in point form.

  • Direct characterization: Age, looks, voice, demeanor, dress, things (house, car, watch)
  • Indirect characterization: Speech, Actions, Thoughts, Effect.

Step 2: Answer the following two questions in FULL SENTENCES.

  1. “Interview” your character to gauge attitude. Pretend he or she is sitting across from you. Ask, “What do you think about life?” Then take down a monologue, as quickly as it pours out of your imagination, expounding in the character’s voice what the answer is.
  2. Watch the evening news for five nights. Each night pretend you are this character. Write or record your verbal or physical reactions as that character. (Note: improvisation, a skill taught in acting classes, is a great way for writers to explore characterization).

Read the short story “No Bikini”.

In paragraph form between 200-250 words discuss how the protagonists actions and thoughts show us who they are.

Homework: 

No Bikini response paragraph: Due Wednesday February 19th. 

Character sketch due Thursday February 20th.

 

Monday February 10th, 2020

Time to work on character sketch

Start of group project work.

 

Friday February 7th, 2020

More review about different literary devices

Symbolism

When we think about symbols we tend to group them in 3 categories.

Universal Symbols: Symbols that anyone will understand no mater their background, history, ethnicity or culture.

Cultural Symbol: A cultural symbol is something  that signifies the ideology of a particular culture or that merely has meaning within a culture.

Personal Symbols: Symbols that have meaning to one person or a very small group of people. ex: a family

 

Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.

It is a direct application. You are saying the thing IS something.

examples:

“Love is a battlefield”

“Bob is a couch potato”

 

Personification: when you give something human characteristics (usually emotions)

It could be an inanimate object or just a part of a person.

In class exercise:

Watch the Video as a class. Please think about all the literary devices we have learned so far and try to identify them in the film.

  • Plot: (intro, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion)
  • Theme: write a theme statement
  • Characterization: Examples of both direct and indirect (2 for indirect)
  • Symbolism
  • Metaphor
  • Foreshadowing
  • Personification

Remainder of Block: Please pull out your character creation exercise (Thur. Feb 4th). You should be on STEP 2 by now. Still no due date…..but you should have a better handle on how to start writing your character.

NO HOMEWORK…YAY!!!!!!

 

Thursday February 6th, 2020

Silent Reading

Review of theme statements

Class time to work on written response Due Friday. ***see homework under Wednesday Feb. 4th***

 

Wednesday February 5th, 2020

Collect Homework

Try this Multiple intelligence quiz

http://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

Identity discussion

Geri’s game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kweN7VLx-JE

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

discussion and questions

Homework: Please compare “Geri’s Game” to “The Secret life of Walter Mitty” with regards to identity. Your response should be in paragraph form between 200-250 words.

Due Friday February 7th, 2020

 

Tuesday February 4th, 2020

Silent Reading

Hand back “5 Questions”

Step 1: Character Creation: Today you will have the block to work on creating a character for a story. You are free to create any type of character you want. The focus today should be on using characterization (direct and indirect) to create a fully formed character. To start by brainstorming the following in point form.

  • Direct characterization: Age, looks, voice, demeanor, dress, things (house, car, watch)
  • Indirect characterization: Speech, Actions, Thoughts, Effect.

Step 2: Answer the following two questions in FULL SENTENCES.

  1. “Interview” your character to gauge attitude. Pretend he or she is sitting across from you. Ask, “What do you think about life?” Then take down a monologue, as quickly as it pours out of your imagination, expounding in the character’s voice what the answer is.
  2. Watch the evening news for five nights. Each night pretend you are this character. Write or record your verbal or physical reactions as that character. (Note: improvisation, a skill taught in acting classes, is a great way for writers to explore characterization).

Homework: No due date on this yet…but it will be due sometime in the future so use the class time I give you. 

*****Character Sketch due tomorrow Wednesday February 5th, 2020*****

 

Monday February 3rd 2020

****** reminder that tomorrow we have silent reading*******

Homework Checks

Discuss Homework. Go over questions

Characterization Continued

Characterization Practice: Please choose a character from film or TV. Your job is to write up a character sketch about them. Use the Darth Vader example below as a template.

You should include:

  • Adjectives describing the character  (minimum 8)
  • Direct characterization: Be very detailed (what the character looks like)
  • Indirect Characterization: 3 types (Actions, Speech/dialogue, and effect on others). please make sure you make it clear how these types of characterization exemplify the character.
  • YOU DO NOT NEED TO INCLUDE A CHARACTERS PRIVATE THOUGHTS AS WE ARE FOCUSING ON FILM AND TELEVISION.

Due Wednesday February 5th, 2020     /10 marks

Darth-Vader-Characterization-example character sketch

 

Friday January 31st, 2020

Review of terminology for short stories

Irony

Characterization

Theme

Homework: Due Monday Feb. 3rd 2020 (simple homework check for 5 marks)

Questions related to short Film

  1. Identify 3 types of indirect Characterization
  2. Identify the Theme and write it as a theme statement .
  3. Identify key parts of the plot. (just point form….easy marks.)
  4. What types of irony are in the Story.  Give examples and type.
  5. Example of Foreshadowing please…See if you can find it 🙂

Wednesday January 29th, 2020

Course Outline

Academic Writing

Short Stories booklet

Plot review

Homework: Please pick a movie and analyse the plot. The Film you choose should have all the important aspects of Plot with details. You have two days to work on this and it is review so I’m expecting some thorough work.   (you will have 20 minutes in class on Thursday  to work) 

DUE FRIDAY JANUARY 31ST

Use of colour________________________________/3

All aspects of Plot_____________________________/6

Enough details to adequately describe the story________/6

Total_______________________________________/15 marks

 

 

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