Striped Pajamas - KWL

1. We began class with a Know, Wonder, Learn.  Students wrote for twenty minutes on What do you know about World War 2 and Nazi German, What do you wonder about it, and what do you want to learn about it.  This was handed in.

2. Last day we read to the end of chapter 3.  We discussed Concentration Camps and what Hitler's Germany did to Jewish people, political prisoners, homosexuals, gypsies, and mentally disabled people (put them in Concentration Camps -- which were places where inmates were eventually killed)

3. We watched a crash course in World War II.  Click here to see it again.
3. Today we read and discussed chapter 4

Updated Marks

Click HERE to see updated marks.
Hi Deena.  Hope you are enjoying your time in Manitoba.  We are about to begin the Boy with the Striped Pajamas during today's class!

Ordeal by Cheque

Students read through a series of canceled cheques. These cheques actually make up a narrative or story.
If you were absent today, read through the cheques by clicking on this link http://corbettharrison.com/documents/OrdealbyCheque.pdf
Pay close attention to whom the cheques are written, the amounts, when they were written, and how much is paid.  Also pay attention to patterns:  for example how many cheques were written within a one month period?

Summarize the story in a paragraph and be prepared to hand it in next class.

Next day we will begin reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

A Chairy Tale

Today we watched a Norman McLaren video on Youtube called A Chairy Tale.  We worked in groups to create meaning from the video and then each group wrote out a theme statement (i.e. what is the message of the video).

Students who were absent, should do this and be prepared to hand in their theme statments to me when they return.

Test Day !

Doree and Wes, sorry to hear you're not feeling well.  Please plan to make-up the test during class tomorrow morning.

We did the test today and tomorrow, we'll work on some final projects on The Crazy Man.

Up next in the coming days. . . maybe the Boy in Striped Pajamas or maybe A Midsummer Night's Dream or maybe . . .

Crazy Man Test tomorrow - Questions due tomorrow

Tomorrow is our Crazy Man test.
Review the figures of speech we learned and took notes on.  In addition review the blog -- that's a great way to review our learning.  Finally, don't forget to review the notes we took in February on plot, setting, character, and theme.

Be prepared to write a paragraph on the connections or similarities that exist within the novel (that's almost certainly going to be on the test).

I shared with class the email exchange that I've been having with author Pamela Porter!

Crazy Man Test on Tuesday!

We began today's class by reviewing our notes last day on the connectedness (or similarities) among different characters.  We discussed the question, "Why would the author have such different characters have such similar characteristics?"

We read the section 'Meeka' together.

We worked on these questions: they will be due next week some time:

English 9            THE CRAZY MAN: Summary Questions

1.  Emaline is a very open-minded individual.  Explain why she is like this discuss her age and personality.  (2)


2.  Emaline often comments on giving Angus his lunch and dinner on the same blue plate:  “Same plate.  Same chip on the side” (58).  Why is the routine important?  (2)

3.  Synethesia is a condition in which a stimulus, such as sound, creates a reaction with another sense, as well as the expected sense.*

The character of Angus in The Crazy Man, seems to have something similar.  How does he see the world around him?  Provide specific examples. (2) 

In your opinion is Angus’ extra sense a positive or negative quality?  Explain why. (2)

4.  Discuss the behaviour of the townspeople towards Angus. 
a.  How is this typical of a small town mentality? 
b.  How does the behaviour of visiting farmers (who come to see the thriving
     mustard and flax crops) differ?  Why?  (4)


5.  How is Emaline coping with the loss of her father and best friend, Prince?.  Use specific examples from the poem in your response.  (2)


6.  On pg. 149, Angus is discussing his past with his mother.  Explain the significance of his use of the pronoun “I” in this section.  (2)

Connectedness in The Crazy Man -- TEST next Tuesday on the Novel

We participated in the Wellness Fair, we had a GASP presentation from Alice Weber, and we completed a City of Revelstoke youth survey.

We then took notes on the connections that exist in the novel The Crazy Man.  We learned that although Emaline and Angus seem like completely different characters they are remarkably similar. How are they similar -- well they both are suffering through adversity. For both of them the adversity began with problems from within their family.  We were reminded of what Peter Grimmm said the first day: they are both disabled (one, physically and the other mentally).

There are also other characters that are connected because they suffer from adversity:  Mei Wang suffers from the racism of the townspeople, and Clarice Bitterman suffers from the loss of her husband.

Angus and Emaline are also similar in how they deal with their adversity. They both use images in their mind to help them; Emaline has a room that she shuts the door of and Angus floats his abusive mother away on a basket.

There will be a test on The Crazy Man on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

"Gary Pfeiffer" - Metaphors, Similes, personification . . . and on and on

Today we continued learning and memorizing figures of speech.  We have reached the end of the section "DAD" from our novel The Crazy Man.
We did a quiz on the information below.
Oh, and by the way, I revealed that it wasn't actually Mr. Pfeiffer teaching today -- I'm his identical twin brother and my name is Gary.

Figures of Speech – English 9 – The Crazy Man

simile – a comparison using like, as or than.  “crazy like a fox”

imagery – visually descriptive language “the dead branches that spring storms nipped in the bud, smear together with the green”

personification – giving human characteristics to something non-human “the chair shuffled across the floor”

metaphor – a direct comparison  “there’s a gorilla working in your field”

hyperbole – exaggeration  “it’s a million degrees out today”

onomatopoeia – using a word that sounds like itself  “the bacon sizzled and snapped in the frying pan”

alliteration – the repetition of initial consonant sounds  “Doree peeled the pears with precision”

We reviewed the term Xenophobia and how it applies to the novel.
Furthermore, River and Eva made some sophisticated interpretations regarding the similarites of how Angus deals with the anguish of his mother and how Emaline deals with the anguish of her father.

Part 2 The Crazy Man - Angus UPDATED MARKS

1. We began with a lesson on the CBC television show the greatest Canadian with the purpose of chatting further about Tommy Douglas.  He is mentioned in the Crazy Man and is important in terms of Canadian history.
2. We reviewed the crazy man thus far.
3. I returned the anticipation handouts from last day (they were marked out of 5).  I read out a few good pieces of writing.
4. We read "Angus" which is the second part of The Crazy Man.
5. We focussed on Ms. Tollefson's roses and the theme that adversity can help the flowers thrive.  It's the same with people:  adversity can make a person thrive.
6. Whoops, I forgot to show students the updated marks (I have finally inputted the marks from the written section of your Hobbit test).  Click HERE for updated marks

The Crazy Man

Today we began by reviewing the term synesthesia and a brief discussion on mental health issues (it's mental health week next week and there will be a health fair here at RSS next Wednesday).  Mental health and the issues around it will be important in our next novel The Crazy Man.

We completed an anticipatory sheet on The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter.  This was done in-class, quietly for half an hour and then handed in.

We went to the library and got our copies of The Crazy Man and began reading.

We reviewed the difference between poetry and prose and learned that Pamela Porter uses word placement in her poetry for emphasis.

Lena Mae correctly asserted that the novel will NOT be a horror story.
Eva interestingly suggested that the father might be considered the 'Crazy Man' because of his actions.
Peter noted the connection between Emaline and Angus: one has a physical disability and the other has a mental disability.

We also watched the next chunk of the 2012 video "The Hobbit".

Synesthesia

On Tuesday we discussed and learned about the phenomenon of synesthesia.  (If you were away, please familiarize yourself with this concept -- trywikipedia and youtube for some examples and explanations).

I went to each student and told them their updated marks -- then I posted them on the back bulletin board.

Last week we had an interested assembly with Ryan Clayton where he discussed homophobia; plus, we also spent quite a bit of time working on a smoking/health survey for the University of Victoria.

We are about to embark on a novel called the Crazy Man by Pamela Porter.  In this novel, synethesia plays a role with a character called Angus.