I lied to you. Sorry. Dennis is fiction.

Today I revealed that I do not have a nephew named Dennis:  I made him up in order to be sneaky and try and teach you how to write an literary essay.  I am very bad for lying.  Please, please forgive me.

Today we did our final Speak test.  Most students did very well.

We also studied for our final exam which is on Tuesday morning.

Click HERE to see the KEY to the August 2007 exam.

I have enjoyed teaching this class this year.  English 10, as I have said, is one of my favourite classes to teach (along with English 8 and 12 -- and German).  When the end of my class approaches I always reflect back on what has transpired in my class.  "Have I done well teaching the students? Did I have high enough standards? Was I able to manage behaviour? Was I able to inspire students to do better than they might otherwise have?"  All these questions bounce around my melon.

However the one question that surfaces to the top, every time, is this:  "Did I spend too much time trying to make the class enjoyable?"  It's the constant balance that I struggle with for every course.  The goofiness, the silly stories, laughing at myself (laughing at each other) . . . all that stuff -- I wonder if I spent too much time on that.  I've been teaching for like 45 years so, if i wanted, I could have easily 'pushed' you guys to work harder, academically.

Come in, introduce class quickly, get down to work, vary activities, take in your work and then repeat the next day.  THAT would have had you learning more, I think, but maybe not enjoying as much.  So, it is a fine line that I always walk.

I'm proud of what you've learned as writers and readers.  I can confidently say each of you is a much better writer -- especially when it comes to literary writing.  Many of you were already good story writers, but most have also improved there too.

Next year, and if you enjoyed what we learned, you should consider enrolling in a course called Literature 12.  Lit 12 is kind of like English on steroids.  Also, if you are considering going to college or university, taking Lit 12 will be a HUGE help.

Prov Exam Practice

Click here for updated marks.

On Monday we continued to prepare for our provincial exam by going over a mock-exam.  I also handed out a pink sheet that contained vocabulary lists that students can use in order to study.
Today, Tuesday, we'll go over the second half of the mock-exam.

If you need to go over this exam at home, you can find it by clicking here http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/search/  Search the English 10 sample exams until you find the 2008/2009 exam.

Thursday will be your SPEAK novel test. You need to finish the novel by then.

PS  Good luck to Claire and Marie and Takara -- they'll be missing today's lesson and reppin' our class playing basketball in Salmon Arm.

Punctuating Dialogue

Fantastic class today.

I showed you how rude it is to use your cellphones during a lesson.  Please keep them turned off and in your packs during class.

We discussed how effective your in class compositions were.  These were the ones you wrote on Wednesday's class.  I read several of them out and we discussed exactly what it was that made them so engaging.

We worked on punctuating dialogue correctly.

Finally, I announced that you have to have the novel Speak finished by next Thursday. 

Another Provincial Exam Practice Composition

Quiet reading and working on the Speak worksheet from pp. 95-116.

Then we looked at more examples of both good and bad compositions from a past exam.

After break, student were given the following writing prompt:  "People and events can sometimes surprise us."

Students wrote for an hour and handed this composition in at the end of class.

Please read up to p. 141 of Speak by Friday.

Allusion and The Scarlet Letter

Today we learned the difference between illusion and allusion.  Laurie Halse Anderson uses an allusion from Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter in her novel Speak.  It isn't too hard to see how Melinda Sordino is similar to the main character of the Scarlet Letter.  Students also began working on a worksheet pp.95-116 from Speak.

Indenting Deficit Disorder -- IDD

Today we joked about a new learning disorder:  idd -- indenting deficit disorder.  Seriously, we learned that most students need to properly indent and use paragraphs -- something that did not happen in our last assignment.

I read a number of English 10 provincial practice compositions that you wrote.  I reminded students of the main points mentioned in the rubric.

We also got silly and talked about how students should try to do their best on their provincial in order to impress that older English teacher from Penticton -- Aenis is her name.

Updated Marks Now available - Speak Journal assignment completed in class

Click HERE to see your mark as of Jan. 10th.

We worked on a creative writing assignment.  You must read up to p. 80 in order to begin this.  It was handed in, at the end of class. Click HERE to see it.

Prov Exam prep

Today we read our novels for half an hour.

We discussed the last two weeks of school with respect to the schedule and how the exam schedule will work this year.

We discussed the format of the provincial exam. Specifically, we focussed on the last section of the test:  the writing section.  This section is, by far, the most important section of the exam.

I provided three examples of the types of writing that can be done.

I provided a handout entitled English 10 - Pfeiffer:  Some Worthwhile Tips for Your Upcoming Provincial Exam and we went over that.

Students worked for 45 minutes on a practice "Writing Essay" from an old provincial:  the writing prompt is People learn from a variety of sources.  This is due for homework at the beginning of class on Friday.  

Also for homework, please continue reading Speak. You should be up around p. 80 by Friday.

Remember:  elevate your vocabulary . . . elevate your thoughts.

Speak - novel intro

Today we completed an introductory activity on our new novel Speak.
We read up to p. 11 in class and worked on some questions.

Homework: read up to p. 24 and complete the questions on the worksheet. Click HERE for a copy of the worksheet.