May 3

English 10 (C & D) 

Today students handed in their alternated ending to the story "The Possibility of Evil." Students also marked the apostrophe worksheet they completed last block.  Next we went over the remainder of the poetry terms in preparation for the exam which is May 13 at 9.  Finally, we went to the library to work on a narrative piece of writing.  Students were directed to pick one of the following prompts:

Competition is an important part of our lives.

People learn from a variety of sources.

The lessons we learn affect our future.

Satisfaction comes from helping others.  

Students were also reminded that they will have a test on the terms on Tuesday and their stories will be due on Tuesday also.  That way students will get feedback on Thursday before their exam on Friday.  Here are the terms:

antagonist	·         The character or force that opposes the protagonist
protagonist	·         The main character of the story; not necessarily a hero or “good guy”
Mood	·         The feeling created in the audience by the story
Atmosphere	·         The feeling of the story; used in reference to the story itself
Tone	·         The attitude of the speaker to the subject of the writing
Audience	·         The  intended reader
Bias	·         one sided perspective
Character	·         refers to a person in a story; can also refer to their personality
Chronological order	·         in time sequence
colloquial	·         slang
Cliché	·         an overused phrase that is not interesting because it is so common ex.  Don’t judge a book by its cover
Climax	·         the turning point of a story
Conflict (internal vs external)	·         a problem; internal is within the character & external is between the character and someone or something else
Comedy	·         a humorous story
Compare	·         what is similar
Contrast	·         what is different
Dialogue	·         speech of the characters in a novel/short story; indicated with quote marks
Direct presentation	·         the narrator tells the reader about the character ex. Miss Hancock was “overenthusiastic”
Indirect presentation	·         the narrator describes the character by presenting their thoughts, actions or speech; the reader infers what the character is like from this
Drama	·         a play or type of short story/novel that explores realistic characters and their life situations
Dynamic character	·         a character that changes over the course of the story
Exposition	·         the background information given at the beginning of the novel or short story (includes the setting)
Expository	·         type of writing that explains something
Falling action	·         the events that happen after the climax
Point of View	·         the perspective from which the story is told
First Person Pt of View	·         the character tells the story from his/her point of view, which reveals his/her thoughts and feelings to the reader; ·         uses first person to tell the story (I)
Limited Omniscient Pt of View	·         uses 3rd person (he, she, they) to tell the story ·         the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of one character
Objective Pt of View	·          uses 3rd person (he, she, they) to tell the story ·         the narrator knows no one’s thoughts and feelings ·         like a “movie camera”
Omniscient Pt of View	·         uses 3rd person (he, she, they) to tell the story ·         the narrator knows everyone’s thoughts and feelings ·         “all knowing”
Flashback	·         Sudden switch to the past from the present when telling the story
Flat character	·         A minor character that is described with only one characteristic
Foil	·         a character that contrasts with the protagonist or another major character in the story
Foreshadowing	·         hints of what is going to happen later in the story
Genre	·         type of literature (comedy, drama, tragedy, historical fiction, science fiction
Jargon	·         vocabulary particular to a certain group, profession etc.
Irony	·         a twist from the expected o   verbal – dealing with speech ex. Sarcasm o   Dramatic –words or acts of a character may carry a meaning unperceived by him/herself, but understood by the audience o   Situational – the circumstance turns out to be the reverse of those anticipated or considered appropriate
Narrator	·         The storyteller
Persuasive	·         Type of writing used to persuade someone
plot	·         The series of events
Propaganda	·         Communication used to promote a certain idea, cause; biased; often uses stereotypes to promote hatred etc.
Resolution	·         The ending of the falling action when the conflict is resolved
Rising Action	·         The events that lead up to the climax
Round Character	·         A complex/realistic character
Sarcasm	·         A verbal form of irony when the opposite of what is meant is said
satire	·         Irony used to ridicule an idea, person etc to encourage change
Setting	·         Time, place and circumstance of a story
Slang	·         Informal words or phrases (changes with the times)
Static character	·         A character that does not change in the course of the story
Stereotyped character	·         A predictable, flat character that is recognized as “of a type” ·         Ex. The brain, the jock etc
Style	·         The way an author expresses him/herself ·         Depends on devices used, sentence structure, vocab etc.
Suspense	·         Feeling of uncertainty created in a story
symbol	·         something that is used to represents/suggest something else.
theme	·         the observation about life or human nature that is represented in the story
tragedy	·         a type of literature that has an unhappy ending

Humanities 8

Today we went over the criteria for the castle assignment and then the remainder of the class was a work period.  

Castle Story Assignment Assessment Information

Reminders for Castle Story

        Must have a conflict/problem  (person vs person, person vs self, person vs society, person vs environment etc)

        Historically plausible

        Castle is the setting (at least for part of it)

o   use vocab words from booklet

        Have an exciting beginning

o   Use dialogue

o   Use thoughts

o   Use action

        Use descriptive words Ex.  He lunged aggressively at his attacker.  Vs.  He moved towards the other guy.

        The story is clear – grammar, spelling, sentence structure

        The story has a clear resolution to the conflict/problem

Note: See Grade 8 Rubric for Writing Stories

Criteria	Exceeding Expectations	Fully Meeting Expectations	Minimally Meeting Expectations	Not Meeting Expectations
Coat of Arms -presentation	        Fully colored         Outlined         Very neat	        Colored         Neat	        Some color         Reasonably neat	        Seems incomplete         No color
Coat of Arms -connection to story	        Obvious connection to story         Excellent choice of symbols	        Clear connection to story         Good choice of symbols	        Vague connection to story         Reasonable choice of symbols	        No connection to story         Poor choice of symbols
Castle -labelling	        More features labelled than required         Labelling correct	        Meets all requirements         Labelling correct	        Missing 1 or  2 requirements         Mislabelling of 1 or 2 features	        Missing most of requirements         More than 2 errors in labelling
Castle -design/ connection to story	        Obvious connection to story         Original design	        Clear connection to story         Some originality	        Vague connection to story         No originality, but complete	        No connection to the story         Incomplete design