Work for Wednesday, March 29th, 2012

Hi everyone.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be at school today.

Here are your jobs, please and thank you.

JOB #1:
Please attempt to write one or even two of the short answers for our project.

Note: if someone was away yesterday, could another student bring them up to speed about the project? That would be much appreciated.

Things to think about:

• Choose your article wisely.  The topic and the type of challenge could mean the difference between a frustrating experience and a not-too-bad experience.
• If you are aiming for a Level 4, then in addition to always over-explaining as well as providing lots of evidence, a Level 4 answer also has the ‘going above beyond’ analysis that involves reading between the lines and / or making connections.
• If you are concerned / feeling Red Traffic Light about how to produce a paragraph that is in CESAC format then simply take tons of rough notes for today and then I can provide guidance / assistance / direction when I return on Thursday.

Thanks and good luck, 

Mr. Cooke

Work for Friday, Feb. 24, 2012

Hi everyone. I had to attend a meeting in London. Dang it.

Here are your jobs for today, please and thank you.

***As a quick reminder, please remember to use appropriate Grade 12-level etiquette while on this site. Please resist the urge to use this site to make jokes, no matter how tempting it is.

JOB #1: Article 1:

Please read the article from the London Free Press and answer at least FOUR of  the following:

1. What is the TOPIC here?
2. What is the THEME?
3. What is the INTENDED MOOD? What was your ACTUAL MOOD?
4. What LEVEL OF DICTION was used here?
5. What was the LEVEL of the AUDIENCE therefore?
6. What is the STYLE of NONFICTION here?
7. What is the PURPOSE of this text?

NOTE: Please be sure to choose SPECIFIC EVIDENCE from the text to support your answers. If you are done this activity in 20 minutes, you may have only skimmed the surface of these concepts.

For each of the answers you chose from above, strive to answer the following:

1. Have you made a clear and definitive choice (about the diction, the theme, etc.)?
2. Do you have specific evidence to support your choices?
3. Have you explained what your evidence proves and why it supports your choice?
4. If you are aiming for a Level 4, have you thought about how your topic connects to other texts, to your life or to topics in the news? Have you attempted to analyze why the author chose to use the concept (i.e. Why might the author have chosen to write using that level of diction as opposed to another level of diction? etc.)

JOB #2:

Please submit ONE of your answers as a REPLY to this post.

Work for: Monday, Feb. 13, 2012

Hi everyone. Unfortunately, I had to attend yet another meeting today.

Here are your jobs for today, please and thank you.

JOB #1:
a. Please go to the top of this page to the tab titled NONFICTION. From the drop  down menu, please select the following three concepts / concept pairs and please take the definition for your notes:

1. Fiction vs. Nonfiction
2. Prose vs. Verse
3. Subjective vs. Objective

JOB #2:
a. Please re-examine the NOVAMOXIN article that we worked on the other day and answer the following three questions:

1. Is this article Fiction or Nonfiction?
2. Is this article written in Prose or is it written in Verse?
3. Is this article Subjective or Objective?

NOTE: As we progress into this unit, we will examine what is required of you as Grade 12 College Students, which is also what they will require of you at college or even in a workplace.  To be more specific, for each of those questions above, attempt to answer each of the following:

1. EXPLAIN how know that the article is Fiction or Nonfiction, Prose or Verse, etc..
2. What SPECIFIC EVIDENCE would you choose from the article (a word, a sentence, a paragraph or section, etc.) that, for you, proves that this article is Fiction or Nonfiction, Prose or Verse, etc. PLUS can you explain why you chose your evidence and explain what it proves?
3. EXTRA TOUGH ANALYSIS QUESTION: Why do you think the author / company would choose to write their text / article in this format or style (Fiction / Nonfiction, Prose / Verse, Subjective / Objective)? What were they most likely trying to achieve? What could have happened if they had made the wrong choice?

NOTE: YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY OF THE WORK ABOVE. IT IS YOUR CHOICE.

BUT, BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:

1. Your ability to explain, provide evidence with explanations, and to analyze is exactly what will be in the assignments throughout the semester. In other words, this is what I am marking all semester long.
2. If you are aiming for a Level 3 or Level 4 in this course (70% +) then this type of writing is a critical piece. If you have amazing ideas but they are ‘locked’ in your mind because you don’t clearly express them, then it is very difficult for me to know if you know a concept or not.
3. The feedback I have received / the observations I have made is that, for some of us, this type of answer can be tricky.
4. Just like in any other class, such as Math or Science, or in a sport, the more you practice, the better you will be at this type of answer.
5. I have also discovered, however, that some students start out in this course finding this style of answer tricky, but they quickly get used to it and their marks steadily improve.
6. Students who have earned 80′s and 90′s in this course CONSISTENTLY write in this way. In a way, they are going the ‘extra mile’ to make sure that their answers cannot be misunderstood and that they are extra clear.  This is something you are all capable of doing; this is one of those things where EFFORT is often much more important than TALENT.

JOB #3:
Please visit the following website: www.edmodo.com. When you get there, click on the “I’M A STUDENT” button. You will then create an account for yourself so we can experiment with this site. The first question asks you for a GROUP CODE which for our class is: nvbboy. Please complete the account information; if you have made a ‘dummy’ email for yourself, this is where you will enter that email address. If successful, I think you will be taken to our ENG 4C page and, if there is work for you there, can you please complete it as well.

This link might help as well (although I’m not completely sure what it does): http://edmodo.com/join/c9702ed56249931517b16659fa11f49f

JOB #4:
A. If you finish the questions, please make sure that you have gone to the internet and have found an article about a topic you are interested in. Google Search and Google News are easy places to start. At this point, it doesn’t matter what kind of article you choose. If possible, please print it out for us to use in class.

JOB #5:
a. If finished other jobs, please go to www.cbc.ca and look for a current news article about something that is happening in the world right now. If possible, can you print it out.

Thank you everyone. I’ll see you on Tuesday and we will take up and share all of this information.

Mr. Cooke.

Work for: Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012

Hi everyone.  I had to attend a meeting today.

Here are your jobs for today, please and thank you.

JOB #1:
a. Please finish the NOVAMOXIN sheet (both sides, please and thank you.)

JOB #2:
a. Please complete the following sections of the OAHU sheet as we practice reading for comprehension (Very soon, we will be reading to analyze, which means that we will dig deeper than the comprehension level of understanding.):

1. Please read the OAHU article and complete ALL of the WHITE HAT questions.
2. Please then choose any THREE other questions to answer from RED HAT, BLACK HAT, YELLOW HAT, GREEN HAT and / or BLUE HAT.

JOB #3:
A. If you finish the OAHU questions, please go on to the internet and find an article about a topic you are interested in. Google Search and Google News are easy places to start. At this point, it doesn’t matter what kind of article you choose. If possible, please print it out for us to use in class.

JOB #4:
a. If finished other jobs, please go to www.cbc.ca and look for a current news article about something that is happening in the world right now. If possible, can you print it out.

Thank you everyone. I’ll see you on Friday and we will take up  and share all of this information.

Mr. Cooke.