2015! Monday, January 5 - Friday, January 9

Friday
Today was the due date for the good copy of the synthesis piece. I also collected the Essay practice #3 about conclusions. For the remainder of the class we did some activities related to reviewing the terms and devices that will be part of the Provincial Exam.

Thursday
Reminder: Good copies of synthesis piece are due tomorrow. We spent some time going through the writing folders and identifying completed work that met the "Writing and Representing" learning outcomes. This work was attached together and the pink cover sheet placed on the top. For the remainder of the the class there was time to work on Curious Incident work, essay practice sheets or the good copy of the synthesis piece.
Wednesday
Following silent reading, we did the editing quiz based on the synthesis piece. Afterwards, we looked at a sample essay and labelled the various parts: thesis, PEEL, etc. Essay practice #3 (conclusions) was handed out and is due for tomorrow.
Tuesday
Available reading time for Curious Incident is winding down as there will be a quiz on the novel on Monday. I keep meaning to mention that everyone is to complete a novel autograph for the novel, so those of you who read this blog, perhaps you can remind me? We completed the orange editing errors based on the synthesis piece - the quiz is tomorrow. We again reviewed the improvements that need to be made to the synthesis piece. I asked everyone to set two improvement goals and sticky note them to you first draft - good copy is due on Friday. Don't forget to do the corrections to the Essay Practice #1. I gave out Essay Practice #2 today - How to write an essay introduction.

Monday

Happy New Year! Welcome back. Hope nobody is too tired after completing the first day of school in 2015. Today, after returning several assessment pieces, I passed out progress reports to everyone. We spent some time discussing where we are going as the semester winds-up. Check the due dates listed on the right-hand side of the blog. I gave some pointers on the synthesis piece based on the draft copies I read. Remember: introduction where you mention the texts you are writing about and a brief sentence or two about the story/characters, end with your answer to the synthesis prompt/question; a couple of body paragraphs where you deal with the question (no summaries) - remember PEE; a brief conclusion paragraph. At the end of the class we looked at an edit sheet based on the writing errors I noticed in your draft synthesis pieces.