ELA+A30+-+day+to+day


 * September 28 - October 8, 2010 (sorry, thought my posts were working...apparently they weren't) **
 * Wrap up Strange Brew and discussion - American vs Canadian Stereotypes
 * Complete the required assignment
 * Discussion to start thinking about - unit end projects
 * Representation of what it means to be Canadian
 * Some examples
 * Critique the examples and discuss what makes a "good" representation
 * Poetry and Canadianess
 * What would we expect to see out of Canadian poetry
 * Read the poems "Between two furious oceans" and "I am Canadian"
 * Discuss - common themes
 * Canadian representation
 * Known and unknown vocabulary
 * Complete the poetry assignments


 * September 27, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Continue Strange Brew


 * September 24, 2010 (Friday) **
 * Begin watching Strange Brew
 * Video notes: record any Canadian stereotypes and examples of Canadian dialect/language you see. Keep in mind - how does the movie portray Canadians?


 * September 23, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Assignment: Write a paragraph or two response to the following -
 * What does it mean to be Canadian? How do we Canadians view ourselves? How do others view us? Why is diversity important to Canadian identity? How do our personalities and values influence our identity? Where do our values come from? Where do our personalities come from?


 * September 22, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Introduction of new unit - Canadian theme
 * What it means to be Canadian - discussion and brainstorming


 * September 21, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Wrap up presentations


 * September 20, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Time to present
 * September 15, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Presentations


 * September 14, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Presentations


 * September 13, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Time to work on presentations


 * September 10, 2010 (Friday) **
 * Most gone for soccer
 * Catch up and research class
 * If done - move on to generating ideas for presentations


 * September 9, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Time to research in expert groups
 * Sharing of resource - how the heck to make this stuff interesting (ie: the oatmeal, the onion, college humour, youtube, etc...)


 * September 8, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Sentence structures performance tasks are now homework
 * Now some group work:
 * Here is your main and presentation group:
 * Chase, Greg, Lukas, Chyanne
 * Tell, Justin, Becky Kristen
 * But first, get into your "expert" group
 * Euphemisms, Doublespeak and Gobbledygook (Lukas, Tell)
 * Adverbs and Helping Verbs (Justin, Greg)
 * Punctuation (Chase, Becky)
 * Spelling (Kristen, Chyanne)
 * Take some time to research and learn about your topic. Take notes, talk things through with your partner. Keep the following in mind:
 * 1) What the heck is this all about?
 * 2) Why is it important for writers to know/understand this?
 * Get into your main group
 * Educate your group members about your topic. You are the expert…help them understand the topic
 * Now, choose a topic that particularly interested you and create a presentation to give to the class
 * Your presentation must outline and teach what your topic is all about and help your classmates to understand why it is important for writers to know/understand this.
 * Most importantly, your presentation must not be boring - use multimedia, games, explosions, celebrities, anything to get your classmates involved\.


 * September 7, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Quick review and check for understanding - sentence structures
 * Class time to complete Sentence Structures: Performance tasks #1 & #2

** September 2, 2010 (Thursday) **
 * Complete mini quiz and performance tasks from yesterday
 * Now to really confuse you
 * A clause is not a complete sentence, but a complete thought
 * A clause needs to have a subject and a predicate
 * A sentence needs at least one independent clause (a clause that can stand alone on its own)
 * Let's practice creating some independent clauses (simple sentences)
 * FYI: simple sentences contain only one independent clause
 * Now to join more than one independent clause (a compound sentence)
 * Compound sentences need more than one independent clause. You join these with coordinating conjunctions.
 * The independent clauses in a compound sentence carry the same weight, or are equally important
 * Let's practice some
 * What do we notice about compound sentences with tons of independent clauses: your writing seems immature
 * Getting more complex now: 1 independent clause and at least one dependent clause is a complex sentence
 * You join independent clauses with dependent clauses using subordinating conjuctions
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">More practice
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 0px;">Good guide to refer to
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Whew! Confused...I hope not. Moving on to the last type of sentence: compound complex
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Compound-complex sentences have at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If it includes a compound sentence and a complex sentence it's a compound-complex sentence
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">And finally - some more practice.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Done, good job.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Performance task #1:
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 simple sentences (bold or italicize the independent clause)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 compound sentences (bold or italicize the independent clauses)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Underneath, write the coordinating conjuction(s)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 complex sentences (bold or italicize the independent and dependent clauses)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Underneath, write the subordinating conjuction
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Write 5 compound-complex sentences (bold or italicize the independent and dependent clauses)
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Underneath, write the coordinating and subordinating conjuctions
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Performance task #2
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Answer the following question:
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Why is it beneficial for writers to be able to identify different sentence structures, understand the differences between sentence structures and be able to use different sentence structures?


 * September 1, 2010 (Wednesday) **
 * Practice, as a class, creating sentences
 * Pick out the phrases and clauses
 * Check to make sure everyone understands
 * Mini quiz:
 * What does a phrase do?
 * What is a clause made up of?
 * What is the subject of a sentence?
 * What is the predicate of a sentence?
 * Performance tasks:
 * Write 5 phrases
 * Write 5 clauses
 * Write 5 sentences
 * Underline the clause
 * Circle the phrase
 * Answer the following question:
 * Why is it beneficial for writers to understand phrases and clauses?
 * Post quiz and performance tasks to blog (tag quiz as grammar quiz #1 and performance tasks as Clauses and Phrases)


 * August 31, 2010 (Tuesday) **
 * Finish learner profiles
 * Introduction to grammar, usage and punctuation
 * Collaborative note-taking
 * Post notes to the blog (understanding this process)
 * Clauses, Phrases, Subjects and Predicates
 * Class activity: Write phrases on the board - students transform them into clauses
 * Writing activity #1: 1 group writes phrases, 1 group writes clauses
 * Exchange papers
 * 1 group expands phrases to clauses
 * 1 group adds phrases to clauses
 * Wrap up notes and post to blog


 * Everyone demonstrated a strong grasp of predicates, subjects, phrases and clauses
 * Mini quiz and performance task tomorrow to wrap up

**<span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">August 30, 2010 (Monday) **
 * Back to school, back to school...
 * Sharing - somewhere interesting you went or something interesting you did
 * 1 hope/wish for this year
 * Course Outline
 * Discuss Year Plan
 * Questions and concerns?
 * Learner Profiles
 * Survey
 * Place results on wiki