For the past week, the class and I have been working on our layered curriculum that we are using to express how we feel and what we have learned form our novel Of Mice and Men. I have been working on a poster about what Lennie is always thinking about. I have been making several images to correspond with Lennie's thoughts and ideas. The images represent some things he has encountered, things that George has told him not to forget and there are even a few images based on what he wants in the future. I have also been working on an essay that will help explain the animals and the relations that they have with our characters in the novel. It is a hard essay due to the fact that I need to find a quote from the book to give the twenty facts some substructure. Today in class we went through the proper structure of an essay and what we will be marked on. We will be finished working on our layered curriculum on Tuesday, March 18th 2014.

by Marissa Waatainen

Our next Blogger will be...Cameron Kidd

Reflection

March 11

The novel "Of Mice and Men" in my opinion was an extraodinary novel that was extremely well written especially when it came to the descriptions! John Steinbeck turned the most simpliest things into  something beyond recognition in my daily life. How he described the hills, this changed my thoughts on how I looked at the hills and mountains in B.C . The novel itself gave me new ideas on how to describe more descriptively in the stories I write also on how to add more of a backbone to my stories rather then starting strong and slowly fading away from the story. Also to include the fact that John Steinbeck experienced most of the things he wrote about for example; Lennie was handicapped and Goerge put up with him even though Lennie made his life much more complicated. John himself worked with a handicapped person and yet put up with his handicapped co-worker so in result to me atleast it added more of a "oomph" to reading the story the fact that he experienced it just made me want to read the novel more! Overall the book itself is really really good even though literature novels aren't my thing.

Refection of Aaron McLachlan

Next Blogger is...Marissa

I chose to do a drawing of Lennie because I decided to show my artistic ability by not tracing the picture of Lennie but copying the same idea as the picture I printed. I decided to also sketch the picture because Ive never sketched a picture in my life and decided to try something new. My other reason why I decided to draw Lennie over every other character in the book is because Lennie, in  my opinion is one of the most concentrated character in the book despite the fact that George is just as or slightly less important. Finally, the last reason why I decided to draw Lennie is because I felt it was easy marks considering I have a strong passion for drawing.

by Diego Carvalho

Our next blogger will be ...Aaron

Last week we finished reading the novel Of Mice and Men, I thought John Steinbeck used really descriptive words which helped make his vision clear of what the town and the people looked like. He put volumes of details in to the appereances and the personality traits of the characters so when we watched the movie the characters were like what Jonh Steinbeck had described of them in the novel. An example of a descriptive scene is when he describes the Salinas River that George and Lennie arrive at on their way to the ranch. In this scene Jonh uses loads of imagery, he uses visual, audio, flavour, scent and kinesthetic

The Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gablian mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees --- willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs amoung them.

by Kaitlyn Clowes

next scribe is Diego

Hello today is Thursday Febuary 27.Today Kyle is doing the blog.
Lennie killed his puppie because the pup ws going to bit him so he smacked it,And Curlys wife confused that she never liked Curley she was going to be in the movies but then she met Curley, Lennie broke Curleys wifes neck and he killed her,now Lennie is going to the special place in the bushes. Their dream of them getting out of there and getting there own place is now off because Lennie killed the wife and Candy is now sad. The whole gang of men left to go fined and kill Lennie and left Candy to watch Curleys wife. Lennie is now houlosanting and he is seeing aunt Claria and rabbits,George found Lennie and George took the lugger and took the gun brought it to the back of Lennies head and shout him.I jotted down the stuff tat I thought was imporant. Kaitlyn will be the next blogger.

Today in class we made two ranking lists of all the characters in the book; the order of how society would see them and the order of their respect.
We continued reading a new chapter - Page 66.
Some predictions we had at the beginning was that Crooks would get fired before he got payed and Crooks knows something that not everyone knows and he would tell someone.
In this chapter we learned that Crooks likes to mess with peoples heads & he is someone that likes to take advantage of Lennie.
Lennie is lonely - Page 72
Crooks, Lennie & Candy talked about living "off the fatta the lan".
Candy "spills the beans" - Page 79
"You say anything and ill have you on a tree before you know it" - Page 82

Kyle will be scribe on Thursday Feb 27

Today we learned and saw a cupi doll and discussed what it was used for. Then we reflected on what we have already read. We started to read and we realized that goerge and lennie's dream is very realistic now that candy can help pay for it. Some predictions we have are that someone will die. Another one will be candy will buy the land for him self. Other ones are curly will tell everybody the truth and he will loose his hand. We will see if there is foreshadowing in the next part of the novel. The next time Brianna will be the scribe.

Success Friday,

We started class with a discussion that explored what Success is for Goerge and Lennie.  We thought Goerge would see success as owning his own ranch with Lennie.  We talked about how nice Goerge is to Lennie, including him in his success story, because Lennie can cause so much trouble.

Then we read from page 38 - 46.  In this section we hear George and Slim talking about Lennie and how he can be trouble at times, but how he is such a nice guy.  This conversation is Indirect Characterization of Lennnie.

We also read about an idea of success.  George's idea of success would be to own the land and we also hear about a guy who writes a note to the editor and this is a success because it was published in a magazine.

Next in the class we watched the curling team.  Canada vs Great Britian.  Go Canada Go!

Hudson will scribe on Monday

Class Recap - Febuary 14th, 2014

Febuary 14th, 2014

Today in class we read Of Mice and Men. We started on page 24 and read to page 39. Noteable pages were page 35 because of the quote "Mabey ever'body in the whole damm world is scared of each other"-Slim. Charecters we met were Curley, the boss' son, (Candy was called Curley in previous classes) on page 25, we learned of Curley's wife on page 28 and met her on page 31, we met Slim on page 33, and Carlson on page 35. In disscusion, we talked about George and Lennie's dream, made a predction that Curley is going to pick a fight with Lennie.

Some things about Curley - He's boss' son, he were's a glove on his left hand, he's a scrapy fighter, he doesn't like Lennie, he always puts himself in win-win situatons, and he's married.

Some things about Curleys wife - She flirts withs other men, specificly Slim, she has red haired, and George many derogatory terms used towards her.

 Some things about Slim - He's the "prince of the ranch", he's kind, he's understanding, he has remarkable skills, and he has 1 adult dog and 5 puppys.

Some things about Carlson  - He's big and powerful, and he's kind.

-Davin H.

Matthew will be the blogger tomorrow.

Getting Organized!

Today was a great class!

Thank you to everyone, especailly for your patience in figuring out how add you all to the blog.

Monday, Simon will be our blogger.

We will start class with 30 minutes Silent Reading - remember to bring a book!

We will share our fun fact about John Steinbeck.

We will start our daily post by you!

Starting Of Mice and Men

Morning Class,

Reminder that Julian is the Blogger of the day!
Julian, at the end of class, you pick the next person to blog on Thursday. Make sure you ask nicely and then put their name at the end of your blog. (Julian, on the right side of the blog there is a tab called labes.  Please put : Julian, Questions, Of Mice and Men - in this section. Then press done


Halfway through my day, I realized that I have an inserice Wednesday and Thursday! :(
I am so sad not to be with you for the next two days.

Wednesday -

Start with 30 minutes of silent reading.

Then spend 15 minutes working in groups to find 5-10 more definitions in your literary term pages.
record them all on your own sheet.  Then share with another group.


For Wednesday and Thursday, I want you to start preparing to read Of Mice and Men!

Work in groups of 4 or 5. Make one person the recorder.  The others should be researchs, looking up facts on a computer, smart phone or an other kind of devise. (Julian's group can use my laptop and one group can use my desk computer)

When I return on Friday, I challenge you to answer the following questions:

1. Who is John Steinbeck?    See if you can find the most interesting facts!
2. What did John Steinbeck write?  How many novels did he write? Name them!
3. When (what era) did John Steinbeck write his books?  Try to find when books were published
4. What awards did John Steinbeck win?  Was this an honour for him?

As a group, organize all the facts you have collected.  

How are you going to organize them?  How are you going to display your findings so that the information is neat and easy to read/understand.

Think about layout! 

Chart form? Bulletins? chart paper?  Powerpoint?

When I return, you will share this info with me and you want it to be clear and developed.

You will present this information as a group to me on Friday!

Julian is our blogger for Wednesday!

Routines

Monday - Check In - Silent Readng

Tuesday - Journal Writing

Wednesday - Silent Reading

Thursday - Journal Writing

Friday - Success Discussion

As you have demonstrated throughout term one, the above is our routine.

To this we will add a blog rountine.

Choices

How are we going to choose the blogger?

we could make a schedule, or we could let each scribe choose the person who will scribe the next day!

Welcome to our Blog

Year Long Course: Grade Nine

Period One: EN10F/X - Grade Nine English 

This course is a year long course.  Students will demonstrate understandings of Main Ideas, Audience, Purpose, Form, and Context.

Our Weekly schedule (first 20 minutes of class)

Monday - Check In - Silent Readng

Tuesday - Journal Writing

Wednesday - Silent Reading

Thursday - Journal Writing

Friday - Success Discussion

The Units:

Restitution - all about you

Short Stories

Novel Study (Layered Curriculum)

Exam prep

Novel Studey - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Poetry

Shakespear - A Mid Summer Night's Dream

Exam Prep

June 9-13 Grade Nine Exam (in class time)

headings

syllabus

info for parents

link to powerschool (sidebar)

link to Grade nine blog (on sidebar of home page)