Identify & Sort

1. First, identify five main elements of your novel. Use your note "Elements of the Short Story" as a reference. (NOTE: Because this hand out is talking about good fiction - we can transfer our understanding from short fiction to longer pieces.)

2. Then, sort these elements according to importance for your engagement in your reading. Put the most important element at the beginning of your sorting list.

3. Once you have identified the most important element for your enjoyment, describe how this element has been used (or is lacking) in your novel. 

4. Use a direct quotation from a section of your book as evidence. Be sure to include a properly formatted MLA style citation following your direct quotation. Do not leave the quotation standing on its own - make sure that you explain its significance to the element you have selected as your top engagement feature.

MLA STYLE CITATION: (Author, Title page)

a sample student entry of the third and fourth activity for this week is below:

Riggs, Ransom. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2011. Print. 

Imagery

This element is used quite often in my book. In my previous post, I had a quote where I think Imagery was used best to describe a hollow which is a flesh-eating soulless creature. I think Imagery is the most important because it projects an vivid impression of what is being described. It helps the reader to really imagine themselves in the scene with the characters.

"A vast, lunar bog stretched away into the mist from either side of the path, just brown grass and tea-colored water as fat as I could see, featureless but for the occasional mount of piled-up stones. It ended abruptly at a forest of skeletal trees, branches spindling up like the tips of wet paintbrushes, and for a while the path became so lost beneath fallen trunks and carpets of ivy that navigating it was a matter of faith." (Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children  78)

Even if I didn't want to imagine this bog, I couldn't help it after reading this excerpt. This is one of the less gag-inducing parts that I could have chosen. But it's true, sometimes you are happy to imagine a place of beauty and peace. But you might be forced to imagine a dreary bog, or a spine tingling creature. That's the best part about imagery, it's like real life because you can't choose what you want to see or however long that image lasts in your mind.

Begin Discussing your Novel

2.  Today you will begin blogging about your independent reading.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Adhere to the qualities of good writing at all times, and attempt to write level four answers (as indicated on the performance chart we used to assess "Bread" by M. Atwood questions).

If you wish to achieve a level four on this assessment, you must include the following details in EACH blog post.

1. Proper identification of the novel you are writing about (you can do this through an image; at the very least provide the title and author; an MLA style citation is preferred). Remember that book titles are to be written in italics.

2. Proper use of language conventions (punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure).

3. Organized responses (topic sentence, body, closing sentence).

4. Use of the text as support for your ideas (direct quotations with proper MLA style citations are preferred over summaries).

5. Short responses (between 60-100 wds).

One of the skills you will need to use this year is correctly formatting citations using the format described by the MLA guide. Go to the page titles MLA Help!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR POST:

1. In the first part of your blog post, identify three qualities you expect from a 'good book'.

2. Describe whether the book(s) you have read so far has/have contained those three qualities you listed in the first part of your blog post.

3. Use the proper MLA style to identify the book(s) you described in 2.  (You are welcome to include more than one book here) but be sure to alphabetize by author.

Here is an example of MLA format for the book Catching Fire.  Notice, the second line is indented NOT the first!

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic
          Press. 2009. Print.

1.  Your Introduction as a Reader

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In the first part of your blog post, identify three qualities you expect from a 'good book'.

2. Describe whether the book(s) you have read so far has/have contained those three qualities you listed in the first part of your blog post.

3. Use the proper MLA style you reviewed in the exercise above to identify the book(s) you described in 2. (You are encouraged to include more than one book here) but be sure to alphabetize by author.

Here is an example of MLA format for the book Catching Fire.  Notice, the second line is indented NOT the first!

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic 

     Press. 2009. Print.

CREATING YOUR BLOG

Welcome ENG 2Da students to my class blog

In my class blog, I will instruct you on what to post on your independent reading blog.  I will give you instructions on blogging, ideas and suggestions as guidance, and support for your Final Summative.  

Your Final Summative will be worth 15% of your mark.  More instructions will follow about this assignment.

Each week, I will update my blog with instructions for you to complete a post on your blog.  One half period per week will be devoted to class time blogging.

Now...time to create your own blog!

CREATING YOUR BLOG

Read through the BLOGGING TIPS before you create your own blog.

Once you are done reading the rules of blogging, follow the instructions in the video below to create your own blog using blogger.

Once you are done creating your blog, come and tell me (or e-mail me) your blog address so that I may create a link to your blog on the class blog. NOTE: You may also use the blog you created last year in grade 9. Either way, come and let me know what your blog address is so I can link it to the class blog.