Red Space Rocket

The Mark of a Master (Photo credit: Robert Burdock)

Now that we’ve met and understand where we are going, it’s time to get into the course itself and our learning.

Our first objecting is our Reading and Responding outcomes, and we’ll be looking at these essay topics about Maestro to identify the major themes and issues in this text. These questions have been harvested from previous exams and study resources.

Our red-book writing topics will focus on these issues and themes, and help you write clearly about this ideas. This week, they will be

• It makes a difference where you are
• When we change our place, we change our lives

I read and give you feedback about each red-book piece. You will identify personal learning goals from this feedback and focus on that until you have mastered it. I will, of course, help.

We will also be reading the novel Maestro in class. For this of you who have read this book already – and I hope that is most of the class – this is an opportunity for you to identify incidents and quotations that relate to our major themes, the themes we identify by looking at the essay topics.

(Photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³)”]Our class this Monday will be our first together, and we’ll go through the fairly basic stuff about what is in this course, and what we should expect from each other this year.

Our first objecting is our Reading and Responding outcomes, and we’ll be looking at these essay topics about Maestro to identify the major themes and issues in this text. These questions have been harvested from previous exams and study resources.

Our red-book writing topics will focus on these issues and themes, and help you write clearly about this ideas. This week, they will be

• It makes a difference where you are
• When we change our place, we change our lives

I read and give you feedback about each red-book piece. You will identify personal learning goals from this feedback and focus on that until you have mastered it. I will, of course, help.

We will also be reading the novel Maestro in class. For this of you who have read this book already – and I hope that is most of the class – this is an opportunity for you to identify incidents and quotations that relate to our major themes, the themes we identify by looking at the essay topics.

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I have two Year 10 English classes. If you are wondering which one you are in, this class here – English D – is the one that works in Q12, although we started of in that very bright, airless room, Q11.

This week, we have a number of learning goals in common

• Use paragraphs effectively
• Expand vocabulary
• Use stories to persuade
• Control the four sentence types

On Tuesday, you will choose a learning goals for yourself, from the issues I will have marked in your red book. These goals on the issues in the first piece, which you will write on Monday. Once you’ve mastered each new skill, you will choose another one or two.

On Monday and Tuesday, we will complete a vocabulary builder exercise. As I am getting you to choose the words, I will post the sentences here as we create them.

We will also be doing our red-book writing on Monday and Tuesday. Both pieces will be designed to persuade and we’ll be concentrating on using paragraphs to enhance meaning. I post more about the paragraphs when we get there.

So, here are the two red-book topics.

• Students should be able to pick their teachers
• The Wrong Combination

We will also learning to identify and create the four sentence types. We’ll start with the simple sentence, and move onto the complex sentence.

The simple, valid sentence
The complex sentence

You will create a short story that uses only simple and complex sentences, alternating. This sounds like a very formal exercise, but it is a good way to become mindful of how we use particular sentence types.

Thursday (Photo credit: bob8son)

I have two Year 10 English classes. If you are wondering which one you are in, this class here – English G – is the one that works in Q02.

This week, we have a number of learning goals in common

• Use paragraphs effectively
• Expand vocabulary
• Use stories to persuade
• Control the four sentence types

In addition, you will choose a learning goals for yourself, from the issues I have marked in your red book. These goals are based on your first piece. Once you’ve mastered each new skills, you will choose another one or two.

On Monday and Thursday, we will complete a vocabulary builder exercise. As I am getting you to choose the words, I will post the sentences here as we create them.

We will also be doing our red-book writing on Monday and Thursday. Both pieces will be stories designed to persuade and we’ll be concentrating on using paragraphs to enhance meaning. I post more about the paragraphs when we get there.

So, here are the two red-book topics.

• When Choice Goes Wrong
• The Wrong Combination

We will also learning to identify and create the four sentence types. We’ll start with the simple sentence, and move onto the complex sentence.

The simple, valid sentence
The complex sentence

You will create a short story that uses only simple and complex sentences, alternating. This sounds like a very formal exercise, but it is a good way to become mindful of how we use particular sentence types.

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Goals
Write persuasively
Expand vocabulary

Vocabulary Builder Sentence

The courtesan was liable for the degraded customer

You guys came up with the underlined words, so we did end up with a slightly odd sentence. Your completed sentences, with new words in place of these underlined words, were accurate but sometimes a bit clunky. We’ll work on flow and these will improve.

Persuasive Writing

Then, you wrote for 12 minutes in response to a topic: Students should be allowed to choose their teachers.

Most of you included some really sensible idea and examples. I have identified some areas that each of you can improve on, and we’ll get to that work next week.

Until then, have a good weekend.

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Students in Morphing English and Grammar and Writing, you can finally collect your red books and see how you went in the exams. Just ask at the general office at Quamby and the book is yours to keep.

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I wanted to set a quick shout-out to everyone who made the Year 10 Formal such a terrific night. I’d especially like to mention the work of the formal committee and Ms Galloway, who did heaps of the behind-the-scene stuff that made the night happen. Liz, too, deserves recognition for the wonderful work that she did as our official photographer. It was great to see so many students, and staff, posing and clowning around for the camera. And thanks to everyone who attended for making it such an enjoyable night.

For those of you who went to the formal, you will be able to see the photos from Thursday on the W drive on my OMEAM folder.

I wanted to send out a quick hello, and goodbye, to those of you that I have taught recently.

Some of you have my name on your timetable for the transition program next week, but I won’t be there. Instead, I have been asked to move across to our Vines Road campus to help out there as the campus-executive. This might be for only a week, or it might be for the rest of the year. It depends on what is needed.

Either way, I will still be around the place generally, probably rattling around on my $70 push-bike, and I’ll see you characters then.

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Well, Year 11s, here we are at the end of our time together. I hope that you’ve enjoyed the journey. I am confident that most of you have come a long way with your skills this year, and it has been an absolute please for me to work with you characters, and most of you are real characters.

I’ll have your exams marked by Wednesday, so you can see me on Thursday or Friday if you want to know about your marks.

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Well, Year 10s, here we are in the final week of this unit.

On Tuesday, you’ll have another 100 minutes to keep writing you story in the new, red book.

On Thursday, we won’t have class because of the Year 10 exams. And on Friday, we’ll have our exam for this subject.

In the 100 minutes of the exam, you will write more of your story, paying particular attention to making it the best writing that you can imagine. This means that all of the spelling, punctuation, and grammar will be correct. It also means using interesting words and making your story and characters interesting.

It’s quite a challenge, but I am confident that you characters are up to it, particularly you, Ben. The start of your story sounds really good.

“]You are in luck, Year 10s. This week you have all 250 minutes of Morphing English early in the week, and the exams for the 100 minutes between lunch and recess on Friday.

On Monday, we’ll finish reading Minority Report.

On Tuesday, in the single session, you can do some Esperanto revision in preparation for the exam.

On Wednesday, we’ll do some revision about Adjustment Bureau, also in preparation for the exam.

And on Friday, of course, you’ll have 100 minutes to complete the exam for this subject. Look, I just started a sentence with “and”. And, the world did not stop spinning.

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There will be three parts to the exam for Morphing English.

1. Esperanto translation. I give you an short text in Esperanto and enough vocabulary for you to accurately translate this text into Standard English.

2. Short-answer questions about the film The Adjustment Bureau

3. Short-answer questions about how words come into English.

4. Correctly punctuate five “broken” sentences.

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We are nearly at the end of our time together, Year 10s and, yes Jack, there has been a lot of writing. But wait, there’s more.

This week, you will have most of the 250 that we spend together to work on your extended story in your new, red book.

You have some planning, but when I see you we’ll workshop how to divide our story into a beginning, middle, and end.

In simple term, the beginning is where we introduce the characters and place. At the start of the middle section, we introduce a problem that the character has to overcome. Solving this problem is at the very heart of your story. All those archetypal stories that we talked about have problems that drive the story. These problems often look very different to one another, but they are all a situation that the main character(s) has to react to. In the final act, the end, your characters solve this problem.

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It’s going to a very varied week this week, Year 10s.

On Monday, I will be away being a student myself, so you will have another teacher. He or she will bring a collection of news articles about language change (there are more of these than you would imagine). Each article has about five questions that go with it. In the 100 minutes on Monday, I expect that each of you will complete two articles and their associated questions.

On Tuesday, I will be very much back at school, and we will continue to read Minority Report.

On Wednesday, we will finished off those presentation about words and where they come from. If we have time at the end of Wednesday’s session, then we’ll start our revision for the exam next week.