Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Missed Notes

This is a message to all 7s and 8s:

If, for any reason, you've missed any notes or lessons, I've really done my best to make sure that you can access them at any time by posting all my slides and handouts to DB (mrc7a@mgps.ca).

Please take this opportunity to revisit the site (if you haven't) and download anything you may have missed.
 

Monday, 28 April 2014

Monologues

Here are some tips, 7A:

Be less than two minutes. Two minutes is more than enough to show your stuff. In fact, the auditors have already made their decision after 30 seconds, maybe even less.  

Have a clear objective. You can't just stand there and talk. You have to be actively talking to someone you've imagined, and you must be trying to get something from them.  

Try to have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. A beginning: A strong first sentence to capture attention. A middle: Lots of juicy content. An end: A strong finish. When your monologue has structure, the auditors are more likely to remember you.

Contain conflict. Drama cannot exist without conflict. Who wants to see a play about everyone getting along? 

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

What's the most important thing in your writing?

We had a rich discussion today with regards to writing and I wanted to take a minute to emphasize a couple of things.

Regardless if you're writing a short story, an essay or even a newspaper article, if you're not communicating, you're not getting your ideas across to your reader.

Your goal as a writer is to follow those rules and conventions that allow you to be able to communicate your ideas to the reader (paragraphs, proper grammar and punctuation...etc).

Communication is key!

Just some food for thought! 

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

VT

Your feedback has been posted on VT. There are a couple of general comments that I'd like to point out: 

  • Make sure that you're supporting your ideas with direct textual evidence
  • Explain any quotes that you use for inferences. Make sure you're connecting them to the trait
  • The more evidence you can find, the stronger your case is. 
I think we've done a good job on this task so far. We've learned enough to identify criteria that would make for a good response. 

Please make sure that you listen to my comments -- if you have any questions or concerns about it, speak to me.