After many days and much poetic rambling, we are on to Romeo and Juliet, a study of the light and dark of life and love. We have finished reading the play, with the help of No Fear Shakespeare, we viewed Franco Zefirelli's and Baz Luhrmann's versions of the play, we have written a synopsis and a comparison/contrast essay, and now we are on to preparing for the Olde Feaste of Fooles for next Wednesday and Thursday. The students are expected to dress in appropriate costume, bring some sort of food befitting of the time (roast mutton may be hard to come by and a butt of malmsey may be in appropriate) and perform various entertainments for their classmates. Looking forward to it! A merry Christmas to all!

Til next time...

Hello, all! Please do not forget to pick up the work you have missed, sick people. There seem to be quite a few away these days.

We are studying Poetry. There are three parts to the unit: the first is learning the terms and forms of poetry. The second part is more fun. You have to pick a poem and a song with a similar theme and present it to the class. The third part of the Poetry unit is written--either your own original work, or your criticism of famous poems.I have a lot of ideas down on paper, for this, but if you have an idea, please present your proposal to me.

Okay, that Literary cafe today was incroyable! Thanks to all of you for making it such a success. Great food, great books, great readings! Block D rocks!

Tomorrow, Block B will rock! Don't forget to bring your cakes, cookies, etc. and your books and readings...see you tomorrow.

Hello, peeps! We have finished your short stories and your rant essays, so we are on to poetry! Do your hearts beat with anticipation?
We have looked at narrative poetry in both classes--"The Lady of Shalott" (no, she's not an onion grower!) and "The Highwayman"--always a classic! Make sure you have finished your worksheets for Monday, Block B! Block D got away with no homework.

More later.

Patricia Humphries

Short stories unit ending--editing and publishing

Hello, English 10!

Your short stories should be ready for peer editing on Monday. Block D worked extremely well with the netbooks on Friday. I was impressed. Editing was fun, too! We should have those stories ready to hand in/publish by Tuesday or Wednesday. Block B needs a couple of more days, since we have not yet used the netbooks.

Next class, we look at spoonerisms, anagrams, palindromes, puns, and other fun wordplay, before we start our non-fiction unit. We will also have an assessment event (how do you like that for jargon?) on the short story elements and literary devices at the end of this week.

short stories

Well, it looks like we are not blogging as much as we could simply because we do not have computer space in the lab...but we shall one day! Promise!
For now, keep working on your elements of the short story and your own personal narratives. Read some of the best stories ever written.

Look here for the short story elements that make a story better!

September 14th

Hello again, Grade 10's. I think I have most of you on the blog now, so you can start sending me your assignments this way. It would be good to do this every once in awhile, don't you think, to save paper? What do you have to say about that? I know, the technology footprint is great, too, but which is the lesser of the two evils?

For next day (block D) don't forget to bring ideas for writing the profile of your character. Great writing today, by the way!

Your teacher, Ms. H.