.Welcome to Grade 11 College English Mrs. D. Wittmann
This course emphasizes the development of literacy, communication, and critical and creative thinking skills necessary for success in academic and daily life. Students will study the content, form, and style of a variety of informational and graphic texts, as well as literary texts from Canada and other countries, and create oral, written, and media texts in a variety of forms for practical and academic purposes. An important focus will be on using language with precision and clarity. The course is intended to prepare students for the compulsory Grade 12 college preparation course.
UNITS OF STUDY: ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION Unit One: Fiction Focus on story elements and literary devices , sentences, speaker, situation, shifts, syntax, GIST 3 Reading Tests and APA Report Unit Two: Nonfiction Focus on narrative nonfiction, the rhetorical triangle, text, tone, audience, purpose, perspective, style, C,R.A.A.P. Test Unit Test and Annotated Bibliography Unit Three: The Documentary Film (Media) Focus on the role of the documentary film , speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, tone, bias Unit Test and Persuasive Essay (MLA format) Culminating Activity: ISU % Final Exam: 15%
7 Strategies for Success Get to know yourself as a thinker and learner. When and where are you most productive? What tends to distract you? Knowing your intellectual proclivities and habits helps you to apportion your time more effectively and to be more productive overall. Set a personal goal for each course. Instead of focusing solely on the grade, consider how each course deepens your expertise in a field of interest or contributes to your overall intellectual development. In other words, motivate yourself in terms of mastering skills and concepts as opposed to getting a good grade or avoiding a bad one. Manage your time and your attention. People who devise detailed, goal-directed schedules are more productive and less stressed. Once you’ve scheduled your calendar, focus and stick to it by setting external stakes (meeting with teachers, a reading group) and rewards (dinner with friends, TV, etc.). During a study session, be in the moment: turn off distractions (cell phones, e-mail) and dedicate yourself to a single task. Divide or continuously switch your attention and you do several things poorly instead of one thing well. Think like a teacher. Instructors have reasons for why they craft their courses as they do. As you move through your courses, spend some time considering these reasons. Ask yourself, for example, why you’re reading this text and this point in the semester or what this writing assignment is designed to help you to do. Review your notes as soon as possible after class. Students forget 50% of what they learn if they don’t review within 24 hours and 65% if they don’t review within a week. Even a brief review pays off. Do a little work on an assignment the day it’s given, preferably mapping out a plan or outline for its completion. Starting a project often proves the hardest part; starting early gets you over this high hurdle with plenty of time to develop your work. Explain a difficult idea, concept, problem, or passage to a friend. Research shows that one of the most effective ways to learn is to teach. If you try to explain what you’ve been studying to another, you’ll transfer the information from short- to long-term memory, and you’ll more clearly see what you understand and what you don’t.
3-ring binder, paper, pens / pencils, pencil crayons, dividers, sticky notes, flags, tags, highlighters (assorted colours), flash drive, cue cards (blank front, lined back), big wall calendar Visit your local Dollar Store
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION Students with Assessment Accommodations for extended time limits will receive up to a maximum of double time for tests. It is very important for students to conference with the teacher beforehand to organize this accommodation. NOTE: For assignments and the culminating activity, extended time is included in the due dates. This allows for students who have part-time jobs, participate in extra-curricular activities (ie. sports, plays), and have assessment accommodations. These due dates are to be respected.
A list of the soft skills that today’s employers value most: Communication (oral and written) Creativity Problem-solving Collaboration (interpersonal skills) Adaptability Positivity Managing and controlling your emotions Learning from criticism Working under pressure All careers require soft skills to make the hard skills valuable.
No Shortcuts to Quality Learning Learning what needs to be learned to make it to the next level is not always easy. Much of what needs to be learned beyond the primary grades is challenging. For those of us not talented in particular fields, it can be really difficult. There's little to be gained by sugar-coating this reality. Despite what some may say, not all learning can be made easy and school is not always fun. In the early years, yes, much of what goes on is fun. And there are certainly many opportunities for enjoyment in school and classroom life, especially if one has good teachers. But let's not kid ourselves and others by pretending that learning algebra, calculus and other demanding material is fun. It's hard work. Yet learning difficult material is satisfying in itself.
Mastering the knowledge and skills taught in middle, high school and beyond can be innately rewarding. It builds satisfaction and pride. It yields a sense of accomplishment that is far more rewarding than making progress without trying. Most rewarding of all is that learning is something we ultimately do by ourselves and for ourselves. Others help. Parents and friends are important; good teachers invaluable. Ultimately, though, learning is a personal accomplishment, a private success that makes all the effort worthwhile. When we succeed in learning something challenging, we know we've done well. We know we're ready for the next level. We're better prepared to really succeed in life. And we know we didn't cut any corners (Allison, Derek).
LITERACY RANKING Rank the elements of literacy according to your strengths: (1 being the strongest) __________ Reading __________ Writing __________ Speaking __________ Listening Think about how you can improve your weaker areas.
Do you have the vocabulary to make your thoughts visible on paper? How to Build Your Vocabulary Read. Read. Read. Dictionary and thesaurus. Use a journal. Write more. Learn a word a day. Engage in conversation. Use precise and accurate adjectives, nouns, and verb.
VOCABULARY APPS and WEBSITES "Word of the Day" Word Puzzles Vocabulary.com PowerVocab Magoosh Vocabulary Builder 7 Little Words Word to Word Words with Friends Penny Dell Crosswords Power Thesaurus
No more multi-tasking? Why focus is the key to success Focus is a key element for success in any discipline – be it music, sports, drama, education, or business. Yet we live in the age of distraction. We have e-mail, social media, text messages and YouTube all competing for our attention, not to mention the job we are supposed to be doing. The problem is that distraction and multitasking go against how our brains work. The nerves that make up the brain have very little stored energy. When we think, problem solve or create memories, the brain needs oxygen, glucose and nutrients to work. This "fuel" is provided by blood flow to whatever part of the brain is working on the specific task. But blood flow to the brain is limited and can only be delivered to a few areas at once. If we activate different parts of our brain by trying to multitask, we end up spreading the blood flow around and never giving the brain what it needs to get a single job done properly.
Physiologically, we are not built for multitasking. Our brains work best when we focus on one thing at a time. To improve mental focus, try single-tasking. Single-tasking demands that we pick the most important task to work on first and perform that task as exclusively as possible until it is either complete or we are out of whatever time we have allotted for the job. All you need to do is remember the focus of a hitter getting ready to smack the ball out of the park, and you can achieve that level of laser-like attention control. For example, set aside one hour each day when you have time to completely focus and really drill down into a task that you have to accomplish – writing a report, analyzing some data, preparing a speech, or whatever is the highest priority on your list. During that time, turn off your phone or put it on silent and disconnect from the Internet. Be completely focused on that one task with no distractions.
Desire2Learn (D2L) https://wcdsb.elearningontario.ca USER NAME: Last 5 digits of your Student Identification Number + the first 3 letters of your last name Name: Jane Smith SIN: 327-800-351 00351smi PASSWORD: Birthdate = June 3, 2000 mmddyyyy 07032000 Note - The leading zero (0) is required where necessary Note: D2L has moved to the same username that you use to log into school computers.
The Dropbox DROPBOX Instructions: Please learn 1. CLICK on the assignment title (in the Dropbox) 2. CLICK Add a File 3. CLICK Upload 4. Locate the file 5. CLICK Add 6. CLICK Submit 7. CLICK Done (This last step is very important!)
"If we help kids accept mistakes as a healthy and necessary part of learning then we are doing them a favour" (Hunter, Latham).
The Learning Curve The S-shaped learning curve is most obvious when someone learns a highly complex task. The initial part of the curve rises slowly as a person becomes familiar with basic components of a skill. The steep ascending phase occurs when there is enough experience with rudiments or simple components to start "putting it all together." Rapid progress follows until the skill "hits a ceiling" or stabilizes at a high level.
The Secret to Improving Your Grades Developing a Growth Mindset PowerPoint Link
JOY ACTIVITY J = something that JUST happened O = ONE thing you would like to do for yourself Y = something that makes you YOU Something that just happened is that I JUST ... started teaching my last semester. ONE thing I would like to do for myself is ... learn to relax more. Something that makes me ME is ... the fact that I have 3 sisters and 3 brothers, and I have 5 children. ONCE YOU HAVE FOUND YOUR MATCH, SHARE YOUR JOY