Whew!!  Done the most stressful part of the exam and now it's time to enjoy some poetry and coast through our last week of classes.  This week we will be working through some vocabulary and reviewing our terms (online games and quizzes each day) and then exploring some poetry.  Please feel free to bring in song lyrics or poems that you really enjoy.

Most important for everyone in these final weeks leading up to exams is to try and create a balance in your lives.  Attend classes, eat well, exercise, sleep well and study for short periods of time every day.  Last minute cramming is not a successful studying strategy.  As well, staying up late and not looking after your physical needs can cause problems with brain functioning.

On Monday January 19th, you will rewrite your diagnostic and then go over the answers.  The diagnostic exam is the MOST recently released exam items and will help you to gauge where you are at going into the diploma and allow you to ask any questions you might have.

All late writing assignments should have come in on Monday, January 12th.  I will accept late reading comprehension assignments up until this Friday, January 16th.

We got through most of what we needed to yesterday.  Not much time for the writing.  I will hand out two more sample personal response/ visual response assignments as requested by the class yesterday.  Reminder that you can do these and hand them in if you choose.

Today we will do a quick sentence structure activity and a quick review of All My Sons.

Welcome back!!  I hope that everyone is well rested and ready to get their brains back in gear for the final weeks of grade 12 English.  I will put our week plan below so that you can see our plans for review this week.  I feel confident that we are ready but need to do some polishing with our writing this week.

Monday Day 4 - 2 classes
Mechanics review - spelling- 15  mins - this will be a review on powerpoint...just a good reminder
Socrative - Lit Review for "Identities", "On the Rainy River", All My Sons - 20 mins
Hand out review packages - to be worked on at home and when we have left over time in class
Personal Response to text/ Visual reflection - practice - timed writing - 20 mins to plan a response for the 2013 diploma exam - reminder about the choices for writing and the marking.  Discussion about writing from the heart.  Make the writing real.  Try to avoid discussing things you know little about.  Show empathy and understanding.  Avoid generalizations.  Show shades of grey.  Avoid absolutes.  Choice -write this for homework tonight and I will mark...can replace a previous personal response to text assignment.

Specific details practice - write about...a childhood toy….take out the blue writing cards.  Discuss.

Finally, Reread previous personal responses - learn from your previous mistakes...it’s what makes us better.

Tuesday Day one - 1 class

Mechanics review - sentence structure - 10 mins
Socrative Lit Review - Lit Review for Identities, On the Rainy River, All My Sons continued- 20 mins

Review - Choose three texts.  Go back through and remind students to reread and review all the important details.  Place names and character names and minute details of the text.

Wednesday Day Two - 2 classes


Mechanics review - comma usage - 10 mins
Socrative lit Review - "The Destructors" and Othello

30-1 - Lit Review - preparing and organizing two essays based on previous topics
30-2 - Letter writing with me - go over the assignment and exemplars

Thursday Day Three - 1 class

Mechanics Review - Point of view, sing/plural, tense shifts
Socrative lit Review - The Kite Runner/ Night
Exemplars - paragraphs




Friday Day Four - 2 classes
Diploma practice  - Critical Response - 30-1, Literary Response and letter - 30-2

Monday Day One - 1 class
Mechanics review - editing a paragraph
Socrative lit review - building a bank of your own questions

Look over practice diplomas and learn and prepare.
Go over final preparation needed for tonight

Tuesday - DIPLOMA EXAM be at the school at 8:30.  Exam begins at 9:00 am SHARP