English-Exam Prep

Here is a great link to help you prepare for your exams. Be sure to cover your term in both short stories and poetry.

http://www.bestlibrary.org/murrayslit/

English-Exam Prep

Following is an example of a writing prompt for your final exam. I have included more writing prompts from previous exams to give you an idea of what to expect. Write between 300-500 words. Be sure to plan and organize your thoughts before you begin.

Original Composition

Suggested Time: 50 minutes

Criteria

Make sure your writing: ✔

• addresses the topic and accomplishes the purpose ❑

• is engaging for the audience ❑

• is clear and well organized ❑

• includes fully developed ideas ❑

• uses correct spelling, punctuation, grammar and paragraph structure ❑

Topic:

“ Friends can be helpful in moving forward in your life.”

• • • USE A PEN WITH BLUE OR BLACK INK. • • •

More writing prompts:

Our toughest struggles in life can be with ourselves

Journeys can have a great impact on our lives.

Our experiences shape who we are.

People and events can sometimes surprise us.

How do family, friends, and community help us overcome challenges and achieve our goals. 

People often express ideas through the arts.

Our dreams give meaning to our lives.

English-Journal Question

How does one survive a Zombie apocalypse?



Criteria: be creative, be descriptive, and be persuasive. Can be point form, but I need to see the details. At least one full page. Due by the end of class.


6 marks

English-Terms Test

Our class will be having a terms test next Monday. I have added the last of the terms here. Please review and prepare yourself. The test will be 16 matching questions. The test will be based on flashcards and short story terms.

Dilemma: A choice where neither option is good for the person making the decision.

Key Traits:  The main features of a character's personality.

Explicit:  A theme that is directly stated in the text

Implicit:  A theme that is suggested or implied by characters, events, or other aspects of the novel

English-Introduction to Poetry

Like music, poetry can be a window to the mind and it's a wonderful form of expression.

Poems can convey feeling, emotions and ideas.

When it comes to poetry, there are three essential ingredients that contribute to the meaning and message behind a poem. They are form, devices and theme.  As an example, we will look at the ancient Japanese poetic form called haiku as it relates to these three concepts.

Form:  This refers to the actual way the poem is put together, such as the number of stanzas, the type of rhyme scheme, and the type of poem. Just like the body has a skeleton to hold its shape, poems have a structure that holds their ideas together. In poetry, that "skeleton" is called form. There are many different types or forms of poetry such as Haiku, Couplet, Quatrain, Limerick, and Free Verse. Poem’s form may be very restricted and limited or very free without many restrictions. Rules for form might include number of words, indention, capitalization, number of syllables, placement of rhymed words, and number and/or placement of lines.

• With a haiku, the poem is usually three lines long, has been broken up so that there are 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the next and back to 5 syllables in the last line. There is usually no rhyming, so the scheme would be ABC, and the type of poem is descriptive.

Poetic Devices: There are numerous devices employed within poetry, essentially it is language being used in a particular way to convey a certain feeling or meaning. Poetic devices are tools that an author uses to help the reader visualize what is happening in a story or poem. Devices include imagery, alliteration, metaphor, onomatopoeia and simile.

• With haikus, imagery is the main poetic device.

Theme: Theme is just that, it is the general idea or thought being conveyed through the poem.  The theme is the point a writer is trying to make about a subject. Learning about theme helps you decide what is important. The theme of the poem tells what the whole poem is about. All the words, descriptions, figurative language, detail sentences, and scenes are all small parts that add to the reader's understanding of what you feel about the theme.

• With haikus, the general theme has to do with a moment in nature.

English-Poetry Terms

Before I post my introduction to poetry, I will add list of terms to review. Please add these to your flashcards and read them everyday leading up to the final exam.

Alliteration: The repetition of identical consonant sounds at the beginning of closely associated words.

                        Ex. He clasps the crag with crooked hands

Allusion:  A brief reference to a person, event, or place (real or fictitious) or to a work of art or literature found outside the poem.  Allusions are most typically a casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure.

                        Ex. Cupid in Romeo and Juliet

Ballad:  a story or poem told in song, usually by an impersonal narrator.  Ballads are commonly written using a ballad rhyme scheme (abab).

Blank Verse:  poetry written in unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line)

Connotation:  the figurative meaning of a word.  It includes all of the overtones associated with a word such as emotions, memories, ideas, and imaginative responses.

Denotation:  the literal or dictionary definition of a word.

Diction:  diction is the vocabulary/words chosen by the poet.  It can reflect the attitude of the speaker, and can directly influence the atmosphere and mood of a poem.

Figurative Language:  the symbolic meanings of words.  Similar to connotation. 

                        Ex. Metaphors and similes

Free Verse:  poetry with neither rhyme nor rhythm.  No set pattern.

Hyperbole: Deliberate overstatement or exaggeration to achieve emphasis. 

                        Ex. I told you a million times to shut the door.

Imagery: The use of concrete details and figures of speech that appeal to the reader’s senses.  We can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, or feel the ideas through the images created by the poet.  Often images allude to more than the surface idea, and create meaning through metaphors.

Lyric:  a lyric is a song-like poem written mainly to express the feelings of emotions or thought from a particular person.

Onomatopoeia:  when the spelling of a word mirrors the sound that it makes in reality. 

                        Ex.  Boom!  Plop!  Buzz!

Paradox:  a group of words that might at first appear to be a contradiction but in reality may be true.  Similar to oxymoron but it is less obvious and takes much more thought to identify.  It is more of a contradiction of ideas, not just words.   

Personification:  a figure of speech that gives human characteristics to non-human things or abstractions.

                        Ex.  The wind whistled through the trees

                               Curiosity tempted him to look into the box.

Rhyme scheme:  The pattern established by the arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or poem, generally described by using letters of the alphabet to denote the recurrence of rhyming lines.

                        Ex.  abad cdcd

Simile:  comparing two unlike things using like or as.

                        Ex.  The raindrops sparkled like diamonds on the window pane.

Stanza:  a poetic paragraph.  It is a grouping of lines for effect in a poem.

Sonnet: a 14 line iambic pentameter poem that usually has two contradicting viewpoints presented in the poem with a final conclusion.  There are two forms:

Petrarchan Sonnet:  contains an octet (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines).  The rhyme scheme is usually abba abba cde cde OR abba abba cdcdcd.  The octave usually presents a question or states a problem and the sestet provides the solution.

Shakespearean Sonnet: has three quatrains (4 lines) and a rhyming couplet (2 lines).  The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.  There is often a clear division between the first two quatrains and the last two with the rhyming couplet at the end providing a summary or conclusion. 

English-Short Stories

Watch Amy Purdy's Ted Talk titled, Living Beyond Limits and answer two of the following questions:

1. If life were a book, and you were the author, how would you want the story to go?
2. If you could write a new chapter in your life, where would you start?
3. Amy comments, "in our mind, we can do anything if we face our fears face on." What are some of your fears and how are they holding you back?
4. How, if at all, has Amy's story changed the way you feel about facing challenges.

Each answer should rephrase the question in the form of a topic sentence and should be two to three paragraphs in length. Be sure to organize you thoughts before you write. Highlight your topic sentence and use at least two examples from the TED Talk to help support your writing. Each response is worth 6 marks.


Click on the link below to view the TED Talk

Amy Purdy