English 11 Homework:  

1. Be ready for your Pi presentation ready to go. 

Please bring all your notes that you developed throughout the unit, so that you can put them in your Portfolios.

Please bring your novel, Life of Pi on Monday. I will be collecting them.

I will be collection Blake's "Tyger" as well.

English 11: Life of Pi: 

We will begin Presentations on June the 11th, and end June 15th. 

Until then you are developing your Dualities in your Groups.

You should all be finished reading Life of Pi and are now working on your Presentation. 

Your Presentation is a well-developed group effort, that has a depth of analysis: it is thoughtful, insightful, original,... leaving us with a sense of the magic, the horror, the beauty, the losses, and ultimately the meaning of Pi's experience. There is a lot of worldly and heavenly aspects to this tale.  

English 11 Homework: For the next few Weeks.

1. Next week you will be writing a thoughtful Discussion and Reflection of your Synthesis Essay.

This will require you to look at your writing and your ability to write and analyze texts. 

2. Write a thoughtful reflection of your Synthesis Essay Assignment, and consider how you can improve your ability to synthesize the texts we use, as you will need to improve for English 12.  Due on May 22.  **Use examples from your Essay and other texts we are using.
Reflection will be word-processed, single spaced, in Times New Roman: 

PLEASE HAVE TWO  SPACES BETWEEN the first PARAGRAPH and the SECOND PARAGRAPH. 

Of course, your conclusion must leave the reader with a clear sense of understanding and completion that makes sense.  

3. **You should be reading Life of Pi,  finishing it by Friday, June 1st.

4. **Dualities:

The next phase is your Dualities Assignment. You are to choose ONE of the "dualities" that is strongly developed in the novel, and establish a Thesis Statement from it, so you are able to discuss it's development and significance in understanding the story.

This will be a Group Presentation where you   share your Dualities with the class. 

We will start our Dualities Presentations on June 4th and end on June 15th.

English 11 Homework for Thursday, the 8th:

*MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOOKING ON THE BLOG EVERY DAY, IN CLASS AND AT HOME.

1. You will finish your "What Will Your Verse Be?" by the end of the day, Thursday. 

2.  HAVE YOUR BINDER DIVIDERS IN CLASS FOR FRIDAY. WE WILL SET UP OUR PORTFOLIOS.

English 11: Wednesday, January 31st to Tuesday, February 6th:

Bring your 8 Binder Dividers by Tuesday so we can organize your Binders, and we will set up your Portfolios.

1. Your Verse: This assignment is a personal reflection of you, now, and your growth as a unique human being on Plant Earth.  

This requires you to examine yourself and learn who you really are - beyond the world of material things and the expectations of our material world order. 

Each one of us is a unique human made of blood and bone, who yearns to live and know one's self and others.  How do you "become" a moral being - a person who examines oneself and the world around them, and has the ability to  examine where our civilization is taking us - who has the ability to change - who has the desire to question and to seek truth?

Our civilization expects us to join the material world and follow it's dictates: it's culture of spending, of throwing away, of neglecting nature, and the poor. 

It wants you - a willing global army of spendthrifts in a material world, always wanting more. This is who you are in this time. 

But who are you really? 

You are a unique human being made of blood and bone, who has more depth in you than our leaders of this shallow culture can imagine.


Who are you, really? Look at the world you inhabit, examine it, and examine yourself as a being in it. How will you live and be in this world as a moral character?

This is the assignment: Dive into yourself to see who you are as a moral character, and where you are going. You must show with examples.

English 12 Homework over the Winter Break:

This work is due on the day we get back to school. This is practice for the Provincial Exams.

1. Synthesis Essay: "The Horses" and   "Vegetable Gardens on Mars." 

You are to read the texts carefully and then write a Synthesis Essay on the following prompt: Would the speaker in "The Horses" by Edwin Muir,  support the technological developments in Denise Deveau's article, "Vegetable Gardens on Mars?"

This essay is an analysis of the two texts, and is NOT in the First Person point of view. The Synthesis Essay must have an Introduction of three to five sentences, three body paragraphs of around 5-8 sentences each, which develops the synthesis,  and a 4-5/6 sentence Conclusion, that concludes the Essay in an logical and appropriate way.

English 12 Homework due Tuesday to Thursday:

1. Oryx and Crake Presentations: These are group presentations of 15 to 20 minutes in length. You are to identify the major Themes of the story, and then apply them to our REAL world.

Atwood has written the end of mankind - a very gloomy one.  

Your job is to grapple with this dark ending - by showing how we are already entering into her imagined world. You will need to reference the novel, frequently, and the world we live in.  

You will need to search online for excellent scientific sites that will help you understand the era we have entered, and the possible outcomes.  

Your presentation will include your understanding of the novel, but, more importantly, what you have learned about the era we are entering in this century. 

Show what you have learned, but also what you see in your future, having looked at excellent scientific sites, and considering the world as it is,... and beyond into our possible future.

Your conclusion should be bring it all together, looking at our times, and into the future.