English 11

You will have a vocabulary quiz on Thursday. Your words are: flamboyant, zeal, fluke, bewitched, acrid, amass, arsenal, hygienic, fetid, soothe, blatant, sacrilegious, acne, blasé, unequivocal, and hysterical. Start reviewing the terms on the yellow short story sheets, too please.

English 11

Today we read half of the short story, "The Metaphor". We will continue reading it on Monday. Please complete the next two sentence combining exercises, "Hamburger" and "Table". Have a great weekend!

English 11

Remember the vocabulary quiz tomorrow. Also, please have your paragraph ready to share with others. Students will peer edit their paragraphs, and then have a short amount of time to make corrections before handing in their work.

The assignment asks you to take a stand. State whether you think the main character in "The Inheritor" is a hero or a fool. You may use your own words, but do structure your paragraph as follows:

1. Introduce the title, author and genre of piece of work you are discussing. Also state your argument (The main character in Frank Robert's short story, "The Inheritor" is a hero/fool when he successfully saves a ewe from a dingo.)

2. State what your opponents might argue (Some people might think he is a fool/hero because...)

3. Counter your opponents' arguments with your own (However, this man is incredibly heroic/foolish because...)

4. Use at least one quote from the story, but make sure that quote is not your final sentence. (Never give anyone else the last word when you are making an argument!)

English 11

Study your vocabulary words for the quiz on Friday. Also, remember that we will have a little quiz on capitalisation tomorrow. Please answer the question found at the end of today's capitalisation worksheet, "Why do you think Frank Roberts wants to highlight the third teaching of the Beatitudes?"

Finally, please complete the sentence combining exercise entitled, "Coffee".

English 11

Your vocabulary words for the quiz on Friday are: desolation (n) , refuge (n), vernacular (n), divert (v), vicious (adj), indomitable (adj), disengage (v), debris (n), menace (n), gradual (adj), writhed (v), blundered (v), gaunt (adj), demented (adj), gnarled (adj), and nudged (v).

For my vocabulary quizzes, there will be a fill in the blank section as well as a section where students must write a few sentences, each containing a vocabulary word.

English 11

Sorry for the late post.  Your only homework is to do the vocabulary words assigned in class today.  Those who missed class today will be able to catch up in class tomorrow.

English 11

Please complete the questions on the short story that we read today in class. Do not worry if you find questions #6 & #7 difficult, just try your best. Have a restful weekend.

English 11

Hello and welcome to class! I'm looking forward to sharing my love of English and getting to know all of you in the coming weeks.

Tonight, please finish the green student survey sheet.

English 11/12

Hello everyone,
Please ensure that your group has submitted a copy of the poem you will be presenting so that I may make a photocopy package for the class on Monday morning.  So far I have copies of poems from Maryam's group, Aresteh's group, Shadan's group, Echo's group, Sham's group, and Casey and Stephanie. 
Thanks and have a great weekend!

English 11/12

Tomorrow, your synthesis papers are due.  Also, the poetry "quest" is scheduled for tomorrow.  Review your yellow short story sheets and poetry terms for the final on Thursday.

English 11/12

Begin reviewing literary and poetic terms for the final on Thursday. The synthesis composition on Water for Elephants and "Prelude to Jumping in the River" is due on Wednesday. Our last lit circle is Tuesday. Have a happy long weekend!

English 11/12

Tomorrow will be the synthesis composition.  You may bring some notes to class, but not a full rough copy.  English to English paper dictionaries are acceptable.  You will have from 9:00 to 10:30 to write the essay.  After break, we will discuss "The Pigeon, Icarus" and the weekend writing assignment on the novel.

English 11/12

Here is the general idea of how the last few days of the term will unfold...
Wednesday - poetry and some time to plan your synthesis composition
Thursday - synthesis composition and poetry
Long weekend - writing assignment on Water for Elephants
Tuesday - last literature circle, writing assignment due, vocabulary make up quiz after class (I will not go over these words during class time; so if you have questions about them, ask me before Tuesday.)
Your words are 
somber, enmity, interminable, hiatus, ebullience, dilate, myriad, torrid, susurration, oppressive, inscrutable, vicissitudes, tacit, tirade, taboo, and  sinewy
Wednesday - poetry "quest", review for final exam
Thursday - Provincial Exam and final exam
Friday - final exam for those who wrote the Provincial Exam, others will work on a poetry presentation
Monday - poetry presentations
Tuesday - last day of classes

For those of you who need a copy of tonight's poetry assignment, here it is.  Only the multiple choice questions have been assigned.

Summer in the Yakima Valley
by Ruth Roach Pierson

By day I loved
the farmhouse on the hill
the dust haze the pickup raised
plying the dirt roads
the orchard trees in even 5
rows down the slopes
and out in all directions
the sigh of apricots
Santa Rosa plums, Bing
and Queen Anne cherries 10
ripening in the dry heat
the long-short snick snick
of the sprinklers’ jerky rotation
hum and hiss of a low-flying
spray plane 15

In over-the-knees rubber boots
my cousin and I stomped
the uneven ground    careful
of cow pies and Canadian thistles
plucked alfalfa shoots 20
to stick between our teeth
swaggered like cowboys
to the edge of the irrigation ditch
and stripped to swim in its muddied water
giddy on the danger of going too near 25
the whirlpool pull
of the main pipe’s undertow

But after dark
in the attic room
in that house on the top of the hill 30
he always fell asleep first,
my cousin, leaving me
to listen alone
to the sounds of the night
the valley now as alien 35
as the other side of the moon—

a coyote’s hungry cry
the twist and scrape of tumbleweed
like a wind-tossed tangle of bones
over clay-dry earth 40
a jackrabbit caught
in the beam from a jeep’s headlight
Exiled in the moon-engorged room
I lay prey to the sick
ache, the hunger for home 45
as nightmare shadows slid
across the floor, loomed
on the wall over my head

and everywhere the eerie
whine of the wind aprowl 50
in the Yakima Valley by night—
weedy, persistent, atonal 52


1. Which device is employed in line 3, “the dust haze the pickup raised”?

a. assonance
b. alliteration
c. dissonance
d. onomatopoeia

2. Lines 5-11 suggest that the farm is

a. suffering
b. abundant
c. profitable
d. uncontrolled

3. Which literary device is contained in “swaggered like cowboys”? (line 22)

a. simile
b. metaphor
c. hyperbole
d. understatement

4. The speaker and the cousin are described as “giddy” (line 25) which implies that they are

a. lazy
b. eager
c. scared
d. excited

5. In line 26, “the whirlpool pull” contains an example of

a. oxymoron
b. metonymy
c. consonance
d. internal rhyme

6. Lines 43-48 imply that the speaker feels

a. angry
b. indignant
c. distressed
d. disappointed

7. In the context of the entire poem, which word best describes the speaker’s overall attitude toward the Yakima Valley?

a. resentful
b. apathetic
c. appreciative
d. contradictory

8. This poem could best be classified as a

a. lyric
b. ballad
c. sonnet
d. monologue

The paragraph question asks students to discuss contrast in the poem.