English 12
Students will be working on their persuasive essays – due Monday.
English 9
Students will work on a creative writing activity which will allow them to review plot elements: 60 Word Stories.
Examples…
Dinner time
Stanley and Freddy looked up eagerly as Julie brought their plates in. Would it be that wonderful Chicken Chow today, or the tasty beef in gravy? Maybe it would be venison, or perhaps even duck! Stanley sniffed the air appreciatively while Freddy panted in anticipation. Meal-times had been great since Julie discovered that new range of dog food!
The Old House
Jim and Milly felt sad as they sat in the house for the last time. There were so many memories here. Jim had decorated it. Milly had made cushions and curtains. It was so homely. ‘Seems a shame to take it down’ Jim said as he descended the ladder, ‘but the new tree-house will be much better.’
Both the 55 Word Poem and the 60 Word Short Story must be ready for Monday.
Developing Da Vinci 9
Will will be working on our second TED Talk review. The second review is due on Monday.
More examples…
For my second talk, I listened to Daniel Goldstein talk about “The battle between your present and future self”. I was initially attracted to this talk because I am very interested in planning my future and making adjustments now so that I can have a better future. I wasn’t really clear on what the future and present selves were, but I was definitely interested to find out.
Luckily, Mr.Goldstein immediately answered my question. Your present self is you NOW. The future self is you LATER, at some point in the future. For example, your present self might not want to floss your teeth because they’re lazy or too tired, but your future self would want you to floss because they want nice teeth. Personally, I can definately identify with that. Having braces, it usually takes about 20 minutes to properly brush, pick, floss, wax, water floss, double check and rinse my teeth, so sometimes when I’m tired or running short on time, I skip some steps. Sometimes I only brush and rinse, which I’m not proud to say, but I guess in those cases, my present self wins out.
Mr.Goldstein talks a lot about commitment devices. He explains that they are items or methods we use to keep ourselves committed to being favourable to our future selves. For example, when I was younger, I struggled to make myself save money instead of spending it, so I made a commitment device. I told myself that for every $250 dollars I saved, I would be able to spend $50 of it. When I started, I looked in stores and picked something that I would buy with the money, so that I would be able to guarantee my happiness after I’d saved. The plan worked really well, and soon enough, I accumulated many desirable things, as well as some savings for the future and charities. So I am in agreement with Mr.Goldstein when he says that commitment devices do work.
But, Mr.Goldstein didn’t stop there. He explained that he and some of his co-workers have been trying to figure out how to favour our future self without the use of commitment devices. Simply because in the using of commitment devices, we’re saying that we aren’t strong enough to do the task on our own. Mr.Goldstein was determined to show that we could be strong enough to not give into the temptations of our present self. He thought that perhaps we needed commitment devices because of our inability to believe or imagine what would happen to our future self. So, in terms of addressing the issue of people not saving enough for their retirement, he invented a computer program test to see if visualizing the future self would help you favour it. He had a dot that you could drag from the future to the present. If you dragged it towards the present, the future face would gradually get more sad, and vice versa for the other way. The test subject’s challenge was to make both faces happy. When the test subject had seen the visual aid and played with the program, most reported to have more of a strong understanding and desire to put aside more money for the future. This goes to show that visualizing our future self helps us learn to not neglect it. In my opinion, this hypothesis could help solve some major issues. For example, 2 out of 3 people do not save enough money to adequately support themselves during retirement, so with this visual aid theory, we could move in the direction of changing that!
In conclusion, Mr.Goldstein research is fascintating and full of possibilities. It really made me think about my own will power and temptations. I had no idea that the method I used to help save money as a child actually had a name and a spot in the research world! But I guess you learn something new everyday! 
TED Talk: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics (about TED Talks) by Sebastian Wernicke
Personally, I found this to be one of the most informative TED talks I have seen. In it, Sebastian Wernicke believes he can pinpoint what exactly defines a good TED Talk from a bad one. Using data from the comments made by TED viewers, Wernicke told us what to do and what not to do from choosing our topic all the way to what we should wear while giving a speech. These were organized into three main areas of a TED talk: topic, delivery and visuals.
According to Wernicke’s research, your topic should have both emotion and ideas to have the best response from the audience. Therefore, your topic should be something your audience can connect with, such as happiness, religion, food and the choices you make. Things to avoid would be more of the technical topics such as architecture, weather, media and war. I both agree and disagree with this. In my opinion, if you specialize in a more technical area, you should do a talk on that. However, incorporating some emotional aspects into your presentation should help you connect with your audience, such as humor, personal stories, and things that also have to do with their daily lives. What you should stay away from is just giving them random information that they may or may not care about, depending on their interests.
Next, Wernicke talked about delivery. He claimed that—for the most part—your talk should be as long as you can make it, because the most liked TED talks are usually around fifteen to twenty minutes long. The exceptions are if they are beautiful, funny, or ingenious—in which case you should keep them short. I think that there is some truth to this. If your topics are meant to be fascinating, inspiring, or persuasive, you should spend as much time as possible to get your point across. On the other hand, if your purpose is to entertain yet provoke thought, a short presentation should keep the audience from getting bored and leave them with questions of their own.
The last thing Wernicke brought up was your TED Talk’s visual. As for your appearance, you should look both informative but interesting. I.e.: glasses, nice but strange coloured clothes, and should appear confident. Honestly, I don’t think your physical appearance will matter much, but I do think that it is essential to have confidence in your speaking. As for your presentations appearance, slides are good to have, but props are even better. Colour is also important, and the colour of your slides should be rich and interesting. In other words, stay away from brown, black, grey and dull shades of green and blue. Contrasting or deep colours are best. I agree with this, because props and slides add entertainment and can give the audience something to look at. Colour choice just helps to enhance the props.
To me, the topics in this talk can go beyond TED. They are the basic rules of presentation that can be applied to any aspect of giving a speech. The talk itself was both funny and informative, despite being only five minutes long (just like Wernicke said about funny talks). I would recommend this video to anyone who struggles with public speaking, or just wants a good laugh.
English 10
We will take a look at samples of original compositions and discuss them. We will review the following terms in preparation for the provincial exam: aside, bias, cliche, figurative language, genre, hyperbole and propaganda.
