Venn diagrams & dystopian texts

For those students who have read The Road to Winter and Z is for Zachariah, I would like you to get together and create a Venn diagram showing what these two texts and the film of The Hunger Games have in common, and how they vary from each other, using the following headings to guide you:
1. setting
2. characters
3. use of the hero cycle
4. theme(s)
5. message of hope
6. ideas about sacrifice

You could work on A3 paper at first, and then you can make a Venn diagram digitally to show your thinking.

Work for Friday 23 August 2019

Here are some activities for the class.  Everyone needs to be doing one of them:

1. Troy, Aleece & Rueben are all reading independently.  They are welcome to read quietly for the lesson.
2. There may be some students who are still working on their Book creator story.  They may carry on, but they must be working carefully on this, not just pretending.
3. Read pages 174-9.  This is the scene where Finn, Kas and Willow come back to Finn's house and find Rowdy wounded, Rose missing and the kitchen turned upside down.  Read through these pages carefully and think about how to turn them into a comic.  What are the key images and quotes that you need to include to get the ideas across?  How will you convey the idea at the end of the chapter that the last two weeks has seemed like a lifetime?
4. You can make your comic on paper or on book creator.  If you don't have the code for getting into our book creator library, then check your emails - I sent it last week.

Wednesday 21 August 2019: school adventure experiences

Starter writing:
1. Describe your day at Bushcraft yesterday.  What did you do and what did you learn?  What recommendations would you make to the school on what they should keep doing for adventure experiences next year and what they could change?

OR

2. What kind of adventure activities would you like to see offered at Greymouth High School?  What would be the benefits?

Thursday 14 August: Book creation & Road to Winter

Do now:
A: Most of the class - Book creator: what are you writing about, and what is your next step?


B: Faith, Alex & Sophie, I have shared a creative writing prompt into your English folders on google drive

C: Rueben & Aleece are reading a wider range of dystopian novels

D: Kate & Greanne - I will help you set up a quiz activity for the reading you have done so far.  We will try and make questions on the lines, between the lines and beyond the lines.

Wednesday 14 August 2019: dangerous writing prompts & book creation

Today we are going to start writing using the dangerous writing prompt site.

One this site you can either choose your own prompt, or it will give you one.  You have to keep writing or else the site will die on you.  Don't worry about mistakes, just write as much as you can!

Write as much as you can, and try to keep going for five minutes. 

When the five minutes is up, you can stop, and you will get the opportunity to export your writing.  Try exporting it and pasting it into a google doc in your English folder so that you can date it and count the words.


After we have done this, we will spend a bit more time on our books and then finish with Ms Quick reading some more of Road to Winter.

Using Book Creator to tell a story from The Road to Winter

Today we are going to have a play with Book Creator, to see how we could use it to tell a story from The Road to Winter.
It could be:

• a newspaper report on an incident in the novel, e.g. the supermarket looting and wounding of Finn's Dad
• a profile feature article, exploring a character, e.g. Ramage
• a newspaper feature exploring the lives of the community in the hills where Finn finds Kas

You can choose to base your writing very closely on the book, or use your imagination to develop a story that is not actually told in the book.

Steps:

1. Do you want to work alone or in groups to decide on your story topic and collect ideas for what to include?
2. Choose your topic, and brainstorm the possibilities.
3. Check your email for the code to join Ms Quick's library.
4. Explore possible ways of presenting your book here.
5. Make a first draft of your writing
6. Start to sketch out how your book will look

Resources that can help

How to write a news report:

Also, this article on writing a profile feature.