English is….

On Friday, I asked you what ‘English’ meant to you. Tomorrow we will start the period with a ‘Gallery Walk’ where you will review your thoughts and those of other tables. Collectively in all 3 classes, you generated 237 words and phrases that represent ‘English for you’. I dictated all of you thoughts into my iPad and pasted them into http://www.tagxedo.com/ to create a Word Cloud. Words that are larger and bolder are those that appeared most often and those little words are the ones that showed up only a few times (or maybe even once). Here is what ‘English’ means to you…

English Thoughts

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  1. What themes emerged? Are there any surprises?
  2. What dimensions or categories are missing from our maps? Again, any surprises?
  3. Do you see anything in the thoughts of others that you might not have thought of or might expand on your ideas of ‘English’ as a class or discipline of study?

Reply to this post by clicking the ‘Reply’ button and signing in with your HWDSB username and password. Which of these components of ‘English’ do you most enjoy and how do you enjoy to learn them? Share an activity or lesson that really engaged you. What did you like most about it and how did it help you with your learning?

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  10. one thing that I love about English is that you get to be creative in the stories you write, how you are going to create assignments to get a better mark or even what the teacher suggests. I really like when teachers or students come up with creative ways to learn about the topic, for example last year when we were reading our ISU novels the teacher put us in small groups where we all played a role for a few chapters of the book we were reading so you could be the illustrator where you drew pictures relating to what you read, you could also be the connector who made connections with the book to something they have experienced,watched or heard about. I liked how the teacher gave us all a role and made it interesting to learn which helped me retain the information better and helped me get more ideas to write about for the final essay. I find the more creative and unique the idea is the better i can remember the topic and overall it helps improve my work.

  11. My favorite part of learning English/Language was be getting to read so many different book and opening my horizon to what types of books I read in the present. I also like having a variety of things to do for one project so I can show whatever we do to the best of my ability. There are also things that I don’t like so much about English/Language, for me is presentation, but I also don’t like doing book reports to me there are so many other option instead of doing a book report (i.e. poster, videoclips, movie trailer, etc.)

  12. While expanding my knowledge in English, I like developing and exploring new ways to enhance my communication skills in order to express opinions, ideas and beliefs. I like voicing myself through essays and class discussions. These allow me express myself openly and effectively. Debates often grab my attention, I like learning about and becoming aware of the various sides of any issue, this allows me to analyse the full scope of something and think about what I personally believe and feel. I enjoy reading a wide variety of books, studying them, sharing thoughts and examining them as well.

  13. My favourite part of English is discussions and opinions, like after you the class reads something and you get to hear everyone’s opinion. I like drawing connections and listening to peoples points of views of the deeper meanings of things. In my last English class, what I really liked was the even though we to read a book, we got to choose out of a lot of books which one we could read, including newer books and books of different levels. I also enjoyed the part of the reading groups where she made us explore further parts of the book, like she would make everyone ask 10 questions , and they couldn’t be the same as the ones the other person asked before. That really got me to get interested in the book.

  14. I enjoy the feeling you get when completing a Poem. I love writing and creating poems. I also enjoy looking at how others write and create poems. I love how there are many different ways that you can write poems. Mr puley what is your favourite type of poem to create

  16. English is culture and I enjoy learning this through books/stories such as Shakespeare where the language isn’t as easy to understand. I find it interesting to learn different words and what they mean. Also how people talked many years ago!

  17. I thoroughly enjoy mythology (specifically Greek and Norse) as well as fantasy books that can draw the reader into the books “realm”. Books such as Game of Thrones where you are drawn into the seven kingdoms and your feelings are shifting as fast as light are what i enjoy about English. I personally dislike biographies and sports novels but mangas, comics, and graphic novels i really enjoy. Mangas are interesting due to the fact that the authors live within a different culture so the stories are extremely different than from English and American literature.

  19. I think that my favorite part of English was not only learning about something new everyday but also changing my views or opinion on a certain subject because of the lectures given and talking with the class. I really like it when most of the lectures were based upon what was going on in a book or piece of writing we were reading or just something about our everyday lives, and by listening and talking it made it so that everybody has their own opinions and engaging everybody.For example last year we talked about security and should it be upped a little more and because of the conversation , you could see the passion everybody had to say what they had to say especially me plus I loved to debate with people so it was always a win win.I liked how the teacher seemed to reel the kids into saying something , like they would say something ridiculous just to get a reaction out of people which i think its a great way to have others opinions.Overall I think that by having lectures,conversations,and debates are not only fun but a great learning experience.

  20. what I enjoy about English the most is the freedom you have to express yourself in writing. when you are given a topic, you can personalize the topic with the way you choose to express a sentence. Everyone’s way of writing is different and the fact that we have the ability to express everything so many different ways is wonderful. it makes the task not only more appealing but you are able to do better when you have more freedom within the guidelines.

  21. I think that my favourite part of english class would be reading novels. I enjoy reading many different types of novels. currently my favourite books are things like “the fault in our stars”, “if i stay”, or any classic such as “gone with the wind”. One lesson that really stood out to me was last year when we did our book reports. Instead of writing one long book report, our teacher tried to make it fun by doing something called “literacy circles”. Everyone was put into different groups and each group read a different novel. Each week we would be given a section of the novel to read and then we would have to complete a small “project” to present to our group. These “projects” could be anything from a picture that represented that section of the book, a video that demonstrated what went on in that time period, or even some personal connections. I thought this was a very creative way to make a book report more exiting. 🙂

  23. My favourite part of English is writing, I like to write essays and reports. I like to write essays/paragraphs that I can share my opinion along with facts and data. I also like debates and class discussions, it gives everyone in the class a chance to participate and share their opinions. Also, as a student listening to different perspectives can help us understand or clarify different topics.

  24. What I like most about English is writing, I enjoy writing because I feel it allows me to articulate my views and opinions on certain topics freely. I also really enjoy class discussions or debates. I feel I am more capable of absorbing information when I am listening to the thoughts of others as well as comparing them to my own.

  25. My favorite part of english is reading, specifically novels. I enjoy science fiction novels the most. I don’t do a lot of reading on my own but I love reading. One of the novels I really enjoyed was Ender’s Game which I studied in grade 9 english.

  26. 1.Which of these components of ‘English’ do you most enjoy and how do you enjoy to learn them?
    Some of the components in English that I enjoy are reading books, writing essays, and watching movies related to the topic of study. I enjoy reading books that are well-known, and ones that make you think about some issues that are prominent in society today. Writing essays help you voice your opinion/report on facts. Essays also help you to articulate your ideas clearly and accurately. Watching movies related to a certain topic help you to understand it in a completely different way. For example, if there was a book that we were assigned to read, we could watch the movie (if there is one) afterwards.
    2. Share an activity or lesson that really engaged you. What did you like most about it and how did it help you with your learning?
    An activity that engaged me in a past English class is when my grade 8 teacher had brought in some books and told us to pick ones that interested us. However, there were multiple copies of a book but only a limited amount. Then, groups were made of about 4 or 5 people and every week we would reflect on the chapters that we had read and discuss the book thus far. This was very engaging because for one, it forced you to actually read the book so you could contribute to the discussion and it allowed you to improve your collaboration skills with your peers.

  27. My favourite part of english is reading new literature and how it affects us to this day in our lives, even if the book is much older like something written by Shakespeare. It helps me understand books much better and I leave having understood a larger more contextual part of the book. I also enjoy having class discussions, especially when we have conflicting opinions, because it forces me to be able to come up with several arguments on the spot which is a good skill to have for life. Having conflicting opinions also helps me look at something from a different perspective which is hard for me because I can get very stubborn about my opinions.

  28. I like Shakespeare because it’s interesting to me seeing how different our speech is from the way he wrote his plays. I liked reading a Shakespeare playbook with my English class last year, and having the teacher explain anything I or the rest of the class didn’t understand. My old teacher had a CD with the play on it, so we could her actors read the lines while we read along in our books, which was enjoyable to me. It was easier hearing the actors say all of the words rather than having to guess how certain words were pronounced or phrased. I hope we’ll read a Shakespeare play in this class.

  29. The most important part of English to me is reading and writing. I believe we can learn this through well reading and writing. I find projects are most engaging when there is an option for a creative element rather than just essays.

  30. My favourite part of ‘English’ is literature or media, in a broader topic. They both allow people to learn from them through the use of film, stories, etc. and also are able to project to a larger audience for them to enjoy as well. My favourite types of English literature would be science fiction, mythology, and historical literature as they offer a sense of imagination and also tell interesting events in the past that were kept throughout history. Some class activities that I personally enjoy the most would be class or group discussions because they allow people to offer their personal opinions and/or learn from others in the class. This is a great way to communicate as a class and allow people to see from a different point of view on a specific subject to help understand it better.

  31. The most important part of literature to me is reading and writing. I think we can learn this by well reading and writing. My favourite way to learn this is if there is a creative way to compete the assignment rather than just an essay. Ps I don’t know if this is posted twice but I don’t understand this

  32. The component of English I enjoy most is mythology, specifically Nordic Mythology . I enjoy learning about mythology by reading old books in Icelandic or runes about the magical beings, and going to museums. One lesson I will always remember was when my elementary school teacher in Iceland took us to an old town with moss and stone houses (which is very typical in Iceland, especially in the suburbs). I remember hearing about how all the Alfar and Troll ( elves and trolls ) had come to the village and taken the true love of a woman. By attaching a visual to a concept, it became more drilled into my mind. Learning about cultures through mythology really helped me craft better stories and broaden my imagination. I really enjoy the cultural and traditional aspect of mythology. Personally, I believe I was born in the wrong era because I absolutely love the way life was in the olden days. By being so passionate about wanting to live in simpler times, mythology has motivated me to really try to stay true to my values and portray that through my work, and my life.

  33. My favorite component of English is a little broad, but i prefer the more artistic/ creative elements of literature and writings. I enjoy reading a wide variety of genres and what really makes a good story unique and enjoyable is the creative elements, things that are unexpected, different and thought-provoking that separate it from other works. I’m hoping that the novels we read in this class will be a little bit more out of the ordinary. In this class I think it’s important that are assignments are open and give us plenty of options to work with or close to full creative control. For example writing a short story or a persuasive essay. Give us some examples, a success criteria, and time in class, so you can see what we’re working on and give us advice to help us make it great, and give us more opportunity to ask for help. Those kind of assignments are the best Also, like most of the class i enjoy open class discussions where we can share our opinions and discuss in a positive space. I assume we will be doing this sort of thing tomorrow discussing the online scenarios we were introduced to today.

  35. What i like about english class is the discussions we have in class. Not only do we learn more about each other, we learn more about the world and whats going on around us. I also like how open english can be. There are many genres you can choose to read about and also many types of literature you can read such as poems or short stories. You also are able to write about anything, letting your creativity and imagination take control of the pen.

  36. I enjoy reading when it comes to English class , it’s probably the most relaxing part of class . I also don’t have the best writing skills so I would like to improve and try to learn different writing styles , I enjoy talking about important and seriously topics , usually things that’s happening out in the world so we’re learning useful information .

    • Thanks. I’ll be sure to build in reading time. We’ll be working on lots of different writing this semester and working on your blog will really help you in this area. Sharing your thoughts, reflections, and thoughts on world events are perfect topic for blogs. As we discussed today, blogging is very personal in nature and designed to spark conversation. Readers love to discuss current events. I think this passion will serve you well. What are you most interested in currently and why?

  37. The main themes emerged from our findings as a class were grammar, reading, essays, writing, communication, and quite a few more but what surprised me the most was how popular Shake sphere was in our charts. Our table did not put that as one of our options as it was not something that came to mind right away, but i was surprised at the amount of students that found Shakespeare that large of a component in English. What i think is missing from our maps are things like debates, opinions, visual presentations, and many more. Thoughts from other students that i personally did not think of were Actors, but especially art. I did not think this was relatable at first but thinking about it poetry and pieces of writing can be categorized as art as well. Overall i think our class did a good job summarizing the main key points of English as a whole.

  38. My favourite part of English is the creative expression involved with the class. My grade 9 English class involved creativity with poetry and writing short stories and gave me an output to voice my views and ideas creatively. Our class also read books that were more political and held deep meaning, namely “A Long Way Gone” and “Little Brother. What I enjoyed was while in the process of reading we held group discussions talking about the events in the book and how they related to us and the world we live in. I really liked how in English the content of the curriculum wasn’t heavily knowledge based and took to the ideas of each individual student.

  39. I enjoy learning about the many different time periods and possible realms that are only able to be portrayed in stories. I also enjoy learning about the different ways many writers can portray one thing as it always interests me that they can be so different

  41. 1.What themes emerged? Are there any surprises?

    I was surprised by the fact that Shakespeare was one of the most commonly thought of things when people thought of English.

    2.What dimensions or categories are missing from our maps? Again, any surprises?

    I think that expressive writing should have come up more often as well as other authors of different plays and good books. Maybe Steven King?

    3.Do you see anything in the thoughts of others that you might not have thought of or might expand on your ideas of ‘English’ as a class or discipline of study?

    I would not have thought of Shakespeare right away, I probably would have named off a few inspirational authors from the past twenty years.

  42. Which of these components of ‘English’ do you most enjoy and how do you enjoy to learn them?
    I really enjoy writing short stories and even longer ones. I also like reading novels that are interesting to me and talking about them in the class.

    Share an activity or lesson that really engaged you. What did you like most about it and how did it help you with your learning?

    I really enjoy doing ten minute writing sessions in which you can write about whatever you want, then share them with the class or hand them in for bonus marks! This helped me by getting my brain going in the morning!

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