Ms.

Hammond, 2014


Unit: Looking Back, Then Looking Ahead
Grade 12 English

Unit Duration: 4 weeks (ish)
Unit Dates: September 3rd September 26th


Unit Overview:
This unit is designed for us to get to know each other and for you to get to know yourselves as you
embark upon what, for some of you, will be your very last high school English class! During this
unit, you will become re-acquainted with the writing variables (main idea, form, audience, context,
purpose) especially audience you will encounter on your provincial exam. You will also be
exposed to a variety of forms that will require you to explore your achievements, regrets,
personalities, skills, and future goals. In addition to measuring your grasp on the writing variables,
the summative assessments in this unit will test you written language skills, with an emphasis on
diction, presentation, and style (including a variety of literary devices).


Topics Covered:
The Writing Variables
Goal Setting and Journaling
Writing for Self
Writing for Peers
Writing for Employers


Unit Texts & Resources
Kigblog.org (website)
Letters to High School Selves by Jeff Francis & Lorne Cardinal (letters)
5 Worst Wedding Toasts of All Time by Richard Rys (article)
Personal Writing Playlist by Ms. Hammond (youtube)
How to Write a Strong Personal Essay by Amy Bonn (video)
Micro-Memoirs by Chan, Thammavongsa Miller, and Rahman (memoirs)
o Taken from Remix anthology
The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll (poem)
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock (poem



Unit Assignments & Grading Breakdown:
Assignment % of Unit Grade Tentative Due Date
Toast to Classmate 20% Week 2
Advice Column Blog 20% Week 3
Personal Essay 10% Week 3
Creative Non-Fiction Piece 30% Week 4
Life List Poster 20% Week 5





Ms. Hammond, 2014

Unit Assignment Descriptions:

Life List Poster
This will be the first assignment of the unit! Basically, it is a big ol bucket list. You will need to
brainstorm 100 things you want to do before you die. When you do this, I want you to think in
terms of the rule of 50 (50 days-50 weeks-50 months-50 years), meaning that you need to include
goals from each time category. It is important to set goals that you can achieve during the semester
because that is part of your project! What do I mean? I mean that throughout the term I want you to
cross at least 3 things off your life list poster, and either write about them, take pictures of them, or
make a video of them, and post it to your Kidblog. The poster portion of this assignment will be
ongoing throughout the unit, and the Kidblog portion will be ongoing throughout the semester.
While you will get class time to work on it, much of the visual aspect of the poster will need to be
done on your own time.

Toast to Classmate
This is your last year of high school (congratulations!), and who better to celebrate with than your
other graduating classmates? It is important to both acknowledge and be acknowledges for ones
achievements, and making it this far is one heck of an achievement. In our society, a common way
to celebrate the achievements of others is by toasting them. For this assignment, everyones name
will go into a hat. Each of you will draw a name at random, then interview the chosen classmate and
prepare and present a toast in his/her honor.

Advice Column Blog
As technology continues to advance, blogging is becoming a popular medium for sharing ideas and
connecting with public and peers. As such, you will be creating your very own blog (dont worry
its easy, safe, and, for the most part, only out class will have access to it). You will be using your blog
throughout the semester, but for the Advice Column assignment, you will us it to post the 10
Pieces of Advice you would give yourself if you could start high school all over again (What would
you do the same? Differently?). As I said before, blogs are used to share and connect so it is only
natural that you share your advice with those who could benefit from it the most

Personal Essay
This essay represents one of the most important pieces of writing you will do in your lives outside of
school. A personal essay is used to create a first impression by answering the famous interview
question tell me about yourself in written form, before a potential employer or administrator gets
a chance to ask you in person You may write a personal essay to obtain a job (cover letter),
scholarship, or college/university entrance. For this assignment, you will create a personal essay of
no more than 500 words (and thats pushing it) with the purpose of applying for a scholarship. This
time around, your personal essay wont be worth too many marks because we will revisit this form
at the end of the unit when you create your career portfolios.

Creative Non-Fiction Piece
While you get an opportunity to discuss yourself in your personal essay, you dont get to choose
what type of picture you paint (as a personal essay contains only information and experiences
which display your employability skills and characteristics). For your final piece of writing in this
unit, I want you to tell a story about a particular aspect of your life that has changed the person you
are today, and will become in the future. In this piece, I want you to show me who you really are,
and I want you to be creative while doing it! This means that you may choose any form that you
wish, and it also means incorporating juicy words, vivid descriptions, literary elements and
figurative language into your writing. Of course, you may also choose to incorporate visual aspects
into your piece however, you must have a written component, as well.




Ms. Hammond, 2014
Ongoing Assignment Descriptions:
In addition to the assignments within this particular unit, you will also be responsible for journaling twice a
week, and working on your independent novel unit on an ongoing basis throughout the entire semester. Here
is a description of the shenanigans involved in each:

1) Journaling Assignment:
This ongoing assignment will be worth 5% of your entire grade. It is designed to keep you writing about things
that YOU want to write about, and to provide a platform for you to practice all the lovely things you are
learning in class. You are required to submit 2 journal entries per week (and, yes, you will be given class
time to work on these). The topic of one entry will be whatever tickles your fancy, and the topic of the other
will be goal setting.

Topic #1: Your Choice
You may write about whatever you like. If you had a rough weekend, write about your rough
weekend. If you really like hotdogs, write about hotdogs. If you cant make up your mind, draw a
journal jogger from the bucket, and write about that.

Topic #2: Goal Setting
You will use this journal to practice setting and achieving SMART goals (we will discuss what the heck
these are in class). Over the course of the semester you must set at least 3 goals, 1 of which has
to do with ELA. The other goals you set can be about absolutely anything, either inside or outside of
your life at school.
o ELA Examples: Expand my vocabulary by 10 words within the next 30 days; get full marks
on a SEXY question within the next 2 weeks, etc.).
o Absolutely Anything Examples: Complete the 5K marathon on November 23; be able to eat
26 hotdogs in one sitting (bun included) by January 25.
You are welcome to set more than 3 goals. While you are only required to set 3 goals, you are still
required to write about your progress (including triumphs, frustrations, changes made, etc.) in
achieving these goals every week.
__________________________________________________________________

2) Independent Novel Unit:
In addition to the units we will be exploring as a class, you will be working independently (meaning by
yourself and on your own time but yes, I will give you some class time, too) to complete 2 assignments
based upon a text of your choosing.

This independent novel study will be a little different than ones you have done in the past because we are not
only going to be looking at specific novels, but at specific genres, as well. Between September 3
rd
and
December 1
st
you must read texts from 3 different genres (that is 1 book per month). On your
own, you will use Kidblog to write a short book review for each of the 3 texts you read. Then, on December 1
st
,
you will convene with your peers and, in small groups, you will decide upon a genre you would like to study
further and prepare a visual and written genre study (which will feature books that you and your group
members have read throughout the semester) to present to the class.

So, you may be thinking Yes, great, but what the heck is a genre?
Well, according to Merriam-Webster, a genre is: a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature,
characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

The line between what is a form (eg. story, poem, letter, essay) and what is a genre is, at times, quite blurry.
For example, a memoir or graphic novel can be both. Dont overthink it. Some genres you may
consider reading and writing about:
Action Fantasy Science Fiction
Adventure Historical Dystopia
Young Adult Crime Manga
Memoir/Biography Romance Self-Help
Mystery Comedy Paranormal
Horror Graphic Novels Christian

For now, focus on reading your books (you will get a small amount of class time every day, and a large amount
of class time on most Fridays), and writing your 3 independent book reviews (on Kidblog). I will provide more
information on the genre study group presentation later.