English Language Arts
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Books have always been one of my passions. For this reason, I founded a publishing house focused on positive and educational literature for children and teens. It ran from 2009 to 2013 and produced a few beautiful books.
Perhaps because I learned English first as a written language, I love grammar and spelling, as well as creating flow within my writing. This has allowed me to successfully edit nine books, seven of which were published. |
Teaching Creative Writing
During my practicum, I had the opportunity to volunteer at an English Literature class, and talk to the students about poetry as a means of raising awareness regarding a social issue. My ability to edit and guide authors was useful when teaching Grade 6 students at York House stretch and expand their own views of what constituted a strong piece of writing.
For my grade 6 students, I developed a curriculum that focused on strengthening the expression of the five senses through the usage of strong descriptions. We also worked on sticking to ideas, a good plot arch, as well as basic punctuation and grammar rules. We had many great exercises, such as the one depicted to the left; students had to create a story based on five random Dixit cards, and then develop a play script and perform it for the class, all in a few blocks! The fast nature of this challenge allowed students to freely explore what makes a good story and how to tie in seemingly disconnected images and ideas.
For my grade 6 students, I developed a curriculum that focused on strengthening the expression of the five senses through the usage of strong descriptions. We also worked on sticking to ideas, a good plot arch, as well as basic punctuation and grammar rules. We had many great exercises, such as the one depicted to the left; students had to create a story based on five random Dixit cards, and then develop a play script and perform it for the class, all in a few blocks! The fast nature of this challenge allowed students to freely explore what makes a good story and how to tie in seemingly disconnected images and ideas.
In fact,k performance and play were a big focus of my classroom. Every week, we had a block of Drama, with a componend of Improv; having coached Improv for grade 8 the previous year, this seemed to be a wonderful which reinforced oral communication skills as well as prepared students to be fast creative thinkers
On our persuasive writing unit, students learned about the powers of persuasion, including the difference of propaganda and advertisement, which led us to explore what is required in order to become critical thinkers and more aware citizens. To make our work more interesting, we used a variety of online tools, such as Kahoot, Comic Strip creators and an online persuasion map.
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My favourite part of teaching English, however, was the culmination of our creative writing unit -- a Slam Poetry competition, which excited and engaged all the students to produce some amazing work. Below, our judges and the three winners of the competition holding their prizes!
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Read Samples of my Edited Books
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