Feb. 25 - Mar. 1: Short Stories

This is Freedom to Read Week !
Homework: Complete this information survey (6 marks)  if you haven't yet.

Fri. Mar. 1
**25 min. for silent reading and completion of short story terminology notes for:
--- Harrison Bergeron --- Ashes For the Wind --- The Tell-Tale Heart
**We will view the documentary The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe.


Thurs. Feb.. 28 - The Tell-Tale Heart
- Today we're reading the classic gothic horror, The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe.


 Wed. Feb. 27 - Ashes For the Wind
- Use the first 25 min. to complete terminology notes for "Harrison Bergeron."
- Read "Ashes for the Wind" and complete terminology notes according to the long sheet instructions.
"Ashes for the Wind" was written by Colombian journalist and author Hernando Téllez. Although Téllez wrote this story around 1945, the problems of Colombia's internally displaced persons (IDPs) persist today.
Current news connection: Canadian mining companies in Colombia 2013 article.
This Refugees International YouTube clip, produced in 2008, outlines the scope of the IDP problem in Colombia.
An April 2008 news agency report provides another view on Colombia's IDP crisis.
In 2009, LinkTV produced a documentary, Stories That Kill, about the state of journalism and freedom of expression in Colombia. 


Tues. Feb. 26 - Harrison Bergeron
- 25 min. for crossword puzzle work, paragraph writing, and silent reading. 
- Read Harrison Bergeron (see stories link). Complete terminology notes according to the long sheet instructions.
Harrison Bergeron was written by American author Kurt Vonnegut. In this YouTube clip, Vonnegut offers advice for short story writers. After reading "Harrison Bergeron," do you think that Vonnegut has followed his own advice?
- Vonnegut offers eight rules of short story writing.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Mon. Feb. 25 - Finish media studies assignments today.
- Mrs. Hopkins is absent today.
- You will be completing your media studies assignments, paragraphs, crosswords or silent reading for 30 min.
- View the media advertising DVD Massaging the Message and video Smoke Screen.