Creative and Critical Thinking
| Site: | Cowichan Valley School District - Moodle |
| Course: | ELA10 - Composition (2 credit), CSS, Melnyk |
| Book: | Creative and Critical Thinking |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Friday, 1 November 2024, 4:15 PM |
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Summary Explanation of Assignments
- ASSIGNMENT 1: A Starting Point: Self Reflection
- ASSIGNMENT 2: Why We Write
- ASSIGNMENT 3: Generating Ideas for Writing
- ASSIGNMENT 4: Hooking Your Reader
- ASSIGNMENT 5: What's the Point?
- ASSIGNMENT 6: Writing in the Real World
- ASSIGNMENT 7: Response Forum: Varying Sentence Openings
- ASSIGNMENT 8: PROJECT- Writer's Notebook
Introduction
Creative Thinking involves...
- Novelty and value
- Generating ideas
- Developing ideas
Critical Thinking involves...
- Analyze and Critique
- Question and Investigate
- Develop and Design
Consider all of these elements as you work through the assignments in this section.
Summary Explanation of Assignments
Here is a quick overview of the assignments for this unit. However, be sure you read over the specific assignment instructions that follow for each one. Review the marking rubrics for the assignments before you start.
ASSIGNMENT 1: A Starting Point: Self Reflection.
What do you hope to achieve in this course? Consider how you will assess your growth as a writer. This is why we examine the starting point.
ASSIGNMENT 2: Why Do We Write?
Consider thoughtfully why humans put pen to paper. Read and listen to several pieces on this topic, summarize your findings and collect your thoughts in a written paragraph.
ASSIGNMENT 3: Generating Ideas for Writing
Creativity is a muscle that can be trained. Complete several short exercises to practice generating ideas.
ASSIGNMENT 4: Hooking Your Reader
Learn how to "hook" your reader by looking at well-written introductions and then write four of your own.
ASSIGNMENT 5: What's the Point?
Identify different purposes for writing by looking at some mentor texts and identifying key structures of each.
ASSIGNMENT 6: Writing in the Real World
Read a blog post that discusses many different types of writing careers. Choose three to research in more depth and write a short summary for each from your research.
ASSIGNMENT 7: Editing FORUM: Varying sentence openings.
Practice writing a variety of sentence starters in order to make your writing more interesting and authoritative.
ASSIGNMENT 8: PROJECT: Writer's Notebook
The best writing comes from your own interests and topics. This project involves starting an authentic writer's notebook to help you develop writing projects in later units that are meaningful and motivating.
ASSIGNMENT 1: A Starting Point: Self Reflection
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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Task:
Let's figure out where we are. In this first assignment, please introduce your interest in developing your skills in written communication in a variety of contexts. Your goal here is to identify where you are starting from and where you want to end up. Identify personal real-life applications of written communication. What do you hope to accomplish in this module? The following is a list of questions you can use to guide your response. Be very thorough and clear in this personal response.
- What interests you about narrative, expository, descriptive, or persuasive writing? Why did you choose this module of work?
- What are your experiences? Do you prefer one of the modes of writing more than the others?
- What medium do you most enjoy? opinion pieces, persuasive essays, narrative stories, descriptive imagination, explanations
- Is there a specific field or profession for which you would enjoy writing?
- What are your strengths in your writing?
- Where do you get your ideas? Do you enjoy research?
- Have you considered the quality and reliability of the websites you use for your school assignments? What criterion do you use to authenticate your resources?
- Have you used MLA citation before?
- What do you need from your teacher to advance your communication writing skills?
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: (Exemplary 6/6): Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. Answers show evidence of careful thought in a thorough personal response.
Submission
Use the "1.1 A Starting Point: Self Reflection" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 2: Why We Write
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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Task:
Why do we write? The very quality of our individual lives and our cultures depends on our ability to use language. Authentic writing comes from our desire or need to create, to communicate, to contemplate and to connect with others. Read a variety of pieces and summarize using keywords, identify purposes for writing, and write a well-written paragraph.
1. Read the following pieces on why we write:
a. Blog Post: "Why We Write"
b. Blog Post: "Seven Reasons Why I Write"
2. During reading, complete the following chart.
3. In the same document as the chart, write a paragraph in your own words where you discuss why you write. You might talk about what you get out of writing, OR what you see as most important about writing OR what purpose of writing you would like practice and improve and why.
Assessment Criteria: Your assignment will be assessed using the following criteria, each being out of a six-point scale.
Learning Target: (Exemplary 6/6)
- Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective.
- Accurately and clearly identifies and uses specific words or phrases from the text(s) to complete the chart.
- Paragraph response shows a deep understanding of the text by making original, complex connections to self using several specific examples.
Written Expression: (Exemplary 6/6)
Sentence structure and vocabulary are varied, skillfully written, and carefully chosen. Work has been proofread and there are few or no errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Content contributes to the central idea and makes insightful connections with logical organization.
Submission
Use the "1.2 Why We Write" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 3: Generating Ideas for Writing
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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"I don't know what to write about" is often a huge hurdle for many writers. Writers sometimes experience a shortage of writing ideas, chaotic floods of ideas or no ideas at all that stalls writing projects.
Task: Open a new document, title it 2.3 Generating Ideas for Writing and complete the following tasks:
1. 60 second freewrite:
Freewriting involves letting your thoughts flow freely on paper or your computer screen. Use the Random Word site to get a word to free write about. Write whatever comes to your mind. Don't worry about typos, spelling or any other surface-level issues of grammar and style.
When you are done, read through what you have written. You will no doubt find a lot of filler in your text, but there will also be golden nuggets of insights, discoveries and other little gems in there that you can pick out and develop for your projects. Even if you don't discover any new idea nuggets, you will stir up your creative mind and unearth bits of raw concepts buried deep in your mind you can develop.
2. Listing: If you want to write about a specific topic or communicate a certain idea, jot down a list of single words and phrases that relate to the general topic you are thinking about off the top of your mind. Pick one topic from this list and write as many words or phrases that you can think of that are related. (minimum twenty)
3. Take your list created in number two and organize the ideas into groups with a category heading. Think of some categories like products, people, careers, problems, places, education to add and then try and add some new ideas or phrases.
4. Questions: Choose a social issue and write some questions starting with: (might be factual: Who started the women's rights movement? or opinion: What makes some people think that racism is okay? or a hypothesis: What if everybody stopped buying a certain brand? etc.)
A. Who...
B. What....
C. Why....
D. I wonder....
E. What if....
F. How....
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: (Exemplary 6/6): Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. All tasks are complete, organized as specified, and thoughtful.
Submission
Use the "1.3 Generating Ideas for Writing" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 4: Hooking Your Reader
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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As a writer, you need to make a conscious effort to be warm and welcoming to your reader. You want your reader to think, “Now this person is clever and warm and interesting. I want to read more of what he or she has to write.” To get this reaction, you need to create a stylish, memorable, and effective introduction. You will practice how to write an introduction with a hook, bridge and thesis.
Task: Open this handout on writing effective introductions, complete the tasks, save and submit.
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: Exemplary (6/6): Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. Parts of the introductory paragraph are correctly identified, and the paragraph includes an effective hook, a bridge to the thesis that provides some background information to the topic rather than providing points and opinions that would be better suited to a body of an essay, and the thesis.
Written Expression: Exemplary (6/6): Sentence structure and vocabulary are varied, skillfully written, and carefully chosen. Work has been proofread and there are few or no errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Content contributes to the central idea and makes insightful connections with logical organization.
Submission:
Use the "1.4 Hooking Your Reader" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 5: What's the Point?
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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Knowing your purpose and audience gives your writing focus. It helps determines your content, your form, word choice and your tone. Read carefully the following poster to review a summary of these important things to consider when writing:
Task:
1. Download and complete the lesson on Purpose, Audience and Tone. ,in order to Identify audience, purpose and tone in samples of writing.
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: (Exemplary 6/6): Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. The activities are complete, accurate and thoughtful.
Submission
Use the "1.5 What's the Point?" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 6: Writing in the Real World
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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Task:
1. Read this article to explore different types of writing and careers used in the "real world". Consider which ones interest you.
2. Pick three careers that interest you to research further. Open a word document and label it 1.6 Writing In the Real World. Describe your findings in a well written paragraph for each. In your own words, define the type of writing/career for each. Be sure to include the purpose(s) of this type of writing, audience(s), and the style of writing. You might also include career paths, famous writers of that genre, why this type of writing interests you, skills needed, interesting facts, its future, etc.
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: (Exemplary 6/6): Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. Each paragraph defines the writing career in detail, including writing skills needed and provides a specific and interesting commentary on the career with several examples.
Written Expression: (Exemplary) (6/6): Sentence structure and vocabulary are varied, skillfully written, and carefully chosen. Work has been proofread and there are few or no errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Content contributes to the central idea and makes insightful connections with logical organization.
Submission
Use the "1.6 Writing in the Real World" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 7: Response Forum: Varying Sentence Openings
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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Task:
Students often start most sentences in the same way (subject verb) which makes for boring and repetitive writing. There are a variety of ways to start a sentence to create interest and flow in a piece of writing.
1. To practice using several different types of sentence openers, open and complete the handout titled "Varying Sentence Openers".
2. Using the same methods, go to the forum on the main page titled "1.7 Response Forum: Varying Sentence Openers" and follow the instructions there.
There are TWO activities in a FORUM:
- Go to the main page of the course and click on 1.7 Response Forum: Varying Sentence Openers. Start a new discussion topic by clicking on Add a New Discussion Topic.
- Reply/Respond to someone else's discussion topic by clicking on their topic and selecting Reply. Comment on the terms they chose. Offer advice on learning how to apply them in your literary reading. Try using the following prompts to guide your response to another post. "I wonder…" "I know…" "I can…" Don't just agree or disagree.
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: (Exemplary 6/6): Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. Student demonstrates exemplary ability to assess and refine text to improve clarity and impact. Both paragraphs posted in the forum use a variety of sentence openings to create fluid, well-organized paragraphs. Content is clear, concise and original.
Response/Reply: Exemplary (6/6): The response/reply is thoughtful, insightful and respectfully exchanges ideas and viewpoints. Student demonstrates an exceptional level of understanding and communication of shared information.
Submission:
Use the "1.7 Response Forum: Varying Sentence Openers" link on the main page of this section of the course to post your forum response to your teacher for marking.
ASSIGNMENT 8: PROJECT- Writer's Notebook
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Learning Target (Curricular Competencies):
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The best writing comes from your own interests and topics. This project involves starting an authentic writer's notebook to help you develop ideas for writing topics that might be used in later units that are meaningful and motivating.
Real writers use a notebook to:
- keep a record of observations and ideas.
- start drafts to use for later writing pieces.
- practice writing techniques.
- reflect on their writing process.
- practice writing fluency.
Task :
Complete 10 entries (You may use pen and paper and upload pictures, a simple word document or an online tool to create your writer's notebook.)
Each entry should end with a statement about how the entry might be used. (could mention a purpose, a specific type of text, an audience etc. or a skill being practiced.)
Example:
- Use this description in a short story or poem about....
- Use facts from this article to write a blog post on....
- List of ideas for a podcast about....
Form: Your entries can be:
- drawings Example
- exercises Example
- questions Example
- ideas from pictures Example
- graphic organizers (use the examples in the folder called Graphic Organizers on the main page of the course)
- parts of a draft
- clippings
- lists Example
- anything that you might use someday in a piece of writing
Need some ideas?
List of entry ideas (from: https://www.ewing.k12.nj.us)
Assessment: Below you will find the exemplary criteria used to assess the assignment.
Learning Target: Exemplary (6/6) X4 Exemplary comprehension of the task and clear accomplishment of the objective. At least 10 entries have been created that are varied, sincere, thoughtful and include a description of how the entry could be used in a writing assignment.
Submission:
Use the "1.8 PROJECT - Writer's Notebook" link on the main page of this section of the course to upload your assignment to your teacher for marking.