Writing Instruction Professional LearningDay

3/30/2017 Living Sky School Division

Grade 9 Teachers

3-2-1 Bridge: LSKY’s Writing JourneyInitial Response - Morning New Response-Afternoon

Identify how your new responses connect to or shifted from your original response.

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Words that come to mind: Words that come to mind:

2 Questions that come to mind: 2 Questions that come to mind:

Create a metaphor or simile for the writing journey:

Create a metaphor or simile for the writing journey:

See Think Wonder Thinking Routine________________________________________________________________________________

Review the photos provided to establish a context and make connections before reading the introduction to Black Apple by Joan Crate

Work in groups of 4. Each person will complete the thinking routine below with the images on one of pages A, B, C, or D individually, and all respond to the question on page “E.”

Share your thoughts about the photos you looked at with your group.

See Think Wonder Thinking routine:

See? What do you see in the photo?

Think? What can you infer from the photo?

Wonder? What questions arise?

Does the photo confirm what you know? Does it extend or challenge your thinking?

Whose voice is represented?

For timeline and more information see: http://wherearethechildren.ca/timeline/Photo sources are included below each photo

*MAKE NOTES THROUGHOUT THE ACTIVITY IN PREPARATION FOR THE WRITING TASK

Find a link to the visible thinking Routines on curriculum connections / Instruction/Literacy / Writing or go to: http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html

Cultures of Thinking -Think from the middle: http://www.rcsthinkfromthemiddle.com/thinking-routines.html

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=890

Old Sun School, Gleichen Alberta. The signing of Treaty 7 in September 1877 established reserves for all aboriginal peoples living in today’s southern Alberta. With the exception of the Sarcee and Stoney Indians, most native groups were part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which included the Northern Blackfoot (Siksika), Blood and North Peigan. Their American cousins, the South Peigan, occupied the large Blackfeet Indian Reservation in neighbouring Montana. Anglican missionary work among the Canadian Blackfoot and Sarcee nations began almost immediately once these reserves were established.

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A

http://enlivenedlearning.com/2012/11/06/residential-schooling/

Dormitory, Coqualeetza Institute. Circa - Government Policy allowed children to be taken from their parents at age 7 to attend residential school.

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B

Children at North Camp School, Blackfoot reserve, Gleichen area, Alberta, 1892, Collection of Glenbow, NA-1934-1 http://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/past/2014-2015/where-are-the-children/

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A mother brings her children to the St. John Boarding School, Wabasca, Alberta, date unknown The Anglican Church of Canada, The General Synod Archives, P -75-103-S8-242Photo source: http://wherearethechildren.ca/exhibition/

C

Image No: NA-896-3 Title: Two of the first pupils at the Blackfoot Anglican School. Date: [ca. 1886] Photographer/Illustrator: Ross, Alexander J., Calgary, Alberta

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I am the second boy from the right and the rest of the boys were around my age. The school is in the background.“A lot of people say, “OH, in residential school our kids always smile.” I call that the smile of fear. You have to smile. That’s the smile of fear. I became one of them. For the longest time I didn’t have a real smile.” (former student David Belleau). Maaks stsi nat to topi (Why did I have to go to residential school?) http://vibrantcanada.ca/blogs/calgary/maaks-stsi-nat-topi-why-did-i-have-go-residential-school

D

Compare the two photos.

Loss: How did life change for the children that went to residential school?

Sun Dance - Among the Blackfoot, circa 1908 (photo by Trueman, courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-14106).

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Aboriginal schooling resource kit. www.sfu.ca Blackfoot confederacy history and resources: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/blackfoot-nation/

EREAD LIKE A WRITER: Black Apple By Joan Crate

________________________________________________________________________________Work with a partner making notes / or using sticky notes to organize your thinking process. Fill in the empty spaces on the chart as you practice “reading like a writer”. 1. Paraphrase what happens in the text on each page. Fill in the chart as

you move through the text.

2. Identify key themes or ideas that are inferred as you move through the text.

3. Notice and highlight text examples that illustrate an element of craft as you read. Name the technique the writer is using and how it enhances the piece.

THEMES: After you fill in the “Themes /Ideas” column in the Read like a Writer sheet – consider the following questions:

Can you make connections to the characters’ problem or insights that might also be true for others reading the story? Do you think that the story will reveal something larger about

people or life?What makes you say that? (Provide evidence)

CRAFT: After you fill in the “Craft” column in the Read like a Writer sheet – consider the following questions:

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What literary techniques such as simile, metaphor, descriptive language, sensory imagery or other elements of craft does the writer mainly use to enhance meaning? Are they effective?How does the writer use internal thinking or dialogue to help the reader make connections or to enhance meaning or to illustrate the themes?How does the author use voice, word choice and sentence fluency to enhance meaning?

STRUCTURE: After reading Identify and analyze how the writer has organized the introduction. Consider the following questions as you think about the writer’s organization:

How does the writer engage the reader on the initial page?How does the writer introduce the problem or conflict in the introduction?

What happens Themes / Ideas CraftPage 3

The priest comes to Rose’s house to take her to residential school. Rose and her little brother hide and her father asks them to leave. The priest says they will return with the RCMP.

Fear

Feeling powerless

The title “Baby Bird” initiates a metaphorical comparison to fledging birds. Rose hides in the “nest” of hides, “peeks” out of the nest. Mother “hissed” making the comparison to a mother bird defending the babies in the nest. Father’s expression, “no longer fierce” indicates a feeling of despair.

“His colours breaking apart like the reflection of the moon in runoff water”: This simile connects to worldview and the importance of nature.

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The Indian agent and the priest push their way in and take Rose away. Her father tries to stop them but he is unable.

Abduction

Inevitability

“with the white stripe at his throat”: compares priest to a bird of prey.

“lard man”: connotation Indian agent is not human and is “greasy” and untrustworthy.

“a-ita-pi-ooy were stealing her”: Blackfoot word? – people eaters

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“colour draining” “like sand spilling out of an old cloth bag” : a simile that illustrates inevitability

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The priest and Indian Agent take Rose in a car down an old bumpy road.

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The priest yells at Rose to sit up when she tries to imagine an escape.

Fear

Abduction / confinement

Escape

Cruelty

“snot-slimy”: sensory descriptive language

“stripe man” and “lard man”: adjectives that dehumanize the men.

“truck growled and chewed the ground”, “the car snorted”: metaphorical comparison to an animal that is confined or afraid

“stink that blew in from the mining town to the west - “Black Apple” – the name of the town implies decay and rot

Rose imagines she is swimming away from the men in the Napi river: internal thinking to reveal her feelings.

“the sound of a baby bird crying out for its mother and flapping its bony wings in her throat” “the bird cried even louder underneath and inside her”: continues with metaphorical comparison to baby bird

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They travel down the bumpy road and stop at the reserve where she sees her Aunt and her step children. She tries to call out but she is not heard.

Extreme fear

“clean sheets…you’ll like that” implies her home was dirty. “bird bones in her throat” “tried to fly away”

“diving deep” “come up for air” “big fat puffball”

Multiple metaphors: baby bird, swimming metaphor and the puffball exploding

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Follow the directions on page 8 of this handout to fill in the empty spaces on the chart below: Work with a partner making notes / or using sticky notes to organize your thinking process.

What happens Themes / Ideas Craft

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The priest comes to Rose’s house to take her to residential school. Rose and her little brother hide and her father asks them to leave. The priest says they will return with the RCMP.

Fear

Feeling powerless

The title “Baby Bird” initiates a metaphorical comparison to fledging birds. Rose hides in the “nest” of hides, “peeks” out of the nest. Mother “hissed” making the comparison to a mother bird defending the babies in the nest. Father’s expression, “no longer fierce” indicates a feeling of despair.

“His colours breaking apart like the reflection of the moon in runoff water”: This simile connects to worldview and the importance of nature.

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The priest and Indian Agent take Rose in a car down an old bumpy road.

Page 5 continued

The priest yells at Rose to sit up when she tries to imagine an escape.

Fear

Abduction / confinement

Escape

Cruelty

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“Black Apple” Writing task for teacher workshop

Write a short personal response to the Introduction of “Black Apple”. Make a connection to one of the themes set up in the introduction to the novel. (Fear, Feeling powerless, Confinement)

The quick write might be a “snapshot” or a short vignette, or a reflection or poem about a

connection that you made during the “See, Think, Wonder” visible thinking or “Read like a writer” activities.

Consider your: Feelings. Inner thoughts, (dis)comfort level, (un)certaintyUse a pull quote from the introduction to begin writing if you need a prompt: For example:

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Sitting up I peered out of the window…Or… When I am afraid…

I remember…When I imagine being taken from my home to attend a school faraway…

Kate’s reflectionAccounts of the residential school experience are difficult to hear. I attended the Truth and Reconciliation hearings when they were held in Regina and was struck by how different the survivor experiences were and, at the same time, how similar they were. Recalling the testimony of the survivors that spoke the day I attended the hearings still evokes a strong emotional reaction in the pit of my stomach. I recall the trembling voices of some who spoke of atrocities and the calm resolve of others who described how they have found comfort and healing in their language and culture. Sadly, the fictionalized account of Rose’s experience in residential school in the novel Black Apple was the reality for many of our indigenous children. As treaty people, Rose’s story belongs to all of us. Empathy is a necessary first step on the path to reconciliation.

Resources for teaching about residential schools:Where are the children: http://wherearethechildren.ca/en

Treaty six education website: https://treaty6education.lskysd.ca/residentialschoolsteachers

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