My introduction

Hi my name is Sophia, I was born in Toronto, Ontario on November 27th 2010, I moved to Victoria when i was 4 years old. I have a little brother who also goes to Brookes, and 1 year old dog named Campbell. I was named after the italian model Sophia loren. My favourite colours are navy blue and light pink. My favourite things to do are train my dog, watch movies, and visit my horse. I love to travel and in the future I hope to travel more around Europe and I would like to move there. I would love to become a lawyer of some sort in the future, possibly a patent lawyer in the science and medical field.

My introduction

Hi! My name is Alexa Castro, I was born in Mexico city on June 21st 2010. I have a little brother who was born when I turned three years old. When my brother was born, we moved to a city called Cuernavaca, which is like an hour away from Mexico city. When I turned eleven years old, my parents decided that Mexico wasn’t safe anymore, so they decided to move to Canada. I have a dog, her name is Lila. She is a rescued dog from Mexico, so we don’t know what breed she is. I still haven’t decided what I wanna do when I grow up, but i’ll figure it out, I really like to travel so i’m gonna travel a lot. I like to play sports, like rugby, volleyball, basketball, and sometimes I like to play soccer with my brother and dad.

Get to know me???????

My name is Maya van Kempen, I was born November 22, 2010, and I’ve lived in Victoria all my life, I love traveling and going on vacations, I play soccer (my fav sport) I’ve been at Brookes for one year, I have 3 cats Hanky, Mochi, and Milo, I love sleeping and watching movies, my dream is to go to Miami, I love rainy days, my dream car is either a dodge charger or a dodge challenger, I love sitting outside and looking up at the stars,  I like camping and going to the golf islands in my dad’s boat, we usually do a 7-day trip and cruise around, I visit my family often, and i just learned how to surf.

A get to know me

My name is Suzy. I was born on December 14th 2010. I grew up in Port Moody and moved to Langford four years ago. I was born in the same hospital as Lyla. I have a husky named Zulie. I love taking photos of flowers and observing mushrooms. I love art and biology. I also love watching movies, camping, and star gazing. My dream is to own a house with a huge backyard with a pond and all sorts of plants away from the city and spend all my time in the forest taking photos of plants and mushrooms.

This is me, not you, I am Lyla

My name is Lyla Jane Wittig, I was born in the Newestminster hospital when i was a baby, I lived in North Vancouver for most of my life and moved here about a year and a half ago when i was twelve and a half. I have a dog named Jax, he is a cavadoodle and he is ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY CUTE!!! My favourite subject is obviously English, but if it wasn’t it would be PHE. My mom is an artist and a contact lense sales rep, and my dad is the owner of 2 cafés here on the island. I really like suzy who I call Snoogie Woogie, I wrote that just to embarrass her. (Ur welcome Suzy.) My favourite teacher is obviously Mr. MacKnight, but if it weren’t it would be Mr. T. I have mostly hazel green eyes, but because of my wired dad and his genetics as I get older either 1 or both of them will most likely become a blue green colour. (Thx dad). Yeah…I love my dog. And I am out of ideas, but as a fun fact as I am writing this the draft was last saved at 10:44:38 am.

My Introduction!

Hello! My name is Avery Adamschek. I was born in Vancouver on May 20th, 2010. My family and I moved to Victoria when I was around 3-4 years old to be with the rest of my family. I have a dog, Kona. He is a labradoodle which is a Labrador and doodle mixed. My favourite colour is light pink because it reminds me of my favourite flowers which are peonies. My dream is to move to Paris when I’m older. Paris is rich in culture and art, two things I love. I also think it has a lot of amazing job opportunities. I love fashion, vogue, shopping, poems, and tea! I love to visit new places, especially when it’s a city.  

Self Introduction

Hi everyone, my name is Laila, and I am fourteen years old. I am from Victoria, but my dad is from Iran so, I am also half Persian. I used to go to a school called Artscalibre Academy. My mom was the art teacher there. It was great, but Brookes is better. Some of my interests include; music, art, food, being active, , nature, and reading books. In the future I hope to study Biology, animal sciences, or a related field, and maybe become a veterinary doctor.

Welcome to the MYP4 English 9 Class Blog

We will use this blog for Independent Reading journal entries, for Personal Writing, and for occasional responses to the literature we study together and to our class discussions and activities. All of the writing you do on this blog is part of what I call “piano practice”: the ungraded work that improves your skills and produces better results on your assessments.

This is not Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. You need to edit and proofread your writing. You need to use standard English and follow the conventions of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Comments on this blog must be specific, kind, and helpful.

You will learn a tremendous amount by reading each other’s work. Sometimes you will think, “Ah, that’s really good, I could do that, too.” At other times you will think, “Ah yes, I make that same mistake, but I usually don’t notice it in my own writing.” Or you may think, “Wow, my writing is better than I thought.” Together, we can learn faster and make more progress.

Sample IRJE #3: block quotation without dialogue

Gordon Bowker’s James Joyce: A Biography describes a man who, though he may have been a great writer, was a terrible husband and father. In 1907 Joyce is 25 years old. He is living in Rome on a negligible salary as a bank clerk, supplemented by funds borrowed from his brother. He has a young son, and his wife is pregnant. He is constantly eluding creditors, falling behind in his rent, and moving his family from one shabby apartment to another. He decides to leave Rome, and gives notice to his employer. On his last day of work,

he drew a month’s salary (250 lire) at the bank and went on a farewell spree—a drunken adieu to the Eternal City, which he had come to consider ‘vulgar’ and ‘whorish.’ When [he was] suitably drunk, two congenial bar-flies took him to a backstreet and relieved him of his bulging wallet. He returned home penniless and completely soaked from an evening downpour. (p. 165)

Many have questioned the ethics of enjoying art created by people who have been misogynists, rapists, racists, or fascists, for example. It seems difficult to reconcile beautiful art with such ugly behaviour. In Joyce’s case, such questions have been asked, but in this instance the behaviour is not only bad, but stupid—and this raises a slightly different question. How is it possible for someone like Joyce—who read, wrote, and spoke several languages fluently, and whose work, whatever you think of it, is undeniably brilliant—how is it possible for such an obviously intelligent man to make such stupid choices? If intelligence did not save Joyce from making stupid choices, what about us? What can save us from making stupid choices?

Sample IRJE #2: “We was attacked!”

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of English school boys are evacuated by plane from a war zone, but the plane crashes on a remote tropical island, and the only adult with them—the pilot—is killed. Soon after they meet, Ralph and Piggy argue about what happened to the pilot of their airplane, and we see right away that Piggy is more of a thinker than Ralph:

“He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn’t land here. Not in a place with wheels.” 

“We was attacked!” 

“He’ll be back all right.”

The fat boy shook his head.

“When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it.” (p. 8)

Whereas Ralph unthinkingly believes that everything will work out for the best (“’He’ll be back all right’”), Piggy has kept his eyes open during the crash and is brave enough to speak the frightening truth: there are no adults left to take care of them.

Sample IRJE #1: “You reason like a block of cheese.”

In The Viscount of Bragelonne, by Alexander Dumas, the old soldier, d’Artagnan, proposes a business opportunity to Planchet, who was his squire in their younger days but who now owns a prosperous candy shop in Paris. D’Artagnan’s idea is to raise a small army and restore Charles II, rightful King of England, to his throne. Planchet is reluctant to invest without understanding more about d’Artagnan’s plans.

“Since you are proposing a business deal, I have the right to discuss it,” says Planchet.

“Discuss, Planchet; from discussion comes light.”

“Well then, since I have your permission, I would like to point out that in England they have, first of all, a Parliament.”

“Yes. And then?”

“And then, an Army.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“And then, the people themselves.”

“Is that all?”

“The people of England, who consented to the overthrow and execution of the late King, father of Charles II, will never agree to put the son back on the throne.”

“Planchet, my friend” said d’Artagnan, “you reason like a block of cheese.” (p. 417)

In French, the line is more beautiful: “Planchet, mon ami, tu raisonnes comme un fromage.” It made me laugh out loud the first time I read it, and it reminded me of something my French friend Christian said to me years ago when he noticed that I was wearing a new shirt: “Tu es beau comme un camion.” “You are as handsome as a truck.”