Blog Archives

Writing Dialogues - Through Character Arguments!

3/31/2016

Last week we developed our own characters and had them experience their first day of grade 6. This week, you will again get to use your characters in a story but we’re going to focus on another part of the discussion that we had with Chris Tozier, dialogue! Chris said that the easiest way to make your writing more clear is to follow the conventions for writing dialogue, specifically, quotation marks around speech and a new paragraph every time a different character is speaking. For you blog post this week, I would like your character to get into an argument, either with their parent, best friend, sibling, that part is totally up to you. Be sure that their personality shines through the argument and their flaw can show up too. It can be funny, silly, serious; whatever you like but let’s practice writing dialogue!

Developing Character a la Chris Tozier

3/23/2016

This week we had the pleasure of chatting with author Christopher Tozier (@oliviabrophie). He was incredibly inspiring, and offered us tons of tips on our writing, what it’s like to be a writer, and challenges that writers face. Something he spoke about was the importance of developing character, and creating characters that are 3 dimensional. Your task this week is two parts:

Write down one thing you learned from Chris during his talk.
Create your own character that you will use in a story one day. For this character, they must have: - a name

a favourite food
3 personality traits (e.g. funny or humble)
a flaw (something that can create conflict)
how would they react in a difficult situation (e.g. they didn’t do their homework)

Write down all of these things in your post below. When you’ve done that, write a paragraph from their perspective as they start their first day of grade 6. I’m so excited to see the characters that you create!

Relax, and Enjoy Your Break

3/10/2016

March break is time of reflection and relaxation, a good time to get rejuvenated before the final push of the year. For your blog over the break this week, I’d like you to take some pictures of different activities and create a slideshow (no more than 10 slides) that showcases how you enjoyed your break. I will do the same.
For the post this week, all you’ll have to do is post your link to your slideshow and write down ONE thing you did that was amazing!

We’ll read all of these when we come back on the Monday!

Got Me Under Pressure!

3/3/2016

Maybe you’ve seen this video already of the man who was skydiving in Australia and he has a seizure. “A seizure is the physical findings or changes in behavior that occur after an episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain.” This man has this happen to him after he jumps out of the plane! After his seizure, he becomes unconscious and cannot pull his own parachute cord. The other jumper, the instructor, races down and pulls it for him, and the man regains consciousness before he hits the ground and lands safely. This video is very scary, exciting, and powerful. All I could think of is what it would be like to be in the instructor’s position in this. He was extremely cool under pressure and did what was necessary to save the man’s life. Think back to times when you feel pressure in your life. It may not be as dramatic as this situation but think about times when you have assignments due, a big game, or some responsibility at home.
How do you deal with the pressure? Can you write down 3 simple rules that help you or you think would help people deal with situations under pressure? If you know how to deal with the stresses before they happen, sometimes those situations aren’t as difficult when you have to face them. Try not to copy anyone else’s rules.

Writing Dialogues - Through Character Arguments!

Developing Character a la Chris Tozier

Relax, and Enjoy Your Break

Got Me Under Pressure!

Mr. Steltman's Class

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