Welcome to Navigate Powered by NIDES Writing 12!

Welcome to Navigate Powered by NIDES Writing 12!

Please note that the First Assignment is a requirement to be registered in the course.

Legal last name: Other last name:

First name: Middle name:

Student Email: Parent or guardian email:

Cell Phone #: Home phone#:

Other school attending:

Instructions: This assignment is intended to take approximately 5 - 10 hours to complete. It is worth 10% of your final grade for the course, so complete it carefully:

1. Read each question carefully before answering
2. Answer all questions to the best of your ability, and in your own words. Plagiarized assignments will not be accepted, and you will not be registered in the course.
3. Take your time and explore all of the resources. You will receive a higher mark on your First Assignment if you include your learning from the readings and resources provided.
4. When you have completed this assignment, return it as an attachment to an email to:

Office Use Only Date:2016
Memoir: /18
Composition: /24
Total: /42

Welcome to Writing12 at Navigate!

Here is theFirst Assignment that you need to complete in order to be registered in Writing 12. Until this assignment is submitted, and passed, your registration request will not be finalized. Once you have downloaded this assignment, you may save it on your computer to complete when you have time and then submit when it is complete. Please take the time to do a thorough job as this first assignment will count for 10% of your overall mark.

Here is some background on your Writing 12 Course:

It consists of 4 units of studyPlease see attached Course Roadmap and use it to check off work.

1. The Basics
2. Short Stories
3. Lyrical Words
4. Projects

As you work through these 4 units of study, you will be asked to demonstrate and develop a variety of skills from poetry to story writing to discussing who your favourite author is. Everything is directed towards making you a better writer, but if there is something alternative that you would like to pursue then please discuss it with your teacher as one of the goals of the course is to foster a love of writing. Unfortunately, if you want to receive course credit for Writing 12, we need more than just love; we need marks.

Now the last piece of information before you hit information overload is that you will have 6 months to complete your course. If you are not actively working towards completing your course in this time then you may be assigned an incomplete failing grade and your course will be closed.

Now to move past all of the mandatory bureaucratic information and on to the assignment…..

Section A –Write a Memoir(18 marks)

Amemoiris a piece of autobiographical writing, but much shorter than a comprehensive autobiography. The memoir often tries to capture a single highlight or meaningful moment in one's past, often including a contemplation of the event’s meaning at a later time.

Characteristics of Memoir Form:

• Focuses on a brief period of time or a close series of related events

• Tells a story - employs many of the usual elements of storytelling such as setting, plot development, imagery, conflict, characterization, foreshadowing and flashback, irony and symbolism

• Includes the writer's contemplation of the meaning of these events in retrospect

• Possesses a fictional quality even though the story is true

• Aims for a higher emotional level than an anecdote

• Presents a personal reconstruction of the events and their impact

Here is an example of a memoir written by Aboriginal writer, Richard Wagamese, from his memoir One Native Life.

An eager learner grabs at any straw.
I write in the dimness of morning. Outside, the world is a shape shifter. Light eases things back into definition, their boundaries called from shadow, hardening, forming, beginning to hold again and the land shrugs itself into wakefulness, purple moving upward into pearl grey.
It's good to be up and working at this time. I can feel the power of life and light around me and as the letters form upon the screen, race each other to the sudden halt of punctuation, I understand where this need to write comes from.
It comes from this palpable mystery. This first light breaking over everything, altering things, arranging them, setting them down into patterns again and tucking shadow back into folds behind the trees. It comes from the need of communion, of joining with that Great Mystery, that force, that energy.
Like life, unlearning something was a lot harder than learning it.
I always wanted to write. There isn't a time I can recall when I didn't carry the desire to frame things, order things upon a page, sort them out, make sense of them. But in the beginning, learning to write was a test, a challenge, an ordeal.
I was the only Indian boy in a mill town school in northern Ontario in the early 1960s. It was a different world then, harder maybe, colder and the idea of Indians was set like concrete, particularly in the parochial, working class confines of a saw mill town two hundred miles from nowhere.
The school was set between the railroad tracks and the pipeline, in a hollow between hills above the mill. We sat with the thick sulfur smell coming through the windows and the spume of the stacks on the horizon above the trees. In the classroom I was ignored, set down near the back and never called upon for anything.
They said I was slow, a difficult learner, far too quiet for a kid, and lethargic. They said I hadn't much hope for a future and after they held me back a year they just let me be. But I wanted to learn. I was hungry for it. I went to school every day eager and excited about the things we were given to learn.
But I couldn't see. No one had spent enough time with me to learn that. The reason I was slow to pick things up was that I could never see the board. Even at the front of the room — where they put me so they could keep a better eye on me — I could never discern the writing on the blackboard. Everything I learned I learned by memory, by listening hard to what the teacher said and memorizing it.
When I was adopted in 1965, I was sent to my first big school in a southern Ontario town called Bradford just north of Toronto. There were hundreds of kids in that school and it seemed like I walked in waves of them on my way to school that first day. Walking through those big glass doors was terrifying for me.
I was in Grade 3 and my teacher wanted to introduce me and she asked me to write my name on the blackboard for the other children to read. I went to the board, leaned close to it, squinted and began to write. I heard snickers at the first letter and open laughter when I'd finished.
I'd written my name upside down and backwards. To the rest of my classmates it was odd, strange and hilarious but that was how I'd learned. I felt the weight of their laughter like stones. Walking back to my seat that day I felt ashamed, stupid and terribly alone.
But I had a teacher that cared. She walked me down to the nurse's station herself and waited while I got my eyes tested. Astigmatism, the nurse told her. Terrible astigmatism. Then she listened closely to me when I explained why my writing was wrongly shaped.
I taught myself to write by squinting back over my shoulder. When we were taught to write in script I wasn't given any teacher attention, wasn't offered any help in forming the letters. So I watched the boy behind me and I mimicked what I saw on my own page. Unfortunately, what I saw was upside down and backwards — and that was how I taught myself to write. I could spell everything correctly but it was all skewed.
Well, I got glasses very shortly after that, and my world changed. Once I could see what was written on the board, my ability to learn accelerated. I graduated Grade 3 with straight A's. Especially in penmanship.
See, for that teacher I wasn't an Indian. I was a student in need. So she took the time to show me how to write properly. Every day, before and after school, she and I sat at a desk and we worked through the primary writing books. I shaped letters time after time after time, until I gradually unlearned the awkward process I'd taught myself.
Like life, unlearning something was a lot harder than learning it. I struggled with breaking down my method and at times it seemed I would never get it right. I persisted with the help and encouragement of that teacher and I learned how to write in the right direction. But I still shape my G's and D's wrong today. I still write them back to front after all this time.
I write on a keyboard these days. But there isn't a time when I set a pen to paper that I don't remember learning how to write and what it took to get me there.
See, there's a story behind every difference. There's a reason we become the people we become and it's having the courage and consideration to hear those stories that allows us to help each other.
Sometimes life turns us upside down and backwards. It's caring that gets us back on our feet again and pointed in the right direction.

This example is longer than what I would like you to write, but hopefully you can get an idea of the memoir format. Now it is your turn….

Write a memoir of approximately 500 words. You may write about any experience you have had, but make sure you have a final reflection at the end.

If you are struggling to think of what to write, here are some suggestions….

• Describe a job you held in the past or a current job (bad jobs are often fun to write about). What interesting experiences do you associate with this job. Why did you take this job? What does this job reveal about you or a particular time in your life? What does it reveal about human nature or society?

• Describe a moment when you faced an occasion that challenged your values or where you had to make a difficult decision. Maybe you experienced a situation that turned out unexpectedly, or left you keenly disappointed. Describe how this moment became a significant learning experience for you.

• Describe an awkward situation. What does situation reveal about human nature or society?

Your memoir will be marked on the following 6 point holistic scale:

Insert your Memoir for Section A here.

6 / Writing is fully imagined and well-crafted. Accomplishes the purpose with originality and maturity. Uses effective vocabulary and sentence variety. Voice and tone engage the audience throughout. Structure is effective and the writing as a whole appears effortless. Errors are not distracting.
5 / Writing is clearly imagined and crafted. Has a clear sense of purpose. Appropriate word choice and sentence variety. Voice and tone generally engage the audience. Structure is effective and the writing demonstrates control. Errors are not distracting.
4 / Writing is generally straightforward and clear, with some imagination and sense of purpose. Basic vocabulary, some sentence variety. Attempts to engage the audience, but lacks a consistent voice. Structure may be formulaic. Errors generally do not impede meaning.
3 / Writing is formulaic or undeveloped, with little imagination or sense of purpose. Limited vocabulary and sentence variety. Lacks a sense of audience and voice. Structure may be weak. Errors may distract and impede meaning.
2 / Writing is hard to fathom with no clear purpose. Colloquial vocabulary, weak sentence structure. Writing reflects little understanding of language conventions. Inappropriate tone or language for audience. Structure may seem illogical. Frequent noticeable errors interfere with meaning.
1 / Writing is not developed. Has no discernible purpose. May be too brief to accomplish the task. Lacks structure. Frequent serious errors.
0 / No attempt to address the assignment..

Section B – Composition: Who am I? (24 marks)

Using your best writing, introduce yourself to your teacher by writing amulti-paragraphresponse to the question: Who am I?

This assignment is a creative personal response that will be used to assess your ability to write. Here are some other tips and pointers to help you on your way:

• Explain the facets of your situation, history, personality, passions,dreams, and fears that paint an accurate and compelling self-portrait.
• Take time to organize what you want to include, making sure that you emphasize those attitudes and attributes that are most important for a good understanding of who you are.
• Remember that you can’t say everything, but you can create a vivid impression.
• Remember to avoid starting every sentence with “I”. Variety is the spice of life, just as in writing you want to create variety in your sentence structure.
• Read your writing out loud and slowly to yourself before submitting it to make sure that you’ve caught any mistakes and that the tone and flow of your writing represents your best effort.
  

You should write around four paragraphs and at least 750 words. It will be marked using the 6 point scale found below.

Insert your multi-paragraph composition for Section B here.

6 / Writing is fully imagined and well-crafted. Accomplishes the purpose with originality and maturity. Uses effective vocabulary and sentence variety. Voice and tone engage the audience throughout. Structure is effective and the writing as a whole appears effortless. Errors are not distracting.
5 / Writing is clearly imagined and crafted. Has a clear sense of purpose. Appropriate word choice and sentence variety. Voice and tone generally engage the audience. Structure is effective and the writing demonstrates control. Errors are not distracting.
4 / Writing is generally straightforward and clear, with some imagination and sense of purpose. Basic vocabulary, some sentence variety. Attempts to engage the audience, but lacks a consistent voice. Structure may be formulaic. Errors generally do not impede meaning.
3 / Writing is formulaic or undeveloped, with little imagination or sense of purpose. Limited vocabulary and sentence variety. Lacks a sense of audience and voice. Structure may be weak. Errors may distract and impede meaning.
2 / Writing is hard to fathom with no clear purpose. Colloquial vocabulary, weak sentence structure. Writing reflects little understanding of language conventions. Inappropriate tone or language for audience. Structure may seem illogical. Frequent noticeable errors interfere with meaning.
1 / Writing is not developed. Has no discernible purpose. May be too brief to accomplish the task. Lacks structure. Frequent serious errors.