Travel Writing
Welcome to High School English. There is no better place to be.
Assessments
For each unit there will usually be one major and one medium assessment piece. There will also be two minor pieces of assessment per unit. Minor assessment pieces will usually take the form of a set of questions to answer, or to complete a paragraph about a theme or the like. Attached to the minor assessment descriptions (found on the blog) will be a line or two from one of the major rubrics that we use. All minor assessments will be marked out of 10.
Rubric fragments for minor assessments
Introductory Unit
We begin with a short piece on your journey as an English learner. It’s useful to reflect on some of the major influences and events in learning about yourself, the world and others through language.
The assessment is a minor piece and should be enjoyable.
English Learning Journey
Unit One – Travel Writing
What is it? Why do it? What makes good travel writing?
Essential Questions
- How can you express yourself in prose?
- What is the value of recognizing literature as a record of human experience?
We will read two pieces of travel writing by two of the better writers of the last hundred years – Bill Bryson and George Orwell. There will be several learning exercises – questions, worksheets and the like – then two assessment pieces. The first, a medium assessment, is a descriptive writing exercise, and the second, a major assessment, is writing a travel piece in the style of either Orwell or Bryson. No easy task.
Des Moines
Marrakech by George Orwell
Des Moines questions
Marrakech questions
Peter Curry