English Curry

Below there are a couple of activities that will help you prepare for the Pastiche assessment task.
activity for pastiche Des Moines
activity for pastiche Marrakech

Attached here are the two main assessment pieces for Travel Writing.
The first, as you know by now, is a descriptive piece of a place of your choice. It is not a story, although it can have some narrative elements in it – such as in Des Moines by Bill Bryson. Any descriptive piece must engage the senses – sight, smell, hearing, touch and, possibly, taste. Focus on that.
Travel Writing – descriptive piece – medium assessment
Descriptive writing – rubric
The major assessment for Travel Writing is the Pastiche. A pastiche is a piece of writing in the style of another writer. Your task is to write like George Orwell or Bill Bryson. I would suggest that it may be a little easier to write as Orwell rather than Bryson – comic writing is more difficult than serious commentary.
pastiche – major assessment
Pastiche Rubric
activity for pastiche Des Moines
activity for pastiche Marrakech

A Martian sends a Postcard
The link above is a short exercise designed to get you to see everyday things in new ways. Rememeber, there are ways of seeing things, rather than just looking.

Welcome to High School English. There is no better place to be.

Course Outline

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

Marrakech worksheet

descriptive writing – medium assessment

pastiche – major assessment