2016-2017 - Term 2
We spent the first few weeks of this term doing some partner and group work based on the writing process, as well as looking at some strategies and techniques to improve the students' story writing skills. To support these areas of study and the students' learning, the students have just started to write a non-fiction story on their on-line portfolios. For parent access, please use the districts' portal 'website' and use your child's login.
2015 - 2016
News Reports
We started off the year reviewing sentence structures, types of sentences and grammar, and ended term one by creating endings to non-fiction stories; focusing on 'target audiences' and continuing the same style of writing as the original authors. With regards to our novel studies, we have been reading The Book Thief. Although some of the language and ideology in the book has been quite difficult for some of our students to understand, they have been enjoying the humorous content spread sporadically throughout the novel. As a means to show student understanding of the novel, the students are currently working on creating graphic novels based on one or more aspects of the Book Thief plot. The students started off trying to create their graphic novels using solely 'Marvel Comic Characters,' however it became too limiting for some students. Here are a few pages from some of the students graphic novels (work in progress!):
May/June Class Debates
Students paired up and debated the pros and cons of several topics over the last few weeks, with debate topic choices such as: school should be four days a week, animal testing/all weapons/nuclear power/hunting/bottled water/space travel/video games/homework/Facebook should be banned, the legal driving age should be 21, parents will be held legally responsible for the actions of their minor children, individuals who don't vote should have their voting rights revoked, the age for drinking alcohol should be twenty-five, all drivers should be driving Hybrids, students should be allowed to select their own teacher, and all classrooms should be gender specific...etc. Some students chose to create speeches only, while others chose to support their views with Power Points. All students were given time to counter each others stance as well as time to make closing remarks. 'Audience members' were randomly chosen to judge and proclaim the 'winners' of each debate. One debate stance which was very popular and supported by a number of global research reports/studies was the four day school week - which has my support too (as long as I get the same salary - ha!).
Twisted Fairy Tales
The students are in the planning stages of creating their own 'twisted' fairy tales, which they are going to turn into iMovies/iDVD's to show to their grade one 'little buddies.' The students will add voice overs and music by using Garage Band and then, if time permits, transfer their projects to iDVDs and burn their own 'mini-movies.' We are also hoping to take one of the student's stories and turn it into a class play, which the students will then act out at the end of June. Busy times ahead!
To inspire the students, they have been rereading some tradition fairy tales and we also read a twisted fairy tale play. In addition, I also read the following stories/books to the class (which they loved - "very funny!"):
'Dream Rooms'
The students had to design their own dream 'room' of their choice and research the materials and furnishings that would go inside their rooms. They then had to draw and price out the total cost of their rooms, and use descriptive sentences and paragraphs to describe what their rooms looked like. The students found it quite challenging to make their paragraphs flow creatively and not end up sounding like a 'list' of objects in a room (they had numerous draft efforts before the following work was 'published').
Term One
The students have been learning about Writing Traits and have read the first six chapters of their novel 'The Egypt Game.' With regards to the Egypt Game itself, over the next few months, the students will be completing a book of general questions and reflections as part of their studies, as well as start to build their own 3D 'Egypt Game.' They've also started to study about the Writing Traits and spent a few lessons looking at how to organize paragraphs, and writing scavenger hunt directions (using imperative verbs and prepositional phrases) to help reinforce key concepts learnt.
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2013-2014 School Year
Final Language Arts Project - Initial Stages
The students are currently building characters and sets to depict a scene(s) from the novel that they read individually. These will then be used to create a 'stop/go animation' on iPads.
Work in progress... :)
Term Three - Literature Circle Posters (Culminating Project)
The students have just finished their literature circles (scroll down to see the worksheets etc) and their culminating poster project. The students had to create a plot line around a 'picture' etc. from the book and write down their reflections/connections that they had noted on their literature circles sheets around the plot. They then had to depict the story in the form of a comic strip underneath that, which also included a "my alternate ending" line. At the bottom of each poster is a letter to the author of each specific book. Each letter included reflections and connections, as well as suggestions to the author.
Term Two and Three - iMovie Book Trailers (with music and sound effects being created and transfered from Garage Band)
The students have been working in small groups to create iMovie Book Trailers of the books they read during term one and two. These trailers will eventually be linked; using QR codes, to the relevant book in our school library. Errington students will be able to go onto our library computers to see the trailer(s) and decide whether they'd like to read the book(s) based on the trailers the students are making. Our class are really enjoying this project and are getting carried away trying to make the trailers suspenseful and fun for 'the readers.'
Here are a few random (!) clips from one of them...
We spent the first few weeks of this term doing some partner and group work based on the writing process, as well as looking at some strategies and techniques to improve the students' story writing skills. To support these areas of study and the students' learning, the students have just started to write a non-fiction story on their on-line portfolios. For parent access, please use the districts' portal 'website' and use your child's login.
2015 - 2016
News Reports
We started off the year reviewing sentence structures, types of sentences and grammar, and ended term one by creating endings to non-fiction stories; focusing on 'target audiences' and continuing the same style of writing as the original authors. With regards to our novel studies, we have been reading The Book Thief. Although some of the language and ideology in the book has been quite difficult for some of our students to understand, they have been enjoying the humorous content spread sporadically throughout the novel. As a means to show student understanding of the novel, the students are currently working on creating graphic novels based on one or more aspects of the Book Thief plot. The students started off trying to create their graphic novels using solely 'Marvel Comic Characters,' however it became too limiting for some students. Here are a few pages from some of the students graphic novels (work in progress!):
May/June Class Debates
Students paired up and debated the pros and cons of several topics over the last few weeks, with debate topic choices such as: school should be four days a week, animal testing/all weapons/nuclear power/hunting/bottled water/space travel/video games/homework/Facebook should be banned, the legal driving age should be 21, parents will be held legally responsible for the actions of their minor children, individuals who don't vote should have their voting rights revoked, the age for drinking alcohol should be twenty-five, all drivers should be driving Hybrids, students should be allowed to select their own teacher, and all classrooms should be gender specific...etc. Some students chose to create speeches only, while others chose to support their views with Power Points. All students were given time to counter each others stance as well as time to make closing remarks. 'Audience members' were randomly chosen to judge and proclaim the 'winners' of each debate. One debate stance which was very popular and supported by a number of global research reports/studies was the four day school week - which has my support too (as long as I get the same salary - ha!).
Twisted Fairy Tales
The students are in the planning stages of creating their own 'twisted' fairy tales, which they are going to turn into iMovies/iDVD's to show to their grade one 'little buddies.' The students will add voice overs and music by using Garage Band and then, if time permits, transfer their projects to iDVDs and burn their own 'mini-movies.' We are also hoping to take one of the student's stories and turn it into a class play, which the students will then act out at the end of June. Busy times ahead!
To inspire the students, they have been rereading some tradition fairy tales and we also read a twisted fairy tale play. In addition, I also read the following stories/books to the class (which they loved - "very funny!"):
Some Traditional Books for Inspiration!
The students had to design their own dream 'room' of their choice and research the materials and furnishings that would go inside their rooms. They then had to draw and price out the total cost of their rooms, and use descriptive sentences and paragraphs to describe what their rooms looked like. The students found it quite challenging to make their paragraphs flow creatively and not end up sounding like a 'list' of objects in a room (they had numerous draft efforts before the following work was 'published').
The students have been learning about Writing Traits and have read the first six chapters of their novel 'The Egypt Game.' With regards to the Egypt Game itself, over the next few months, the students will be completing a book of general questions and reflections as part of their studies, as well as start to build their own 3D 'Egypt Game.' They've also started to study about the Writing Traits and spent a few lessons looking at how to organize paragraphs, and writing scavenger hunt directions (using imperative verbs and prepositional phrases) to help reinforce key concepts learnt.
Students wrote down where they ended up; after following all written directions, and then opened up a variety of origami 'creations' to discover if they ended up at the correct place!
______________________________________
2013-2014 School Year
Final Language Arts Project - Initial Stages
The students are currently building characters and sets to depict a scene(s) from the novel that they read individually. These will then be used to create a 'stop/go animation' on iPads.
Work in progress... :)
Term Three - Literature Circle Posters (Culminating Project)
The students have just finished their literature circles (scroll down to see the worksheets etc) and their culminating poster project. The students had to create a plot line around a 'picture' etc. from the book and write down their reflections/connections that they had noted on their literature circles sheets around the plot. They then had to depict the story in the form of a comic strip underneath that, which also included a "my alternate ending" line. At the bottom of each poster is a letter to the author of each specific book. Each letter included reflections and connections, as well as suggestions to the author.
Term Two and Three - iMovie Book Trailers (with music and sound effects being created and transfered from Garage Band)
The students have been working in small groups to create iMovie Book Trailers of the books they read during term one and two. These trailers will eventually be linked; using QR codes, to the relevant book in our school library. Errington students will be able to go onto our library computers to see the trailer(s) and decide whether they'd like to read the book(s) based on the trailers the students are making. Our class are really enjoying this project and are getting carried away trying to make the trailers suspenseful and fun for 'the readers.'
Here are a few random (!) clips from one of them...
Term One - Poetry
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2012-2013 School Year
Term 3
The students are coming to the end of their literature circle projects and are starting to choose their own individual culminating projects to show their understanding of their books, and more importantly, their reflections. Some students are choosing to go the game board and diorama route, while others are being encouraged to present their ideas, facts and thoughts 'digitally.'
We have also embarked on a study of different styles of poetry and have dabbled in creating alliteration paragraphs, Cinquain and Clerihew poems, as well as enjoyed and laughed our way through writing Limericks. Latterly, the students are choosing to either follow a particular style of poetry or rhythm, or neither, while creating their poems about "Life." This has elicited a full range of different ideas, styles and emotions...
"Life" Poetry
Term 2/3
At the moment, we are concentrating on our literature circle groups for most of our language arts periods. The students are just starting to get a grip of their roles and responsibilities, and are enjoying learning their 'parts.'
We spent a number of lessons, reviewing each worksheet that I created as well as the marking rubric, in addition to how to communicate positively during literature circles (what it looks and sounds like). I had a range of leveled books that the students could choose from and they picked their own book/group based on the synopsis that I read to them (there was a lot of switching though!).
NFB PixStop (**all video examples have now been removed/cannot 'play'**)
The students worked diligently over the past few weeks creating pictures for their stop motion animation projects. They learnt a number of things in the process:
1. That you can't jump the 'pictures' you draw too far ahead ie. If you are trying to have a character walk in the movie, it takes numerous pictures/you have to draw the movement of their characters' legs very slowly
2. You need at least eight or more pictures to make the stop motion animation effective
3. You need to slow down the animation frame time to at least 3 seconds in order to view all the details in the pictures
4. It's difficult to video the stop motion pictures on a camera at the same time that you play them on the iPads - hence the fingers below and pictures the wrong way round! Ha! {See below! :) }
5. Exporting the movies would have been better!
All in all, a great learning experience for everyone, including me! (We will improve on these aspects the next time!)
Division 3 students have started to create their own children's books on "Storybird"(an online book publishing website) and are using aspects of their non-fiction stories (Let's Celebrate) as their theme(s)/plot(s). Each student is focusing on creating a gradual and exciting plot for his/her story as well as having good a sense of 'voice' in his/her writing. I'm also emphasizing who their 'target audience' is for their stories and the use of suitable language, vivid descriptions and creative topic sentences to 'hook the readers.'
The Beginning!
TERM ONE
27th of September
Today, we attempted to start our term novel The Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis; which is about a young girl living in a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul. However, our pre-reading discussions deviated into more prevalent global issues such as religious beliefs, respecting others' beliefs and customs, tolerance and compassion for others.
Huge issues Division Three that deserved the time that we spent on them today. Well done, for asking such important questions and for debating the mindsets of others.
September / October
We started our novel - finally! Our students continue to appreciate what they have here in Canada as they journey with the novel's main character Parvana through war torn Kabul.
They're still questioning and wondering about what is happening in Afghanistan just now and to children in less fortunate countries.
The students learnt the following terms this week: Taliban, Patshu, Dari, shalwarkameez, toshak, pakul, karachi, chador, burqa, and hijab.
The students were assigned their first novel project last week and much to their delight, they were allowed to choose 'any format' to present chapter summaries and a reflection. We brainstormed how we would correct the work if students were to present their knowledge in different ways and came up with a simple 4 scale rubrics based on: the summaries themselves, their reflection, presentations skills, and writing conventions. We also discussed different ideas as to what they could do and what a week's assignment should look like (i.e. details and depth of information etc.) The students produced some terrific work on this assignment as you can see below.
Name: Parent Signature:
Breadwinner
‘Individual Project’
|
1K
Needs Work/
Not Yet Within Expectations
|
2J
Satisfactory/
Meets Expectations
|
3JJ
Good Work/
Fully Meets
Expectations
|
4JJJ
Outstanding/
Exceeds Expectations
|
Writing Style
Clarity/ Variety and impact of language
|
Simple, repetitive
language; may misuse terms
Sentences are often short and repetitive
Convention errors repeatedly distract the reader and make the text difficult to read
|
Language is simple and often vague
Sentence length may be varied; relies on few basic patterns
|
Language is clear some variety and description
Variety of sentence lengths/different conjunctions
|
Language is clear, varied and precise
Flows smoothly with a variety of sentence lengths/patterns
|
Summary
|
Summary doesn't include the main idea or supporting details
Doesn't retell any of the important events in the sequence or order they happened
Significant information is missing, or not recorded properly
|
Summarizes main ideas and themes
with some
effectiveness
Most information is presented in a logical sequence and recorded in the proper order
|
Summarizes main ideas and themes
with considerable
effectiveness
Summary includes main idea and 1-2 supporting details
Retells the important events in the sequence or order they happened
|
Summary includes the main idea and at least 3 supporting details in the retelling
Summarizes main ideas and themes
with a high degree
of effectiveness
Retells all the important events in the sequence or order they happened
|
Reflection
|
There is no opinion stated
No of few connections are made between the book and ‘the world’ or with life experiences
|
A basic opinion is stated about the story but there is no supporting reason stated
Reflection includes a basic connection with another book or a connection to a personal experience
|
An opinion is stated about the story and a reason for the opinion is made
Reflection includes some connections with books or to personal experience
|
Opinions were stated about the story and reasons for the opinions were made
Reflection
includes descriptive connections with books or to personal experiences
|
Presentation
|
Format did not meet expectations and showed little time was spent on presentation
|
Format met expectations, but the work is inconsistent with some neat & some messy areas
May include a few pictures or diagrams
|
Presentation was neatly written or typed
May include a few pictures or diagrams
|
Presentation was neatly written or typed
Presentation includes many detailed pictures/ diagrams that support the written material
Time was taken to present materials in an additional way (poster/booklet/diorama)
|
Conventions
Grammar/ Sentence Structure/ format
|
Numerous errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, word usage, run-on sentences, sentence fragments
Paragraphs not indented
|
Some errors occurred in capitalization, punctuation, word usage, run-on sentences, sentence fragments
Paragraph formatting inconsistent
|
A few errors occurred in capitalization, punctuation, word usage, sentence structure
Paragraphs properly formatted.
|
There were no errors or evidence of corrections in the report
Paragraphs were properly indented
Words were well chosen and sentences were concise
|
Areas covered to date: nouns, plurals, indefinite pronouns, reflexive pronouns, possessive nouns, personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, verbs, contractions, adjectives (positive, comparative and superlative, adverbs, prepositional phrases, articles, and quotations.
Reading Presentations - September to December
During our library block, students are taking turns to present and read aloud a 'picture book' to the class. The students choose a book the week before their presentation date, so they can practise lots at home with their family, and just in case they need help from me with vocabulary/pronunciation etc. I also send the marking rubrics home with the students when they choose their books so they know how they are going to be marked the following week (see the rubrics below).
This week we had some terrific presentations, and in the two years that I have been doing this, yesterday I heard the funniest story yet - "Darth Vader and Son" by Jeffrey Brown. I love this book! So did the presenter, who giggled his way through it with the class. Lots of fun - thank you!
Another funny book!
Nice Choice For Younger Students
Hilarious!
I always write down some personal comments about the presentation above 'Average Score.'
