Oct 1, Wednesday

Madness and Games

The Grade 8s had their retreat today. They had Mountain Madness in the morning, and the afternoon was a series of tasks and games.

Next Class: A look at inferencing and the "The Open Window"

Sept 29, Monday (18)

The Words you know

Word of the day was quell.

We took a poll of your knowledge of Indigenous Culture.

Students were given the first Word of the Day Quiz. 

Instructions were: 

Create a list of as many of the word of the day words that you can recall. Beneath the word try to use it in a sentence.

You have a limited time to write this, and you may not use your word list – go from memory.

Hand it in when done.

We have covered 16 words (not counting today). 

• 14+ correctly used in sentences is Extending.

• 12+ correctly used in sentences or listing all 16 is Proficient.

• 7+ correctly used in sentences or listing 12 or more is Developing.

• 6 or fewer correctly used in sentences or listing 8 or less is Emerging

• Less than 3 is Not Meeting Standards

Students had time to finish this in class.

Next Class: Grade 8 Retreat

Next, Next Class: Inferencing and annotating - "The Open Window"

Special Entry

Word of the Day quiz on Sept 29

Create a list of as many of the word of the day words that you can recall. Beneath the word try to use it in a sentence.

You have limited time to write this, and you may not use your word list – go from memory.

Hand it in when done.

We have covered 16 words (not counting Monday's word).

Extending: Using 14 or more in sentences

Proficient: Using 12 or more in sentences or listing 16

Developing: Using 7-11 in sentences or listing 11 or more.

Emerging: Listing 8 or fewer words or using 6 or fewer in sentences

Sept 26, Friday (17)

Reading and Working

Word of the day was preposterous.

Students started with silent reading, while a few had another shot at the sentence structure quiz. After a while students had time to hand in work on their paragraph and hand it, and get caught up on missing assignments as I had the work-completion list up on the screen. 

Next Class: Word of the Day quiz.

Sept 25, Thursday (16)

One thing - Unity

Word of the day was overt.

Students fell into some questions about art for the provocation today.

Today,s lesson was about one thing - Unity. I defined it in terms of paragraph writing and then students had a double sided worksheet to practice. Handout available in my classroom.

After we went over the answers students had time to work on their paragraphs from yesterday.

Next Class: Friday reading and working day

Sept 24, Wednesday (15)

Paragraph Beginnings

Word of the day was nuance.

Students "fired" off some questions for our provocation.

Students were then given the following instructions;

Paragraph Writing

Topic: Explain what type of person Andrew or Earl is from “What I want to be when I grow up”.

Remember:

• Use Pen

• No personal pronouns “I”, “me”, “we”, “us”

• Indent. Use Capitals at the start of sentences.

• Voice: Formal tone and language

• Topic Sentence: Have a strong topic sentence

• Unity: Everything relates back to your topic sentence

This is a first draft. First Drafts are never perfect, but they are more perfect than a blank page.

You have this whole class to complete your paragraph and do some re-writes. 

Paragraphs are due at End of Class on Friday

Next Class: Unity Lesson

Sept 22, Monday (13)

Stereotypes and Us continued

Word of the day was languish.

Students climbed to questionable heights for the provocation.

We completed our stereotypes lesson from last day. Students were able to connect to the characters in the story, and then to themselves and did a bit of writing around how they might have been stereotyped. This piece of writing may come back in to play later on in the course.

Next Class: Learning different paragraph types and planning a paragraph. 

Sept 17, Wednesday (11)

Character exploration

Word of the day was jurisdiction.

Students drove toward stronger questions. 

Today, students put their annotation skills and new-found character knowledge in to practice. Students read Martha Brook's short story "What I want to be when I grow up" and used their annotation skills to make as many notes about the characters as they could. This took up the remainder of class. They had a character details chart to complete as well. 

Next Class: Sentence Structure quiz and maybe some stereotypes.

Sept 15, Monday (9)

Annotation and Practice

Word of the day was hindrance.

We had a crash in our provocation discussion.

Students learned how to annotate and then had a chance to practice annotating by reading a short story titled "The King of Beasts". All handouts are available in class. 

Poems were due this class and annotations were for homework if not completed in class.

Next Class: Hand in annotations and learning about character

Sept 12, Friday (8)

Sentence Structure Quiz and Reading/Work Time

Word of the day was gaunt.

Students had their first attempt at the sentence structure quiz. A few students got perfect but most will need more attempts.

Students then had time to read silently and to quietly work on their poems, which are due on Monday the 15. 

Next Class: Annotation and practice

Sept 5, Fri (3)

Library Visit and Grammar Check

Word of the day was benign.

We learned that on Fridays we spend some time reading in class, so to help with that we went down to the library to check out some books. Once books were obtained we came back and read for a bit. 

After doing some silent reading, it was time to check grammar skills. I gave the students a grammar quiz and then we marked it. I did not collect it as I wanted to see what students knew and what they did not know. 

Then we had time to read a bit more and that brought us to the end of the class.

Next Class: We will learn some grammar and figure out how to do better on any upcoming grammar quizes. 

Sept 4, Thu(2)

First Words, Tours, and Provocation Starts

We started with the word of the day. Today it was adept. See the vocabulary page to get the meanings and usage. 

Next up was a quick web site tour to see where to find this sight, how to navigate it and what we will find there. I try to make it as helpful as possible so please use it. 

Then we moved onto Bloom's Taxonomy (we learned what a taxonomy was), and learned about the different levels of thinking. This lead to the first provocation. An image was shown, and students generated questions about the image. We then heard some of the questions and students got a chance to determine what level of thinking their question was. Good practice for our critical thinking. (Handouts available in class).

We then took a quick look at the learning intentions for this first third of the course and students self assessed where they are at the start in their understandings. They also had a chance to set some learning goals. These are due next class. 

Next Class:, Word of the Day, and Sentence Structures and Parts of speech, and Library Visit. 

Sept 3, Tue (1)

Opening Class. Welcome. There is a seating plan.

We went over the course outline and expectations. This should cover most questions about the course and offer some tips to help towards success. 

Next up was a survey designed for me to get to know you. The students were to write down their responses and then hand them in. The questions were as follows;

1. Name (what you are named as well as what you prefer to be called)

2. Birthday

3. A Favorite Fictional Character (can be literary, comic, cartoon, or film/tv)

4. Tell me something about you that you are proud of.

5. Tell me something about you that you think is important for me to know.

6. Favorite movie genres and music type

7. Tell me a hobby/interest/sport that you do

8. What is a personal highlight for the last 12 months?

Next Class: Word of the day begins, Blooms Taxonomy and Questions and Intentions