So Long September!

And just like that, we are done our first month of school! This was another busy week with boys soccer, girls soccer, and the Terry Fox Run. Congratulations to the ladies in both classes who brought home a victory from the soccer pitch on Wednesday!

8D leading the Terry Fox Run on Thursday

Reading

With students-athletes away two days this week the kiddos who were at school got more time to work
on their independent reading. Many have finished their first books and are well on their way with their
novel responses. One of the most popular choices seems to be the creation of three significant settings
from their books using Minecraft. I am amazed at the thought and detail that has been going into their
building. We finished off the week with learning how to decipher the theme in literary texts so that they
can communicate their understanding of an author's intended message.

We love Minecraft! Students have the option either create a screencast or present their worlds live to the class.

Writing

This week students continued to build on their skills as sketchnoters. They went to the website
wonderopolis.org, chose a wonder that they were interested in, picked a minimum of 5 facts from their
article and then created a graphic non-fiction text. I love sketchnoting based on reading because this
activity hits overall curriculum expectations in Reading, Writing and Media Literacy!

Thanks to Joy for this amazing example!

Sketchnoters in action!

Media Literacy

This week we looked at storyboard planners for iMovie trailers. One of the independent reading
tic-tac-toe options is to create a book trailer. iMovie is a powerful app that gives students the opportunity
to create high-quality movie trailers. Creating a storyboard is an essential part of the pre-writing process
for the development of excellent videos. These templates have been created for all the genres that
iMovie provides as options for film creation.

Thanks to Tony Vincent and his Learning in Hand blog for creating this fantastic planning templates! https://learninginhand.com/blog/2014/8/6/plan-a-better-imovie-trailer-with-these-pdfs

Summaries and Sketchnotes and Improvs Oh My

Reading

In reading, we are continuing to work on our independent novel studies and some have even begun to
work on their TicTacToe novel responses. We worked on mastering the art of writing a short summary
of literary texts using a plot graph as a tool for pre-writing this week. This will help them as they start to
write their summaries for their independent novel responses. 

Tech Tool Tip

We went over how to use the iCal app as a great organizational tool so that they can keep track of their
individual due dates. When they come to have a conference with me I always make sure that they have
entered their chosen dates and set alerts to help them stay on track. I highly recommend that they use
the iCal as their digital planner for all their subjects this year.

Writing 

We have continued to work on idea generation in writing as the students draft pieces about themselves
during our quickwrite sessions. They have also been working on the revision stage of the writing process
by looking at their work and seeing if there are words they could make better, sentences they can move
around, or details that they could add to their writing. 

Media Literacy

This week both classes learned how to use the app Paper as a tool for sketchnoting. The strategy of

visual notetaking will be helpful for them in all of their subjects for the rest of their school careers.
Sketchnoting allows students to synthesize information they have read, listened to or watched creatively
and is a fantastic way to allow them to make their thinking visible. It made my heart happy when so many
students asked to borrow my styluses so that they could continue to experiment at home over the
weekend!

Drama

We had our first drama classes this week. We worked on a variety of improvisational and team-building
games. The connection between improvisation in drama and generating ideas in writing is great. We also
wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and move our classroom outside. We will continue to
learn new theatre sports that improve our improvisation skills and build our way up to the creation of
dramatic presentations.

Gooooooooals!

And just like that, we are in the middle of September! I apologize that it is so hard to subscribe to this blog. I had no idea that it would be so tricky as I didn’t try to subscribe myself. If you are having problems then I’d suggest just bookmarking the site. My plan is to post at the end of each week with the occasional weekday post if time allows. 

It has been another week of establishing our routines and talking about what it means to learn. I’ve been working my way through individual conferences so that I can get to know everyone and figure out who they are as learners. I want to know how they have felt about their English classes in the past. I want to know if they feel they are better readers or writers. I want to know what they think they need to work on as readers and writers. I also want to know what they want from me as a facilitator of learning.

Reading

This week we have continued to read our independent novels and reviewed the rubric that I created based on the success criteria that we co-created with both classes. We have added the option to create three settings in Minecraft that are thematically significant to the tic-tac-toe board as it became very clear that this is a mode of communication that many students would enjoy. Students have all set and shared their reading goals with me and some have even begun to work on their first novel responses!

Writing

This week we have done some writing in response to mentor texts and continue to look inward as we generate ideas that will help us with the short memoirs that we will be working on next week. We have been looking at great examples of writing, talking about various things that they could try as writers, writing for 5 minutes, sharing their writing with others and then finding something that they could revise in their writing. I love that so many are willing to share their work with the whole class so we can all grow as writers. 

 Media Literacy

This week students learned how they could use the app Pages to create final publications of their work throughout the year. We also spent time making graphic texts through the creation of vision boards. Students were asked to develop both academic and personal goals for this term which we will be revisiting as they reflect on their individual learning journeys. We co-created the success criteria for this assignment which we will be using for self-assessment next week.

That’s all for now! Thanks for stopping by and checking out what we’ve been up to in East 109 this week :-)

Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

We are talking about Growth Mindset today as we begin to create our vision board!

Week 1 in the Books!

Well, we have the first week of school under our belts with lots accomplished! I need to apologize for the mistake in my email address in the letter I sent home. There should have been a period between my first and last name. The correct address is:  joanna.jackson@ed.amdsb.ca, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Reading

We spent some time speed dating the books in my classroom and also went to the library so everyone has picked their first book for the Novel Study Tic-Tac-Toe. We have started to establish our independent reading routines and I couldn't be happier with these kiddos and their reading stamina!  Not all kids read at the same rates and to accommodate this everyone will be setting their own goals for their book completion which will be established in our daily reading conferences. We went over the Tic-Tac-Toe reading response assignment and co-created the success criteria and reading strategies that we will be using for assessment purposes. 78 got the ball rolling and then 8D gave their input. The co-creating of assessment tools will be a regular practice this year as I want the students in my room to be assessment literate and really own their learning.

Tic Tac Toe Choice Board Success Criteria

Co-created with 78 & 8D September 5, 2019.

• Include specific details from the text in your responses 
• Character’s names
• Places
• Plot details
• ALL parts of the tic-tac-toe prompt are included in your response
• Use proper conventions (spelling, punctuation, complete sentences)
• Evidence of your own thinking (making connections)

Reading Strategies 

• Jot notes down as you read
• Make sure you go back to the text when you are working on your responses
• Make sure you understand what you are reading
• Ask people for advice 

78 getting their read on!

Writing

In the world of writing, we have started to work on generating ideas as we work our way through various quickwrites that have had the kids looking inward to find inspiration for writing. We talked about the fact they each have stories that only they can tell. We will be starting the year with narrative writing and in our first lap around the narrative track, we will be working on short personal memoirs. We will be taking four laps around the narrative track with each writing assignment getting gradually more in-depth.

Students of 8D sharing their writing with each other after a quickwrite.

Media Literacy

We have just scratched the surface of media literacy as we started to talk about the creation of vision boards. I had them do an internet search as a minds-on and we discussed tips to do better internet searches. We will be looking at various techniques for the creation of graphic texts next week now that we have all the iPads up and running. Students will be setting both academic and personal goals for the term and creating graphic texts based on these goals using the medium of their choice.