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 :-)

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.