Independent Novel Study

Well, aren't these crazy times? I feel like I'm living in a dystopian novel right now! Speaking of reading here is a refresher about our independent novel response never-ending assignment. Students in 8D and 78 should always be reading and responding. I usually start every class with 25 minutes of reading and during that time I conference with students about what they are reading or what they are going to do for their novel responses. After reading, students are asked to the following:
1. Write a brief summary
2. Do a character analysis for one of the main characters in their book
3. Complete one of the creative choices from the options provided.

Link to Independent Learning Menu

Having a hard time finding something to read at home? Check out this list of digital ebooks and audiobooks you can access for free right now:

Audio Stories from Amazon

Amazon canceled the subscription of books and audio stories for children and students of all ages as long as schools are closed, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help you continue dreaming, learning and just being kids.

All stories are free on you desktop, laptop, phone or tablet using the following link:

Link to Audible

EPIC

Class Code: vre1365

It's Been Too Long!

I know that it has been a while since my last blog but surgery prior to the break and job action has kept me from my Saturday morning writing sessions. We have been busy in room 109 these last few weeks.

The kids are all in the middle of working on their digital stories. Their task is to take what they have learned about narrative writing and create a digital story using the format of their choice (animation, live film, stop motion, digital book, comic). Their final products are due on January 30th.

Learning Goals:

• We are learning how to generate ideas for the purpose of creating a digital story for a specific audience.
• We are learning to draft and revise writing to include literary devices and smiley-face tricks
• We are learning tools and apps to create a variety of media texts for the purpose of entertaining a specific audience.
• We are learning the media convention of storyboarding so that we can create better digital stories.

We had a great day of drama with activities around the Chris Van Allsburg story the Wretched Stone. This is a great story that leaves the readers questioning the role of screens in their lives. We are going to be jumping into some reader's theatre where the kiddos will be exposed to a bunch of classic literature (Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde, and The Portrait of Dorian Gray just to name a few). They will be working in groups to present their work.

T'was the Second Week Before Holidays

Another week in the books with only one more to go before the Winter break! This week the kiddos finished up their narrative scenes in writing and helped to co-create out next adventure in writing; the digital story! These kids have so many great ideas and are so keen to get working on this new writing assignment. We will most likely get the prewriting done this week and start to work in the drafting and storyboards when we come back from the break.

Brainstorming for Digital Stories

We worked on demonstrating an understanding of informational texts with a What in the World article entitled "Turkey versus the Syrian Kurds". This was a tricky reading with lots of discussion around the conflict in the Middle East. This article was accompanied by a few infographics that we dissected as a class. Showing an understanding of information in infographics is a section on the OSSLT (the  EQAO literacy test that students need to write in grade 10) and I want these kids to have as much practice with this skill as possible. 

One of the infographics we worked with this week.

To help prepare for the digital story assignment we have been looking at different tools that the kids can use. iMovie will be the main app that students will use during the editing phase of the project. I gave them and iMovie 101 checklist to see what they already know and we have som clear experts in both classes. They also learned how to use the apps Adobe Spark Vidoe and Animoto as other possible options. I love both of these tools as alternatives for communicating. To help the kids get more familiar with these apps they did a little mini-research into the superstitions behind Friday the 13th and communicated what they learned through the production of a piece of media of their choice

Friday the 13th Research

The students of 8D have also been working hard to prepare for the last week before the holidays. We have a dedicated team that has taken a lead on the door decorating competition.  Special thanks to Kate and Jordyn for preparing a slide deck with possible ideas for the class to vote on to get the ball rolling. 

Short and Sweet

It was a short week with no school for students on Wednesday and Friday and we also had a powerful assembly from the folks at Get Real on Tuesday that was sponsored by the MDHS GSA. Students shared their challenges in both life and school and also thought about all the things that they were grateful for. The assembly finished with sharing ideas about what we could do to make MDHS a better place. 
                                                             Link to Get Real website

We continued to work on reading like writers as students keep their eyes peeled for examples of literary devices and new vocabulary in their independent novels. We have also been playing different games to boost our understanding of similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification, imagery, allusions, oxymorons and onomatopoeia just to name a few.

Both classes were putting the finishing touches on their narrative scene writing assignment.  We are working on the concept of showing instead of telling in narrative writing as well as mastering the inclusion of dialogue in stories. There are so many important dialogue punctuation and formatting rules to remember when writing stories and students demonstrated their understanding of this in this last assignment. We will be moving on to the co-creation of our last narrative writing assignment next week and this time we are getting digital!

We discussed the road map for digital storytelling so the kids have an idea of where we will be going. Those that finished their narrative scene writing began to explore and refresh their memories about iMovie, the powerful video editing tool that we will become experts in over the next few weeks.  Stay tuned for the next assignment and assessment tool!

November No More!

And just like that, November is gone! It felt very surreal changing over the classroom calendar and putting
up Hunnuka, Christmas, and Quanza on Friday afternoon. In a blink of an eye, we will be in 2020! E 109
has been an even busier room this week as it has become the home base for all intermediate school
spirit wear sales. The hope is to have all the clothing to the kids before the holidays and due to the OSSTF
strike on Wednesday, we will be placing our order on Tuesday. If you have a clothing order that you
would like before the holidays then please get your paper orders in by Tuesday, December 3rd and online
orders in by Monday, December 2nd. Any orders that come in after will be filled but will be delivered in the
new year.

Link to order clothing online: https://avonmaitland.schoolcashonline.com/ 

The kids continue to build their reading stamina during our daily independent reading. I love how students
have gotten into the swing of really owning their learning through the choice of novels they read and reading
response menu options. This week we are adding a new assignment to the creative writing section of
independent reading response choice menu thanks to Ben! He created a “Choose Your Own Adventure”
slide deck based on the themes from his novel Fly Boy by Eric Walters. 78 had fun working their way through
his story, trying to make the right choices so that they could survive as a WWII pilot. The kids have also started to work
on vocabulary building by keeping track of new words that they come across in their independent reading. After
each reading session, we share new words or phrases that we noticed as readers. 

We read an article from Global News that inspired us to send cards to Canadian military service members
who will be overseas for the holidays. We worked our way through the writing process and by the end of the
week I was able to post the thoughtful and touching cards that I know will bring smiles to the faces of the women
and men who are serving our country overseas.
Link to Global News Article

78 and 8D kiddos handwriting cards to Canadian Service personnel 

We have also spent this week learning about different literary devices (similes, metaphors, alliteration,

onomatopoeia, oxymorons, personification, and imagery) and word choice. We will be working to notice
these stylistic devices in the books we read and include them in the pieces that we write. We also spent
time this week working on the narrative scene assignment that is due next Wednesday. Once we have
mastered the scene we will move to the creation of digital stories.

Mid November News!

Here we are again with another 2 for 1 blog post. Last week my work-life balance was upset by
a hockey tournament in Burlington. I missed my early Saturday morning writing session to cheer
on Malcolm and his teammates in a freezing cold arena. #hockeymom

Last week both classes participated in what I thought was going to be a global twitter chat but
turned out to just be us and French immersion kids from the Ottawa Carlton board. I’m putting
my feelers out for a better opportunity to collaborate with other students in the future. Each
group shared their ideas for what their vision for schools of the future will be like. To see more
check out #NPDLfutureschools on Twitter.

In the land of non-fiction, we tackled the topic of teen vaping. This is a very timely article as the
kids all agreed that this was a problem and that vaping is something that students of MDHS
definitely do. We had some great discussions in both classes where students shared their
thoughts and opinions about why they think that this dangerous trend is on the rise. They also
worked in small groups and took on the role of “Premier of Ontario” to develop regulations for
the e-cigarette industry. 

We have launched the next writing assignment in our narrative unit. We took the time to review
the essential elements of stories. We did a deep dive into how dialogue can enhance their stories
and grammar mechanics behind the use of quotation marks. Students should have completed the
“Understanding Dialogue” lessons assigned on noredink.com by the end of this week.

The next writing assignment has been posted in Showbie and we had a chance to co-create the
rubric that we will be using to assess this work. Students were reminded that the rubrics are
always given at the beginning of assessed tasks so that they know how they can achieve their
absolute best. Students need to make sure that they are submitting ALL stages of the writing
process. We also talked about the importance of prewriting and the difference between
brainstorming and planning.

Narrative Scene Assignment from Showbie: 

You know that stories are built on scenes that contain sensory details of setting, characters, and
action. All of this detail is essential to help the reader experience the moment.

Your mission is to craft ONE scene. Show a moment in time (scene) through the use of sensory
details (see, taste, hear, feel, smell) to help readers imagine and live inside the experiences of
those settings.

• Balance show and tell to establish the pace of the scene and to show readers what matters.

• Use dialogue to reveal characters both in what is said and through the words of other characters

• Use word choice to create a believable, consistent voice for the narrator of the scene.

We had a ton of kids away on Friday making it hard to teach a new lesson so I changed
up my original plans and we took advantage of all the different language games I’ve got.
We played Scrabble, Upwords, Bananagrams, Boggle, Scategories, and Pictionary. We
also accessed some great digital games like Camelion, Wordscapes, and Wordstacks.
I have o admit, it was a nice way to end the week!

Language Game Day!

Collaboration is the Name of the Game!

Collaboration was the name of the game this week in room E109. Both classes spent a lot of time this week preparing for the global twitter chat that we will be taking part in. I love that we are going to have so many different responses to the prompt, What should learning look like in schools of the future? Every day students were reminded what it takes to work well with others and reflected on their abilities as members of their teams.

                                                         G - Give encouragement
                                                         R - Respect on another
                                                         O - On task (stay)
                                                         U - Use quiet voices
                                                         P - Participate actively
                                                         S - Stay in our groups

We also made time to hone our writing skills with more Quickwrites inspired by beautiful mentor texts. This week we looked at an excerpt from the Book of Awsome and read the poem I Am From by George Ella Lyon.