Period 1 & 2
We finished our viewing activity of the "To be or not to be" speech. Fromthere, we continued reading Act III and are just in teh midst of the "Mousetrap." We will be cruising as fast as possible when we get back to school in the New Year! The grade 12s are reminded that they have to read the non-fiction book, Night, over the holidays!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We have finished comparing the two speeches ("I Have a Dream" and "Yes, We Can") and now it's time for the kids to consider their own important issue. We brainstormed a few issues that they may find important and this was a class period for them to work on choosing an issue and getting some ideas down for it.
Period 4--History 10
We finished taking the Glorious Revolution this class--we reviewed it and then finished reading the "textbook" booklet. We ventured off into an interesting discussion about constitutional monarchies and the queen's role here in Canada.
Period 5--History 30
During this class, we finished our RAN chart by going back to the "What I think I know" column and checking to see if their view of treaties was correct or a misconception. We discovered that the grade 12s had a pretty good understanding of what treaties were before we started studying, but not necessarily the technicalities and circumstances surrounding them. From here, we backtracked to a few weeks ago when we talking about responsible government and they were told to choose an issue on which they would write a letter to a person that is in power enough to listen to their concerns. We reviewed some of those issues together as a class, and then they had to choose one and start writing their letter.
The History 30 class wants to thank Mrs. Ylioja for helping out as an EA in the class. We'll miss her and hope that she's able to sub in often for us again!
I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous and Prosperous New Year! "Talk" to you in 2012! Classes resume on January 9th, and then final exams start two weeks from when we get back:( !!!
Friday, 23 December 2011
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
December 21, 2011
Period 1 & 2--Grade 12 English
As part of our magazine campagin promise, the SRC cooked a pancake and ham breakfast for all the students of OHS this morning. The students in period 1 used the time to eat their breakfast and in period 2, the SRC had some activities prepared for the student body. Santa even showed up to make a few Christmas wishes come true!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished listening to Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech and then set to work comparing it to Martin Luther King, Jr's speech. The similarities certainly made us wonder if the U.S. President used Dr. King's speech as a template for his own!
Period 4--History 10
We reviewed the information we learned about Cromwell and the English Civil War from yesterday and spent today learning about the Restoration. I gave them an overview of the Glorious Revolution which we will get to tomorrow.
Period 5--History 30
The students finished the handout on treaties and we discussed what we learned about them and any questions that they still had. Toward the end of class, we started looking at definitions of the First Nations and the Indian Act.
Tomorrow is our last day of classes!
As part of our magazine campagin promise, the SRC cooked a pancake and ham breakfast for all the students of OHS this morning. The students in period 1 used the time to eat their breakfast and in period 2, the SRC had some activities prepared for the student body. Santa even showed up to make a few Christmas wishes come true!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished listening to Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech and then set to work comparing it to Martin Luther King, Jr's speech. The similarities certainly made us wonder if the U.S. President used Dr. King's speech as a template for his own!
Period 4--History 10
We reviewed the information we learned about Cromwell and the English Civil War from yesterday and spent today learning about the Restoration. I gave them an overview of the Glorious Revolution which we will get to tomorrow.
Period 5--History 30
The students finished the handout on treaties and we discussed what we learned about them and any questions that they still had. Toward the end of class, we started looking at definitions of the First Nations and the Indian Act.
Tomorrow is our last day of classes!
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
December 20, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
Both of these classes started Act III today altough we didn't get very far! I used this class to do a viewing activity with the play as we first of all read the "To be or not to be" speech. Then we paraphrased the passage to determine a basic meaning. I did this so the kids didn't have to slog through the dialogue while they were watching and could just focus, instead, on what they saw and heard. We first viewed Kenneth Branagh's version of the speech. The students examined the setting, costumes, lighting, action/movements, sound, voice, and delivery of the speech. It was also important in studying this clip to have the conversation that Hamlet knew, or suspected, that Polonius and/or Claudius were spying on him. This totally changed how Hamlet delivered the speech. Instead of it being introspective, it could be taken to be much more aggressive and focussed not on himself, but at whoever was listening. In order to support or deny, we examined the other technical aspects which created totally different view of Shakespeare's words than we orginially read. Then, we viewed Mel Gibson's vesion of the speech. In this version, Polonius and Claudius weren't in the picture and the setting dictated the reaction of the actor. It was a very interesting comparison that we will continue during our next class. It all comes down to the fact that Shakespeare didn't leave much for stage directions, so HOW was this play, and this scene, intended to be viewed by the audience! It certainly created some interesting converstation.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We reviewed our understanding of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. Then, we looked at three oratorical devices (refrain, dramatic pause, and hyperbole) and noted where those were in his speech. The students finally got to listen to the speech and we spent a bit of time talking about the technical limitations 1963 had on the delivery of the speech. After we listened to it, we discussed tone and speed of delivery and what impact that had on the listener. At this point, we needed something to compare it to, so we pulled up President Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech when he won the Democratic nomination. As we listened, we looked for similarities. The bell rang before we got to the good part, so we'll finish this tomorrow.
Period 4--History 10
We finished using the power point on the English Civil War to fill in the few blanks that are on the handout. We went through Charles I and his Cavaliers vs. the Roundheads and then moved into Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate. At the end of the class, the kids were making predictions about England's fate after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the ineffective leadership of his son, Richard.
Period 5--History 30
We continued with the treaties. To start class, I had the students write about one thing that they learned from yesterday and put in on the RAN chart in the "New Information" column. We continued to read and discussed points of view in History as we went. We almost finished going over the handout and were just looking at the First Nations obligations vs the Canadian govenrment obligations for Treaty No.6.
Both of these classes started Act III today altough we didn't get very far! I used this class to do a viewing activity with the play as we first of all read the "To be or not to be" speech. Then we paraphrased the passage to determine a basic meaning. I did this so the kids didn't have to slog through the dialogue while they were watching and could just focus, instead, on what they saw and heard. We first viewed Kenneth Branagh's version of the speech. The students examined the setting, costumes, lighting, action/movements, sound, voice, and delivery of the speech. It was also important in studying this clip to have the conversation that Hamlet knew, or suspected, that Polonius and/or Claudius were spying on him. This totally changed how Hamlet delivered the speech. Instead of it being introspective, it could be taken to be much more aggressive and focussed not on himself, but at whoever was listening. In order to support or deny, we examined the other technical aspects which created totally different view of Shakespeare's words than we orginially read. Then, we viewed Mel Gibson's vesion of the speech. In this version, Polonius and Claudius weren't in the picture and the setting dictated the reaction of the actor. It was a very interesting comparison that we will continue during our next class. It all comes down to the fact that Shakespeare didn't leave much for stage directions, so HOW was this play, and this scene, intended to be viewed by the audience! It certainly created some interesting converstation.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We reviewed our understanding of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. Then, we looked at three oratorical devices (refrain, dramatic pause, and hyperbole) and noted where those were in his speech. The students finally got to listen to the speech and we spent a bit of time talking about the technical limitations 1963 had on the delivery of the speech. After we listened to it, we discussed tone and speed of delivery and what impact that had on the listener. At this point, we needed something to compare it to, so we pulled up President Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech when he won the Democratic nomination. As we listened, we looked for similarities. The bell rang before we got to the good part, so we'll finish this tomorrow.
Period 4--History 10
We finished using the power point on the English Civil War to fill in the few blanks that are on the handout. We went through Charles I and his Cavaliers vs. the Roundheads and then moved into Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate. At the end of the class, the kids were making predictions about England's fate after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the ineffective leadership of his son, Richard.
Period 5--History 30
We continued with the treaties. To start class, I had the students write about one thing that they learned from yesterday and put in on the RAN chart in the "New Information" column. We continued to read and discussed points of view in History as we went. We almost finished going over the handout and were just looking at the First Nations obligations vs the Canadian govenrment obligations for Treaty No.6.
Monday, 19 December 2011
December 19, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
These students had this class to work on their representing assignment from Act II in Hamlet. They had to choose a quotation from Act II and depict that quotation in visual format. It is due on Thursday before we go off on holidays.
Period 2--EL B 30/AP 30 split
ELA B 30--These students worked on the quotations from Act II and then we went over them together in class. It allowed for a good overview and review of the content in Act II.
AP 30s--The wrote their timed write during this class.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students read Martin Luther King, Jr's speech "I Have a Dream" and they highlighted 5 things from the speech that they found particularly poignant. After they were finished, we reviewed the speech together as a class and discussed why we chose the passages that we did. As we did this, the students gained a broader understanding of the content and a finer appreciation of some of the rhetoric and oratorical devices employed by King. Tomorrow, we will look at some of those devices in more detail and listen to Dr. King's speech.
Period 4--History 10
We continued with the English Civil War today by learning a bit about James I of England (James VI of Scotland) and the struggle that mounted tension between the British parliament and the monarchy. We moved onto a power point with a cloze exercize that examined the mistakes made by Charles I. The students are prediciting dire things for the monarch! We were just getting into the Roundheads vs. the Cavaliers as the bell rang.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee finished the idea about the Sunny Way by going over the old fable that inspired Laurier's famous compromise. After this, she had the students provide her with some feedback about her teaching. I took over the class again and we jumped right into dealing with the treaties signed between the First Nations and the federal government. As always, we had some excellent converstations about self-government and the pitfalls that could present as well as learning new information about how the treaties were signed. In order to help us organize our information, the students wrote on a sticky note what they THINK they know about the treaties and we started a RAN chart. We are reading a handout called "Hard Bargains" and the studnets will see if what they wrote down was correct or a misconception. We will also figure out what they learn from reading this handout!
These students had this class to work on their representing assignment from Act II in Hamlet. They had to choose a quotation from Act II and depict that quotation in visual format. It is due on Thursday before we go off on holidays.
Period 2--EL B 30/AP 30 split
ELA B 30--These students worked on the quotations from Act II and then we went over them together in class. It allowed for a good overview and review of the content in Act II.
AP 30s--The wrote their timed write during this class.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students read Martin Luther King, Jr's speech "I Have a Dream" and they highlighted 5 things from the speech that they found particularly poignant. After they were finished, we reviewed the speech together as a class and discussed why we chose the passages that we did. As we did this, the students gained a broader understanding of the content and a finer appreciation of some of the rhetoric and oratorical devices employed by King. Tomorrow, we will look at some of those devices in more detail and listen to Dr. King's speech.
Period 4--History 10
We continued with the English Civil War today by learning a bit about James I of England (James VI of Scotland) and the struggle that mounted tension between the British parliament and the monarchy. We moved onto a power point with a cloze exercize that examined the mistakes made by Charles I. The students are prediciting dire things for the monarch! We were just getting into the Roundheads vs. the Cavaliers as the bell rang.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee finished the idea about the Sunny Way by going over the old fable that inspired Laurier's famous compromise. After this, she had the students provide her with some feedback about her teaching. I took over the class again and we jumped right into dealing with the treaties signed between the First Nations and the federal government. As always, we had some excellent converstations about self-government and the pitfalls that could present as well as learning new information about how the treaties were signed. In order to help us organize our information, the students wrote on a sticky note what they THINK they know about the treaties and we started a RAN chart. We are reading a handout called "Hard Bargains" and the studnets will see if what they wrote down was correct or a misconception. We will also figure out what they learn from reading this handout!
Friday, 16 December 2011
December 16, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We finished examining the quotations from their Act II activities sheet. They were then given the assignment to choose any passage from the Act and re-create it in a representational format. This allows them the opportunity to show their understanding through visuals rather than just a written format.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We spent the entire class going over Hamlet's soliloquy in Act II. We examined the caesura and other literary devices to look more closely at tone. The "regulars" were then directed to their Act II activities to work on the quotations and the APs were directed to their AP options to ready themselves for their timed write on Monday.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued our discussion about discrimination which ellicited some excellent observations about the world around them. We then did a K-W-L about Martin Luther King, Jr. After this, we read some of the back ground information on King and went back to the KWL chart. There were only a few minutes left in class (due to all the discussion) so I informed them of what Monday would look like for them.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell came back for the last three current event presentations. We had a bit of discussion about current news items and then redirected back to Elizabethan England. We read about the introduction of joint-stock companies to the English ecomony and how that worked with the economic theory of mercanticlism. This unit, even though it happened before all the others, is tying everything together for the kids. To finish class, we learned about the Puritans, their beliefs, and Elizabeth's response to them. The students could clearly see that tensions were rising.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee taught the class about the fall of the conservative government. They learned about the death of Macdonald and the rise of Laurier. The Manitoba Schools Act and the "Sunny Way" were some of the main topics of study in this class.
We finished examining the quotations from their Act II activities sheet. They were then given the assignment to choose any passage from the Act and re-create it in a representational format. This allows them the opportunity to show their understanding through visuals rather than just a written format.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We spent the entire class going over Hamlet's soliloquy in Act II. We examined the caesura and other literary devices to look more closely at tone. The "regulars" were then directed to their Act II activities to work on the quotations and the APs were directed to their AP options to ready themselves for their timed write on Monday.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued our discussion about discrimination which ellicited some excellent observations about the world around them. We then did a K-W-L about Martin Luther King, Jr. After this, we read some of the back ground information on King and went back to the KWL chart. There were only a few minutes left in class (due to all the discussion) so I informed them of what Monday would look like for them.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell came back for the last three current event presentations. We had a bit of discussion about current news items and then redirected back to Elizabethan England. We read about the introduction of joint-stock companies to the English ecomony and how that worked with the economic theory of mercanticlism. This unit, even though it happened before all the others, is tying everything together for the kids. To finish class, we learned about the Puritans, their beliefs, and Elizabeth's response to them. The students could clearly see that tensions were rising.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee taught the class about the fall of the conservative government. They learned about the death of Macdonald and the rise of Laurier. The Manitoba Schools Act and the "Sunny Way" were some of the main topics of study in this class.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
December 15, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We finished looking at Hamlet's soliloquy in Act II. Then I handed out a summary of the act to save them from having to do some notes--we're in time-saving mode right now. Finally, they worked on the quotations from the booklet I gave them last week. We had just started discussing the answers when the bell rang.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We continued to read Act II. We made it all the way to Hamlet's soliloquy and then the bell rang, so we will analyze it tomorrow.
Period 3--Pre-AP10
We finished their speeches for their Favourity Book of all time. Then we reviewed the indicators that attach to the listening and speaking activity we will be doing. They know we are going to be listening to Martin Luther King, Jr. 's "I Have Dream" speech. At this point, we started brainstorming examples of discrimination throughout history. Tomorrow we will focus the talks toward segregation and then look at the background information leading up to Martin Luther King's speech.
Period 4--History 10
We continued to study Elizabeth I as a ruler and her troubles with Mary, Queen of Scots, religious turmoil, Spanish ambitions, financial difficulties. We were just going through the concept of joint stock companies at the end of the class.
Period 5--History 30
The kids wrote their unit exam on Responsible governement, reform and confederation.
We finished looking at Hamlet's soliloquy in Act II. Then I handed out a summary of the act to save them from having to do some notes--we're in time-saving mode right now. Finally, they worked on the quotations from the booklet I gave them last week. We had just started discussing the answers when the bell rang.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We continued to read Act II. We made it all the way to Hamlet's soliloquy and then the bell rang, so we will analyze it tomorrow.
Period 3--Pre-AP10
We finished their speeches for their Favourity Book of all time. Then we reviewed the indicators that attach to the listening and speaking activity we will be doing. They know we are going to be listening to Martin Luther King, Jr. 's "I Have Dream" speech. At this point, we started brainstorming examples of discrimination throughout history. Tomorrow we will focus the talks toward segregation and then look at the background information leading up to Martin Luther King's speech.
Period 4--History 10
We continued to study Elizabeth I as a ruler and her troubles with Mary, Queen of Scots, religious turmoil, Spanish ambitions, financial difficulties. We were just going through the concept of joint stock companies at the end of the class.
Period 5--History 30
The kids wrote their unit exam on Responsible governement, reform and confederation.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
December 14, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We are back into the play today and scooted through Act II, scene i and are almost finished scene ii. We are just having an indepth look at Hamlet's solioloquy--the general meaning of it and then looking at some of the literary devices that show deeper meaning in the passage.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We are also reading Act II. We made it through all of scene i and most of scene ii and will pick it up again tomorrow.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We went over the rubric that we created together and I asked if they had any changes they want to make it but they thought that it was fine as it is. We started their speeches today and the kids had some excellent choices! They did well, but we ran out of time, so we will finish the speeches tomorrow.
Period 4--History 10
We continued to look at the handout I gave yesterday and read, discussed and then jotted down some notes about what we learned. We'll continue this for a bit until we get to the English Civil War.
History 30--History 30
This was a review class for the grade 12s to ready them for their exam tomorrow. They had yesterday where I reviewed with them as well. I have also been helping kids out at noon. Miss Lee gave them some handouts with cause and effect to help them figure out the cause and effect of the events that we studied.
We are back into the play today and scooted through Act II, scene i and are almost finished scene ii. We are just having an indepth look at Hamlet's solioloquy--the general meaning of it and then looking at some of the literary devices that show deeper meaning in the passage.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We are also reading Act II. We made it through all of scene i and most of scene ii and will pick it up again tomorrow.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We went over the rubric that we created together and I asked if they had any changes they want to make it but they thought that it was fine as it is. We started their speeches today and the kids had some excellent choices! They did well, but we ran out of time, so we will finish the speeches tomorrow.
Period 4--History 10
We continued to look at the handout I gave yesterday and read, discussed and then jotted down some notes about what we learned. We'll continue this for a bit until we get to the English Civil War.
History 30--History 30
This was a review class for the grade 12s to ready them for their exam tomorrow. They had yesterday where I reviewed with them as well. I have also been helping kids out at noon. Miss Lee gave them some handouts with cause and effect to help them figure out the cause and effect of the events that we studied.
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
December 13, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We continued to read Hamlet and are well into scene ii. We've decided that we will summarize after scene ii rather than after scene one and scene ii. We noticed all of the spying going on--everyone is spying on everyone else, it seems!
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
ELA B 30--They did their timed write today based on the thesis: Hamlet made the (good/bad) decision not to immediately confront Claudius about Old Hamlet's death because _______________, ________________ and _________________. This was expected to be a standard, five paragraph essay but did not require quotations--just examples needed.
AP 30--We spent some time going over the AP Central website and showed them how to navigate to the old exam questions for the English Literature and Composition exam. Then, we looked more closely at how to deconstruct a prompt--they need to see that there are always two or three parts to every English prompt and they must address all of those parts of the prompt. From there, we moved on to look at example responses for some of the prompts, particularly, a free response questions. The kids were able to see from those responses that attaining an 8 on the AP scale is certainly possible.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
This was a work period for the kids to have them work on the speeches they will perform tomorrow. It's a fairly simple topic about which they know much: What is the best/their favourite book of all time? Their speeches don't have to be terribly long--30 seconds for a minimum. This is their first speech and they will be doing others that require a longer time at the front of the room. As a side note--it sparked a lot of fun discussion about literature amongst various groups of kids!
Period 4--History 10
We reviewed our discussion from yesterday under the pretense of teaching Mrs. Kim who wasn't in class yesterday! She was very impressed (as was I) how much the kids retained just from listening to the exploits of the Tudor monarchs. We picked it up from the ascention of Elizabeth I with a textbook that will cover the her reign, along with the Stuart kings, the events of the civil war, and finally, the Glorious Revolution. We read through a little section of the textbook handout and then I have them each highlight 3 important things from that section. Together, we create study notes by compiling some of this information (I write it on the SMART board and they collect it from there.
Period 5--History 30
This was a review period to get ready for their upcoming test (that we have moved to Thursday). I went through the government as it was set up with the Constitution Act of 1791 and the political results from that document. The colonist want responsible government and this section of history reviews how both Upper and Lower Canada rebelled to get the British government to allow them to have it. We ultimately end up with the Act of Union as a result of Durham's Report and eventually achieving responsible government with the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849. Miss Lee will take over tomorrow and review Confederation.
We continued to read Hamlet and are well into scene ii. We've decided that we will summarize after scene ii rather than after scene one and scene ii. We noticed all of the spying going on--everyone is spying on everyone else, it seems!
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
ELA B 30--They did their timed write today based on the thesis: Hamlet made the (good/bad) decision not to immediately confront Claudius about Old Hamlet's death because _______________, ________________ and _________________. This was expected to be a standard, five paragraph essay but did not require quotations--just examples needed.
AP 30--We spent some time going over the AP Central website and showed them how to navigate to the old exam questions for the English Literature and Composition exam. Then, we looked more closely at how to deconstruct a prompt--they need to see that there are always two or three parts to every English prompt and they must address all of those parts of the prompt. From there, we moved on to look at example responses for some of the prompts, particularly, a free response questions. The kids were able to see from those responses that attaining an 8 on the AP scale is certainly possible.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
This was a work period for the kids to have them work on the speeches they will perform tomorrow. It's a fairly simple topic about which they know much: What is the best/their favourite book of all time? Their speeches don't have to be terribly long--30 seconds for a minimum. This is their first speech and they will be doing others that require a longer time at the front of the room. As a side note--it sparked a lot of fun discussion about literature amongst various groups of kids!
Period 4--History 10
We reviewed our discussion from yesterday under the pretense of teaching Mrs. Kim who wasn't in class yesterday! She was very impressed (as was I) how much the kids retained just from listening to the exploits of the Tudor monarchs. We picked it up from the ascention of Elizabeth I with a textbook that will cover the her reign, along with the Stuart kings, the events of the civil war, and finally, the Glorious Revolution. We read through a little section of the textbook handout and then I have them each highlight 3 important things from that section. Together, we create study notes by compiling some of this information (I write it on the SMART board and they collect it from there.
Period 5--History 30
This was a review period to get ready for their upcoming test (that we have moved to Thursday). I went through the government as it was set up with the Constitution Act of 1791 and the political results from that document. The colonist want responsible government and this section of history reviews how both Upper and Lower Canada rebelled to get the British government to allow them to have it. We ultimately end up with the Act of Union as a result of Durham's Report and eventually achieving responsible government with the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849. Miss Lee will take over tomorrow and review Confederation.
Monday, 12 December 2011
December 12, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
The grade 12s had this class to work on their in-class essay explaining whether or not it was a good choice for Hamlet to delay his revenge. We had built the thesis together, so they just had to come up with their ideas and stick with the thesis.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
ELA B 30--We went over the quotations from Act I and discussed ideas so far in the play. They do their timed write tomorrow. We built the thesis together and looked at some ideas that might work well for proof.
AP 30--They got their timed writes from Chaucer back and had a chance to look them over. At this point, it was a work period for them. They had time to finish up outstanding writing, book annotations, or they could read Gatsby (to be read by mid-Jan).
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We started out the class with me delivering a speech about my favourite book of all time (a tough task indeed, to narrow it down). We then analyzed different aspects of my speech and what made it effective or ineffective. The, we started co-constructing some criteria for a good speech. I will type up their ideas and they will be evaluated on their speech--the topic, the best (or their most favourite) book of all time. It could be a current favourite or even a childhood favourite. In fact, one of the students brought his favourite children's story, so we had fun reading "I was so mad" by Mercer Meyer in class! They will have tomorrow to build their 3o second speech and then we'll be performing them on Wednesday.
Period 4--History 10
Well, the kids had to buckle their seat belts for this class! Their unit is the the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. We start all the way back with Henry VIII and his various marriages, to illustrate the importance of religion in England. It is necessary for them to understand that Catholic vs Protestant pull. I basically summarized the whole unit for them in ONE class period but did it primarily as a way to interest them in what they are going to be learning. Of course, this meant that we touched on all of Henry's wives and their fates, Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I never marrying, struggles with parliament and the Stuart Kings, the protectorate, etc. It was a class packed with information. Tomorrow, we'll start taking the information apart in more detail.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee led the kids through the trial of Louis Riel and the fall out from his execution. From there, she looked at the stragglers to Confederation (SK, AB, NFDL, Nunavut). She briefly touched on the reasons for all of these joinings and why they held out so long. Tomorrow we will review for their exam on Wednesday.
The grade 12s had this class to work on their in-class essay explaining whether or not it was a good choice for Hamlet to delay his revenge. We had built the thesis together, so they just had to come up with their ideas and stick with the thesis.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
ELA B 30--We went over the quotations from Act I and discussed ideas so far in the play. They do their timed write tomorrow. We built the thesis together and looked at some ideas that might work well for proof.
AP 30--They got their timed writes from Chaucer back and had a chance to look them over. At this point, it was a work period for them. They had time to finish up outstanding writing, book annotations, or they could read Gatsby (to be read by mid-Jan).
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We started out the class with me delivering a speech about my favourite book of all time (a tough task indeed, to narrow it down). We then analyzed different aspects of my speech and what made it effective or ineffective. The, we started co-constructing some criteria for a good speech. I will type up their ideas and they will be evaluated on their speech--the topic, the best (or their most favourite) book of all time. It could be a current favourite or even a childhood favourite. In fact, one of the students brought his favourite children's story, so we had fun reading "I was so mad" by Mercer Meyer in class! They will have tomorrow to build their 3o second speech and then we'll be performing them on Wednesday.
Period 4--History 10
Well, the kids had to buckle their seat belts for this class! Their unit is the the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. We start all the way back with Henry VIII and his various marriages, to illustrate the importance of religion in England. It is necessary for them to understand that Catholic vs Protestant pull. I basically summarized the whole unit for them in ONE class period but did it primarily as a way to interest them in what they are going to be learning. Of course, this meant that we touched on all of Henry's wives and their fates, Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I never marrying, struggles with parliament and the Stuart Kings, the protectorate, etc. It was a class packed with information. Tomorrow, we'll start taking the information apart in more detail.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee led the kids through the trial of Louis Riel and the fall out from his execution. From there, she looked at the stragglers to Confederation (SK, AB, NFDL, Nunavut). She briefly touched on the reasons for all of these joinings and why they held out so long. Tomorrow we will review for their exam on Wednesday.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
December 9, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
They had some time to finish their worksheet on quotations from Act I. Then we corrected and discussed them together as a class. At this point, we discussed their assessment for Hamlet and, as a class, we decided that they would do 3 in-class essays rather than doing one big essay. They will have to do their big essay after Christmas with a different piece of literature. We went over the writing prompt that they will be working on on Monday and together, we came up with a thesis statement for them to write on . The timed write/in-class essay will be done on Monday.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
They had time to finish writing down the summaries from last day. Then, the class split up for their different tasks:
ELA B 30--they received the activity sheet containing quotations for them to identify as well as the writing prompt for the in-class essay (like in period 1). They used the majority of the class to finish the quotations. We will take them up on Monday, and then work on how to structure their in-class essay. Their in-class essay will be written on Tuesday.
AP 30--I handed out The Great Gatsby and told the students that they need to have it read by mid-January. They will also be doing in-class, timed writes for Hamlet. We went over the various writing prompts from which they will be able to choose. They, however, chose to do their timed write after we are finished reading Act II. In order to keep them in the same place in the play as the rest of the class, they will have Monday and Tuesday to work on their Book Annotations, do some reading of Gatsby, or catching up on assignments that are outstanding.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
I was ready to go with the new lesson, but, in a moment of weakness, let myself be persuaded for the kids to have time to finish working on their comparison/contrast essay. Kudos to Tanner for getting his done early! I look forward to reading them (if not the time I have to spend marking them!). We are moving on into the speaking and listening strands on Monday.
Period 4--History 10
The last few current events presentations by the students were done for Miss Campbell. This was her last time in this class. The kids are stuck with me again. Rather than starting a new unit on Friday, we continued with the "What in the World" current events assignments Mrs. Adleman started with them yesterday. We spent a considerable amount of time talking about the troubles in Syria and corrected the question sheet that corresponded to that reading. On Monday, we start in on the Glorious Revolution and the English Civil War--my favourite unit in History 10, so I can't wait!
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee reviewed some of the information that they have discussed from the last few days, particularly the important people. She went over the cause and effect relationship with the events surrounding those important people. From there, the students looked briefly at the purple sheet from yesterday and then continued to view the documentary outlining the Riel Resistance and Macdonald's response to it. Towards the end of class, we discussed a small exam, so they don't have to deal with a bigger chunk of information. The exam will cover the Rebellions of 1837 and lead up to confederation (including the pros and cons of confederation, the BNA Act,Red River Resistance, Riel Rebellion, Sask and Alberta joining, and the reasons why Newfoundland held out so long). This exam will be on Wednesday of next week, so they should be reviewing NOW at home!!!
They had some time to finish their worksheet on quotations from Act I. Then we corrected and discussed them together as a class. At this point, we discussed their assessment for Hamlet and, as a class, we decided that they would do 3 in-class essays rather than doing one big essay. They will have to do their big essay after Christmas with a different piece of literature. We went over the writing prompt that they will be working on on Monday and together, we came up with a thesis statement for them to write on . The timed write/in-class essay will be done on Monday.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
They had time to finish writing down the summaries from last day. Then, the class split up for their different tasks:
ELA B 30--they received the activity sheet containing quotations for them to identify as well as the writing prompt for the in-class essay (like in period 1). They used the majority of the class to finish the quotations. We will take them up on Monday, and then work on how to structure their in-class essay. Their in-class essay will be written on Tuesday.
AP 30--I handed out The Great Gatsby and told the students that they need to have it read by mid-January. They will also be doing in-class, timed writes for Hamlet. We went over the various writing prompts from which they will be able to choose. They, however, chose to do their timed write after we are finished reading Act II. In order to keep them in the same place in the play as the rest of the class, they will have Monday and Tuesday to work on their Book Annotations, do some reading of Gatsby, or catching up on assignments that are outstanding.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
I was ready to go with the new lesson, but, in a moment of weakness, let myself be persuaded for the kids to have time to finish working on their comparison/contrast essay. Kudos to Tanner for getting his done early! I look forward to reading them (if not the time I have to spend marking them!). We are moving on into the speaking and listening strands on Monday.
Period 4--History 10
The last few current events presentations by the students were done for Miss Campbell. This was her last time in this class. The kids are stuck with me again. Rather than starting a new unit on Friday, we continued with the "What in the World" current events assignments Mrs. Adleman started with them yesterday. We spent a considerable amount of time talking about the troubles in Syria and corrected the question sheet that corresponded to that reading. On Monday, we start in on the Glorious Revolution and the English Civil War--my favourite unit in History 10, so I can't wait!
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee reviewed some of the information that they have discussed from the last few days, particularly the important people. She went over the cause and effect relationship with the events surrounding those important people. From there, the students looked briefly at the purple sheet from yesterday and then continued to view the documentary outlining the Riel Resistance and Macdonald's response to it. Towards the end of class, we discussed a small exam, so they don't have to deal with a bigger chunk of information. The exam will cover the Rebellions of 1837 and lead up to confederation (including the pros and cons of confederation, the BNA Act,Red River Resistance, Riel Rebellion, Sask and Alberta joining, and the reasons why Newfoundland held out so long). This exam will be on Wednesday of next week, so they should be reviewing NOW at home!!!
Friday, 9 December 2011
December 8, 2011
Sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday! I was home marking all day and apparently my brain was mushed enough by the end that I forgot to do this! Yesterday looked like:
Period 1--ELA B 30
They finished reading Act I of the play. Mrs. Adleman enjoyed reading with the students and once they were finsihed, they worked together to summarize the information. Then, I had a handout prepared that had them identify various quotations from the act, who was speaking and what the importnance of the quotation was.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
They powered through the period and finished reading Act I. They didn't have time to work on the quotation sheet.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
They used this time to continue working on their comparison/contrast essay.
Period 4--History 10
Mrs. Adleman went through some current events with the kids. They read two articles: "7 billion and counting" and "Syria on the Brink." They were able to correct the questions for the first, but need to finish the ones on Syria on Friday.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee had some handouts on the Riel Rebellion here in Saskatchewan and some video to support the notes. I'm not sure how far they got, but they will continue with this information on Friday!
Period 1--ELA B 30
They finished reading Act I of the play. Mrs. Adleman enjoyed reading with the students and once they were finsihed, they worked together to summarize the information. Then, I had a handout prepared that had them identify various quotations from the act, who was speaking and what the importnance of the quotation was.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
They powered through the period and finished reading Act I. They didn't have time to work on the quotation sheet.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
They used this time to continue working on their comparison/contrast essay.
Period 4--History 10
Mrs. Adleman went through some current events with the kids. They read two articles: "7 billion and counting" and "Syria on the Brink." They were able to correct the questions for the first, but need to finish the ones on Syria on Friday.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee had some handouts on the Riel Rebellion here in Saskatchewan and some video to support the notes. I'm not sure how far they got, but they will continue with this information on Friday!
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
December 7, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We continued in Act I of Hamlet and discussed Polonius's advice to Laertes and Ophelia. We were just at the part when Hamlet meets up with his father's ghost when the bell rang, so we should finish Act I tomorrow.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We spent quite a bit of time exploring Hamlet's first soliloquy in detail. It is always surprising how much Shakespeare packs into each speech. We finished the rest of scene ii and summarized it. We'll continue reading tomorrow.
Grade 12s in ELA B 30 are reminded to have their persuasive essays to me for Friday.
AP 30 students are reminded to continue to work on their book annotations. I'd like those in before Christmas holidays.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
This is the penultimate class the students have to work on this comparison/critique assignment. It is due December 19th and tomorrow is their last work period on it. I concede it is difficult, but have shown them a sample, so hopefully it helps! If they choose to do a Macbeth re-write of their formal essay, that is also due December 19th.
Period 4--History 10
The kids wrote their French Revolution exam today. Tomorrow Mrs. Adelman will be in for me, and the kids will do some current events worksheets.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee had the students finish off their jigsaw from yesterday and they had some discussions about their information. She then had a power point with information about British Columbia joining confederation; the students had handouts with blanks to fill in and we continued to discuss. Tomorrow's class should see some Riel Rebellion information for the students.
We continued in Act I of Hamlet and discussed Polonius's advice to Laertes and Ophelia. We were just at the part when Hamlet meets up with his father's ghost when the bell rang, so we should finish Act I tomorrow.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We spent quite a bit of time exploring Hamlet's first soliloquy in detail. It is always surprising how much Shakespeare packs into each speech. We finished the rest of scene ii and summarized it. We'll continue reading tomorrow.
Grade 12s in ELA B 30 are reminded to have their persuasive essays to me for Friday.
AP 30 students are reminded to continue to work on their book annotations. I'd like those in before Christmas holidays.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
This is the penultimate class the students have to work on this comparison/critique assignment. It is due December 19th and tomorrow is their last work period on it. I concede it is difficult, but have shown them a sample, so hopefully it helps! If they choose to do a Macbeth re-write of their formal essay, that is also due December 19th.
Period 4--History 10
The kids wrote their French Revolution exam today. Tomorrow Mrs. Adelman will be in for me, and the kids will do some current events worksheets.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee had the students finish off their jigsaw from yesterday and they had some discussions about their information. She then had a power point with information about British Columbia joining confederation; the students had handouts with blanks to fill in and we continued to discuss. Tomorrow's class should see some Riel Rebellion information for the students.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
December 6, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We finished examining Hamlet's first soliloquy for literary devices. The kids did a great job of seeing all the different things that contribute to tone in a speech. We then continued to read through the rest of the scene and summarized it at the end. We were just getting into scene iii and will continue tomorrow. We will start to move much quicker once we've fully connected the antecedent action to the plot line as well as be introduced to new characters.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We continued to read through scene ii and like with period 1's class, we examined Hamlet's first soliloquy. We aren't quite done with this, so we'll finish it up tomorrow and then read on. Mr. Sandbeck came in to do some follow-up Career Guidance questions with the grade 12s.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
I went over my sample comparison/critique of the comedy they viewed with the tragedy we read (Macbeth) to show them how to structure it and how they could get started with it. The students then had some time to work on this assignment. They will get some more time, but need to buckle down to work more efficiently if they hope to accomplish their goals.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had a Jeopardy game for the kids to review the French Revolution. They had the rest of the class to study. They will write their exam tomorrow.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee was back today and took the kids through the reasons why PEI and Newfoundland joined confederation. She then had them split into five groups for a "jigsaw" activity. The kids were given information and became "experts." AFter they learned this information, they were split into new groups with one "expert" in each group. The students all had to teach each other the information they learned. They will have to finish this up tomorrow.
We finished examining Hamlet's first soliloquy for literary devices. The kids did a great job of seeing all the different things that contribute to tone in a speech. We then continued to read through the rest of the scene and summarized it at the end. We were just getting into scene iii and will continue tomorrow. We will start to move much quicker once we've fully connected the antecedent action to the plot line as well as be introduced to new characters.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We continued to read through scene ii and like with period 1's class, we examined Hamlet's first soliloquy. We aren't quite done with this, so we'll finish it up tomorrow and then read on. Mr. Sandbeck came in to do some follow-up Career Guidance questions with the grade 12s.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
I went over my sample comparison/critique of the comedy they viewed with the tragedy we read (Macbeth) to show them how to structure it and how they could get started with it. The students then had some time to work on this assignment. They will get some more time, but need to buckle down to work more efficiently if they hope to accomplish their goals.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had a Jeopardy game for the kids to review the French Revolution. They had the rest of the class to study. They will write their exam tomorrow.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee was back today and took the kids through the reasons why PEI and Newfoundland joined confederation. She then had them split into five groups for a "jigsaw" activity. The kids were given information and became "experts." AFter they learned this information, they were split into new groups with one "expert" in each group. The students all had to teach each other the information they learned. They will have to finish this up tomorrow.
Monday, 5 December 2011
November 4, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We continued to read Act I, scene ii. We didn't finish the scene as we focussed on Hamlet's first soliloquy. While we paraphrased it, we also examined various resources of language (metaphors, imagery, sibilance, etc.) and how that creates tone. Mr. Sandbeck also came into to do some follow up with Career Guidance while the lesson was going on.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We finished out information on Shakespeare's Theatre. We then copied down a character map to help the kids keep track of the various people in the play. Finally, we started reading and finished Act I, scene ii. At the end of the class, we summarized the scene we read.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
They finally got their essays back. If they want to do a re-do, then they have to get it handed back to me before the Christmas holidays. And then they should staple it to their original. We looked at the various outcomes and indicators of writing an essay so they can see how much they accomplish in the terms of assessment with just this one assignment. Finally, I handed out their "Writing Sins" which outlined the common problems they had with their writing. Tomorrow, we'll continue with their crtitique/comparison assignment.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the kids share their summaries with one another and copy down important information about the French Revolution. They will continue to study tomorrow for their exam on Wednesday.
Period 5--History 30
The students had a handout that focussed on the British North America Act. There are issues that arose from Confederation (bilingualism, federal vs provincial power, etc.). We had a handout that reviewed some of the specifics from the BNA Act (jurisdictions, etc.). Finally, we read and discussed the handout on Growing Pains in the New Nation. We should be ready to move onto Manitoba joining with the Red River Rebellion.
We continued to read Act I, scene ii. We didn't finish the scene as we focussed on Hamlet's first soliloquy. While we paraphrased it, we also examined various resources of language (metaphors, imagery, sibilance, etc.) and how that creates tone. Mr. Sandbeck also came into to do some follow up with Career Guidance while the lesson was going on.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We finished out information on Shakespeare's Theatre. We then copied down a character map to help the kids keep track of the various people in the play. Finally, we started reading and finished Act I, scene ii. At the end of the class, we summarized the scene we read.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
They finally got their essays back. If they want to do a re-do, then they have to get it handed back to me before the Christmas holidays. And then they should staple it to their original. We looked at the various outcomes and indicators of writing an essay so they can see how much they accomplish in the terms of assessment with just this one assignment. Finally, I handed out their "Writing Sins" which outlined the common problems they had with their writing. Tomorrow, we'll continue with their crtitique/comparison assignment.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the kids share their summaries with one another and copy down important information about the French Revolution. They will continue to study tomorrow for their exam on Wednesday.
Period 5--History 30
The students had a handout that focussed on the British North America Act. There are issues that arose from Confederation (bilingualism, federal vs provincial power, etc.). We had a handout that reviewed some of the specifics from the BNA Act (jurisdictions, etc.). Finally, we read and discussed the handout on Growing Pains in the New Nation. We should be ready to move onto Manitoba joining with the Red River Rebellion.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
December 2, 2011
Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday...I came home and decorated the Christmas tree with my family, and then had a family night after that. I just forgot to update! Here is what we did yesterday!
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP
The regular B 30 and AP 30s will be reading Hamlet at the same time, but their evaluation will be different, so for the most part, I can post these together. We finished going over Elizabethan England to set the stage for the mind-set of Shakespeare as he was writing these plays. Again, the focus is on the religious upheaval during Shakespeare's own lifetime and how that threads itself into the writing of Hamlet. After this, the period 1 class moved into jotting down a character map of the people to know in the play and then we were able to continue on to Act I. Period 2's class is still finishing up the power point for next class--because it has the AP group in it, we took a little more time to delve deeper into the antecedent action info. They will catch up as we start reading the play.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
They were given this class period to work on their critique of Twelfth Night or Midsummer Night's Dream which is one of the requirements of the revised ELA B 10 curriculum. To "AP" this assignment up, I've assigned the kids the monumental task of not only critiquing the play they viewed, but comparing comedies to tragedies all at the same time. It is a difficult assigment, to be sure, but this is a talented group. I gave them a place to start and we outlined the structure together as a class and them go to it. While some struggled, others were able to dive right in. In order to help, I spent some time creating a sample of what it could look like that the kids will view on Monday to see if it will "kick-start" them. I will also be giving their Macbeth essays back on Monday. The students will have the opportunity to review my feedback and then re-do if they want.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell is winding up her teaching with this group and when they are finished the French Revolution, she will move on to observe other classes. She has done an excellent job with these kids and I think we will all miss her when she finishes her intership at OHS. They summarized their information from yesterday to start out the class and then finished some questions and took them up together. She then had them watch a video clip on Napoleon and gave the kids some notes. They summarized this class's info and started in on a review assignment. They will continue to review on Monday for their test next week. It WAS going to be Tuesday, but she has now changed the date to Wednesday to accommodate for other exams that are going on that day for the grade 10s.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee continues with this class. They reviewed the information from yesterday by filling in the cloze exercize from the video clip they viewed. They had another chance to watch the video as it outlined the struggles the Fathers of Confederation had when going to London to get Queen Victoria to sign the British North America Act. There were a few notes we went over in the package she gave to us yesterday and some more blanks to fill in as they viewed. Miss Lee did a very good job of stopping and explaining the information as the kids viewed it.
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP
The regular B 30 and AP 30s will be reading Hamlet at the same time, but their evaluation will be different, so for the most part, I can post these together. We finished going over Elizabethan England to set the stage for the mind-set of Shakespeare as he was writing these plays. Again, the focus is on the religious upheaval during Shakespeare's own lifetime and how that threads itself into the writing of Hamlet. After this, the period 1 class moved into jotting down a character map of the people to know in the play and then we were able to continue on to Act I. Period 2's class is still finishing up the power point for next class--because it has the AP group in it, we took a little more time to delve deeper into the antecedent action info. They will catch up as we start reading the play.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
They were given this class period to work on their critique of Twelfth Night or Midsummer Night's Dream which is one of the requirements of the revised ELA B 10 curriculum. To "AP" this assignment up, I've assigned the kids the monumental task of not only critiquing the play they viewed, but comparing comedies to tragedies all at the same time. It is a difficult assigment, to be sure, but this is a talented group. I gave them a place to start and we outlined the structure together as a class and them go to it. While some struggled, others were able to dive right in. In order to help, I spent some time creating a sample of what it could look like that the kids will view on Monday to see if it will "kick-start" them. I will also be giving their Macbeth essays back on Monday. The students will have the opportunity to review my feedback and then re-do if they want.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell is winding up her teaching with this group and when they are finished the French Revolution, she will move on to observe other classes. She has done an excellent job with these kids and I think we will all miss her when she finishes her intership at OHS. They summarized their information from yesterday to start out the class and then finished some questions and took them up together. She then had them watch a video clip on Napoleon and gave the kids some notes. They summarized this class's info and started in on a review assignment. They will continue to review on Monday for their test next week. It WAS going to be Tuesday, but she has now changed the date to Wednesday to accommodate for other exams that are going on that day for the grade 10s.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee continues with this class. They reviewed the information from yesterday by filling in the cloze exercize from the video clip they viewed. They had another chance to watch the video as it outlined the struggles the Fathers of Confederation had when going to London to get Queen Victoria to sign the British North America Act. There were a few notes we went over in the package she gave to us yesterday and some more blanks to fill in as they viewed. Miss Lee did a very good job of stopping and explaining the information as the kids viewed it.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
December 1, 2011
Period 1& 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We continued with some of the background work for Hamlet by focussing on Elizabethan England to help the students understand what the audience would be experiencing. This always creates interesting conversation as the kids realize the difference between modern society and society during Shakespeare's time.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished looking at the technical aspects of the plays viewed last Friday and moved on to looking at an exemplar of a critique. We read a critique about a stage play of Macbeth set during Stalin's Soviet Union. Some of the descriptions of the play made it sound "interesting" to say the least, but the kids were able to see what the power of the critique is like. Their job is to write a critique on the movie/play they viewed, but to make it more complex, they have to formulate their critique by analytically comparing the comedy to the tragedy we all read (Macbeth). This is definitely a challenging assignment but I think they're up to the task.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the students summarize the rise to power of Napoleon. Then, they went over the questions from yesterday's lessons. A power point with some notes followed as well as a handout with some more questions for them to tackle. THE STUDENTS HAVE AN EXAM ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION DECEMBER 6, 2011. After this, I'll be taking over the class as we examine the Glorious Revolution and the English Civil War.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee taught the class again today. They continued the confederation clip from Canada: A People's History Video Series. They were then given some time to fill in some blanks they should have gotten from the video. After this, we corrected them together as a class. Miss Lee followed this up with another video clip to show the conferences leading up to confederation at Charlottetown and Quebec. An exit slip followed where the students had to consider if each region should have equal representation in government.
We continued with some of the background work for Hamlet by focussing on Elizabethan England to help the students understand what the audience would be experiencing. This always creates interesting conversation as the kids realize the difference between modern society and society during Shakespeare's time.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished looking at the technical aspects of the plays viewed last Friday and moved on to looking at an exemplar of a critique. We read a critique about a stage play of Macbeth set during Stalin's Soviet Union. Some of the descriptions of the play made it sound "interesting" to say the least, but the kids were able to see what the power of the critique is like. Their job is to write a critique on the movie/play they viewed, but to make it more complex, they have to formulate their critique by analytically comparing the comedy to the tragedy we all read (Macbeth). This is definitely a challenging assignment but I think they're up to the task.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the students summarize the rise to power of Napoleon. Then, they went over the questions from yesterday's lessons. A power point with some notes followed as well as a handout with some more questions for them to tackle. THE STUDENTS HAVE AN EXAM ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION DECEMBER 6, 2011. After this, I'll be taking over the class as we examine the Glorious Revolution and the English Civil War.
Period 5--History 30
Miss Lee taught the class again today. They continued the confederation clip from Canada: A People's History Video Series. They were then given some time to fill in some blanks they should have gotten from the video. After this, we corrected them together as a class. Miss Lee followed this up with another video clip to show the conferences leading up to confederation at Charlottetown and Quebec. An exit slip followed where the students had to consider if each region should have equal representation in government.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
November 30, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
Today we started looking at some of the background information in order for the kids to getter a deeper read for studying Hamlet. We looked at the importance of the antecedent action, when to anticipate the climax, characterisitcs of a Shakespearean tragedy and types of characters we are likely to meet. We did a quick review of the Freytag Pyramid of Plot Development to make some connections for them. After this, we dove into the antecepdent action (30 years before the start of the play, Old Hamlet and Old Fortinbras' war, loss of lands, succession issues, etc., as well as the quick re-marriage of Gertrude 2 months before the start of the play and character motivations). Then, we discussed fatal flaws and I identified Hamlet's as procrastination, but without giving away too much of the plot, we started looking at why he procrastinated. To do this, we take a look at Shakespeare's time and struggle with religion (Protestantism vs Catholicism) and how that affects their view of ghosts. It ended up being a bit of a trip down memory lane to History 10 for the kids and we reviewed Henry VIII and his break from the Catholic church and the religious upheaval Shakespeare's family would have been caught up in and how that winnowed its way into the play. It was a packed class with interesting discussion and we'll see if we actually get to the play tommorrow!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continue to look at the two different plays that were viewed (A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night). We needed to finish looking at technical aspects of the play and observations we had of them. We filled the chart out together as a class (as much as my tempermental SMART board would let me) but were called down to the gym for an assembly before we could finish.
Period 4--History 10
The students learned a lot with Miss Cambell today. They finished discussing the Reign of Terror and looked at how that led to the formation of the Directory. They moved to the rise of Napoleon. There was a handout for them to fill in some blanks as they viewed the power point and then another handout where they created a timeline of Napoleon's rise.
Period 5--History 30
The grade 12s were introduced to Miss Lee, an intern that is going to take over for a couple of weeks. They did some introductory activities where she gave them an interesting look at her passion for History as it connects to her grandfather as he came to Canada and struggled to make a living. The students introduced themselves and then they set up some classroom expectations together. At this point, Miss Lee discussed the Canadian Wheat Board and why it's in the news right now. The students were able to give some interesting opinions about whether they think it should remain intact or be abolished. Then, Miss Lee directed them to the concept of confederation and issues arising from the idea of it. They had a handout to fill in some blanks as they watched a video outlining the rights (or lack thereof) of women and natives at this point in history as well as the push for a Maritime union. She had them fill out an exit slip shortly before the bell rang. They will continue with this tomorrow.
Today we started looking at some of the background information in order for the kids to getter a deeper read for studying Hamlet. We looked at the importance of the antecedent action, when to anticipate the climax, characterisitcs of a Shakespearean tragedy and types of characters we are likely to meet. We did a quick review of the Freytag Pyramid of Plot Development to make some connections for them. After this, we dove into the antecepdent action (30 years before the start of the play, Old Hamlet and Old Fortinbras' war, loss of lands, succession issues, etc., as well as the quick re-marriage of Gertrude 2 months before the start of the play and character motivations). Then, we discussed fatal flaws and I identified Hamlet's as procrastination, but without giving away too much of the plot, we started looking at why he procrastinated. To do this, we take a look at Shakespeare's time and struggle with religion (Protestantism vs Catholicism) and how that affects their view of ghosts. It ended up being a bit of a trip down memory lane to History 10 for the kids and we reviewed Henry VIII and his break from the Catholic church and the religious upheaval Shakespeare's family would have been caught up in and how that winnowed its way into the play. It was a packed class with interesting discussion and we'll see if we actually get to the play tommorrow!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continue to look at the two different plays that were viewed (A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night). We needed to finish looking at technical aspects of the play and observations we had of them. We filled the chart out together as a class (as much as my tempermental SMART board would let me) but were called down to the gym for an assembly before we could finish.
Period 4--History 10
The students learned a lot with Miss Cambell today. They finished discussing the Reign of Terror and looked at how that led to the formation of the Directory. They moved to the rise of Napoleon. There was a handout for them to fill in some blanks as they viewed the power point and then another handout where they created a timeline of Napoleon's rise.
Period 5--History 30
The grade 12s were introduced to Miss Lee, an intern that is going to take over for a couple of weeks. They did some introductory activities where she gave them an interesting look at her passion for History as it connects to her grandfather as he came to Canada and struggled to make a living. The students introduced themselves and then they set up some classroom expectations together. At this point, Miss Lee discussed the Canadian Wheat Board and why it's in the news right now. The students were able to give some interesting opinions about whether they think it should remain intact or be abolished. Then, Miss Lee directed them to the concept of confederation and issues arising from the idea of it. They had a handout to fill in some blanks as they watched a video outlining the rights (or lack thereof) of women and natives at this point in history as well as the push for a Maritime union. She had them fill out an exit slip shortly before the bell rang. They will continue with this tomorrow.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
November 29, 2011
I was out of the classroom writing a final assessment for my intern, Miss Campbell today, so "Thank you" to the staff who covered my classes and the students for behaving so well today!
Period 1--ELA B 30
The students had time to work on their persuasive essays today. This will be due on Monday.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
ELA B 30--The students had time to work on their persuasive essays during this class. They will be due on Monday.
AP 30--These students had time to work on their Book Annotation assignment. I would like these annotations in before Christmas, if possible. It is a huge assignment to do, but an equally daunting one to mark, so the sooner I get them, the sooner I can assess them!
WE'RE STARTING HAMLET TOMORROW, SO THE PERSUASIVE ESSAY IS HOMEWORK.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students had to work on their viewing assignment--they needed to summarize the play that they viewed as well as write a paragraph that identifies and dicusses the differences they think would be important between a modern audience as opposed to an Elizabethan audience.
Period 4--History 10
The students corrected questions from the documentary on the French Revolution to ensure and support their understanding of the issues during the Reign of Terror. They then went off to the computer lab to work on their Napoleon assignment.
Period 5--History 30
We finished discussing responsbile government and when it was achieved in Canada. From there, we had a quick look at the Canadian contribution to the American Civil war (primarily the Underground Railway and the hesitance many Canadians had about becoming a federal union because of what they saw with the Civil War in the States). Toward the end of class, I introduced an assignment that we will come back to in a few weeks; this assignment requires the students to be responsible citizens where they identify issues of concern in their school , community, province, or country and determine what changes they would like made. We discussed some of these issues and determined which level of government was in charge of them. Later on, we will write a business letter to the various levels about the concern and request responses about their issues. It's always intersting to see their issues and the responses. Incidentally, the premier's office is the best for returning responses and are often personalized by the premier!
Period 1--ELA B 30
The students had time to work on their persuasive essays today. This will be due on Monday.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
ELA B 30--The students had time to work on their persuasive essays during this class. They will be due on Monday.
AP 30--These students had time to work on their Book Annotation assignment. I would like these annotations in before Christmas, if possible. It is a huge assignment to do, but an equally daunting one to mark, so the sooner I get them, the sooner I can assess them!
WE'RE STARTING HAMLET TOMORROW, SO THE PERSUASIVE ESSAY IS HOMEWORK.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students had to work on their viewing assignment--they needed to summarize the play that they viewed as well as write a paragraph that identifies and dicusses the differences they think would be important between a modern audience as opposed to an Elizabethan audience.
Period 4--History 10
The students corrected questions from the documentary on the French Revolution to ensure and support their understanding of the issues during the Reign of Terror. They then went off to the computer lab to work on their Napoleon assignment.
Period 5--History 30
We finished discussing responsbile government and when it was achieved in Canada. From there, we had a quick look at the Canadian contribution to the American Civil war (primarily the Underground Railway and the hesitance many Canadians had about becoming a federal union because of what they saw with the Civil War in the States). Toward the end of class, I introduced an assignment that we will come back to in a few weeks; this assignment requires the students to be responsible citizens where they identify issues of concern in their school , community, province, or country and determine what changes they would like made. We discussed some of these issues and determined which level of government was in charge of them. Later on, we will write a business letter to the various levels about the concern and request responses about their issues. It's always intersting to see their issues and the responses. Incidentally, the premier's office is the best for returning responses and are often personalized by the premier!
Monday, 28 November 2011
November 28, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
I went over the assignment for Chaucer with the kids. They have to write a persuasive essay so we discussed how to best write and organize a persuasive essay. We worked on a thesis statement together and identified the importance of counter-arguments. The students then had just over half a class to work on their essay. They will have tomorrow's class to work on this as well.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
ELA B 30--as above
AP 30--The students were given 3 essay prompts from which to choose for their timed write today. They were allowed to bring a thesis statement into the class with them. The had this entire class to write their timed write.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We de-briefed the play and movie that the students watched on Friday. The students really enjoyed the live theatre performance of Twelfth Night (as did the teachers). Persephone Theatre did an exccellent job of this production. The students watching A Midsummer Night's Dream enjoyed that production as well. We were able to go over the handout that the students had to do. Tomorrow, they must summarize the play and write a paragraph detailing the difference between what modern audiences see/expect as opposed to Elizabethan audiences.
Period 4--History 10
The students finsihed watching their documentary of the Reign of Terror and the French Revolution. They then moved to the computer lab to start some work on the Napoleon part of the Revolution. They will have the class tomorrow to finish this assignment.
Period 5--History 30
We reviewed their reading from Friday and went over the answers together from the questions that accompanied the reading. We continued the discussion with information about the push for responsible government in Canada. We weren't quite finished that sheet but will do so tomorrow and then look a bit at the U.S. civil war and its effects on Canada.
I went over the assignment for Chaucer with the kids. They have to write a persuasive essay so we discussed how to best write and organize a persuasive essay. We worked on a thesis statement together and identified the importance of counter-arguments. The students then had just over half a class to work on their essay. They will have tomorrow's class to work on this as well.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
ELA B 30--as above
AP 30--The students were given 3 essay prompts from which to choose for their timed write today. They were allowed to bring a thesis statement into the class with them. The had this entire class to write their timed write.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We de-briefed the play and movie that the students watched on Friday. The students really enjoyed the live theatre performance of Twelfth Night (as did the teachers). Persephone Theatre did an exccellent job of this production. The students watching A Midsummer Night's Dream enjoyed that production as well. We were able to go over the handout that the students had to do. Tomorrow, they must summarize the play and write a paragraph detailing the difference between what modern audiences see/expect as opposed to Elizabethan audiences.
Period 4--History 10
The students finsihed watching their documentary of the Reign of Terror and the French Revolution. They then moved to the computer lab to start some work on the Napoleon part of the Revolution. They will have the class tomorrow to finish this assignment.
Period 5--History 30
We reviewed their reading from Friday and went over the answers together from the questions that accompanied the reading. We continued the discussion with information about the push for responsible government in Canada. We weren't quite finished that sheet but will do so tomorrow and then look a bit at the U.S. civil war and its effects on Canada.
Friday, 25 November 2011
November 25, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
The students finished viewing the "Squire's Tale," "The Canon's Servant's Tale," and the "Reeve's Tale." We went over the tales to ensure understanding and I provided a handout with teh summaries. Together, we created some possible themes for the tales. After this, they were given their assignment. The ELA B 30 students have to be Harry Bailey and write a persuasive essay as to which tale should be chosen as the winner. They need to use arguments and counter-arguments to prove their choice.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We left at about 10: 30 to head to Saskatoon for all of the grade 10s to watch Twelfth Night put on by Persephone Theatre. It was FABULOUS!! The five actors were so entertaining; it was non-stop fun for the entire two hours. The students worked on their questions duirng the play as this production offered no intermission. the students seemed to enjoy the production and took part in a question/answer session with the actors after the play. I can't say enough about what a great job Persephone did with this play. Those who were left at OHS, viewed A Midsummer Night's Dream and worked on the same assignment.
Period 4--History 10
No History today as all of the students were dealing with Shakespearean plays!
Period 5--History 30
Mr. Theoret covered for me while I was with the grade 10s. They were to read the handout I gave them yesterday that examined the results of the Act of Union of 1841. There were questions to accompany the reading that I wanted to be finished for tomorrow.
The students finished viewing the "Squire's Tale," "The Canon's Servant's Tale," and the "Reeve's Tale." We went over the tales to ensure understanding and I provided a handout with teh summaries. Together, we created some possible themes for the tales. After this, they were given their assignment. The ELA B 30 students have to be Harry Bailey and write a persuasive essay as to which tale should be chosen as the winner. They need to use arguments and counter-arguments to prove their choice.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We left at about 10: 30 to head to Saskatoon for all of the grade 10s to watch Twelfth Night put on by Persephone Theatre. It was FABULOUS!! The five actors were so entertaining; it was non-stop fun for the entire two hours. The students worked on their questions duirng the play as this production offered no intermission. the students seemed to enjoy the production and took part in a question/answer session with the actors after the play. I can't say enough about what a great job Persephone did with this play. Those who were left at OHS, viewed A Midsummer Night's Dream and worked on the same assignment.
Period 4--History 10
No History today as all of the students were dealing with Shakespearean plays!
Period 5--History 30
Mr. Theoret covered for me while I was with the grade 10s. They were to read the handout I gave them yesterday that examined the results of the Act of Union of 1841. There were questions to accompany the reading that I wanted to be finished for tomorrow.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
November 24, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We summarized the "Merchant's Tale" and viewed "The Pardoner's Tale," supporting what we had read last week. We finished the day off with the "Franklin's Tale" and summarized it and found the theme with some discussion. Tomorrow, we will watch the remaining 3 tales I have available and I will provide the summaries with the students providing the themes. AFter this, they can start to work on their persuasive essay. The AP students will recieve their topics for their timed writes. They'll have the weekend to review the prompts, choose one and can bring in a fully developed thesis to help guide their writing for Monday.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We are getting reading for our field trip to Persephone Theatre tomorrow to watch Twelfth Night. We finished going over the synopsis for the play as well as for A Midsummer Night's Dream for the kids who are staying back. We then went through the assignment that they have to work on tomorrow while we watch the play. The students need to bring their lunch for tomorrow and a clip board or something to write on.
Period 4--History 10
The students did their summaries from yesterday's lesson. Then they started watching a documentary about the French Revolution, specifically the overthrow of Louis XVI, his execution and the Reign of Terror. We will finish it on Monday.
Period 5--History 30
The students read about Lord Durham's Report and answered some questions and then had a handout on the Act of Union of 1841 with some questions.
We summarized the "Merchant's Tale" and viewed "The Pardoner's Tale," supporting what we had read last week. We finished the day off with the "Franklin's Tale" and summarized it and found the theme with some discussion. Tomorrow, we will watch the remaining 3 tales I have available and I will provide the summaries with the students providing the themes. AFter this, they can start to work on their persuasive essay. The AP students will recieve their topics for their timed writes. They'll have the weekend to review the prompts, choose one and can bring in a fully developed thesis to help guide their writing for Monday.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We are getting reading for our field trip to Persephone Theatre tomorrow to watch Twelfth Night. We finished going over the synopsis for the play as well as for A Midsummer Night's Dream for the kids who are staying back. We then went through the assignment that they have to work on tomorrow while we watch the play. The students need to bring their lunch for tomorrow and a clip board or something to write on.
Period 4--History 10
The students did their summaries from yesterday's lesson. Then they started watching a documentary about the French Revolution, specifically the overthrow of Louis XVI, his execution and the Reign of Terror. We will finish it on Monday.
Period 5--History 30
The students read about Lord Durham's Report and answered some questions and then had a handout on the Act of Union of 1841 with some questions.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
November 23, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We summarized the clips from Canterbury Tales that we viewed yesterday and then discussed the themes for "The Knight's Tale," "The Wife of Bath's Tale," and "The Nun's Priest's Tale." We then watched "The Merchant's Tale" and were just finished summarizing it when the bell rang. We'll continue with a few more tales tomorrow and then the students will have a writing assignment to do.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
Since half the class was gone to the band trip, I allowed them time to read Animal Farm which is their next novel to be read for right after Christmas.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the students create their summary from yesterday and they created a hypothesis as to what they think will happen now that Louis XVI has been executed. They had a few notes after this and then viewed a power point with information about the Reign of Terror. There was a handout with some questions about the Reign and the class answered them together. The students had to create a graph of the deaths during the one year Reign of Terror and hand it in to Miss Campbell.
Period 5--History 30
The students were able to finish working on their assignment. This assignment is due on Friday.
We summarized the clips from Canterbury Tales that we viewed yesterday and then discussed the themes for "The Knight's Tale," "The Wife of Bath's Tale," and "The Nun's Priest's Tale." We then watched "The Merchant's Tale" and were just finished summarizing it when the bell rang. We'll continue with a few more tales tomorrow and then the students will have a writing assignment to do.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
Since half the class was gone to the band trip, I allowed them time to read Animal Farm which is their next novel to be read for right after Christmas.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the students create their summary from yesterday and they created a hypothesis as to what they think will happen now that Louis XVI has been executed. They had a few notes after this and then viewed a power point with information about the Reign of Terror. There was a handout with some questions about the Reign and the class answered them together. The students had to create a graph of the deaths during the one year Reign of Terror and hand it in to Miss Campbell.
Period 5--History 30
The students were able to finish working on their assignment. This assignment is due on Friday.
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
November 22, 2011
Period 1 & 2 Grade 12s
Mr. Sandbeck stole both of the grade 12 classes from me to finish up the assessment for their aptitude tests. At this point, he would like to have the students meet with him individually to go over the results and then discuss with them their future plans. We'll continue with Chaucer tomorrow.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We looked at the Characteristics of a Shakespearean Comedy (handout) as a class and discussed the differences between Elizabethan theatre and theatre today. I was able to tailor various aspects of the discussion to those students who who would be attending the theatre production and to those who will be viewing the play. We started going over the synopsis of A Midsummer Night's Dream so the stdents are familiar with the evens before they view it. We didn't quite finish, so we will continue with that for tomorrow and also examine the synopsis for Twelfth Night.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell continued with the French Revolution--yesterday they had a task sheet that dealth with Louis XVI and had some board notes on Austria. At the end of the class, they continued to create their summary of events. Today, they worked on two handouts with questions--"Louis XVI on Trial" and "Execution of Louis XVI." After they did the questiosn and discussed the answers, they worked on a Newspaper Template they had to create to review the events of the execution of the king. Most students finished this during class, but if they didn't, it was assigned for homework.
Period 5--History 30
The students were given some time to study for their quiz. After this point, they wrote the exam. For those who finished early, they were to work on their assignment that is due Friday.
Mr. Sandbeck stole both of the grade 12 classes from me to finish up the assessment for their aptitude tests. At this point, he would like to have the students meet with him individually to go over the results and then discuss with them their future plans. We'll continue with Chaucer tomorrow.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We looked at the Characteristics of a Shakespearean Comedy (handout) as a class and discussed the differences between Elizabethan theatre and theatre today. I was able to tailor various aspects of the discussion to those students who who would be attending the theatre production and to those who will be viewing the play. We started going over the synopsis of A Midsummer Night's Dream so the stdents are familiar with the evens before they view it. We didn't quite finish, so we will continue with that for tomorrow and also examine the synopsis for Twelfth Night.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell continued with the French Revolution--yesterday they had a task sheet that dealth with Louis XVI and had some board notes on Austria. At the end of the class, they continued to create their summary of events. Today, they worked on two handouts with questions--"Louis XVI on Trial" and "Execution of Louis XVI." After they did the questiosn and discussed the answers, they worked on a Newspaper Template they had to create to review the events of the execution of the king. Most students finished this during class, but if they didn't, it was assigned for homework.
Period 5--History 30
The students were given some time to study for their quiz. After this point, they wrote the exam. For those who finished early, they were to work on their assignment that is due Friday.
Monday, 21 November 2011
November 21, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We continue with Chaucer--we reviewed the "Miller's Tale" from last Thursday by summarizing it together and then looking at potential themes and purpose for the story. We determined that there is little in the way to offer with a theme by the Miller, given that his purpoe was primarily to mock the valour and chivalric concepts in the "Knight's Tale." With period 2's class, the APs spent a bit more time analyzing some of the interesting aspects of the "Miller's Tale" and learned about fabliaus as a literary genre. In both classes, we moved on with Chaucer by watching clips of animated versions of a few other tales: "The Nun's Priest's Tale," "The Knight's Tale," and the "Wife of Bath's Tale." I was able to locate clips of a few other tales so after we summarize and analyze the themes for these three tales, we will look at a few others. The final assignment for Chaucer for the regular B 30 class will be to write a persuasive essay as if they are Harry Bailey and they have to choose the winner of the story telling contest. The AP students will be doing a timed write.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished with our Assessing and Reflecting assignment on their own writing (Timed Writes from Macbeth) and moved into a quick lesson about point of view. We looked at the difference in a passage from first person point of view and then changed it to a 3rd person point of view narrative and examined the differences--strengths and weaknesses. After this, we started to get ready for the viewing assignment on Friday--most of the class will be attending the theatre performance of Twelfth Night and the ones that are not attending will view the movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The assignment I've prepared will work nicely for both options and covers 6 of 10 viewing outcomes for CR B10.2. We are all looking forward to this field trip and exciting opportunity to attend a play. We will continue getting ready to view in the next few days by doing pre-viewing activities and information about Shakespearean comedies as well as viewing strategies and techniques so the students are not just passive viewers.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell very nicely left me a sticky note with what they covered in class and I promptly forgot it at school so I will update this tomorrow. I do know that they were focussing on Louis XVI, his wars in Austria and they were doing a reading with some questions on them. Sorry--I will be more specific tomorrow!
Period 5--History 30
We spent the first 10 minutes of the class reviewing the timeline at the back of the room together, focussing on the events that will be on their exam tomorrow. The students had this as a work class. They could study for their exam tomorrow or work on their assignments that are due Friday.
We continue with Chaucer--we reviewed the "Miller's Tale" from last Thursday by summarizing it together and then looking at potential themes and purpose for the story. We determined that there is little in the way to offer with a theme by the Miller, given that his purpoe was primarily to mock the valour and chivalric concepts in the "Knight's Tale." With period 2's class, the APs spent a bit more time analyzing some of the interesting aspects of the "Miller's Tale" and learned about fabliaus as a literary genre. In both classes, we moved on with Chaucer by watching clips of animated versions of a few other tales: "The Nun's Priest's Tale," "The Knight's Tale," and the "Wife of Bath's Tale." I was able to locate clips of a few other tales so after we summarize and analyze the themes for these three tales, we will look at a few others. The final assignment for Chaucer for the regular B 30 class will be to write a persuasive essay as if they are Harry Bailey and they have to choose the winner of the story telling contest. The AP students will be doing a timed write.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished with our Assessing and Reflecting assignment on their own writing (Timed Writes from Macbeth) and moved into a quick lesson about point of view. We looked at the difference in a passage from first person point of view and then changed it to a 3rd person point of view narrative and examined the differences--strengths and weaknesses. After this, we started to get ready for the viewing assignment on Friday--most of the class will be attending the theatre performance of Twelfth Night and the ones that are not attending will view the movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The assignment I've prepared will work nicely for both options and covers 6 of 10 viewing outcomes for CR B10.2. We are all looking forward to this field trip and exciting opportunity to attend a play. We will continue getting ready to view in the next few days by doing pre-viewing activities and information about Shakespearean comedies as well as viewing strategies and techniques so the students are not just passive viewers.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell very nicely left me a sticky note with what they covered in class and I promptly forgot it at school so I will update this tomorrow. I do know that they were focussing on Louis XVI, his wars in Austria and they were doing a reading with some questions on them. Sorry--I will be more specific tomorrow!
Period 5--History 30
We spent the first 10 minutes of the class reviewing the timeline at the back of the room together, focussing on the events that will be on their exam tomorrow. The students had this as a work class. They could study for their exam tomorrow or work on their assignments that are due Friday.
Thursday, 17 November 2011
November 17, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30 & AP 30
We finished reading "The Miller's Tale" which took the vast majority of the class. It was a fun tale, but quite ribbald!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued looking at exemplars of AP essays--the kids were able to see examples of essays written at the 9, 8, 7, 5, 4 and 3 levels. At the end of the class, I asked them to look at their summative copy of their Timed Write on the Macbeth passage. At this point, they were to look at the 9 point AP rubric and evaluate what they think their essay is worth and write an explanation as to why they believe it deserves that mark.
Period 4--History 10
The kids were doing some reading from their textbook and had to answer some questions. Miss Campbell had them do some other activities, but I was out of the room for the bulk of the class and forgot to get an update from her, so if students missed the class, they need to check in with her Monday morning to find out what they missed. Sorry!
Period 5--History 30
As a change of pace, I gave the students an assignment to work on. They have various options of ways that they can express their knowledge about information they have taken in this unit. They had this class to work on it and then they will have Monday's class as well. A reminder that they have an exam on Tuesday form the Seven Years War to the end of the War of 1812 and loyalist migrations.
We finished reading "The Miller's Tale" which took the vast majority of the class. It was a fun tale, but quite ribbald!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued looking at exemplars of AP essays--the kids were able to see examples of essays written at the 9, 8, 7, 5, 4 and 3 levels. At the end of the class, I asked them to look at their summative copy of their Timed Write on the Macbeth passage. At this point, they were to look at the 9 point AP rubric and evaluate what they think their essay is worth and write an explanation as to why they believe it deserves that mark.
Period 4--History 10
The kids were doing some reading from their textbook and had to answer some questions. Miss Campbell had them do some other activities, but I was out of the room for the bulk of the class and forgot to get an update from her, so if students missed the class, they need to check in with her Monday morning to find out what they missed. Sorry!
Period 5--History 30
As a change of pace, I gave the students an assignment to work on. They have various options of ways that they can express their knowledge about information they have taken in this unit. They had this class to work on it and then they will have Monday's class as well. A reminder that they have an exam on Tuesday form the Seven Years War to the end of the War of 1812 and loyalist migrations.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
November 16, 2011
Period 1& 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We continued reading Chaucer today--we read "The Pardoner's Tale." The students summarized the tale in their notes to remind themselves of the events and characters for a later assignment. Then, as a class, we figured out the possible themes for the story. We did this by summarizing what we thought the story was about in ONE word and then indicating what we thought the author might have been trying to tell us about that ONE word. This is a pretty easy way to get the kids to understand theme and works for any genre.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students got their timed writes back and the assessment was explained to them. I explained the difference between the grade 10 mark that they get for their writing that appears on their report card and the AP mark that I will assign that doesn't affect their mark at all. I didn't put an AP mark on this timed write, and expect the kids to do this as a part of their "Assess and Reflect" portion of the curriculum where they must look at their own writing, set goals , etc. In order to accomplish this, we started looking at some sample timed writes from the AP Central website from former exams. They looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the writing. They were feeling pretty good about themselves as we read through an essay. They rated it a 6 on the 9 point rubric and felt that they could easily duplicate that level of writing. I agreed. We'll look at some other exemplars.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the kids summarize their information from the last two classes into a document that she is going to keep for them to serve as study notes. The students then wrote a short multiple choice pop quiz to see how well they were listening to the info on the Three Estates yesterday. There was another quick power point on Louis XVI. They had a handout on the Tennis Court Oath, Causes of Revolution and concept map. To finish off the class, they summarized what they learned.
Period 5--History 30
We reviewed the power point from yesterday and then completed the information on the Rebellions of 1837. This is as close as Canada gets to a civil war and the kids were somewhat underwhelmed with the excitement of it all!!!
We continued reading Chaucer today--we read "The Pardoner's Tale." The students summarized the tale in their notes to remind themselves of the events and characters for a later assignment. Then, as a class, we figured out the possible themes for the story. We did this by summarizing what we thought the story was about in ONE word and then indicating what we thought the author might have been trying to tell us about that ONE word. This is a pretty easy way to get the kids to understand theme and works for any genre.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students got their timed writes back and the assessment was explained to them. I explained the difference between the grade 10 mark that they get for their writing that appears on their report card and the AP mark that I will assign that doesn't affect their mark at all. I didn't put an AP mark on this timed write, and expect the kids to do this as a part of their "Assess and Reflect" portion of the curriculum where they must look at their own writing, set goals , etc. In order to accomplish this, we started looking at some sample timed writes from the AP Central website from former exams. They looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the writing. They were feeling pretty good about themselves as we read through an essay. They rated it a 6 on the 9 point rubric and felt that they could easily duplicate that level of writing. I agreed. We'll look at some other exemplars.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell had the kids summarize their information from the last two classes into a document that she is going to keep for them to serve as study notes. The students then wrote a short multiple choice pop quiz to see how well they were listening to the info on the Three Estates yesterday. There was another quick power point on Louis XVI. They had a handout on the Tennis Court Oath, Causes of Revolution and concept map. To finish off the class, they summarized what they learned.
Period 5--History 30
We reviewed the power point from yesterday and then completed the information on the Rebellions of 1837. This is as close as Canada gets to a civil war and the kids were somewhat underwhelmed with the excitement of it all!!!
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
November 15, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
I allowed them one last class to finish working on their Chaucer Prologue assignments. We'll continue with "The Pardoner's Tale" tomorrow. I also handed out the novel Nght to them and told them that it must be read by the time they come back from Christmas holidays. They won't be getting class time to specifically read it, but they should be prepared to read during "down time."
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished disussing the theme of "The Road Not Taken" and some final thoughts on the poem. They realized how much "surface" reading they do instead of looking deeper at what they are reading. We moved from poetry to a prose passage from an actual AP exam looking at the multiple choice. They saw how difficult the actual questions are with the upper level vocabulary that we have to work toward.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell continued with the French Revolution by discussing the three estates. There were notes for the students to take and questions that led to discussions to help them understand the roles each person played as a member of their estate. She also handed back their American Revolution exam.
Period 5--History 30
We looked at a power point today (the students had to fill in various blanks on their own sheet) that dealt with the rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada. It showed the reasons why the Canadians were discontent and the steps they took to change government. The differences and similarities between the Upper Canadians and Lower Canadians. We didn't quite finish it, so we'll do so tomorrow.
I allowed them one last class to finish working on their Chaucer Prologue assignments. We'll continue with "The Pardoner's Tale" tomorrow. I also handed out the novel Nght to them and told them that it must be read by the time they come back from Christmas holidays. They won't be getting class time to specifically read it, but they should be prepared to read during "down time."
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished disussing the theme of "The Road Not Taken" and some final thoughts on the poem. They realized how much "surface" reading they do instead of looking deeper at what they are reading. We moved from poetry to a prose passage from an actual AP exam looking at the multiple choice. They saw how difficult the actual questions are with the upper level vocabulary that we have to work toward.
Period 4--History 10
Miss Campbell continued with the French Revolution by discussing the three estates. There were notes for the students to take and questions that led to discussions to help them understand the roles each person played as a member of their estate. She also handed back their American Revolution exam.
Period 5--History 30
We looked at a power point today (the students had to fill in various blanks on their own sheet) that dealt with the rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada. It showed the reasons why the Canadians were discontent and the steps they took to change government. The differences and similarities between the Upper Canadians and Lower Canadians. We didn't quite finish it, so we'll do so tomorrow.
Monday, 14 November 2011
November 14, 2011
Period 1 & 2 ELA B 30/AP 30
We worked on our Prologue assignments for today. Students had a choice out of 4 options and used this time to work on it. We will decide on the due date during tomorrow's class.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued from our analysis on Thursday with Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" where we looked at surface vs. deeper analysis by breaking down what we looked at in the poem. Frost's poems are deceptively simple. We're almost done with it and have realized that point of view, tense, and imagery are key components to this poem.
Period 4--History 20
Miss Campbell took the kids through the start of a new unit (The French Revolution). Theydiscussed the times and living conditions of the French during this time period as well as the hierarchy of social classes. She had a few handouts and a power point the students followed that introduced Louis XIV "The Sun King" as one of the last great absolute monarchs of the world. The students then, as promised, had the last half of the class to work on their American Revolution timelines. They are due on Wednesday.
Period 5--History 30
We finished off discussing the War of 1812 and then spoke again about historical perspective with a look at the song, "Battle of New Orleans" and the American view of the war vs. how the British would have looked at the same events. We then spent some time talking about the outcomes of the War of 1812 on BNA including the Great Migration. The students decided it might be a good time to break up the information with an exam so they don't have to remember so many different events all on one exam. This exam will cover the Seven Years War to the end of the War of 1812 and the Great Migration. It will be next Tuesday, November 22nd.
We worked on our Prologue assignments for today. Students had a choice out of 4 options and used this time to work on it. We will decide on the due date during tomorrow's class.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued from our analysis on Thursday with Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" where we looked at surface vs. deeper analysis by breaking down what we looked at in the poem. Frost's poems are deceptively simple. We're almost done with it and have realized that point of view, tense, and imagery are key components to this poem.
Period 4--History 20
Miss Campbell took the kids through the start of a new unit (The French Revolution). Theydiscussed the times and living conditions of the French during this time period as well as the hierarchy of social classes. She had a few handouts and a power point the students followed that introduced Louis XIV "The Sun King" as one of the last great absolute monarchs of the world. The students then, as promised, had the last half of the class to work on their American Revolution timelines. They are due on Wednesday.
Period 5--History 30
We finished off discussing the War of 1812 and then spoke again about historical perspective with a look at the song, "Battle of New Orleans" and the American view of the war vs. how the British would have looked at the same events. We then spent some time talking about the outcomes of the War of 1812 on BNA including the Great Migration. The students decided it might be a good time to break up the information with an exam so they don't have to remember so many different events all on one exam. This exam will cover the Seven Years War to the end of the War of 1812 and the Great Migration. It will be next Tuesday, November 22nd.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
November 10, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We watched the video clip from GASP at the request of the principal and division informing kids about the dangers of "The Choking Game." This issue has been brought to the forefront because of a number of reports around OES and OHS of kids playing this game as well as the tragic death of a 13 year old boy is Saskatoon this past October. It was a very factual video but compelling.
After this, I introduced the Prologue Assignment and provided a number of exemplars for the students to model and/or use as inspiration. They will have Monday's class to work on this.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
As above, the grade 12s were requested to watch the GASP video.
We then finished the last little bit of the Prologue and then the students were introduced to the Prologue Assignment and also shown the various exemplars.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We all attended the Remembrance Day Service that was created by the History 20 class. It was a beautiful service and hopfully inspires the students to spend some time tomorrow remembering those who gave their lives for freedom.
Period 4--History 10
The students wrote their American Revolution exam today. Once they finished, they were allowed to work on their timeline.
Period 5--History 30
We continued with the War of 1812. Again, I really enjoy this class and their interest in the content. At 3:05, they were all called to their homerooms to collect their report cards!
While tomorrow, as Remembrance Day, isn't really a "holiday" in a celebratory sense of the word, I do hope everyone has a restful long weekend.
We watched the video clip from GASP at the request of the principal and division informing kids about the dangers of "The Choking Game." This issue has been brought to the forefront because of a number of reports around OES and OHS of kids playing this game as well as the tragic death of a 13 year old boy is Saskatoon this past October. It was a very factual video but compelling.
After this, I introduced the Prologue Assignment and provided a number of exemplars for the students to model and/or use as inspiration. They will have Monday's class to work on this.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
As above, the grade 12s were requested to watch the GASP video.
We then finished the last little bit of the Prologue and then the students were introduced to the Prologue Assignment and also shown the various exemplars.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We all attended the Remembrance Day Service that was created by the History 20 class. It was a beautiful service and hopfully inspires the students to spend some time tomorrow remembering those who gave their lives for freedom.
Period 4--History 10
The students wrote their American Revolution exam today. Once they finished, they were allowed to work on their timeline.
Period 5--History 30
We continued with the War of 1812. Again, I really enjoy this class and their interest in the content. At 3:05, they were all called to their homerooms to collect their report cards!
While tomorrow, as Remembrance Day, isn't really a "holiday" in a celebratory sense of the word, I do hope everyone has a restful long weekend.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
November 9, 2011
Period 1--ELA B 30
We finished talking about the Pardoner and looked at the background of what pardons/indulgences were in Medieval Catholicism and how that influenced the Pardoner. From there, we went straight into the "Pardoner's Tale." We didn't quit get it finished, but will finish it tomorrow. We're then going to back-track and start looking at an assignment for the Prologue that I forgot to introduce today.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We finished discussing the Miller and Pardoner with all the background of indulgences, etc. (see above!). When we finish with the last bit of the Prologue, we'll start the Prologue Assignment! Jessi Zlatnik is on the Blues News next week!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We looked at Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and did various activities with it. We started with the kids just reading it through the first time and jotting down in their books, what they think the poem is about. They came up with the usual, standard reading of the poem about choices and not taking teh easy way out. Then I told them that we needed to look deeper and read the poem "AP style" because they might discover that they've barely scratched the surface of the poem and possibly even misread it. We started out by looking only at the first two stanzas of the poem with a group and looking for anything that struck their interest (imagery, metaphors, rhyme scheme, shifts, etc.). They started to realize that the poem wasn't nearly as simple as they thought! We'll continue with the rest of the poem on Monday. We don't have ELA tomorrow because of the Remembrance Day Service during period 3.
Period 4--History 10
The kids had a final chance to work in the computer lab to finish typing up their summaries and getting their pictures. Many, if not most of them, ended up coming back to the room or working in the library to put everything together for their time line. They have their exam tomorrow, but Miss Campbell will allow them a bit more class time on Monday to finish putting their timelines together.
Period 5--History 30
We spoke about the effects of the American Revolution on the British Colonies north of the 49th parallel. One of the effects of this was the Constitution Act of 1791. The formation of Upper and Lower Canada was clever of the British government and a concerted effort to prevent those in Lower Canada from joining with the French in Europe during the French Revolution. This act left BNA in a stable, peaceful place for the next several year. We were just starting to get into the War of 1812 as the bell rang.
We finished talking about the Pardoner and looked at the background of what pardons/indulgences were in Medieval Catholicism and how that influenced the Pardoner. From there, we went straight into the "Pardoner's Tale." We didn't quit get it finished, but will finish it tomorrow. We're then going to back-track and start looking at an assignment for the Prologue that I forgot to introduce today.
Period 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
We finished discussing the Miller and Pardoner with all the background of indulgences, etc. (see above!). When we finish with the last bit of the Prologue, we'll start the Prologue Assignment! Jessi Zlatnik is on the Blues News next week!
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We looked at Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and did various activities with it. We started with the kids just reading it through the first time and jotting down in their books, what they think the poem is about. They came up with the usual, standard reading of the poem about choices and not taking teh easy way out. Then I told them that we needed to look deeper and read the poem "AP style" because they might discover that they've barely scratched the surface of the poem and possibly even misread it. We started out by looking only at the first two stanzas of the poem with a group and looking for anything that struck their interest (imagery, metaphors, rhyme scheme, shifts, etc.). They started to realize that the poem wasn't nearly as simple as they thought! We'll continue with the rest of the poem on Monday. We don't have ELA tomorrow because of the Remembrance Day Service during period 3.
Period 4--History 10
The kids had a final chance to work in the computer lab to finish typing up their summaries and getting their pictures. Many, if not most of them, ended up coming back to the room or working in the library to put everything together for their time line. They have their exam tomorrow, but Miss Campbell will allow them a bit more class time on Monday to finish putting their timelines together.
Period 5--History 30
We spoke about the effects of the American Revolution on the British Colonies north of the 49th parallel. One of the effects of this was the Constitution Act of 1791. The formation of Upper and Lower Canada was clever of the British government and a concerted effort to prevent those in Lower Canada from joining with the French in Europe during the French Revolution. This act left BNA in a stable, peaceful place for the next several year. We were just starting to get into the War of 1812 as the bell rang.
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
October 8, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
We continued to discuss the characters from the Prologue of Canterbury Tales. We've looked at the organization of the characters as they appear as well as thinking about the "lense" through which we should view them (we can determine what Chaucer felt about each character by how they are presented, the information provided, and the tone). We just have to examine the Pardoner tomorrow and then we will get into some of the Tales themselves. Period 2 has to look at the Miller and Pardoner before we're ready to move on.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We did a viewing activity today with a short clip from "Million Dollar Baby" and Maggie's final request. This is a deceptively benign clip. There isn't really anything eye catching or spectacular about it, but when we "deconstructed" it and looked at the lighting, character placement, tone, etc. The students filled out a viewing form from the Ministry of Learning's assessment document. This serves as a practice of the some of the viewing skills they will be engaging during our trip to Persephone on the November 25th. In addition, this clip augmented the theme that was a part of Of Mice and Men and "David." After this, the kids had to write an opinion piece on the theme of euthanasia. I don't care what their position is on it; the purpose of the writing is to consider the issue, take a stand and then use the 3 pieces of literature "Million Dollar Baby," "David," and Of Mice and Men to support their opinion. They won't be graded in any way on their opinion, just on their ability to support it one way or another.
Period 4--History 10
The students were again working on their summary of events for their American Revolution timeline. As a reminder, they have an exam on Thursday.
Period 5--History 30
We contiunued correcting the questions from the reading about Canada's involvement in the American Revolution. We then started examining the results of the American Revolution on the British North American colonies north of the 49th parallel!
We continued to discuss the characters from the Prologue of Canterbury Tales. We've looked at the organization of the characters as they appear as well as thinking about the "lense" through which we should view them (we can determine what Chaucer felt about each character by how they are presented, the information provided, and the tone). We just have to examine the Pardoner tomorrow and then we will get into some of the Tales themselves. Period 2 has to look at the Miller and Pardoner before we're ready to move on.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We did a viewing activity today with a short clip from "Million Dollar Baby" and Maggie's final request. This is a deceptively benign clip. There isn't really anything eye catching or spectacular about it, but when we "deconstructed" it and looked at the lighting, character placement, tone, etc. The students filled out a viewing form from the Ministry of Learning's assessment document. This serves as a practice of the some of the viewing skills they will be engaging during our trip to Persephone on the November 25th. In addition, this clip augmented the theme that was a part of Of Mice and Men and "David." After this, the kids had to write an opinion piece on the theme of euthanasia. I don't care what their position is on it; the purpose of the writing is to consider the issue, take a stand and then use the 3 pieces of literature "Million Dollar Baby," "David," and Of Mice and Men to support their opinion. They won't be graded in any way on their opinion, just on their ability to support it one way or another.
Period 4--History 10
The students were again working on their summary of events for their American Revolution timeline. As a reminder, they have an exam on Thursday.
Period 5--History 30
We contiunued correcting the questions from the reading about Canada's involvement in the American Revolution. We then started examining the results of the American Revolution on the British North American colonies north of the 49th parallel!
Monday, 7 November 2011
November 7, 2011
Period 1 & 2 ELA B 30/AP 30
We looked at the 10 pilgrims to which they were assigned last Friday. We looked at the first verse of the prologue from Canterbury Tales and then "The Knight," "The Squire," and "The Wife of Bath" in more detail. We should be finishing the 10 characters tomorrow and then will do an assignment for the prologue.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We spent the first 15 min or so having the kids finish up their "new" poem based on "David" that they started last Friday. Then, the students read their "new" poems aloud and we searched for similarities between all five groups. We also looked at what each group decided to eliminate from the original. By getting rid of some of the poetic detail, it altered the tone of the poem and even seemed to turn it from a poem to simply a narrative.
Period 4--History 10
There were a couple of people that presented their current events. After this, they went to the computer lab to work on their American Revolution time lines. Miss Campbell has also set an exam for this Thursday.
Period 5--History 30
I gave a few handouts back to the kids and showed them their final marks for this report cards. We went over the handout from last week and started to correct Friday's handouts of some of the info about Canada's part in the American Revolution.
We looked at the 10 pilgrims to which they were assigned last Friday. We looked at the first verse of the prologue from Canterbury Tales and then "The Knight," "The Squire," and "The Wife of Bath" in more detail. We should be finishing the 10 characters tomorrow and then will do an assignment for the prologue.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We spent the first 15 min or so having the kids finish up their "new" poem based on "David" that they started last Friday. Then, the students read their "new" poems aloud and we searched for similarities between all five groups. We also looked at what each group decided to eliminate from the original. By getting rid of some of the poetic detail, it altered the tone of the poem and even seemed to turn it from a poem to simply a narrative.
Period 4--History 10
There were a couple of people that presented their current events. After this, they went to the computer lab to work on their American Revolution time lines. Miss Campbell has also set an exam for this Thursday.
Period 5--History 30
I gave a few handouts back to the kids and showed them their final marks for this report cards. We went over the handout from last week and started to correct Friday's handouts of some of the info about Canada's part in the American Revolution.
Saturday, 5 November 2011
November 4, 2011
As I was away at the Dentist office all day :( these were the plans for the student on Friday:
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30
There were a few kids who had to present their Beowulf Boasts today, so that was the first order of business. They would have been taped in my absence. After this, the students were to get down to work with Chaucer. The kids were given the prologue in their History of Language Booklets and they should have been split up into groups and assigned a character to two to translate. Once this is completed, we'll share our translations, so that each person isn't responsible for translating all 10 characters we will be studying.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students were to continue with the poem "David" and are doing what's called a choral montage. They had to individually choose the 10 most importnat lines from the poem and then rank them in order of importance. There was hopefully some discussion about these lines as a class. These discussions usually lead to a greater understanding of the poem. After this, they should have split into groups where they would share their lines. As a group, they need to take their 40 lines and organize or re-organize them into a new poem that maintains the same general idea as the original. It's interesting to see the different interpretations the kids come up with. We would then share the "new" poems as a class.
Period 4--History 10
They were in the computer lab working on their American Revolution Timeline assignment with Miss Campbell.
Period 5--History 30
Sadly, with me not there, the only way I was confident about getting them the information was to give them handouts with questions. The reading wasn't exceptionally difficult, but it should cover the information on the American Revolution and Canada's contributions to the war. We'll finish up these questions and correct them on Monday.
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30
There were a few kids who had to present their Beowulf Boasts today, so that was the first order of business. They would have been taped in my absence. After this, the students were to get down to work with Chaucer. The kids were given the prologue in their History of Language Booklets and they should have been split up into groups and assigned a character to two to translate. Once this is completed, we'll share our translations, so that each person isn't responsible for translating all 10 characters we will be studying.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
The students were to continue with the poem "David" and are doing what's called a choral montage. They had to individually choose the 10 most importnat lines from the poem and then rank them in order of importance. There was hopefully some discussion about these lines as a class. These discussions usually lead to a greater understanding of the poem. After this, they should have split into groups where they would share their lines. As a group, they need to take their 40 lines and organize or re-organize them into a new poem that maintains the same general idea as the original. It's interesting to see the different interpretations the kids come up with. We would then share the "new" poems as a class.
Period 4--History 10
They were in the computer lab working on their American Revolution Timeline assignment with Miss Campbell.
Period 5--History 30
Sadly, with me not there, the only way I was confident about getting them the information was to give them handouts with questions. The reading wasn't exceptionally difficult, but it should cover the information on the American Revolution and Canada's contributions to the war. We'll finish up these questions and correct them on Monday.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
November 3, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
In both of these grade 12 ELA classes, the students performed their "Beowulf Boasts" and they were fantastic! This took at little more than half the class and we had a couple of guests that joined us to hear these students brag about themselves. I was impressed with the creativity and insight the kids showed for these boasts. Once all the performances were finsihed, we started working our ways towards Chaucer. We did a little bit of back ground information on Geoffrey Chaucer where the kids took some notes.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We started in with a new poem titled "David" that dovetails nicely with ending of Of Mice and Men. Tomorrow we will do what's called a choral montage that breaks the poem apart and allows the students an opportunity to examine it from another perspective. The students were also given two handouts with information about our experiential learning opportunity to go to Persephone Theatre on Friday November 25. They need to get these permission forms back to me by Nov. 10.
Period 4--History 10
We finished watching the movie The Patriot. This movie did such a good job of showing the struggles of the Americans as they fought for Independence. After it was finished, Miss Campbell went over the questions that accompanied the movie. Just before the bell, they went over what their assignment would be. They will have time to work on this assignment tomorrow.
Period 5--History 30
This was a good class. Each student chose 10 things from their notebooks and then, on the huge piece of paper I placed on the back wall, they wrote in all of the important dates. This timeline will serve as a huge study note. We moved on to start talking about the American Revolution and our Canadian contribution to it. We'll continue on with this tomorrow.
In both of these grade 12 ELA classes, the students performed their "Beowulf Boasts" and they were fantastic! This took at little more than half the class and we had a couple of guests that joined us to hear these students brag about themselves. I was impressed with the creativity and insight the kids showed for these boasts. Once all the performances were finsihed, we started working our ways towards Chaucer. We did a little bit of back ground information on Geoffrey Chaucer where the kids took some notes.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We started in with a new poem titled "David" that dovetails nicely with ending of Of Mice and Men. Tomorrow we will do what's called a choral montage that breaks the poem apart and allows the students an opportunity to examine it from another perspective. The students were also given two handouts with information about our experiential learning opportunity to go to Persephone Theatre on Friday November 25. They need to get these permission forms back to me by Nov. 10.
Period 4--History 10
We finished watching the movie The Patriot. This movie did such a good job of showing the struggles of the Americans as they fought for Independence. After it was finished, Miss Campbell went over the questions that accompanied the movie. Just before the bell, they went over what their assignment would be. They will have time to work on this assignment tomorrow.
Period 5--History 30
This was a good class. Each student chose 10 things from their notebooks and then, on the huge piece of paper I placed on the back wall, they wrote in all of the important dates. This timeline will serve as a huge study note. We moved on to start talking about the American Revolution and our Canadian contribution to it. We'll continue on with this tomorrow.
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
November 2, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30 split
This is a tough assignment (you wouldn't think bragging about yourself would be--I guess it just goes to show how humble our kids are), so I gave them this class to work on them. They worked VERY well in class and I am looking forward to hearing their boasts tomorrow.
Reminder that Sylar is on the Blues News this coming up week.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished going through the power point with information about Of Mice and Men. We had some excellent conversations about this novel and the issues found within it. We looked at the symbolism surrounding the snake and the herron and had some interesting interpretations about that. The last thing we did with the novel was to look at the definition of juxtaposition. Once they determined the definition, and we looked at some examples of it in chapter 6 from the novel, we watched the last 4 minutes of the movie version where George kills Lennie. Within this little clip, we found many examples of visual and auditory juxtaposition. They broke the scene down and examined it much closer than they otherwise would when just watching for entertainment. Finally, we looked at Robert Burns' poem "To a Little Mouse" from which the novel gets its name and discussed the parallels between "the best laid schemes of mice and men" to the novel. Good class! We realized that we've done two major pieces of work in a fairly short period of time so far this semester, but I warned then that the pace will feel like it's picking up because we're taking shorter pieces of literature.
Period 4--History 10
The students continued to watch The Patriot in class. We should finish it up tomorrow and then the students will start in on their major assignment.
Period 5--History 30
We finshed discussing the Royal Proclamation and examined the issues that raised from it. Then, we moved into The Quebect Act and the intent behind the document and the resulting issues from it (ie. The American Revolution). Tomorrow, we will start in on making a comprehensive time line for the students to help them keep everything organized. They needed to choose 10 events (and dates if possible) to plot onto a class timeline. We'll continue this tomorrow and then move onto the American Revolution.
This is a tough assignment (you wouldn't think bragging about yourself would be--I guess it just goes to show how humble our kids are), so I gave them this class to work on them. They worked VERY well in class and I am looking forward to hearing their boasts tomorrow.
Reminder that Sylar is on the Blues News this coming up week.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We finished going through the power point with information about Of Mice and Men. We had some excellent conversations about this novel and the issues found within it. We looked at the symbolism surrounding the snake and the herron and had some interesting interpretations about that. The last thing we did with the novel was to look at the definition of juxtaposition. Once they determined the definition, and we looked at some examples of it in chapter 6 from the novel, we watched the last 4 minutes of the movie version where George kills Lennie. Within this little clip, we found many examples of visual and auditory juxtaposition. They broke the scene down and examined it much closer than they otherwise would when just watching for entertainment. Finally, we looked at Robert Burns' poem "To a Little Mouse" from which the novel gets its name and discussed the parallels between "the best laid schemes of mice and men" to the novel. Good class! We realized that we've done two major pieces of work in a fairly short period of time so far this semester, but I warned then that the pace will feel like it's picking up because we're taking shorter pieces of literature.
Period 4--History 10
The students continued to watch The Patriot in class. We should finish it up tomorrow and then the students will start in on their major assignment.
Period 5--History 30
We finshed discussing the Royal Proclamation and examined the issues that raised from it. Then, we moved into The Quebect Act and the intent behind the document and the resulting issues from it (ie. The American Revolution). Tomorrow, we will start in on making a comprehensive time line for the students to help them keep everything organized. They needed to choose 10 events (and dates if possible) to plot onto a class timeline. We'll continue this tomorrow and then move onto the American Revolution.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
November 1, 2011
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30/AP 30
The students were given time to work on their Beowulf Boasts today. This assignment requires them to boast about themselves and they will have to perform it for the class. They must include examples of kennings, caesura, and alliteration. The boast will be in poetic form and should be about 20 lines long.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued to discuss some of the interesting aspects of Of Mice and Men. These kids are very inquisitive and I enjoy their enthusiasm. We will do a viewing activity tomorrow on the ending of the movie as we watch the clip.
Period 4--History 10
The students watched The Patriot today in class and will hopefully finish it tomorrow. This educational video clearly explores the struggles of the colonists in the Thirteen Colonies as they become an independent country. It also shows an accurate picture of the brutality of this type of warfare.
Period 5--History 30
We spent the class reviewing a bit about the 7 years war and the Treaty of Paris. Then we finished with the cloze exercise on The Royal Proclamation. They answered some questions and then we started going over the answers together.
The students were given time to work on their Beowulf Boasts today. This assignment requires them to boast about themselves and they will have to perform it for the class. They must include examples of kennings, caesura, and alliteration. The boast will be in poetic form and should be about 20 lines long.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We continued to discuss some of the interesting aspects of Of Mice and Men. These kids are very inquisitive and I enjoy their enthusiasm. We will do a viewing activity tomorrow on the ending of the movie as we watch the clip.
Period 4--History 10
The students watched The Patriot today in class and will hopefully finish it tomorrow. This educational video clearly explores the struggles of the colonists in the Thirteen Colonies as they become an independent country. It also shows an accurate picture of the brutality of this type of warfare.
Period 5--History 30
We spent the class reviewing a bit about the 7 years war and the Treaty of Paris. Then we finished with the cloze exercise on The Royal Proclamation. They answered some questions and then we started going over the answers together.
Monday, 31 October 2011
October 31, 2011
Happy Hallowe'en!
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30 & AP 30
We finsihed answering the questions for Beowulf. These were straight comprehension questions. AFter we finished with the questions, the students read the poetry version of the "Battle with Grendel" where they were to notice the alliteration and kennings. The students will work on a "boast" assignment that they will have to perform for the class.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We back-tracked to Of Mice and Men and determined several themes that were a part of this novella. We then moved to a power point where we spoke about characterization. We will continue this tomorrow.
Period 4--History 10
We had an assembly to congratulate the success of OHS with the magazine campaign. The students met, and exceeded, their goal. Prizes were given away and games were played with the winners and their prizes.
Period 5--History 30
We continued to examine the Seven Years and the outcomes from it. This lead to the Royal Proclamation. The students were in the middle of a cloze exercise examining information about this document. We'll continue this tomorrow.
Period 1 & 2--ELA B 30 & AP 30
We finsihed answering the questions for Beowulf. These were straight comprehension questions. AFter we finished with the questions, the students read the poetry version of the "Battle with Grendel" where they were to notice the alliteration and kennings. The students will work on a "boast" assignment that they will have to perform for the class.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
We back-tracked to Of Mice and Men and determined several themes that were a part of this novella. We then moved to a power point where we spoke about characterization. We will continue this tomorrow.
Period 4--History 10
We had an assembly to congratulate the success of OHS with the magazine campaign. The students met, and exceeded, their goal. Prizes were given away and games were played with the winners and their prizes.
Period 5--History 30
We continued to examine the Seven Years and the outcomes from it. This lead to the Royal Proclamation. The students were in the middle of a cloze exercise examining information about this document. We'll continue this tomorrow.
Friday, 28 October 2011
October 28, 2011
Period 1 & 2 --ELA B 30
The grade 12s had their ELA classes to work on their questions for Beowulf. Most of them seemed to be able to get their questions done this class. We'll take them up Monday.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
This was their last class to work on their Macbeth essay. We will be starting on new activities on Monday.
Period 4--History 10
I wasn't at school today, so Miss McPhail observed Miss Campbell as she continued to go through the events of the American Revolution.
Period 5--History 30
The kids wrote their History exam that went from the point of contact to the begining of the Seven Year War.
The grade 12s had their ELA classes to work on their questions for Beowulf. Most of them seemed to be able to get their questions done this class. We'll take them up Monday.
Period 3--Pre-AP 10
This was their last class to work on their Macbeth essay. We will be starting on new activities on Monday.
Period 4--History 10
I wasn't at school today, so Miss McPhail observed Miss Campbell as she continued to go through the events of the American Revolution.
Period 5--History 30
The kids wrote their History exam that went from the point of contact to the begining of the Seven Year War.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)