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Saturday, September 17, 2016

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." Maya Angelou


Comments appreciated...

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Your summative grades will start to appear in PowerSchool for your first piece 'Who Am I' It is easy to say, "I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't know why I didn't get a higher grade." Instead, use a growth mindset and look at ways your work differs from the piece that is attached below. 

Sample 1- From Michael K.
Notice in this short piece, it is clear that Micheal is using 'reflection' writing to comment on how an event taught him (and hence us) something significant about him.



When I think of him felt so sad and heartbroken. But also this taught me how to deal with loss as I grieved and cried for him for days I finally figured out that I lost him and I need to move forward with the world and myself.


Sample 2 - From Anika


“So now that we’ve settled what we’re doing for the project, I think we should make an interactive display and,” her voice started becoming more and more distant by the second. The thing is that I wasn’t listening. My friend, Alice and I decided to finally agree on a project, she was ready to spend the whole night on the project. I ignored her though as I texted a cousin. “So when are you coming back here?” She texted. “Maybe next summer” I texted back. Suddenly, I snapped back into reality. “Got it?” Alice asked. I hesitantly nodded my head.
The next day she started working on the project, “Anika, you have to do the research,” she pointed out. Then I realized how I paid no attention to her, I didn’t want to ask her what to do because she’d either, lash out on me or just assume I forgot what to do and tell me. I felt extremely bad as I slowly walked up to her and asked her to explain what to do again. Thankfully, she explained exactly what to do again with a smile on her face. I never know, she could have lashed out on me as well if she wanted to, but instead, she was an amazing friend and helped me.

I learnt that disrespect happens when you offend a person, not when you decide it’s disrespect. I feel I did offend her in a way, by not listening to her.

In the future, I will pay more respect to people, but I’ve learnt that respecting makes you a better friend/family member/acquaintance ext. Respecting makes you instantly a better person in my opinion.

Respect, I feel this core value is super important and applies to everyone, including me. Respect is giving regard or concern to someone, it can also be simply listening to them while they talk instead of cutting them off. Someone you would want to give respect to is maybe a family member, teacher, friend or basically anyone. Everyone deserves respect.

Looking back, I’ve learnt that being disrespected and disrespecting someone both affect me as a person. “You don’t have to disrespect and insult others simply to hold ground. If you do, that shows how shaky your own position is,” (Red Harrison).

What moves is this writing making that you didn't? If you know the answer to this question - you know how to improve your grade.

SAMPLE 3 - Caroline

My Second Grade Story
       By Caroline Meredith E/F

         The classroom was quiet. All you could hear were second graders scribbling down words onto a clean sheet of white paper. I was one of those second grade students, determined to spell every single word correct because if I did, I wouldn’t have to take the real test next week. I was used to spelling every single word correct. I was proud of my great reputation as a speller, and I didn’t want that taken away from me. “That was the last word. Please bring your paper to the front,” my teacher announced, breaking the silence in the room. I pushed my seat back, walking to the front with confidence. My teacher looked at my paper, and then quickly wrote something down and held it in front of me.
         When I saw what was written, I panicked. There was a big “-1” circled in ink in the top right corner of my test. “Oh no!” I thought. I scrambled back to my desk to find my pencil. I hesitated but then decided in my head, “It’s only one letter.” I was glad that I realised my classmate’s paper was right beside me, so I looked to see how the word was spelled. I quickly erased the wrong letter and wrote down the right one. I ran up to the front and waved the paper in front of my teacher. “I looked back at my paper and I didn’t actually get this wrong,” I said as naturally as I could. I think she was rightfully questioning me in her head. “So isn’t this a one hundred, and I won’t have to take the test next week?” I asked. “Alright,” she said as she crossed out the big “-1” in the top right corner that I was so ashamed of. She handed it back to me. Who knew that that moment would be one that I would remember for the rest of my life? That moment built my character so much more than I could have imagined. “That was close!” I thought to myself as I walked back to my desk.
         Later that day a classmate walked up to me. “Did you get a one hundred on the pre-spelling test?” “Yes,” I said proudly and with a smile. “Did you?” I asked. “No.”
         As the days turned into nights and the nights turned into days, guilt washed over me. A dispute went on between my head and my heart, and both wanted control over the other. “What do I do?” I had a moment alone with my mom to discuss what had happened days earlier. “Mom, I have something to tell you,” I said as my face blushed red with embarrassment. “You know how we do pre-spelling tests at school?” My mom said, “Yes,” and I went on. “Well,” I paused. “I cheated on it because I didn’t want to take the test next week and I wanted everyone to think I was a good speller and now I feel really bad,” I said quickly as I could. “Have you talked to your teacher about it?” my mom asked in a comforting voice. “No. Can you? I’m scared to.” We discussed it and decided to email her.
           “Caroline, can you come here please?” my teacher asked in class later that week. My face turned red as a tomato again as I got out of my seat and headed toward the desk. “I got the email your mom sent.” The conversation continued. “I wish this day would be over. I’m so embarrassed,” I thought. “Just don’t do it again,” my teacher said as I stood up. I hurried to my desk, relieved that it was over. All the guilt, gone.
         As I look back to that day, I am glad that I had that experience. It made me better. I was able to learn when I was young that when we make mistakes, we can always find a way to fix them. When I do fix them, I feel so much better! Honesty is so important in our daily lives. By being honest we build trust, friendships, character, and relationships. Imagine what would the world be like without honest people. After all, mistakes may hold or tear us down in the beginning of the story, but in the end, they just build us up and let us fly.

Imagery Inner Thinking Reflection Figurative Language

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Who Am I?

Writing craft database:  Use this link for more writing craft moves for your piece

Piece from last year: Student Example 

Friday's Lesson Slides


Drop your final work in the RLA drop folder at the end of class on Friday.






Make sure you are reading for 30mins every night



ANNOUNCEMENT and Your CORE VALUES

Use this document for today's class: Craft and Structure Database

Exciting Opportunity for students who really want to push their writing...



Lesson Recap: Core Values



What I Won't Let Slide...

Decide on  CORE VALUE that you would like to write about

  • Define the core value (or the dots in your life)
  • Give one or two reasons why this value is important to you (Can you tell this in a story bit-by-bit?)
  • Use 'inner thinking' and/or 'reflection' in your piece
  • Use a quote
  • You own ideas

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

ML#2 What I Value

Lesson Recap

For each mentor text - you should start to build up your repertoire of 'Craft and Structure' moves that you could add to your own writing.


Are you 'storytelling' or summarizing with your writing?


H/W - DUE THUR
As you read tonight, can you spot a craft or structure  move that your author has made? - Write your answer(s) inside today's lesson in your digital notebook. Write the example
e.g. The author used lots of imagery on this page. It was dark and dim in the forest. – The words “dark” and “dim” are visual images. Reasons

For those confused on this topic - see further examples of imagery
  • The children were screaming and shouting in the fields. – “Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to our sense of hearing or auditory sense.
  • He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee. – “whiff” and “aroma” evoke our sense of smell or olfactory sense.
  • The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric. – The idea of “soft” in this example appeals to our sense of touch or tactile sense.
Recap of Today's Book Talk



Tuesday, September 6, 2016

H/W - All classes (C/D E/F G/H) - FOR NEXT WEDNESDAY -
Bring in two items that you value. Be sure to ask your parents for permission!


Go to this website to see examples: www.susanmullally.com
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G/H Parts of Speech SUMMATIVE:
Make a copy of this file and add it to your short cuts on your 'favorite' bar

Lesson Recap,

Today we learned that we can measure the quality of our writing using three categories:
Meaning     Craft     Structure  (and Language)

You must alway be able to answer this question "What moves have you used as a writer?" 


After CWW, you have a  4 DAY WEEKEND. Make sure you read a book. For the academic year to date, to stay on tract you should have read between 3 (meets) 4 or 5 (exemplary) books by Wed. 14th Sept.

Don't forget to bring in your CWW tomorrow!



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Exemplary Email Sample for Powerschool Analysis


Hi mom and dad,
I hope your having a good day so far. In this email I am going to explain to you guys what PowerSchool is and the grades in it. PowerSchool is where I can see all my grades. My first grade is a formative and it was a diagnostic test that we did on The 8 Parts of Speech. I got a below but after a week I had studied all the parts of speech and learned a lot when I was studying. Later when I took the summative test I got a meets and I learned a lot so I was proud, I did get three questions wrong though and I know now I need to practice conjunctions and adverbs. To practice this I can use noredink as a tool to work on my conjunctions and adverbs. I want to try to go further and get an exemplary and to get an exemplary I have to do further practice in noredink.In three weeks I am going to be able to retest to get my exemplary.

We had one activity we had to do which was decorating our reading notebooks. I learned a lot about myself when I was decorating my readers notebook because we had to connect all the books together with a theme and I learned what reading really meant to me. I got an exemplary on this and I am pretty sure I deserved it. My theme for all my book was, "The key to my heart is reading." I understand why I got this grade, I had a linking theme to connect all my books. 

For my summative on writing a claim on the music video, "Wings". I got an approaching my claim wasn't very clear. "Your claim needs to be expressed as a clear idea in one sentence that has two
parts... e.g .what happens when people realise their appearance isn't what is important?" This is one comment that Mr. Buxton wrote on PowerSchool. The same thing happened on my Summative: Claims and Evidence, I got an approaching there too but if I keep practicing and do better next time my grade can be improved. One comment Mr. Buxton wrote on PowerSchool for my summative claims and evidence was, "Your argument is that all these characters ‘became happier’ by helping others - but you do not explain ‘how’ they were better or in what way they were happier. Were the characters happier for what they did? How do you know? There is no evidence to support your claim. Was Elizabeth happier when she realised the prince was a ‘bum?’" To get a better idea of what a good claim is like I could read the students claim who got an exemplary grade.

I have learned a lot about different strategies to collect my reading. I am going to use compare and contrast and as well as see think wonder. Compare and Contrast is what it sounds like it's when you take notes from your book and compare them to other notes using for example a t-chart. See think wonder is another strategy and that is when you make three columns and in the see column you write what you see from what the book is telling you. In the think column you write what you think about the characters, where they are coming from if they are walking, what they look like that the book doesn't tell you. Lastly, in the wonder column you write what you are wondering about that particular scene or the characters. I just started a new book which is called, "The Missing Girl." So far it's a really good book and I am using a t-chart to gather my reading notes.

I am also using a program called Membean where I am learning new vocabulary words and widening my vocabulary range. Every week to get exemplary you need to do at least 40 minutes of membean a week. Sense I did do more than 40 minutes a wee I got an exemplary. I can try to spread out the amount of membean I do throughout the week. I think membean can be vital when wanting to learn new words. We also took a membean test were I did get four questions wrong but I put those four words down on my membean note taking sheet and proceeded to study them. I did get a meets on that test. 


RLA class is like a jigsaw puzzle, hard to put all the pieces together but in the end the beauty of the picture is all worth it and sometimes you loose a piece but in the end it always comes back.

Comment on the strengths of this piece for a +1

Monday, September 5, 2016

Email Home: A Walk Through Power School

H/W - Finish your email home. DO NOT SEND IT UNTIL TOMORROW

IMPORTANT H/W - ALL CLASSES  (C/D, E/F, and G/H)  DUE TUE. Come with an idea for a story about either - How you got your name OR a situation where people have treated you differently because of your appearance. Tomorrow (TUE) - you will write the 'story' about one of these events

Make a copy of this file and add it to your short cuts on your favorite bar

Lesson Recap

Today we stopped and reflected on how far we have come as readers and we shared some strategies on how we make our reading visible.



Powerschool Reflection Grading Rubric

Summative RR - Claims and Evidence.
Enjoy Luci's summative piece. Win +1 for writing a comment about what she did well in her piece. 

In the story “Thank You M’am by Langston Hughes the author does a great job of showing how important it is to have people that will lead others to do the right thing. Likewise, In “The Paperbag Princess” by Robert Munsch the main character, contrary to status quo is a  strong confident princess that stands up for herself. “The Paperbag Princess”does a great job encouraging others to be leaders. Similarly to both stories “The other side” by Jacqueline Woodson shows a young girl making sense of racial separation. All three of these books combined show that anyone can be a leader and has the power to make a change.

In a significant scene from "Thank You, M'am" by Langston Hughes, a lady teaches a boy (who tried to snatch a pocketbook from her) about the fact that she had done some bad choices in life too, and she didn't want this boy to suffer what she did. She wanted to make a significant and important change to the boy's life. “I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God, if he didn’t already know." (Page 3). This shows courage that this woman has that she is letting out some personal information that people might not even dare to let out.  "And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else’s—because shoes come by devilish like that will burn your feet."(Page 3). She is questioning the status quo by not sending him to jail. This also shows women's power that she is holding- she is using her past to change the future. All of this leads to the fact that anyone has the power to be a leader and to question the status quo- both men and women. Everyone has equal power in them, it's just about how they use it.

The scene from The Paperbag Princess, by Robert Munsch, when Princess Elizabeth goes to rescue her betrothed Prince from a dragon shows us that a woman (or in this case, a girl) can use her power in ways other than what a stereotypical princess (girl) does. An example of this would be after the prince was kidnapped by the dragon, the Princess didn’t ‘freak out’ like how any other girl would have done in her place. Instead, ‘she decided to chase the dragon and get [Prince] Ronald back.’ And she went on, though she had no clothes on and all she had was a paper bag covering her. Another example of this would be when Elizabeth was outsmarting the dragon. ‘“Wait,” shouted Elizabeth, “Is it true that you are the smartest and fiercest dragon in the world?”’ (pg. 14) In the scenes following this dialogue, Elizabeth was tricking a dragon into tiring himself  so she could save her prince without any physical harm or bloodshed. When Prince Ronald is rescued and shows how ungrateful he is toward the Princess saving his life, Elizabeth used her power and rejected Ronald right then and there

In an inspiring scene from  The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson Clover is questioning the status quo and finds out that just because the way people live is a certain way doesn’t mean it’s right. In one of the most important scenes of this book Annie girl from the other side of the fence asks if she can join Clover and her friends in jump roping but Clover’s friend immediately said no. “I don’t know what I would have said. Maybe yes, maybe no.”. At this point in the story Clover is perplexed. She is perplexed because her mother and friends are so against the people living on the white side of the fence. Then when Annie invites Clover to sit on the fence with her both of them realize that doing what you know to be right even though others say not to is sometimes okay and even a positive action to take “But she never said nothing about sitting on it.” “ Neither did mine” replies Clover. In this moment Clover shows that anyone (even little girls) that can question the status quo has the power to be a leader.

People normally believe that you have to be “important” or well know to be a leader. The paperbag princess, Clover, and the lady from “Thank You M’am” show us differently, all of these characters took it upon themselves to change the way life is lived for themselves and others around them, showing that just about anyone willing can be a leader. “A leader is someone who demonstrates what’s possible”- Mark Yarnell.







Friday, September 2, 2016

Parts of Speech Summative

 Click on the link to complete your TEST -  Parts of Speech SUMMATIVE:


Summative Grade Policy

Once students receive a 'summative grade' for a unit - they have a 3 week window to turn in that work again in an attempt to raise the grade. Students must PROVE that they have completed more studying before being given the opportunity to resubmit eg. completed lessons on NoRedInk.

Thanks for a great week of deeper thinking!


Congratulations to Ethan Hsu. For scoring a perfect 100% on the grammar 'parts of speech' assessment.

Congratulations to Anika Kola for the first student  generated teaching point of the year.  When students discover a writing craft move or reading strategy that teaches me a technique  or something new - that technique gets named after that student. This normally only happens once a year!
"The Kola Klose"
Find out what this is on Monday!

Next Week
Writing Unit #1  Identity through Memoir Unit



Thursday, September 1, 2016

Weak claims to Stronger Claims

H/W Compulsory   C/D and E/F Classes

Write up your supporting paragraph from your  notes and copy/paste it into this doc

Lesson Recap - Moving toward stronger claims....


See this example of a work in porgress for your summative
Notice and Note Unit - Reading Across Texts


Optional H/W

Practice for your 'Parts of Speech test' with these links.
G/H - Your test is postponed until Tuesday

Parts of Speech Practice TEST


Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Part of Speech

Lesson Recap

You should becoming closer to arriving at unique thought for your summative.

Summative - Step 2 and Step 3



Tomorrow - you will write a first draft of your summative!

CAN YOU PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR USE OF PARTS OF SPEECH?




Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Summative Assignment: Unit 1

Summative Assignment Directions: Due FRI


We will work on this in class. You do not have to do any H/W on this

Resources
Reread the Paperbag Princess
Wings by Macklemore




Monday, August 29, 2016

Book Talk Monday

Enjoy a recap of today's book talk.

You will be given your SUMMATIVE end of unit task to do tomorrow. Writing 'wider context claims'  is challenging. See these strong examples from today



Review of Parts of Speech - Use this chart to help you on any that you do not quite understand.


Optional - Parts of Speech Practice 
This is helpful for those who are really lost on the 'parts of speech'

Parts of Speech Practice TEST

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANY H/W DURING MAP TESTS.



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