Jr. Speechmeet Question

Are we supposed to do 10 for delivery, 10 for content for both, or a total of 10 (content + delivery  = 10) for both?

Revised schedule: March 23-27

Monday - refresh, regroup and intro to speeches

 Watched speeches from the District Jr  Speechmeet link (right sidebar)

•  student speeches were Shervin and Chantal (Block 1) and Justin and Chantal (block 4)
• students created T-chart with a minimum of pros (+) and cons (-) points in two columns: 
• left column about Content of speech (WHAT they said / organisation / word choice, support...)
• right side about Delivery (HOW they said it - eye contact, vocal/facial expression, body language and use of gestures

Tuesday - Genius Hour

Wednesday / Thursday:  

• Religion presentations  - make sure to have all your notes and prep with you as I will collect those too.
• speeches

Friday:  not sure yet (depends on how well we work this week)

Reminder:  all students need to read The Outsiders by Monday of next week - we need to share books with another class.  Those who have finished already will hand in their books and sign out to others in class who have not read it yet and we will be sending some books to Mr Hoskins class.

Spring is here and spring break is over...

Let's celebrate the first few days with Genius Hour this week!

This week's tentative plan:

Monday and Tuesday - Genius Hour  (*bring devices you may need)

Wednesday / Thursday: Religion presentations and Speech unit begins!  Details and sample speeches have been posted on the blog since before spring break.  Check the side bar.

Friday:  Speeches / Outsiders project

Hope you have had a wonderful break!  And some of you enjoyed reading "The Outsiders" too.

Reminders for this week:

1.  Block order switches to 2143

2.  Those who took home their portfolios and religion projects to do "home student - led conferences" please bring religion projects, portfolios and feedback sheet back to me by Thursday.

3.  Throughout this week starting on Tuesday -

See you on Monday :)

New Blog Groups!!!!

Spring is here !  Time for a change!  

(Hah! Literally too - "spring" your clocks ahead this weekend too!)

You will be setting up new blog groups with a minimum of 4 people and a maximum of 7 people.  You will get to choose your groups this time and make sure to set up with 2 administrators minimum and myself as administrator too.  You will have 10 min to decide your groups and get your blog group names approved by me on Friday.

These will be used for writing primarily - eg. current events posts.

Student - Led Conference Prep, Reminders, extra flex time

I know you are all still nervous and anxious about student - led conferences (both those doing them tomorrow at school from 3-6pm and those whose parents have emailed me and will be doing them at home).

When we updated our portfolios and reflections at the end of semester, we included a lot of varied samples.  These will be too many for most of your parents.

You will pull out samples that show growth between term 1 and now in the following areas: (suggestions are in brackets)

         

1.  Writing and writing process (paragraph writing, blog posts, speech/scripts for presentation

2.  Reading Comprehension (Think-Alouds, plot diagrams, story term quiz, questions and

                                                answers)

     Reading analysis  / structure (plot diagrams, character webs, story application test, 

                                                dialectical journals)

      3.  Collaboration skills (group blogs, reflections on architecture projects, innovation fair

                                              projects, lit circle discussions)

      4.  Religion Presentation as the most recent example of:

1. • Oral communication – (lit circle discussion reflections/religion project presentation)
   • Representing visually (models, religion project poster)
   • Research skills and note-making - organized and point form – no full sentences, own words, sources indicated.  (sample notes from videos - eg. What is religion, sample notes from note-making booklet, notes from innovation fair research, architecture or religion project process)
   *PS - yes, I know there is an extra "1" above - can't seem to get rid of it :( 

Essentially you will be discussing and pointing out how your samples show growth in skills and learning intentions (if you are not sure of these - check your portfolio reflection sheets again for hints).  You will be needing to point out and explain:

First:  What you had to do (the task) and why (learning intentions - skills or content) and how you met the expectations/criteria or why you did not meet the expectations or criteria. You may need to explain how you knew what was good work for the task (eg. samples in class, rubrics, looking at and critiquing together in class, reviewing in class, etc.)

Then:  what you need to do to improve and how you will do this in the last terms of the year

Ms Lees - I am freaking out a little (or a lot) how will I get this all done?

Extra times available tomorrow - before school at 7:15 (Pocock is here earlier if I am late) and at lunch flex.  

  

Religion Mini-Unit (calendar before spring break)

World Religions Unit & what we are doing up to spring break:

Introduction:  (Last week)

Brainstorming on charts - what do we know, think we know and want to know (questions) about varied religions and religion in general.

We watched "What is religion?" DVD - you should have made notes in a T-chart on this with main ideas on the left and details on the right.  If you struggled with this, you may wish to watch again (this may be a sample of your note-making skills for your portfolio).

Wed / Thurs this week:

Building some common background knowledge:  forming a basic understanding of some of the main features of the world's main religions - Religions Booklet.  Having to use real BOOKs for research too!  Booklet will be collected on Tuesday but you will not have more class time after today and yesterday.

Friday and Tuesday:   Interims and starting mini-project

Mini - Project:    (in preparation to share with parents at student-led-conferences)

***See sidebar to the right for links to the project description***

Learning Intentions:  The "why's" behind the "what" we are studying and doing

• Research skills - including note-making (organized in a way that you were taught!)
• Visual Representation (communication skills) "old-school" and on paper! - Emphasis on representing your information with images, key words only and organized on a graphic organizer of your choice (choose one that best suits your topic
• Independent or Collaborative skill building - dependent partly on your performances in the last group project.  You get to choose to work alone or with a partner.
• Oral Presentation - formally presenting and using your graphic organizer as a visual aid to enhance what you say.  This may require you to write a speech! You will also be sharing these with your parents! (Student - led conferences next week on Wednesday)
• Reflections and self/peer assessment.  (Learning to give and receive constructive feedback).

Monday - Cleaning up portfolios (narrow focus for student-led conferences, opportunity to show improvement since report card (end of Jan).  

Tuesday - last day to work on Visual aid for your religion project 

Wed / Thurs, Friday - Genius Hour!!!  While you work on Genius Hour, I will call you up for sharing your religion projects with me :)  Unless you want to film your presentation to your parents and post on the class blog?  We can discuss in class.   

Spring Break!!!  Woo Hoo!  Enjoy, rest up and come back re-energized to work till the end of the year :)

Hmmm - trouble using books ?

Thinking of you all  - noticed some of you very frustrated with having to use real books this week.  Kind of a scary thought!   :)

Now to continue enjoying the power of "book books" !

And if you need reminders, here is the Medieval Help Desk for you: