Writing / Media Literacy / Oral Communication ~ Biography Slides (Current Unit)
Students are currently working on a biography that are presented in a google slides format. They were asked to select a famous individual, dead or alive and from any nation they want. The biography is accessible via their GAPPS account through the Google classroom.
Students will be presenting their biographies to their classes starting Tuesday, April 16th.
Students will be presenting their biographies to their classes starting Tuesday, April 16th.
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Media Literacy - Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Reading ~ Comprehension Strategy (Making Connections)
Students are currently being encouraged to use their reading comprehension strategies in order to deepen their understanding of a variety of texts. We are currently reviewing and practicing using connections when reading to help us better understand. Students can make four types of connections when they are reading. See below for the types of connections.
Please see our learning target and success criteria below embedded into the rubric I will use to assess this task.
- text to self (connecting what you are reading to your own life)
- text to text (connecting what you are reading to another text you have read)
- text to world (connecting what you are reading to what is going on in the world)
- text to media (connecting what you are reading to a variety of media forms ie: movie, website, commercial, app, etc.)
Please see our learning target and success criteria below embedded into the rubric I will use to assess this task.
Writing - My Life in Logos
Students will be practicing writing paragraphs with this task. Its a fun task that students reflect upon important logos that represent their life and they write a paragraph about them and then produce their finished work onto a poster.
Reading Comprehension - Novel Study (Number the Stars)
We are learning to apply our reading comprehension strategies by reading the novel Number the Stars written by Lois Lowry. Students will apply the strategies to their reading and respond to questions based on the assigned reading. The questions will be taken up as a class to serve as a class discussion. A digital copy of the book is available on our Google classroom.
Media Literacy ~ Implied Messages in Advertising
Students are currently analyzing both video advertisements as well as print advertisements with a focus on the implied messages relayed to us by the product company. Students are tasked to identify the following information:
- who is the company behind the ad (the producer)
- who is the target audience
- what is the implied (implicit) and overt messages
- what evidence do you have to support your implied message
- who is the company behind the ad (the producer)
- who is the target audience
- what is the implied (implicit) and overt messages
- what evidence do you have to support your implied message
Reading / Writing ~ Summaries
The class is working on identifying main ideas in text to help with comprehension and using those identifies main ideas to help write a summary. Please see our learning intention and success criteria for our summary writing unit. Followed will be two videos that we used in class as a starting point on how to better write summaries.
Learning Intention:
We are learning how to deepen our understanding of texts by identifying the big ideas (main/important ideas) and then summarize our findings.
Success Criteria:
Learning Intention:
We are learning how to deepen our understanding of texts by identifying the big ideas (main/important ideas) and then summarize our findings.
Success Criteria:
- identify the main ideas and the IMPORTANT supporting details in the text as you read
- to determine if an idea is important enough to be included in the summary, you must ask yourself, “Do you need this information to understand the text?”
- include important characters (fiction) or people (non fiction)
- paraphrase (in your own words)
- must be in chronological order (when possible)
- include the 5 W’s (Who, What, Where, When sometimes Why, and sometimes How)
- summary should be concise and to the point
- be OBJECTIVE – do not include your opinion
- include title and author of text read
- review your work
- include proper grammar conventions and spelling
Writing - Grammar Unit
Students are working on their grammar unit. The focus of the grammar unit is as follows:
- proper nouns and capitalization rules
- homophones (words that sound the same but have different meaning. ie: there, they're and their)
- contractions
- end marks punctuation (periods, exclamation marks and question marks)
- proper nouns and capitalization rules
- homophones (words that sound the same but have different meaning. ie: there, they're and their)
- contractions
- end marks punctuation (periods, exclamation marks and question marks)
Oral Communication ~ What Makes Us Who We Are
Oral Communication - Book Talks
Book talks are like a movie trailer, but are based on books. The purpose of the book talks are two fold. First it will serve as an oral communication assessment. Students have been reviewing the criteria required to have an effective oral presentation. Secondly, the book talks allow students the opportunity to share their passion for reading by reviewing a book that they enjoyed, in hopes that it will motivate others to read that book.
For their book talk, students will need to present (2-4 min):
Here is the success criteria of an effective oral presentation:
For their book talk, students will need to present (2-4 min):
- genre of book
- title of book
- author
- their "hook"
- their "blurb"
- expand from "blurb" and share any other big ideas from the book (NO SPOILERS)
- why did you like this book
- rating
Here is the success criteria of an effective oral presentation:
- effective eye contact (scan the room to engage your audience)
- clear and loud voice with expression
- speaker is not too fidgety (confident body posture)
- speaker is communicating at a good pace (not too fast or too slow)
- speaker is well prepared and is not reading their present
- Speaker enhances presentation by using techniques such as facial expression, voice effects and effective movement
Reading Comprehension - Making Inferences
Students are learning to increase their comprehension of text using the inference strategy. To infer means to make an educated guess regarding the text they are reading by "reading between the lines". An inference should be made by using evidence found in the text combined with their schema (background knowledge of the world). Please see the Learning Intention and Success Criteria for making inferences below.
Definition created in class of Inference:
An inference is an idea or a conclusion that is drawn from EVIDENCE and SCHEMA. An inference is an educated guess.
Schema is your knowledge and experiences of the world.
Learning Intention:
We are learning how to respond to and evaluate a variety of texts by using inferences
Success Criteria:
* We use both written text and illustration text to help us find clues
* We make reasonable inferences (an educated guess) which relate to the text
* We justify the inferences we make using our schema and evidence from the text
* We provide responses using evidence/proof from the text to support our thinking
Definition created in class of Inference:
An inference is an idea or a conclusion that is drawn from EVIDENCE and SCHEMA. An inference is an educated guess.
Schema is your knowledge and experiences of the world.
Learning Intention:
We are learning how to respond to and evaluate a variety of texts by using inferences
Success Criteria:
* We use both written text and illustration text to help us find clues
* We make reasonable inferences (an educated guess) which relate to the text
* We justify the inferences we make using our schema and evidence from the text
* We provide responses using evidence/proof from the text to support our thinking
Reading Comprehension - Book Report
Students will be writing a book report on a book they are reading this term. While reading, the students are encouraged to use their reading comprehension skills, and demonstrate those skills in the book report. The comprehension skills the students will be demonstrating are:
- making connections
- visualization
- identifying big ideas (to create a summary)
- inference
Within the book report, they will be asked to identify the following concepts as well:
- describe characters and their traits
- describe the setting
- identify the theme
- identify new vocabulary and define the vocabulary
Book report will be due during the week of February 21st.
- making connections
- visualization
- identifying big ideas (to create a summary)
- inference
Within the book report, they will be asked to identify the following concepts as well:
- describe characters and their traits
- describe the setting
- identify the theme
- identify new vocabulary and define the vocabulary
Book report will be due during the week of February 21st.
We are focusing on reading comprehension strategy of identifying big ideas and their supporting details in order to write a summary.
Writing ~ Persuasive Writing
Students are extending their learning of persuasive strategies learned during our media literacy unit by working on a persuasive essay unit for writing. Students are expected to have a thesis and to defend it. See below for the Learning Intention and Success Criteria attached to the rubric for this task.
E.Q.A.O. Practice - Language Booklet
We are currently completing our first E.Q.A.O. package from a previous year. We are learning how to successfully answer multiple choice questions and E.Q.A.O. style short answer questions to reading comprehension questions. We are also practicing E.Q.A.O. writing tasks. We are taking up our work and comparing to the E.Q.A.O. assessment standards and graded examples to see what we need in order to be successful.
Students historically find this extremely useful and it he has helped tremendously with reducing anxiety of the assessment. Furthermore it solidifies the use and application of reading comprehension strategies.
Students historically find this extremely useful and it he has helped tremendously with reducing anxiety of the assessment. Furthermore it solidifies the use and application of reading comprehension strategies.
Writing / Media Literacy / Oral Communication ~ Biography Websites
We are currently working on building websites. I am teaching students how to build website via the free website platform (www.weebly.com). Students are going to use that knowledge to create a website that will present a biography on a person of their choice. See project outline and rubric below.
Oral Communication - Persuasive Speeches
Now that we are done writing our persuasive essays, we will share our findings with our peers in a sort of persuasive speech. Think about your topic, and try to convince your audience members to agree with you. Share your findings and your opinions. Your speech should not be more than 5 min. in length. You may use visuals to help you convince your audience, but be careful not to be too dependent on your visuals, as it is an ORAL COMMUNICATION assessment after all. For example, if you create a google slide and you read it all the time, then you are unable to have effective eye contact with your audience which is an important communication expectation.
Reading - Reading Comprehension Strategies via Reading Response Journal (Ongoing Unit)
We are learning how to deepen our understanding of a variety of text by using reading comprehension strategies. The strategies will be applied in our reading response journal. Students are gaining an understanding of how to apply each strategy and how to track the strategies used in their response journal. See the Reading Response Log strategies, description and examples below.
Expectation
- it will be expected that students fill out ONE response a week in their journal (no more than one page long)
- students are to use a VARIETY of responses and not depend on the same strategy for each response
- two of EACH strategy needs to be done per term (students will use the tally chart to help keep track of the strategies used)
Expectation
- it will be expected that students fill out ONE response a week in their journal (no more than one page long)
- students are to use a VARIETY of responses and not depend on the same strategy for each response
- two of EACH strategy needs to be done per term (students will use the tally chart to help keep track of the strategies used)
Writing ~ Friendly Letter Writing
We are starting our new writing unit in friendly letter writing to prepare ourselves for our pen pal exchanges with Forest Run Public School. Below is our Learning Target and Success Criteria for a friendly letter.
Letter writing is often a writing task on the E.Q.A.O. therefore the students will be exposed to letter writing throughout the year to hopefully have them prepared in case this writing format shows up on the provincial test.
Learning Target:
We are learning to use a planner to organize our ideas to write an effective friendly letter containing all components of a friendly letter
Success Criteria:
5 friendly letter components (letter must contain these parts)
Please see rubric used to asses this piece of writing below.
Letter writing is often a writing task on the E.Q.A.O. therefore the students will be exposed to letter writing throughout the year to hopefully have them prepared in case this writing format shows up on the provincial test.
Learning Target:
We are learning to use a planner to organize our ideas to write an effective friendly letter containing all components of a friendly letter
Success Criteria:
- used a brainstorming web to help plan and organize ideas
- thoughts and ideas are clear, organized and easy to follow
- letter contains the five components of a friendly letter and used effectively
- ideas are divided into paragraphs
- we support our main ideas with supporting details
- proper writing conventions (spelling and grammar) are applied
5 friendly letter components (letter must contain these parts)
- Heading
- Greeting
- Body
- Closing
- Signature
Please see rubric used to asses this piece of writing below.
Writing - Biography Report
Students are currently using their research skills to browse a variety of websites to obtain information to write a biography on a famous person (dead or alive). The expectation is that the students will use three different sources to research their person. Students will then be shown how to sources their research to give credit to the various mediums used to attain the information. They have also been given a package that includes a strong example and the task outline. See below for the rubric being used for this assignment.
Media Literacy - 'Vikings Invention'
Our current unit in Media Literacy is a mirror of the popular TV shows called Shark Tank and Dragon's Den. Students will have an opportunity to create a product. They will focus on the packaging and advertisement campaign as well as prepare a written piece to persuade me of their product. See class assignment attached below.
Part 1 - Packaging
Students will be responsible for creating an innovative packaging for their product. The packaging needs to demonstrate an understanding of the conventions and techniques discussed in class that will help bring attention to their product. See image below for some of the ideas we brainstormed in class of conventions and techniques used by manufacturers on their product packaging.
Students will be responsible for creating an innovative packaging for their product. The packaging needs to demonstrate an understanding of the conventions and techniques discussed in class that will help bring attention to their product. See image below for some of the ideas we brainstormed in class of conventions and techniques used by manufacturers on their product packaging.
Part 2 - Advertisement Campaign
Students are to create an advertisement campaign in an attempt to convince their target audience of purchasing their product. The campaign may be done in various forms such as; brochures, posters, radio commercial, television commercial, etc. Regardless of the advertising format selected, at least three persuasive techniques in advertising must be used. See image below for list of techniques.
Students are to create an advertisement campaign in an attempt to convince their target audience of purchasing their product. The campaign may be done in various forms such as; brochures, posters, radio commercial, television commercial, etc. Regardless of the advertising format selected, at least three persuasive techniques in advertising must be used. See image below for list of techniques.
Writing ~ Biography Newspaper Articles
Students are currently using their research skills to browse a variety of websites to obtain information to write a biography on a famous person (dead or alive). The expectation is that the biography will be presented in a newspaper style format in order to focus on the variety of text features. See below for the task description as well as the rubric being used for this assignment.
Here are some links to websites that focus on grammar...