MR. Brewer
HUMANITIES - SOCIAL STUDIES/LANGUAGE ARTS
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In Humanities, students finished reading the first two chapters of the novel Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat. While reading aloud to students, Mr. Brewer practiced the reading comprehension strategies of asking questions while reading and connecting the text to real-world experiences. Students who ask questions become more actively engaged in what they are reading. They tend to recall important details and information more effectively. Comparing new ideas, information and experiences to prior knowledge and experiences also helps readers to better understand a text. Many of the words and concepts that come up in Mowat's novel are close to the real life experiences of students in 4A and 4B. In particular, the animals that are mentioned in the novel are familiar to most students from having lived in Calgary; magpies, crows, gophers, jackrabbits and of course owls are all mentioned in the novel. By discussing the types of animals and the events in the story, students are able to visualize what is happening and they are able to remember more of what they hear. By talking about Owls in the Family during class-wide discussions, students are able to create mental pictures in their mind and visualize what is happening. Students continued this week to work on organizing information in their infographic projects. They located pertinent information to include in the project work by using a variety of sources, such as maps, websites, and their text book. A checklist for identifying strengths and areas for improvement in the research process was introduced. When spelling new words in their project work, students were encouraged to read over the words to themselves, sound them out and use their own phonological knowledge to determine if the words looked correct. Locating appropriate information from the Internet by using specific websites was a skill that students continued to work on. This involved discerning what is important information (including images) and including this in the project work. The project is due: Mon. Nov. 5.
'On Friday, students received back their spelling quizzes. On these bi-weekly quizzes students get practice in spelling new words and use the words from the lists in their own sentences. They receive a mark on the quiz itself and on the quality of the sentences they write. Mr. Brewer attached two 1 ~ 4 rubrics to the back of the quizzes this week. Many students greatly improved their test mark. They are working on improving the content and length of the sentences they write. Remembering to capitalize at the beginnings of sentences or including end-punctuation are challenges for some students. This year in humanities, we are working towards developing a more independent awareness of how to self-edit. For many students, recent work on infographic projects has involved typing on Google docs. This has also had the effect of making students aware of such issues too. When students receive back the test, Mr. Brewer offers feedback on sentence writing and students always edit and proofread their work unless they have printed extremely well-constructed sentences with few errors. Spelling lists often comprise curricular words (e.g. hoodoos, elevation, climate), sight words (common words that do not always follow orthographic rules), and as with this week's list there is frequently a focus on a particular spelling rule. As students practice, they work towards internalizing rules. This week, as part of our word work we did a task called tic-tac-toe spelling. Students got to represent their understanding in different ways. We can see this assignment in the picture above. Allowing choice can aid in learning and retention. We continued to discuss the novel 'Owls in the Family'. While reading aloud, Mr. Brewer stopped frequently to talk about the story elements such as the setting of the story and use of vocabulary. This resulted in many rich discussions about the nature of words and students were extremely eager to make strong connections between themselves and the text by reflecting on prior knowledge and personal experiences. With class 4B, during homeroom, we discussed the idea of previewing sections of print texts to identify the general nature of the information and to set appropriate purpose and reading rate using the five finger rule: For students, the rule is meant as a guide to find your 'just right book.' If students wish to try to read books that are more challenging they can give them a go of course. Over the weekend, students are encouraged to review the spelling results with parents/guardians. Students with access to a computer can add details and ideas to their infographics. A few students have made strong progress and are quickly becoming used to how the program works: changing font size and colour, adding graphic elements and writing unique text. In the blog post on infographics there is an attached pdf file that has a checklist for students to follow in order to ensure that they have included all the necessary elements in their project work.
Downloadable pdf file showing dates + rotation schedule:
Today students received Username and Password to do their infographic projects using www.easel.ly/ 4B have written Username and Password into their student agendas. Most 4A students hadn't the chance to do this before the end of class on Wednesday though, most have a card in the front plastic insert of their agenda(s) with the Username and Password. All students (whether working single or in pairs) were assigned to a Group (e.g. 4AGroup3 / 4BGroup4). Username is homeroom + Group + a random number from 1 ~ 20). There is a default password for each homeroom. 4A's default Password is: NzQlc 4B's default Password is 8Atjb INFOGRAPHIC CHECKLIST: Project due date: Monday November 5
The word infographic is a blend of two words: information and graphics. Infographics include visual images such as a charts or diagrams used to represent data. Students discovered that information can be recorded and presented visually in different ways. They had an opportunity to describe and compare different examples of infographics in class. Students discovered that good infographics are colourful, include lots of information, have titles, are easy to read, and use a variety of fonts in different sizes and styles. The observations of students will be used as a basis for evaluating the infographic projects that they make for class. Next week, Ms. Asis and Mr. Brewer will be collaboratively explaining in detail how to use the site easel.ly www.easel.ly/ to create their own infographics. This week on Friday Mr. Brewer previewed the site with 4A and 4B students. 4A and 4B learners have decided whether they would work together with another student or individually on this project work. Mr. Brewer randomly assigned each pair or individual to research about one of the six natural regions of Alberta. Information about the landforms, climate, natural vegetation and wildlife in each region will feature prominently in the infographics. As well, students will be including two samples of poetry about the region they research. The types of poetry that students have studied included haiku, acrostic, concrete and diamante. Beginning from next week, both classes will be doing a novel study about Owls in the Family. This is a short novel by famous Canadian author Farley Mowat (pictured at left). On Friday, 4A did some preliminary preview of the novel. We learned some basic facts about Farley Mowat in advance of reading the book. The story itself is set in Saskatchewan, but much of the subject matter deals with themes that we have already discussed a great deal when studying the physical geography of our own province. Many of the vocabulary terms that Mowat uses are likewise used to describe the familiar physical surroundings of southern Alberta. Homework this weekend is to study spelling words for next week's quiz. Students can also log into the Readtheory site and practice their reading skills if they have access to a computer. In class we studied about some common plural forms: both regular and irregular ones. Plural forms that are irregular are those that do not change when pluralized: e.g. deer (sing.) is also deer (pl.). Another example would be the word 'sheep' which does not change form in the plural (i.e. 'There are many sheep.' versus 'There are many sheeps.') In the second sentence the writer has made a plausible prediction about the plural form based on prior knowledge, but clearly it is grammatically incorrect. We never say 'sheeps' with an 's'. Commonly though, creation of plural forms follows predictable rules: Identifying and applying common spelling generalizations in their own writing is a goal in Humanities. The spelling list from this week and in-class assignments prompted students to use spelling generalizations such as changing "y" to "i" and adding -es to make a word plural. In addition to the plural forms this week's spelling list includes words frequently used in Social Studies and in student research for the infographic assignment. As part of our ongoing word work in class, students write their own sentences as a means of further developing the ability to write in a legible style that demonstrates awareness of alignment, shape and slant of letters. They identify and apply common spelling rules, attend to capitalization and edit their own work for subject-verb agreement errors with prompts and cues from Mr. Brewer. As students work through the course they should be actively attending to points that are reviewed frequently in class such as capitalizing to indicate the beginnings of sentences or proper nouns. The aim should be for students to become increasingly independent in recognizing errors in their own writing and applying strategies to self-correct.
Test: Thurs. Oct. 18. Comprises recall of words from list + writing contextualized sentences. Sentences that are complex and error free will earn higher marks than those that are basic and/or have many errors in capitalization, syntax/grammar, use of punctuation, and spelling.
This week there was record snowfall in Southern Alberta. People often talk about the weather because weather and climate help to shape the way we live in this part of the world. One term students learned about in class was chinook. A chinook is a warm dry wind that blows down from the Rocky Mountains in the winter months. These winds affect Calgary and much of southern Alberta. They have been known to raise temperatures drastically within hours. Chinook winds blow down the Bow Valley and warm up Calgary frequently during the winter months. Students found out that a sure sign of a chinook is the sight of a bank of clouds to the west. The sight of a chinook arch is a sure sign that temperatures will go up and that when there is snow on the ground a lot of it might melt. Below is a picture of what the chinook arch looks like: The homework assignment for this weekend is a reading about chinook winds. Students are encouraged to write or type their answers in full sentences. This week students used the website: Zooming in Alberta's Regions to do some preliminary research on regions: www.learnalberta.ca/content/sszi/en/ Students are working either on their own or in pairs to research for a project about a select region in Alberta. It is hoped that students will become experts on their designated region. Mr. Brewer chose the regions each group will study about. Research focused on four major themes:
Students also had time in class to finish up mapping exercises and practiced reading comprehension skills using the site Read Theory: readtheory.org/auth/login
A reading comprehension assignment with questions was sent home on Oct. 5, 2018. The assignment was placed in the front plastic insert of the agenda. This assignment is due on Tuesday, Oct. 9. The assignment may be downloaded:
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