Our Journey We began by identifying the books in our book bags as fiction or nonfiction. The students justified how they knew if a book was fiction or nonfiction. In small groups the students compiled lists of nonfiction text features that they noticed in their stack of chosen books. As a class we went through the […]
formative assessment
Le passé c’est brassé – Bring the Passé Composé to Life (Part 2)
An important lesson that I’ve learned this year is have the students write in a concise manner. In the following assignment, La journée de …, students must basically incorporate most of the major things we covered in approximately 10 sentences (passé composé with avoir/être, singulier/pluriel, compound sentences and adverbs). Originally in past years, I […]
The Unit Plan: The Timeless Form of the Pyramid
This may seem redundant, but I found that unit planning comes up frequently as a topic of interest during workshops for beginning teachers. This is probably due to the overwhelming nature of the job and all of the simultaneous demands coming at you. Consequently, a weekly (let alone a daily) plan is as forward thinking […]
Success Criteria: Let’s Accomplish Our Learning Goal
I remember sitting in a workshop last year where we were challenged to look deeper at the learning goals we set for our students and how we should co-create the success criteria in order to ensure that students understand how to achieve the goal or expectations set out for a particular unit/strand. I also remember […]
An Integrated Unit- A Chair for Baby Bear
The culminating task for our unit on strong and stable structures was the highlight of my first four months back in the classroom. My colleague and friend, Catherine Little, who is currently teaching science at York University at the Faculty of Education, generously offered her time and expertise by facilitating the launch of this […]
The Power of Co Teaching
I have heard about the power of co teaching for some time now, but I have only had the opportunity to experience co teaching first hand in recent weeks. I am sold! Co teaching mathematics with my teaching partner and Family of Schools Math Coach challenges me and engages me in authentic context based professional […]