Winterfest

Our school is an OPHEA certified school- which means, “Healthy Schools Certification gives your school the tools to promote and enhance the health and well-being of students, school staff, and the broader school community.” More information about being an OPHEA certified school can be found here

Last year, our focus was on physical activity and this year, our focus is on wellness. So, our OPHEA team (which consists of ten teachers and over 40 students) planned a day called “Winterfest”. This day ran during school hours and was planned completely by our OPHEA student leaders. They planned activities indoors and outdoors for the school- students in grades 1-6. The intermediate students ran each student or led a group around the school to each station. Stations included:

  • Bobsleigh: students on a mat guiding their way through a course of pylons
  • Biathlon: a fake skating activity where students have to bowl to hit some cones at the end
  • Hot chocolate: students enjoy some hot chocolate while a fake fireplace sparks in the background
  • Ring Toss: an outdoor activity 
  • Directed Drawing: a mindful activity indoors
  • Box Igloo Building: students compete to build an igloo against other students with boxes 
  • Cooperative games: students work with their classmates to reach a common goal (silent line up, octopus, parachute)
  • Spoon & Egg relay: students race again their classmates to not drop the ping pong ball off the spoon
  • Obstacle Course: students run through a ground ladder and around pylons to race to the finish 
  • Capture the flag: class vs. class style, two classes play a game of capturing the other teams flag 
  • Ball Hockey: students compete against their classmates to score goals outdoors in a Canadian favourite

These activities were 25 minutes long in length and were a combination of indoor/outdoor games. The day went off without a hitch as intermediate students received compliments all day long for their excellent leadership skills! Thankfully, it was 8 degrees so the weather was not a negative factor. We look forward to doing another wellness day similar to this in the Spring. Try it out with your school!

 

MVP of 2023

Every new year, I start a writing assignment where students have to brainstorm to decide who their MVP of 2023 will be. We generate lists based on possible categories such as:

  • Actors
  • Musicians
  • Athletes
  • Educators
  • Political Figures
  • Doctors
  • Youtubers
  • Citizens
  • Environmentalists

Then, I teach my students how to write a five paragraph essay. They start off by identifying the three main reasons that they think their person had an incredible year. This is usually a challenge as some of the main ideas are based around the same reasons such as they are generous, kind and charitable. We then talk about how our three main ideas should be very different from each other. I then approve the three main ideas before students start to research their person.

Students are encouraged to search through various sources to find quotes to prove their point- why their person should be the MVP of last year. They are encoruaged to find relevant, recent ideas that would make their person a stand out citizen. Then, they work on explaining their proof with their own ideas. I created an essay organizer which they filled out during their research stage to help with organization and flow. After that, they could start to type their first draft.

So many of my students were excited to see how long their first essay was. They were so excited to be able to write about a role model of their choosing and were excited to share their choice with the class. They also learned about proper citation format as well as thesis writing. Many of my students are in grade eight so this is something that they will be doing lots of this time next year. One of my old students came to me halfway through his grade nine English course and reminded me of how important the MVP assignment is that we did last year because it teaches all the necessary skills needed for high school English. I was very glad to hear this as I know it helped prepare him.

At the end of the essay assignment, students are able to read their peer’s essays and review them with our success criteria. Students are assessed based on:

  • developing ideas
  • organizing ideas
  • voice
  • word choice
  • revisions

After marking all of their essays this year, I was very proud to say that everyone excelled at developing and organizing ideas. I am wishing I had done a word choice lesson with similes, etc. before the writing process started as that was the area students needed to work on.

We also had a bracket tournament where everyone’s MVP was listed on the board. Students had to read their thesis for the competition so classmates could vote for the MVP of 2023. The final two canditates were one of the student’s moms vs. Cristiano Ronaldo. The winner for this year was…”My Mom” as it is hard to compete with a mom.

I look forward to doing this assignment again in the future as their are many present and future applications for it and students get to look for role models and reflect why they are important to them and to our world.

My Math Program, Ten Years in the Making

After ten years of teaching, numerous PD courses, books and online documents, I have finally hammered down my math program. When introducing a new math concept, students can feel overwhelmed or confused. I like to break down each math expectation with a weekly focus on each one (giving extra time if needed). Ten years later, this is the structure that I have enjoyed the most and find my students enjoy the most:

 

Monday- introduce concept with key terms, videos and 1-2 examples on the board 

Tuesday- practice questions on whiteboards where students ask for help if needed

Wednesday- “Thinking Classroom” collaborative task where students work on 1-2 problems with a group of 3-4 students 

Thursday- math task with 3-4 questions, one bonus with an extension into further concepts 

Friday- math games to further the concept on gimkit, kahoot or knowledgehook

 

Their math mark is based on a combination of observations, conversations and a weekly product. My favourite day by far is Wednesdays where I randomly assign groups with numbered popsicle sticks. Students meet their group mates at their wipebook and get started on their question. I will post the most recent questions we solved and some of their solutions. Before each lesson, I ask students “What makes a great collaborator?” Student answers vary but often include:

  • A great listener 
  • Someone who includes students who are not involved 
  • Someone who listens without judgement 
  • Someone who does the work

 

Then, I walk around and look for evidence of the student-generated collaboration criteria. I also ask them questions about their math responses, never telling them they are on the wrong track but asking them about their process. After they have found some solutions, I pause the groups and ask them to walk around the room to view the other solutions. Sometimes I ask them to point to the wipebook that had their favourite process or the most organized process. We never take up the answers or I never correct their boards. Students often correct their own once the view the other boards. At the end of the class, I call students out into the hall and have them comment on the student who they thought collaborated the best in their group. 

 

That is my version of the “Thinking Classroom” in math with a focus on collaboration. 

Question and Student Responses:

 

 

 

This question was created using ideas from openmiddle.com. 

Word Study meets Novel Study

My students just recently took a trip down to our learning commons to select a novel that they will read for the next month or so. With their novel, I like to do many activities that relate to reading such as comprehension, word study and fluency. 

In the past, I have put a few questions on the board that students can connect to such as:

  • Connect the part you just read in your novel to your own life. How was it similar or different?
  • How does the part in your novel that you just read contribute to the overall storyline?
  • Summarize what just happened in your novel 
  • Why does the author spend so much time describing certain parts of the text?
  • Identify a time in today’s reading that you had to use imagery
  • Why do you think the author selected the title for your story? Use evidence to support your answer
  • How would your story be different if a specific character was changed in some way?

These questions I would have my students answer in their language book or sometimes orally in a small group. 

However, since our annual plan and school focus is on small group instruction with a focus on decoding, I am incorporating the word study from the new language curriculum into my novel study this year. I will save the comprehension for when students have finished their novel. 

This week, I worked with students in groups of six and had them read a specific section of their book to me. I told students that we would be focused on suffixes today. I had them guess what a suffix is which few knew. Then, I asked students to bring their whiteboards and to copy this chart on them:

ed ing ly s

These are some of the most common suffixes I explained. Then, students were asked to find words in the page of their novel that they had just read and fill them in on the chart. Students found many words and were able to do this. However, when asked to underline the root word, many students find this part challenging as some words that they put under “s” were words that ended in yes but did not have a suffix (ex: yes, us, his). They then found out that the “s” was added to singular words. They did not have as much trouble with the other three prefixes. 

Next lesson, we will try prefixes. Once again, this lesson and related concepts are from the resource from our reading specialist team that I will cite again here:

“Teaching phonics & word study in the intermediate grades” by Wiley Blevins.

Word Study with different subjects

Earlier this month I posted about the work our intermediate team was focusing on in terms of word study and teaching our students how to read. The focus for my class specifically is multisyllable words- reading them in everyday contexts as a whole group and in small groups.

In science, my grade eights are currently studying the “Top 10 Green Technology Innovations”. I used an article that focuses on ten systems that are entirely green. They are doing a science project on this topic where they are asked to select one technology and study it further. In small groups, I read parts of the article to my students. I told them to raise their hand when they heard multiple syllables. That word they identified was then theirs to write on the board. I had them break up the word into syllables and asked them to try to read it. I then repeated that with all students in my small group. 

Additionally, I asked students to try to guess the meaning of the words after I read them the sentence for context. In most cases, my students could read the words once broken up into syllables but could not provide its meaning. This means that more comprehension work is needed in the future. 

After they each got to break up their multi-syllable word and attempted to read it, they went back to their groups. Each student from my small group got to pick a student from the class to read their word. We went through them all until they had all been read. In most cases, my students were able to read the words because of the syllable break up. However, earlier that week when we had read the article as a class, many students struggled at most multi-syllable words. It was good to see that breaking it up helped!

Later in the week, our school participated in “Joy Day” (which I blogged about in 2022) and I taught a Hanukkah lesson with a group of grade eights. We did the same activity, selecting multi-syllable words and attempting to read them. Students had to come up and underline the word and then read it out to the class. We then clapped out the syllables and read it together. It was great seeing the students trying to find the words in each paragraph all while learning about the history of Hanukkah.

 I look forward to incorporating more small group and whole class word study activities as we work on this new curriculum expectation: B2.1- use generalized knowledge of the meanings of words and morphemes (i.e., bases, prefixes, and suffixes) to read and spell complex words with accuracy and automaticity

 

Intermediate Reading- Part One

This year, myself as well as the other intermediate teachers in my school will be taking place in a three-part reading school sponsored professional development. We will be looking at phonics and its place in the intermediate classroom. I look forward to blogging about these three sessions.

For these sessions, Kate and Ashley (our consultants) came in to lead us through our reading PD. We had our first session last week with the focus on what everyone’s current literacy block looks like and how much time we are devoting to word studyfocus on the right to read report. To start our PD session, we looked at our different students and what their current needs are. We know that some of our students are starting to read, reading with some understanding or reading with a good knowledge of what they are learning about. We want to focus on assisting each student at where they are at.

We were introduced/re-reminded of what a literacy block should look like:

Literacy Block

  1. Whole group oral language and knowledge building- 30 minutes
  2. Whole group word study- 20 minutes
  3. Small group instruction- 20 minutes
  4. Reading and writing- 20 minutes 

Our focus for our first PD would be whole group word study and how we can incorporate that into our language lessons. Recently, our school support staff helped complete a CORE phonics assessment for our students. The data showed where students were at and what their needs were. Some examples of needs were: reading  multisyllabic words and di & trigraphs. The lessons we use in our class should be based on our core phonics reading data and the gaps displayed in that data. 

Our focus and curriculum expectation for our the lesson we would be co-creating would be:

Grade 7:

B2.1- use generalized knowledge of the meanings of words and morphemes (i.e., bases, prefixes, and suffixes) to read and spell complex words with accuracy and automaticity

B2.2-  demonstrate an understanding of a wide variety of words, acquire and use explicitly taught vocabulary flexibly in various contexts, including other subject areas, and use generalized morphological knowledge to analyze and understand new words in context

B2.3- read a variety of complex texts fluently, with accuracy and appropriate pacing, to support comprehension, and when reading aloud, adjust expression and intonation according to the purpose of reading

Grade 8:

B2.1- use consolidated knowledge of the meanings of words and morphemes (i.e., bases, prefixes, and suffixes) to read and spell complex words with accuracy and automaticity

B2.2- demonstrate an understanding of a wide variety of words, acquire and use explicitly taught vocabulary flexibly in various contexts, including other subject areas, and use consolidated morphological knowledge to analyze and understand new words in context

B2.3- read a variety of complex texts fluently, with accuracy and appropriate pacing, to support comprehension, and when reading aloud, adjust expression and intonation according to the purpose of reading

 

Throughout our PD, we looked at how to teach our students these important skills and how they could be integrated into our other subjects. Some strategies include:

  • Using the vocabulary from our science units 
    • Break up the syllables, read, identify consonants and vowels
  • Using the vocabulary from Nelson literacy texts
    • Break up the syllables, read, identify consonants and vowels

Our school provided us with a book that would help us teach this new learning. The book is:

“Teaching phonics & word study in the intermediate grades” by Wiley Blevins. I have already tried one lesson from this book and my students had a great time. This lesson was designed with Kate & Ashley with other intermediate teachers.

Word Study Lesson

Activity: 

Write the word “fabric” on the board. Have the students count the syllables in the word and divide the syllables with a line. Identify underneath the consonants and vowels in the word. Then, repeat with several other words without saying the word aloud to them. Have students read the word out together after they have broken up the syllables. 

Duration:

We did this for about 20 minutes as a whole class with multiple words. 

Consolidation:

We talked about patterns and how we noticed that the word was broken up in between its consonants. We also talked about what type of words we were reviewing and how they were all closed vowel words.

Other words used:

  • Husband
  • Beverage
  • Jogger
  • Active
  • Package
  • Splendor 

I look forward to trying another lesson from the book during my next language class. 

Holocaust Education Week

In my school, the focus is on small group instruction, specially targeting reading. On a daily basis, I am looking at pulling small groups to focus on a literacy skill. During Holocaust Education Week (November 1-9), I pulled my small groups and we read “My Secret Camera”, an article in the Nelson literacy grade eight text that focuses on making inferences. 

With each small group, students took turns reading the photo essay. I also looked at vocabulary as on each page, students came across words that they were unsure of. So we made sure to define unknown words, especially as for some, this was new learning and a very sensitive topic. Students had some prior knowledge and were able to use that as well as looking at the photos to make inferences. Students were shocked as the photos in this photo essay were quite telling as they painted the picture of the harsh realities during the Holocaust. 

After reading the essay, I gave students a chance to answer orally. We have been doing a lot of written responses and I thought it was a great opportunity (especially seeing as I wanted to be finished with the activity in one class) to answer orally. Students were asked to answer one of the three questions:

  • Do you find it easier to make inferences by viewing the photos or reading the text?
  • How does the author want you to feel after reading this photo essay?
  • What inferences about the Łódź Ghetto can you draw from the photos? 

Students were able to refer to specific parts of the text and certain photos while answering each question. 

I was able to work with each student by the end of the week and felt that everyone learned a lot and were able to give it their all. As many schools have copies of the Nelson Literacy text, I encourage you to have your students read this photo essay as it was a very powerful lesson for my students. 

For more information about Holocaust Education, please visit this ETFO resource page which was featured in our member news on November 8th:https://www.etfo.ca/socialjusticeunion/anti-semitism/resource-links

Additional resources can also be found here: Link

Reference:

Hume, K., & Ledgerwood, B. (2008). My Secret Camera. In Nelson Literacy (pp. 20–23). essay, Nelson Education.

Women’s History Month Pt. 2

Earlier this month I posted about Women’s history month and shared the poster ETFO had shared. Poster I showed the poster to my history class of grade eight students and had each student read out one of the events. As we got closer and closer to 2023, students were getting more shocked of how recent each event was. Comments such as, “that was only twenty years ago!” or “that was only ten years ago!” were heard around the room.

After the students heard all of the events, students were asked to find a partner and then were asked to dig deeper into one of the topics from the poster. They each had 25-30 minutes to research and then had the rest of the class to share their findings. Each group presented and gave a summary of the topic. The conversations around the room were mostly shocked as they realized that our world was not “fair” for all until quite recently. It wasn’t until I shared that my mom did not have the same rights as men for most of her teens and twenties that the events on this poster really struck home.

As we get further into our history unit (Canada 1850-1890), it will be interesting to see how thinking about how far Canada still has to go to make things “fair”. I know these topics will come up throughout the rest of the year and I hope we can go back to these dates to further discuss each topic.

Women’s History Month

Women’s history month is this month and ETFO has shared the poster with members via email. Click link to be brought to a PDF of the poster:  ETFO Women’s History Month Poster

Many shocking and thought provoking dates on this poster as it deals with many challenging topics. I am going to have my class (history, language, art, etc.) select one of the important dates on the poster and do some extra research about the topic. This is a great cross curricular opportunity as there are so many great ways to assess their learning.

Other activities I will try incorporating:

  • Poster for a specific event (as there is so much great information on the etfo poster)
  • Presenting their information to the entire class that they discover about their topic of interest 
  • Announcements for the school so they can learn more about each topic 
  • Infographic about their specific topic 

I look forward to sharing some of their finished products but I wanted to post this as the month has just begun and perhaps some people hadn’t looked at the poster yet. But I think it’s a great opportunity as I’m sure most of our students are unaware of most or all of these moments in history. 

Remembering why

On Friday, September 29th, our school board wore orange shirts to remember the mistreatment of Indigenous children in residential schools. As September 30th is the national day for truth and reconciliation, Friday was the day we recognized  this date in schools. 

This year, one of my students who just arrived in Canada a few years ago asked why we do this every year. I gave him the best answer I could, mentioning how important it is to learn about the mistakes of our country’s past and to work towards reconciliation. He understood that but didn’t understand why we were watching the same story as last year. So this year I decided to have my students reflect on some of the key takeaways of reconciliation.

  • How genuine are apologies? Do they change what happened in the past? For this, we watched several videos of apologies made to Indigenous communities  
  • What can you do in your life to make sure you never try to change someone? We reflected on how all these children were assimilated after their arrival to the schools and how their rights and freedoms were taken away
  • We shared how learning about this each year is part of the truth and reconciliation process and that it is an important part of the work that still needs to be done

However, the “why” on Friday made me remember that the “why” should always be the central focus of all of our lessons. If we don’t know why we are teaching something or starting some project, we haven’t really thought out our lessons. If there is no end goal or why, then we need to re-examine our work and try again. Which is why I am so glad I was asked that on Friday, I needed to remember what I wanted the learning to be. I worked backwards from there.

Another important thing I remembered this year was that our newcomers may not know about this history of our country and it may be a lot to tell them at once. I had some of my students translate the central ideas around Orange shirt day but fear it may have been too much to handle. Next year, I look forward to planning ahead of time with an ESL teacher to think how I can make this learning more accessible for all.

As we reflect on our past and how we can better shape the future, I think about our new language curriculum with the Indigenous focus of many expectations and look forward to planning and focusing on the “why”.