Mr. Proudfoot's short and long narrative samples

The following paragraphs were written by me and read to the class.  They are drafts and could be edited, but I wanted to do this to provide the students with what I was looking for in the assignment.

Both pieces of writing follow the Success Criteria of the assignment and used the illustration as the focus for this writing.

I highlighted a few parts that relate to criteria outlined for the assignment

For those not up to writing multiple paragraphs, a single paragraph is appropriate

Homework
- grade 7s had Math on Mean, Median, and Mode (from an old EQAO evaluation):  CALCULATIONS must be shown
- Grade 8s:  review for upcoming Math re-test on drawing angles
- outstanding Xs on the homework chart need to be taken care of and are the responsibility of the student to complete (time is provided in class for catching up as well as the opportunity to work after school on most days) 

UPDATED: Homework Before and After & Steps for tackling it!

Some students remained after school today to catch up on some work that has not been done in the early days of Term 2.  I am pleased to display a before and after image.

Before

It will be nice to see take a more proactive approach, to dealing with their homework, by a lot of the students.  Two students in particular, David and Megan, consistently complete their homework on time and do not find themselves with large numbers of Xs on the chart.

Although this poster is up on the wall, underneath the tracking chart, I don't think many students look at it or understand it.  I plan to review it today:

Measures of Central Tendency Online games (Grade 7s), CAT 4 results going home, upcoming Sub lunch

Here are some links for some interactive games on Mean, Median, and Mode (Measures of Central Tendency).  

Game 1: an interactive game with great vocabulary tools

http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ea4d290e-7d88-43b6-b50f-5f3355df5e49/ea4d290e-7d88-43b6-b50f-5f3355df5e49/

Game 2:

http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/numbers/meanmedianmode.html

Game 3: a more typical, less graphic game

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmcam/animath/swf/mean_median_and_mode.swf

To make the students accountable for playing and interacting with these games, they are required to fill in the following:

A line is missing, but they are required to be accountable for reporting/reflecting on 3 games.

The CAT 4 is a nationwide assessment done by all students who are a TDSB Model School (http://www.tdsb.on.ca/community/modelschoolsforinnercities.aspx).  Information about the assessment may be seen at the following site:  http://www.canadiantestcentre.com/CAT4/CAT4-About.php.  The assessment is broken down into the following categories:

A summary of the results will be going home today.

There will be a Quiznos lunch coming on March 12th.  The form is going home today:

I managed to track down a copy of an audio-book of famous authors who have created stories around the Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

We started listening to one story today based on the following illustration.  Like the narrative paragraphs the students have to write, it included the use of the line from the illustration.  Unfortunately in this image, you cannot see the line.

The introduction to this volume we are listening to can be seen in this Youtube video:

Homework
All students are strongly encouraged to get caught up on any homework that has not been completed on the chart.  Some students took home this work to complete.

Indooor Soccer videos: An example of Resilience, Summer School applications, missed interviews

I was reading an answer to a question a student wrote in relation to dealing with a difficult situation or setback.  David talked about someone who might lose his or her legs and might not be able to play soccer.  Using the idea of being resilient, I thought it would be possible to do something else relating to soccer that wouldn't involve using your legs; perhaps you could coach the sport or play it while using a wheelchair.

I looked at Youtube and came up with a couple of videos of people, who use wheelchairs, and still play the beautiful game.  Being able to play offers, I am sure, a tremendous amount of joy, an ability to be athletic and remain fit, just to name a few of the benefits.  Here are the videos.

Here is another variation of the game:

The Summer School applications are going home today with selected students from Room 52.

Some students were not  given applications.  There will not be any Educational Assistants in Summer School to assist students who have programs that are modified significantly below Grade Level in either Language or Mathematics.






For those parent(s) or guardians who missed an interview and would like another time, I am sending home this form for you to see:

Term 2:  Math result for Grade 7s:

HOMEWORK:

Map of Latin American and the Caribbean
Grade 8 Math quiz tomorrow
Graphic Organizer for Harris Burdick paragraph
Countless other work (posted on Homework chart in classroom)

Tuesday and Wednesday: Art, Narrative Paragraphing, and new beginnings

While looking for a decent video to explain the elements of a plot, Heather discovered this.  I never ended up showing this in class, but I will.

This will be used in conjunction with preparing the final draft of the Harris Burdick narrative paragraph assignment.

Using this classic Nursery rhyme, I am trying to show how the use of a plot line may help the students set up their narrative paragraph:

An sign that a new term has come in school.  Out with the old, in with the new.
A warning:  Some students have started to accumulate Xs for unfinished work.  Ask your son or daughter if they have been completing their work.

Take each assignment one step at a time.

Some new Math and developing the Harris Burdick paragraph

This is a handout  the students will get with a sample plot line on it to demonstrate how their narrative paragraph may be modelled.

This will be handed out in conjunction with a Success Criteria for the paragraph, to help guide the students.  The writing on this chart is for the paragraph I am developing with the students.

The Grade 7s embarked on some new Math yesterday for the Data Management and Probability unit.  We will be looking at Mean, Median, and Mode.  Here is the sample question I posed:

Here is a group working on the problem, along with the responses we generated.  The question will be taken up on Tuesday.

What the Grade 8s will be emabarking on:

Have a great Family Day long weekend.

Reporting period and getting back into the groove of learning

During report card period.  Things seem to shut down for a few days.

http://www.darkmediaonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Everybody7.jpg

Report cards went home yesterday along with some notes, for some students, regarding lates and absences.  I sent home two handouts last Friday concerning the Measles outbreak and the Parent Teacher interview forms.  Here they are:

To be continued.
All work done in class, from this point on, will count towards Term 2.  It is a new term and a new beginning.

In terms of Language, we are going to be working on a couple of forms of writing:

1.  Continuing on the narrative piece with the Harris Burdick illustrations.  So far, the students should
have completed this as an initial exercise tp get them thinking.

Next, and this was introduced today, was a graphic organizer helping the students sequence out the events that they think were a part of the scene in the photo:

In terms of the actual practice of writing, I asked the students to take a shot at writing a narrative paragraph.  This is not graded:  it is only feedback with some feedback.  This paragraph was assigned last Friday, yet I only have 5 completed copies.  So, here is a student sample, along with a sample I did:

They are only drafts.  I am sure my example could use some improvement.

HOMEWORK
- complete the 5ws and H for the Harris Burdick illustration
- complete the narrative paragraph (15 more are needed!)
- graphic organizer to set up narrative paragraph

Link for Triangle review games and Heather's photo of a triangle, and two new links

http://rumblingsfrom52.blogspot.ca/2015/01/area-of-triangle-new-grade-7-math.html

A photo that Heather was trying to take the other day, but there was not memory card in the camera:

She forgot her units, but her calculations are correct.

The two links I mention are for the school Library and the new school website, developed by Bruce Taylor, the school's Vice Principal.

Some links on Narrative Paragraphs

I was doing some research to see about possible links to support this writing assignment using The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

How to Write One Well-Developed Narrative Paragraph


http://www.time4writing.com/images/narrative_paragraphs.pdf

Here is the link to the YouTube video to supplement this image:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPvLukU4I2k


Some samples of narrative paragraphs:

http://english120.pbworks.com/w/page/19006987/narrative%20paragraphs

After the Storm, moving forward with Harris Burdick, and synching Measurement and Algebra

We finally started to get into looking at the images from The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.  The students took a look at the photos and made some decisions based  on what image appealed to them.

A look

A closer look

For homework, they had to tape the smaller version of the larger print in their Language notebook and record the 5Ws and H (who, what, when, where, how, and why) of the illustration.  In class today, we were talking about the skill of being able to inference -- the ability to come to a conclusion based on evidence.  These images will allow us to do this.  I selected an image and had some of the class help me begin the 5 Ws and H process:

In Grade 7 Math, we began to look at the formula for calculating the area of a triangle and were doing some initial calculations on the following shapes:

Work that will be reviewed and checked tomorrow

The work being done on the Promethean Board

The work will become increasingly more challenging as we begin to make a deeper link with the strand of Algebra.

HOMEWORK  

-Uber article comprehension questions due on Thursday

- Open book paragraph quiz (where you have to write your own paragraph) before the week is over

- Harris Burdick initial brainstorm in Language book