Tomorrow we will be having our "Real" Math Test, following the same format as the review sheets that were sent home and the practice quiz that was completed yesterday. After further review and activities today, I think we're in great shape! The quantity and quality of French being spoken in class (and during recess and lunch) has been increasing continually in the past couple of weeks. My technique of Continual Correction (correcting error immediately, then having the student restate and continue) seems to be working well. Students are often correcting the error without my help, or another student is reminding them.
As this begins to flow more naturally and more bad habits are corrected, I think I will start to see a big improvement in writing as well. I am already seeing some upswing, especially in terms of things like pluralization, masculine/feminine distinction and verb conjugation. I'm getting a bit more picky about written work, and will not hesitate to have students re-write work if they are not completing it to the best of their ability.
If any of your children are in despair because of their French-speaking obligations, just get them to read this article posted today on www.cbc.ca.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/11/09/bilingualism-alzhiemers.html
I was very impressed with the work students put in on their question about food origins last night. I realize this was a hard, large-scale problem, and was happy to see they had put a lot of thought into the activity. Today in class we added some volume to the results and created a multi-panel piece of artwork that demonstrates the trajectory from farm to table. Great work all around!
I elaborated on the idea of "Evaluation for Learning" today, and we completed our first Self-Reflection activity. The activity had the students rate themselves on a variety of attributes related to their interests, skills, self-discipline, motivations and self-esteem. This will be attached to their portfolio and updated each term. I am looking forward to sitting down with each student to go over their portfolios now that they have set a benchmark.
We finished reading "The Witches" today, which was exhilarating to say the least. The response to the story was great, and I think that the experience of hearing the story rather than having to read it alone allowed a greater depth of understanding. The class will be conducting an activity on Friday to demonstrate their understanding of the novel. On that same topic, I will be launching November's Book Reports tomorrow. Many students have already chosen a book and medium to use, and I will help out those who have not.
Captain Leonard LeBlanc visited today as well! In a continuation of our Drama in Education program, he had the class annotate two maps and decide which one would be a better place to establish their community in Newfoundland. I'm sure your child would be able to tell you the kind of things we are discussing in this project, such as resource use, protection from enemies, organization of a town centre, etc.
A few notes for tomorrow:
- School Photo order forms are due back tomorrow. Please let me know if you need retakes; the date for these is on November 22nd.
- If your child belongs to an organization that wears a uniform (such as Beavers, Guides, etc.) they can wear or bring all or part of the uniform tomorrow for our Remembrance Day Assembly.
- Review of spelling words seems to be going well; we are using them daily and I am happy with the progress most students are making.
- I will be revising the class schedule this week, to allow for more hour-long classes. Ideally, this will allow more indepth activities, as well as time for students to finish their work completely.
- The class pet will be in place next week. I have been acclimatizing the goldfish at my house.
Have a great day, and Go Habs Go!
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