Thursday, December 8, 2011

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Persuasive Essays: Nov. 14-Nov. 18

Persuasive Essay Writing- Nov.14-Nov.18

Persuasive Essays: Nov.7- Nov.9

Persuasive Essay Writing- Nov.4-Nov.9

Persuasive Essays: Oct.31-Nov.4

Persuasive Essay Writing- Oct.31-Nov.4

Monday, October 24, 2011

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah



Check out the amazing novel that we have been using for a read-aloud in class - the students are amazed and engaged in this unbelievable story.

Week 8 - Essay writing

This week we are working on Essay writing. Students will be expanding on their paragraphs and organizing their thoughts, to complete a good piece of writing. We will be learning about types of essays, the writing process, the six traits, conclusions, introductions (thesis statements) and more.

The end of unit assignment will involve writing a persuasive piece.
Stay tuned...

Week 8 - Computer roll-out!!!!


Today the grade 9 students starting receiving their netbooks. If your son or daughter has not returned the two forms, please do so ASAP.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Week 7 - Binder checklist

Progress Report#1

End of Unit Assignment Rubric

Grade 9 Writing Rubric

Week 6 - Progress Reports

Progress reports should be going home this Friday, but we have a PD day (no school for students), so I will be sending them out on Monday.

Week 5 - My Passion continued...

I have asked students to start writing about their passion by using a minimum of 3 paragraphs and supporting detail. This will be used as theri end of unit assignment. The final copy is due on Wednesday, October 19th.

Week 5 - Personal writing: My Passion

This week, students are brainstorming about their passions in life. Passions are things that they get excited about and would find hard living without. I asked the students to brainistorm at least 4 passions. They should be brainstorming using a web. Next, I asked them to choose one passion and use a graphic organizer to organize their thoughts about that idea.

Please visit the following link to see an interactive organizer that we used in class - http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/essaymap/

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Week 4 - Practicing skills


This week we are practicing the skills we have learned since the first day of school. We read a comic that had no words and interpreted the story that was being presented. This should help us improve our skills of 'reading between the lines' or inference. Also, we practiced sharing personal stories and listening to others point of view.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Week 3 - Graphic organizer

Voice Inference Reading GO-2

Week 3 - Character Cards

We used the character cards to practice voice. Each student received a different card and had to write a journal entry based on their character. This helped students to learn to write using "voice".

Voice Character Cards-1

Week 3 - Voice and Inference

This week we are leanring about voice and inference. We are learning how to make inferences when reading, how to determine the "voice" of a character, and how to give our characters "voice" when writing.

Voice & Inference-1

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Week 2- Making Connections

Making Connections

Week 2 - Making Connections!

This week we are working on making connections with what we read. We will be discussing text to text, text to world, and text to self connections.

mc_MakingConnectionsPoster

Week 1 - Recount Rubric

Level 1 Recount-1

Week 1 - Recounts!

This week we worked on recounts. This will allow us to retell events while using the proper features.

Recount

Week 1 - Reading Interest Survey

It is important to me to get to know you as a person and as a student. Your answers to the following 19 questions will help me to understand your needs as a reader in our class, as well as a bit more about your routines outside of class.

1. Do you like to read? YES NO SORT OF
If you circled “SORT OF”, then please explain: ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

2. How much time do you spend reading? _____ minutes per day; _____minutes per week

3. What are some of the books you have read lately?

4. What is/are your absolute favorite book(s)?

5. Do you ever get books from the school library? YES NO

6. About how many books do you own? ______

7. What are some books you would like to own?

8. Circle the genres/types of reading material you like or might like best.
history travel plays sports science fiction
adventure romance detective stories war stories art
poetry supernatural stories car stories novels biography
astrology humor folktales how-to-do-it books mysteries
books in a series drama nonfiction gaming westerns

9. Do you like to read the newspaper? YES NO

10. What are your favorite TV programs?

11. How much time do you spend watching television? ______minutes per day

12. Do you have a favorite magazine and what is it?

13. Do you have a subscription to any magazines and what are they?

14. What are your hobbies and interests?

15. What are your top 2 favorite movies you’ve seen?

16. Who are your favorite entertainers and/or movie stars?

17. Do you enjoy having someone read aloud to you? YES NO

18. Tell me anything else that you would like to say about yourself and your experience with reading:

19. Please write down any questions you might have for me.

Welcome!

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Welcome to Oromocto High School. It is my pleasure to have your child in my Grade 9 English class.
This year, I will be adopting the Literacy Workshop format which will allow students to read and write both independently and collaboratively. The goal of the Literacy Workshop is to meet students’ individual learning needs and to support them in facing ever increasing literacy demands.

The intent of this course is to help students strengthen their literacy skills and transfer these strategies to other content areas. This course will cover all of the literacy strands and outcomes as outlined in the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum document. This document can be accessed through a link on our website www.wix.com/mrskendall/english9 These strands include Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing, and Writing and Representing. Specifically, students this year will complete such units as: Personal interest stories, formal writing techniques, oral communication skills (debates, drama), novel studies and interview techniques.

Students will need the following supplies:
• Three-ringed binder to be used in English only
• pens and pencils
• loose leaf
• page dividers
• post-it notes (3x3 size)
• personal school appropriate reading material

Due to the nature of the course, students will be encouraged to select their own reading materials. Please feel free to become involved in this process by discussing your child’s choices with him/her. It is important that students ensure that the materials they select for independent reading are at the appropriate reading level and that students are also responsible for the nature of the content. I encourage parents to monitor and dialogue with their child(ren) about the materials they select for the classroom.

The course mark will be based on the following components and it will be cumulative:
• Speaking and listening (20%)
• Reading and viewing (20%)
• Writing and representing (20%)
• January and June Examinations (40%)


Communication
In an effort to teach our children 21st century skills, I will be using the website www.wix.com/mrskendall/english9 to keep students up to date with information. When you access the website you will be able to navigate through a notebook to access general information about grade 9 English. If you click on the yellow link, “Our Classroom”, you will access a blog that will contain up-to-date information about our class. This website can be accessed either at school or home, without having to use a personal email account. I understand that students may not have access to the internet from home, so I will provide students the opportunity to access it at school.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at the school between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm at 357-4015. You can also reach me at my e-mail address: laura.kendall@nbed.nb.ca . I hope we have a successful year and look forward to communicating with you.

Thank you,


Laura Kendall