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.

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/

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.