Intensive Core French

Last night there was a presentation at the school about the Intensive Core French (ICF) program that we would like to start here in the fall. ICF is only done in Grade 6, so in order to introduce it at Lake Academy, we need enough of you guys to register for it to make a class. Here's a little summary of what it is all about:

• In the ICF program, students would spend 60% of their day, from September to January, learning to speak, read, and write in French. Starting in February, they would go back to the regular English program.
• Math and Science would still be done in English.
• While Language Arts would be done in French for the first half of the year, the skills that the students learn and practice are the same skills they would normally learn and practice in English and will transfer from one language to the next.
• All students start off the program at the same level - the differences between "strong" students and "weak" students are minimal, often resulting in a confidence boost.
• Students in the ICF program perform as well or better than their non-ICF peers on the Grade 6 CRT's. No students in the ICF program do worse.
• No students who have participated in the ICF program do worse in the English portion of the year. Most perform better in the English portion of the year than they did in the past.
• The ICF program is taught through a lot of hands-on, authentic activities and is often fun.

Please call the school if you have any questions!

Teachers as Researchers

I am a member of a group of teachers who are also researchers into their own classroom practice. As a member of this group, I take a close look at my teaching practices and student learning, and collect and analyze the data in order to improve my teaching and to share what I learn with other teachers. We focus primarily on using technology to promote and improve literacy. Through the course of this process, I and the other teachers in this group share what we are doing in class and discuss the work our students are doing. We are very careful to protect the privacy of our students - we never share full names of students and remove the names from any student work we share.

This year we will be focusing on the assessment of technology projects in the Language Arts program such as blogs, wikis, videos, podcasts, etc. In order to do this I will need to share student work with this group. I sent home a consent form today that outlines what I am doing and asks your permission to share student work with this group. I will also be asking the students to sign their own consent form as I don't want them to be uncomfortable  with the sharing of their work or to share what they've done without their permission. Please get in touch with me at the school or through email (heatherchaulk@esdnl.ca) if you have any questions or concerns. If you would like more of an idea of what this work involves, here is a link to the video I produced about the work I did last year as a member of this group. The password you need in order to view it is ActionResearch.

Literature Circles - Day 1

We started our literature circles today. The students ranked the novels based on how much they wanted to read them last Thursday. Over the weekend I put them into groups based on their novel choices. Today they found out what novel they would be reading and who they would be reading it with. They planned a reading schedule and assigned the roles that they would follow for each literature circle meeting.

Literature Circles will meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. From now until Easter there will be 10 days when the groups meet. Their reading assignment for that meeting must be read and their role sheet - either Circle Leader, Super Summarizer, Word Wizard, Passage Pro, and Travel Tracker (for those groups with 5 members) - must be completed. When they meet with their group they will share their role sheets and discuss what they've read. Then, as a group, they will complete the assignment in their folders. If there is time, they may start preparing for their next meeting, but I'm hoping that their discussions will go so well that they won't have time. They must take their books, schedule, and role sheets home with them everyday. It is imperative that they do their homework in preparation for each meeting.

Literature Circles

Next week in grade 5 we will be starting literature circles. Literature circles are groups of 3 to 5 students that gather on a regular basis to discuss the book they are reading in class. The purpose of literature circles is to get students to think about, discuss, and even debate on quality literature. Here’s how it will work:

• The first step involves choice. The students will be given a selection of novels to choose from. They will rank the novels in the order of preference and then I will choose the literature circle groups based on that ranking. Each group will read a different novel.
• Once the students have been assigned a group, they will meet to develop a reading plan. The groups will meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and must have their book completed by Easter. They will decide what chapters to read each night and prepare a schedule to keep them on track.
• Each student will be assigned a role each time they meet. The roles are Circle Leader, Super Summarizer, Word Wizard, Passage Pro, and Travel Tracker. There will be one role for each student in the group. These roles should be rotated around the group so that each member is responsible for each role by the time the novel is done. Each student will be responsible for completing the reading assignment and preparing their role sheet before the next meeting of the group.If a student fails to prepare their part, it negatively impacts the success of the literature circle.
• At each session, the groups meet with their books and completed role forms. They discuss, ask questions, and sometimes debate what they’ve just read using their role forms as guides. When their discussion is finished, they complete a reading response activity as a group.

Literature circles have many benefits, such as getting students to read and think about good literature and discuss what they read and have fun at the same time. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me!

St. Patrick's Day Links

Leprechaun Watch
St. Patrick's Day Quick Facts
St. Patrick's Day Songs and Poems
Irish Stories
St. Patrick's Day Origami
St. Patrick's Day Games