Students will be assigned a Readtheory goal in Google Classroom that depends on their accumulated “Knowledge Point” score or KP.
You can help support your child’s learning by asking them to show you their “Readtheory Dashboard” and recording their “Knowledge Point” total at the beginning of the week. Periodically check that that number is increasing during the week.
I have asked that they accumulate 50 KP this week. I really hope this is attainable in the 1 hour work limit per week per course per child.
If the 50 KP points goal is too hard (or too easy) to achieve in one week, let me know – have the student leave a comment in the assignment stream in Google Classroom. I will make adjustments where necessary.
How can students earn knowledge points?
Students can earn knowledge points in the following ways:
• Answer a regular question correctly: 1KP
• Answer a challenge question correctly: 2KP (+1KP for regular question)
• Pass a quiz: 15KP awarded (70% is a pass in ReadTheory)
• Get a perfect score on a quiz: 30KP awarded
This interview from NPR’s All Things Considered, hosted by Audie Cornish, discusses a recent study’s findings that children who demonstrate more ‘pro-social’ skills – those who share more and who are better listeners – are more likely to have jobs and stay out of trouble as young adults.
As we read, we will be discussing the themes of Education & Knowledge and Resilience & Success as they relate to the text. We are trying to answer these big questions :
“What is the goal of education?” and “Why do people succeed?”
Consider each of the following questions and write a post in your blog inspired by your thinking.
What stories, plays, or TV shows have you seen in which a young couple in love were determined to have their happiness? How did they turn out? Compare two that you remember. Describe some of the features you think were either similar or different.
Most people think that it is necessary for us to control our emotions if society is to be reasonable and safe. However, there are times when people act emotionally. What are some of the feelings that cause people to:
fight with each other?
defend a friend no matter what?
fall in love with each other?
fear or resist authority?
harm themselves or others?
decide if it is better to avoid a confrontation than encourage one?
decide not to “take the law into their own hands,” even though they believe they have been wronged?
Can a person really decide that he or she is going to fall in love with another person?
If you are familiar with horoscopes, comment on why some people might like to read them.
When you have an argument with somebody, how do you attempt to resolve it?
When an adult tells you, “I don’t think you should do that,” how do you usually respond?
Sometimes there is a fine line between deciding, “Yes I will” and “No, I will not.” Explain how you decide between the two.
These questions raise important ideas for discussion such as love, hate, friendship, emotion, and reason. These are all important themes in Romeo and Juliet.
Next:
But before you blast ahead and read Shakespeare, start with a bit of background mythology.
Part A of the Alberta ELA 9 Achievement test is itself in 2 parts:
Narrative/Essay
Business Letter
Suggestions for Preparing to Write the Narrative/Essay:
Assessment of the Narrative / Essay Writing
Assignment on the achievement test will be in the context of Louise Rosenblatt’s suggestion that “the evaluation of the answers would be in terms of the amount of evidence that the youngster has actually read something and thought about it, not a question of whether, necessarily, he has thought about it the way an adult would, or given an adult’s ‘correct’ answer.”
Rosenblatt, Louise. “The Reader’s Contribution in the Literary Experience: Interview with Louise Rosenblatt.” By Lionel Wilson. English Quarterly 14, no. 1 (Spring, 1981): 3–12.
Consider also Grant P. Wiggins’ suggestion to assess students’ writing “with the tact of Socrates: tact to respect the student’s ideas enough to enter them fully—even more fully than the thinker sometimes—and thus the tact to accept apt but unanticipatable or unique responses.”
Wiggins, Grant. P. Assessing Student Performance:
Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993, p. 40.
Example Assignment for Writing a Narrative or Essay
Example Student Response for Writing a Narrative or Essay
Body
For block and modified block formats, single space and left justify each paragraph within the body of the letter. Leave a blank line between each paragraph. When writing a business letter, be careful to remember that conciseness is very important. In the first paragraph, consider a friendly opening and then a statement of the main point. The next paragraph should begin justifying the importance of the main point. In the next few paragraphs, continue justification with background information and supporting details. The closing paragraph should restate the purpose of the letter and, in some cases, request some type of action.
Your letters will be more successful if you focus on positive wording rather than negative, simply because most people respond more favorably to positive ideas than negative ones. Words that affect your reader positively are likely to produce the response you desire in letter-writing situations. A positive emphasis will persuade the reader and create goodwill. In contrast, negative words may generate resistance and other unfavorable reactions. You should therefore be careful to avoid words with negative connotations. These words either deny—for example, no, do not, refuse, and stop—or convey unhappy or unpleasant associations—for example, unfortunately, unable to, cannot, mistake, problem, error, damage, loss, and failure.
“A Panacea of Poetry East Central is having a poetry contest! It will be positively poetic and panoptic!
The first phase we undertook in Grades 9 and 10 was to explore Ladders to the Dark. The first poem was published, April 21, 2009. And today 38 students have written over 350 poems, fragments, and musings.
Links to all published poems can be found at our Queneau blog, aka Random Poetry, in the comments section following each exercise.
Now, here’s what I would like to see from students, today:
Write a post that contains links to three of your best poems and/or links to three of the best poems written by your classmates
Submit a comment below with a link to that post.
Return to this blog later today to find out who I’ve seleted to advance to the next phase
Today, three poems in Grade 9 and three poems from Grade 10 will be entered in the next phase of the contest.
Winners(and prizes???) of A Panacea of Poetry will be announced June 15, 2009.
