Making Logical Predictions

We began our class today with a tower-building competition.  After some very creative approaches to tower construction, we had one group DOMINATE the event, with a tower that reached 98 cm.  Almost one-metre of tower!  Congrats, group!

Ms. Barsky then distributed a handout which details the reading strategies and writing skills we will develop this year.  We talked about how there are many different strategies and skills a reader/writer can use when he/she is reading and writing, and we will, by the end of the year, have worked through and practiced all of them.

Today, we focused on the reading strategy of making predictions about what we are about to read.  Students were placed in groups and asked to sort some words into categories.  Then, they had to come up with a prediction of what the article was likely about.  We had many logical predictions!

Finally, we began reading the article "Trick or Treat," using the magnet word strategy to pull out important words and phrases.  We will continue with this article next day.

Reading Assessments

In class today, all grade 9 students completed a reading assessment.  The purpose of this assessment is to determine what the strengths and areas needing improvement are for the grade, so that teachers may begin to explicitly teach and work on the strategies needing attention in their subject area.

Reading assessments will be coded by all staff members in October and results will be shared with students and parents.  If you missed the assessment, please see Ms. Barsky to make it up.

While grade nines were completing the assessment, the mentors went to the library to plan a community-building activity.  We can't wait to see what they've come up with!

Goal Setting for Term One

Today, while the mentors were away at a mentorship workshop, the grade nines worked on two different activities.  First, they worked on setting some long term and short term goals for Term One.  I asked students to set one set of goals that are personal and one set that are school-related.  We will re-visit these goals at the end of Term One, to see what kind of progress is being made at meeting them.

Then, students completed a writing sample, so that I have a sense of the kinds of things we will want to work on in class this year.  I will return the samples, with feedback, next week.

Mentorship means...

We concluded the film The Karate Kid today, and we discussed the qualities present in the relationship between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.  We noted that Daniel was willing to ask for help, and that he kept trying and didn't give up.  Mr. Miyagi was patient with Daniel, a good listener, and didn't give up on Daniel.  Daniel also had the support of his mom, and Ali, and we noted that it's nice when your friends support you as well.

We mentioned that the relationship between the Cobra Kai sensai and his students was NOT representative of a positive mentoring relationship.  The teacher used fear and intimidation to get his students to do what he wanted, and we agreed that was a terrible way to interact with people who are trying to learn.

Our goal with this film was to have the class thinking about the kinds of qualities they will need to try to exhibit, in order for their own mentoring relationships to work well. 

The Karate Kid Continues....

We began today's class by reviewing the beginning of the movie, The Karate Kid, which we started last class.  We discussed all the ways Daniel LaRusso might need support.  We decided he might need help with

• defending himself against the bullies
• having a male influence/father figure
• fitting in in California
• making new friends
• getting a girlfriend
• controlling his anger

With these elements in mind, we continued watching the movie, to see whether Daniel and his mentors ended up exhibiting the qualities we had identified as important last class.

We will conclude the movie on Thursday.

What makes mentoring relationships work?

We began our class working collaboratively in groups to try to figure out homophone pairs, given some clues.  For example... What do you call a naked grizzly?  A bare bear.  Students solved each puzzle, working together to figure out the answers.

Then, we spent time brainstorming in new groups which qualities we think are important in mentoring relationships.  We discussed traits that we think are important for mentors to have: be understanding, to not belittle, to listen, to not give the answers, and... of course... to be awesome!  We think that mentored students should be open-minded, understanding, ask questions when they need help, and... surprise... also be awesome.

Finally, we began watching The Karate Kid, in order to see mentoring relationships "in action."  We will analyze the relationships in the movie and discuss which of our traits we see present.  We may add qualities that we notice in the movie, but did not think of ourselves.

Welcome Back!

Today, students were asked to share some thoughts about last school year, as well as provide Ms. Barsky with their current course schedule.

Then, we played round two of Scattergories, with a new partner.

Students were then given a copy of the course outline and a description of the expectations for the year.  A link to the outline can be found under "General Course Information" on this blog.

Finally, students completed reading surveys, in order to give Ms. Barsky some ideas about what we might want to read this year.  The remainder of class time was spent working on our "Page of Me" assignment.