Update: February 26

Here's what we've been up to:

- Reading Response 4: written work should now be complete, art pieces will be completed shortly.
- Map Quiz: students completed a quiz to demonstrate their knowledge of Canadian political and historical geography. The two portions of the quiz have been marked separately so students and parents can see areas of strength and areas for growth when viewing marks.
- Persuasive paragraphs: completed before Teachers' Convention, marks to be posted asap
- Short stories: students have begun in-class work on short stories, which will continue for the next couple of weeks.

* Students and parents, I apologize for the delay in some of my marking. I was away last week with the flu, but I'm working hard to catch up. Thanks for understanding!

Update: February 11th

Wrapping Up: Pre-Confederation History

Persuasive paragraphs: 
From your ten historical events, choose the ones you believe are the most and least historically significant. Then write retell and reflect paragraphs for each event.
Retell: 5-7 sentences. What happened? Give key people, places, dates, events
Reflect: 7+ sentences. Why is that event the most/lease historically significant? Convince us!

Map Quiz: Wednesday February 13
You should be able to label the following on a map of Canada:
- Provinces & territories
- Capital cities
- Bodies of water, including the Great Lakes
- The locations of the 10 historical events you studied
- The date of Canadian Confederation (July 1, 1867)
- Upper and Lower Canada

Influential Canadian Scavenger Hunt Links

The following links are for an in-class activity:

7-4 Scavenger Hunt

Update: February 7

A reminder that parent teacher conferences are tonight and tomorrow. I look forward to meeting you all!

This week we've been working hard to integrate our understanding of historical events with our knowledge of Canadian political geography. We've done several mapping activities for practice, and we will have a quiz next week to finish this work (probably on Wednesday, but I'll confirm this shortly). 

As well, marks are posted for RR3 and 3-minute doodles, and students were given one period of catch-up time this morning. We will begin work on RR4 next week.

Reminder: all students should be reading 20 minutes each night, 5 nights per week (or equivalent, if schedules are busy).

Update: Jan 30

This week, we have worked on 3-minute doodles of the Canadian events we've been studying, to help students combine the facts they've learned to form a complete story of each event. These doodles have been done in class, and students will submit their best three for marks tomorrow.

At the same time, we've been using a giant map in the learning commons to explore the historical geography of Canada. Students will be completing their own paper maps to demonstrate their understanding; these will be due next week (date TBA).

Marks have now been posted for 7-5's reading response 3, though many students have not shared their work with me in Google. These students need to let me know when they have shared their work so that I can mark it. Marks for 7-4 will be posted by Friday.

*Parent-teacher conferences are next week, and bookings are now available through the school website. I look forward to finally meeting all of you!

Update: January 21st

I hope you all had a great weekend! Just a few quick reminders:

- Reading response 3 (written, visual and presentation) should now be complete.

- Historical events assignment is due tomorrow. Please see previous post for assignment handout.

- Report cards go home on Friday.

Have a good week!

Update: Jan 16

Reading Response 3: students should be finished their written work for reading response 3. We are working on art pieces for one more period today, and they will be presented on Friday.

Canadian Historical Events: Yesterday students in 7-4 and 7-5 completed a timeline challenge to review the historical events we began studying before the holiday. Today we will return to that work in earnest. (7-3 has been working on historical events notes this week. 7-3's notes are due on Friday.)

Assignment Links:
Determining Historical Significance handout
Reading response handout

Welcome Back!

It was great to see you all today and hear about your holidays! Today we began work on Reading Response 3. All students should be finished their retell, and should be able to finish their relate and reflect tomorrow. The written portion of the response should be completed by Friday.

Reading response printing Links

7-4 Printing has closed. If you would still like to print your reading response, please do so on your own.

7-5 Reading Response Printing

Dec. 10-14

This week we've been familiarizing ourselves with events from pre-Confederation history. The following activities have been completed:
- Students matched art pieces to events in the Learning Commons
- Students worked in groups to select the five events they believed to be most historically significant
- Students in 7-4 debated their chosen events with other groups (assessed- see PowerSchool)

Next week, we will continue with the following activities:
- 7-5 debates: Monday Dec 17
- Individual historical significance assignment: determining historical significance
- Pre-Confederation events links

*7-5 reading response marks have also been posted. 7-4 marks will be posted on Monday.

Here's a link to the historical events we're currently exploring. Students who were absent on Monday December 10th missed our introductory activity, and may need to spend some extra time to become familiar with the events.

Assignment template: Determining Historical Significance

Please stay tuned for upcoming due dates.

I'm Back- Again!

Thank you to all of you for your hard work and focus while I was away with the flu. What terrible timing! I was back at school yesterday, and found nearly all students ready to present their art pieces for their reading responses. Thank you and well done! Marks have been posted in Powerschool for your presentations and visual pieces. I will add marks for your written work shortly.

Next week we'll be working on something brand new: stay tuned!

The following links provide access to the five digital art pieces used during our Pre-Confederation Scavenger Hunt. Students will be provided with information about 22 events, and asked to match the events with their corresponding art pieces.

Art Piece C

Art Piece G

Art Piece I

Art Piece M

Art Piece O