Well we managed better today- no melt downs (if I don't count myself!!)
Homework
same as last few days
all overdue and incomplete assignments for inclusion in Term 3 assessment data
Report cards will be completed this weekend
UBC survey permission-still waiting for 8
DonRoss consent for June 24th visit- waiting for 6
$$ for grad and BFF photos
Reminder that Friday is Sports Day
General Day
Results from the vocabulary activity were interesting. Of 5 groups, one scored an A assessment at 87% accuracy, two scored B's at 80% and 79%- my really negative group whom I thought were struggling managed a C at 62% accuracy and the group that tried to manage individually as a group scored 46% accuracy!! SO unexpected to say the least.
So what to do - can't leave it like that and assess 5 students who simply used an ineffective strategy at 46%.
The solution I dreamed up overnight was to pinpoint a member of each group who would be responsible to review some of the incorrect or incomplete worksheets and give EVERY group a chance to improve accuracy scores. It worked well.- I haven't tallied the new scores but they ALL improved.
During our DEAR time a number of students were anxious to inprove scores and the one person pinpointed for each group was given lots of assistance- Guess what? They worked more as cohesive groups today than yesterday and noone told me they didn't care or it was stupid!!!
I think the issue yesterday might have been my inclusion of 'competition' allowing the students to deliberately mislead other group members who would be 'visiting' their answers!! I defintely need to re-think that idea.
Generally the students thought the activity was okay but they were not thrilled with how long it took. They suggested fewer worksheets and no trying to mess around with delibearte wrong answers!! I agree. SO smart.
What did they learn? Most said how to (how not to) work as a group and the difficulty motivating 'team' members that didn't care or work to the common goal- no one mentioned vocabulary!!
Science Chapter 5 The differences between pur and mixed substances and whether they can be described as homogeneous or heterogeneous. Students are noticing the use of the Greek and Roman prefixes in our math and science vocabulary (Yeah!)
We completed the -er booklet for French today which is a review of a number of activites that should set the grade sevens up well for Grade 8 French. Conjugating an -er regular French verb- looking at parallels in English- identifying subject pronouns in both languages and completing French sentences using the correct grammatical order (subject pronoun-verb with correct form-object) When I taught this in grade 8 English, Madame Amenta would be teaching it in parallel French 8 classes and it worked vwery well for the cross-curricular connection not to mention the similarities in different Romantic languages.
Math was an independent challenge using the idea of planning a birthday party and using data to decide which was the best choice for a birthday party plan which stayed within a $200 budget- students could invite a minimum of 8 friends. The students did a great job- I'm looking forward to seeing which birthday options they chose and why.
We also ran our vocabulary assignment data to find the main measures of central tendency and found the range to be HUGE at 41 (Mean 71% Median 79% no mode)
DEAR time was a continuation of the vocabulary 'improvement' plan :) and Mrs. Paxton came in to share stories and display the mummified body of Cleopoultra the Ninth ? (maybe 10th)
She has many years experience of mummifying chickens!! She told some stories of strange disappearances and sightings and I swear the students weren't really too sure if she was being serious or being 'cereal'....Dun...Dun...Dun...Dun They enjoyed the change of pace and a different face and so did I :)
Personal Planning- shared the rest of the photos of the processes and development of a baby- so amazing. We talked today about trimesters and how the baby is nourished to development. At five months the photo I have shows a beautifully formed baby sucking on its thumb in utero. We got onto the issue of miscarriage, stillbirth and complications, ceasarian deliveries and midwives as per the students questions.
I used Meg Hickling's text to answer some of the more tricky questions about sex and we spoke briefly aboput the controversy about abortion and people's spiritual convictions- they were very respectful as a group and particpated well asking and thinking about some very insightful topics- I am enjoying teaching both the unbit and the group!
Art to complete the day became a bit chatty but we had had a very productive day so I just had them keep it to a dull roar! Some father's day projects on the go, posters being madly completed (rather overdue but let's just get 'em done), many were using colours on some design templates and mythological comic boy's have now completed the frames for their epic story which is a comic version of Theseus and the Minotaur.
Dismissal at 3pm was very welcome :) especially as it was so sunny outside.
Lets hope tomorrow and Friday are sunny too.
Mrs J.
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