Wednesday, November 30, 2011
My comments...
My November 28, 2011 Learning Log Post------ Thank you Alice! Yes, because I heard that in University there can be up to 300 people in one class, and they just sit and listen as the professor talks. A person I know that goes to University said that in his class there are hundreds of people each day, and he has never even met the professor before. So much different than Elementary school!
My Post about being Admin------ Maybe I am admin, I just never noticed. Thanks to both of you. :)
Alice's November 29,2011 Learning Log------ This looks great! Lots of detail and I like how you described the work we did in class really well. You even explained all of the different types of notes and such. Now you get to have a whole week to relax.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 29th : Reflection ! :)
Admins...
Monday, November 28, 2011
The past few classes have involved a lot of catching up.
First, Ms.Lees wrote down all of the people’s names on the board that still had to finish their portfolios. Finishing their portfolios involved:
· Putting all of their required work in the order that was given by Ms.Lees and her checklist.
· Finishing the work that they had not done that needed to be put in the portfolio.
· Stapling each section together
· Go over the whole portfolio until we were completely satisfied with it.
We should ALL be finished our portfolios, and if any of you aren’t, then you need to finish As Soon As Possible. Ms.Lees is not going to give us any more class time to work on our portfolios, so you need to be responsible and go in tomorrow morning. If you can’t make it in the morning, then make sure you email Ms.Lees to let her know, and hopefully she can work out a different time.
While people were finishing their portfolios, Ms.Lees taught us a little about Persuasive Paragraphs. She also quickly went around the homework to make sure we’d completed our homework. We learned that persuasive paragraphs are used to convince someone to think of something the same way as you. For example; you may do a paragraph on why real Christmas trees are better than fake ones. Then you would need to have points to support your side, and you would want them to agree with you, or at least see your side by the end of the paragraph. The booklet said that Persuasive Paragraphs:
-argue a plot
- tries to convince reader to think a certain way
-gives supporting reasons
If you want to test if your persuasive paragraph is well written and convincing, you could ask your friend their opinion on a topic, and then get them to read your paragraph. After they’ve read it, you could ask them if their opinion changed, and if not, then why?
After she was finished our lesson on persuasive paragraphs, we had to start working on our “Paragraph booklet.” We did two exercises. For both exercises we had to choose a topic that had two sides to it. It could either be from the examples in the booklet, or a topic from our heart map. Both of the ones that I chose were from the examples (I know, BORING.) First, we had to do a plot outline for each paragraph. The plot outline had to be brief, but include enough information to guide us in the right direction for writing. Each paragraph was supposed to be approximately 5-9 sentences, going over is okay, but it HAS to be at least five sentences.
Ms.Lees also handed out a new booklet for our Social Studies section (my first socials studies work for grade 8- Yay!) The booklet is/was on note taking, and finding the main ideas when reading something. We did not go over note taking very much, but from the looks of the booklet, there are two different forms of note taking. The mapping method and the outlining method. The outlining method resembles what you would write down in a plot diagram. You basically read over the whole paragraph and then decide on what the main idea is. Under where you’ve written down the main idea, you jot down other important information. For the mapping method, you can create a web or diagram with the main ideas. In the middle of the web, you put the main idea, and you create lines coming out of it with extra important information.
I don’t think that many of the class even got to the booklet today, and most of us weren’t even finished the paragraphs.
While all of this was happening, Ms.Lees had time to take a few of us aside to discuss our portfolios and our individual marks. We had to tell her what we thought we deserved for an overall mark, and what we were struggling in. She only managed to get to a few of us today.
Why We Did It
It was very important for us to finish our portfolios because Ms.Lees NEEDED for them to be complete in order for her to review our mark with us. Conferencing with us is a good idea because if she just handed us each a mark, then we wouldn’t know why we got it and we wouldn’t be able to discuss our mark with her. We also wouldn’t be able to improve as much because we wouldn’t know which areas we were/are struggling in. Everyone in the class would be extremely confused, and we all need a chance to explain what mark we think we deserve.
Ms.Lees went over our persuasive paragraphs with us to make sure we completely understood what persuasive paragraphs are, and so that we didn’t get them confused with the other types of paragraphs. By knowing the criteria for persuasive paragraphs, we could improve our paragraphs because we understood how to achieve the best mark possible for our paragraphs. This also helped us with our Paragraph Outlines because we learned how to choose the Topic Sentence, Main Ideas and Concluding Sentence for this certain type of paragraph.
Learning how to take exceptional notes is a very important skill for high school and University/College. We are learning about note taking so that we will easily be able to jot down simple but important notes in our classes. Notes can take a while to do, but the booklet teaches us how to take notes fast so that we get all of the information we need down. Sometimes when I take notes, I am so concentrated on writing that I don’t hear everything the teacher says. And then I get confused.
My Reflections/Connections
I had my portfolio review today with Ms.Lees, and I found she really cleared up some of the stuff I was confused about for me. These portfolios are very serious things in Humanities, and throughout Elementary school, I never really did any portfolios. So this is definitely new for me. I have to say that I did like how in grade 7, my teacher would give me my mark back for whatever homework I did within the same week I handed it in. That way I knew how I was doing throughout the year, and I knew my EXACT mark. This year, Ms.Lees marks are work using a different method. I have really had to adjust this year to the Ms.Lees way of marking. It is quite a challenge, but challenges are good sometimes in life.
Being able to write an excellent persuasive paragraph is a handy skill to have. It will help you with speeches in life, and is great if you want to join the debate club. It also helps you with your writing skills, because persuasion is a complicated thing, and it is even harder to do in writing. I am really glad that we learned about this type of paragraph because I learned about the other three types of paragraphs last year, but I’ve never done much on persuasive paragraphs. Lawyers and Police Officers need to be good at persuasion. The whole point of being a lawyer is to persuade the judge to see your side and to get them to agree with you.
I absolutely LOVE writing, so I think understood the point of persuasive paragraphs. I was able to complete both exercise one and two with no trouble, and I think I found some pretty good points for my side. I’m not sure if it was enough to make someone change their mind, but I managed to find some pretty interesting and convincing facts.
In high school and University/College you take a lot of notes for pretty much everything. Math, Humanities, Cooking, Sewing, Science, French, etc. Anyone can take notes, but not everyone can take GOOD notes. Notes help you study for tests. Instead of frantically going through your binder or text book, you can just read over your notes and try to memorize them. By going over the two different types of notes, you can decide which one best suites your writing or studying style, and which one you are most efficient at. Being able to find the main idea of a paragraph and extending on the main idea to important points also helps us if we want to be a reporter or journalist because we can write articles from the notes.
I plan on taking notes to study for my upcoming geography and math tests that I have this week. I think that the booklet will really help me improve my notes, which will hopefully help me improve my grades.
Homework
- Finish both exercises 1 and 2 in the Persuasive Paragraph section of your booklet. (Don’t forget to do a paragraph outline FIRST)
- Practice for Canspell
- Note taking booklet, exercise 1 and 2 (read over the pages too)
- Study for Geography test on Friday
Tips:
-If you are not finished your portfolio, make sure to go to Mr.Pocock’s room tomorrow morning to finish it, or contact Ms.Lees.
-Get your friends or family members to quiz you each day for the spelling bee. I printed out an extra copy of the words and hung it on my wall
-Put your note taking skills to good use and study for the Geography test on Friday
-Check out Ms.Lees blog for information on the Science Test
-Contact your study buddy if you have a question about homework
-If you really enjoy doing persuasive paragraphs, you should try going to a debate club meeting
-If you’ve already had your portfolio meeting with Ms.Lees, make sure to discuss how you’re doing with your parents
Schedule for this week:
Monday- Olivia
Tuesday- Alice
Wendesday- Luke (Daniel did his last week)
Friday-Luke
ALICE IS TOMORROW!!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Question
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thanks Daniel
For Daniel's post on November 25: Thank you so much Daniel! Now Luke owes you and you don't have to do any learning logs this coming week. We will get him to do your Wednesday and his Friday :)
Friday, November 25, 2011
November 25th Learning Log - Daniel, because Luke wouldn't do it
Today, right after starting class, we had a homework check from Ms Lees in order to confirm that we had finished all of our homework. Due to most of the class not being finished their homework (Heart Map, Paragraphs (Narrative and Descriptive), Paragraph Outline), the majority of the classroom stayed in, while those who had finished their homework had went outside and later came back in to help out others who were struggling.
After the catch-up session, we talked about Expository Paragraphs and were assigned to work on an outline for our expository paragraph, before we wrote it.
Why ? (Learning Intentions)
We didn't do much today, so the only thing we really learned was 'Expository Paragraphs' and we learned them in order to add to our knowledge in writing. We learned about how they were about being explanatory and how they should be structured. By learning about paragraphs, it improves our essay skills, which is significant to being a good and interesting writer.
My Reflections / Connections:
I believe that learning about these paragraphs are very significant in the process of becoming a good writer, due to the fact that being limited to simple paragraphs would make it hard to write anything interesting, such as a book or an essay. We've been touching on writing different kinds of paragraphs these past few weeks, which helps many students learn about how to write in a different form.
Homework: Due dates and tips
-If you still haven't caught up with your homework (Heart Map, Descriptive and Narrative Paragraphs) you should finish them over the weekend or go to Flextime for help.
-Work on your Expository Paragraph
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
DAILY SCHEDULE
Tuesday - Alice
Wednesday (Double Block) - Daniel
Friday - Luke
November 23rd
Today, as a class, due to the fact that most of the class was not in attendance the last day, we looked at what the people from yesterday's class had worked on and also how the learning logs were supposed to be written in our blogs that we have been working on for Humanities. (Heart Mapping and Narrative Paragraphs) After reading through the information on Narrative Paragraphs, we were given some time to do our given work, which included our Heart Maps, Paragraphs and also our Atlas work.
Eventually, it was break and after coming back in, we had another lesson, but this time we learned about 'Descriptive Paragraphs.' This time, we learned about the expectations for them and also were assigned to highlight parts of a paragraph that make it descriptive.
Why ? (Learning Intentions)
The learning intention of today was first of all, to learn how to use the blog and the expectations for writing our learning logs.
Also, the point of learning about the Narrative and Descriptive Paragraphs was in order to make sure we can write proper paragraphs using different styles and different words.
The reason for doing Heart Maps were in order to put out our thoughts and personal things in life onto a piece of paper, which we can use as a reference in the future when we need to think about a special moment in life or a significant person that we've met.
My Reflections / Connections:
Learning how to blog can be a very important skill, due to the fact that many writing jobs require knowledge in blogging, such as writing for a magazine.
Today, learning about different kinds of paragraphs has helped my knowledge in writing, due to the fact that it helps people learn about how to properly write and construct a paragraph and what the expectations for a proper paragraph are in high school.
Homework: Due dates and tips
-Remember to go to FLEX if you have not finished your atlas work. (Is it okay if I am unable to attend FLEX? I need to retake BEEP Test tomorrow)
-Homework: Atlas work (Flex), 2 Descriptive and 1 Narrative Par., Heart-Maps with most of the page filled.
-If you are unable to write for the blog, due to family matters or due to the fact that you are occupied, please contact other members in your blog group and/or Ms. Lees
-Daniel K
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday November 22nd Reflection
Why We Did It
We spent time "Heart Mapping", writing notes about the things that we thought were important in our hearts because Ms.Lees said it's good to have ideas down on paper so we don't forget. Also, we will be using the ideas later on in the year constantly when we are doing other assignments such as speeches, paragrapghs, and more. We are learning about writing paragrapghs so it'd be useful when we can't think of a topic to write about. It was important for us to jot down our ideas because some students have trouble thinking of a topic for assignments and they spend half of the time trying to think of one. By doing this before, it'll be easier for us to recognize what we are going to write about.
Ms.Lees went over how there were 3 different types of paragrapghs and we learnt about the narrative type. It's very, very important for us to know the 3 different kinds of paragrapghs and what the differences are, even though we haven't learned about the descriptive and the persuasive ones, I remember my sister saying that you have to write LOTS of paragrapghs in highschool and in essays and it's very important to know the rules for how to write them. It's important to know how you can develop and improve your writing skills. You need a topic sentence, introductory sentence and a concluding sentence. It wouldn't make a good paragrapgh if you don't have those 3 main things.
We were assigned to write a narrative paragrapgh with our own topics for practice so that Ms.Lees and ourselves can check if we are on the right track and if we are misunderstanding the concept of it. By writing a paragrapgh, we can go over as a class and check the things that are needed in a narrative paragrapgh and correct our own work and see the mistakes if we do get anything wrong. If we see our mistakes we'll be able to improve and remember it next time we write a paragrapgh.
My Reflections/Connections
I'm very relieved that we got the chance to write down ideas for our topic that we can write about because I'm one of those people who'd take half of the writing time trying to choose/decide what topic I should write on. I think I'm caring more about my topic because I once had a topic that I had nothing to write about so I'm more careful with my topic so that I don't get one of those again. It was pretty easy creating a web for it because I had a lot of ideas on my mind. By doing this, I was able to find a right topic for my narrative paragrapgh easily by looking at my "Heart Mapping" map. It only took me 10 seconds to decide. Organizing and planning for the future can be very helpful in any other subject in school. For example, I could use the web skill for planning for a science project because it'd save me much more time. I wouldn't have to stop every section to decide what I'm going to do. I'd be able to know the things I have to do. I never used to plan ahead but I learnt a good skill I could use! Also, thinking of the important things in my life reminded me of my french class. We always have to talk to our partner about what's important in our life and topics similar to that and I was always stuck on what to say, but now I know a lot of things that are important to me and it'll be easier and it will take me less time to think about it!
I understood what narrative paragrapghs are. It's a paragrapgh that the purpose is to tell a story and usually tells about an event that happend. Even though we haven't learned the other two types of paragrapghs yet, I think the narrative one would be the easiest, or the most comfortable type of paragrapgh for us because I think the descriptive one would need lots of rules and lots of good describing words and I think the persuasive one would be the hardest because you have to change their mind and get the reader to think a certain way. Persuasive paragrapghs would be great practice for debating. Writing narrative paragrapghs would be great practice for me if I want to be an author when I grow up and want to write stories. Also, it could help me if I want to write a certain article that needs a narrative type of writing.
I have just started the narrative paragrapgh and I haven't finished it yet, but I was having a little trouble trying to figure out the introductory sentence because I didn't want it to be too boring. At last, I found a sentence that wasn't too dry so I'm happy now. I actually think the narrative paragrapgh isn't hard to write because it's basically writing about an event that happened and all the details, so it isn't very hard for me yet. Maybe it'll get harder as the lesson goes on. I think it's good to get practice and get checked over if you're on the right track. For almost every subject in school, it's good to write an example and discuss it about it to check if you're doing it right and see if you can do it and demonstrate it the right way. If you don't try and you just go straight on without the correct way, you'd have lots of troubles in the next years of highschool and it'd be hard to fix. You could've gotten a formula wrong in math because you never got much practice and thought that was right untill you get your marks back and realize you made a mistake. It's always good to check it over and see if you can complete it the correct way.
Homework
- We didn't get a chance to work on our geograpghy worksheets (landform map) with the atlases today so I think Ms.Lees would probably give us time tomorrow or we could go to her classroom at flex on Thursday at lunch!
- I'm pretty sure you have to be finished your portfolios by now even though Ms.Lees haven't started calling us up to talk with her yet because she gave us time to work on it at flex yesterday at lunch but if you aren't finished, come to flex on Thursday at lunch!
- Ms.Lees would recommand us to finish our narrative paragrapghs that we were working on in class today for tomorrow.
- You should be done your "Heart Mapping" web/notes by now because we had time to work on it in class today but if you aren't done, finish it for tomorrow. There has to be at least 10 things.
Tips
- If you need help with your geograpghy worksheets (landform map) or any work we did in class, go to FLEX for help on Mondays and Thursdays at lunch!
- If you didn't come to class today, don't forget to e-mail Ms.Lees (e-mail is on the yellow course outline paper) or ask one of your friends in your class!
- If you're having a trouble making a blog because we haven't used this much yet, check out the grade 9 blogs or your classmates!
- If you missed class or don't remember what we did today, go to your classmates blogs and read their daily reflections for today! :)
Monday : Olivia .B
Tuesday: Alice .B
Wednesday : Daniel .K
Friday: Luke .W
DANIEL will be doing his blog tomorrow! :)
Our Group Name
Monday, November 21, 2011
Monday November 21st Reflection
Today, Ms.Lees went over the guidelines for Humanities blogging. She explained that these blogs are basically online learning logs, but a little more detailed. I only need to do one of these a week, which I am quite happy about.
We also discussed with our groups the schedule for blogging, and how we could improve our blog to get the best mark we can achieve.
In class, we did not get a lot of new work done, because we had to check our portfolios. We made sure that nothing was missing, and we had completed all of the worksheets required for the portfolio. Almost everyone was finished their portfolios, and were quite satisfied with their finished work. A few people had to make some changes to the size or order of their portfolio.
Ms.Lees handed out a mapping worksheet. We needed to work on pages 67,68 and 70 in our mapping booklet. These pages were on the Landforms of South America. We needed to label parts of the South America map (page 70) and answer questions about it (page 67-68).
We were given quite a bit of class time to work on these sheets because we needed to use the
in-class atlases.
Why We Did It
It was important for Ms.Lees to go over blogging with us because if she hadn't most of us would have no clue what the heck we were doing; and I would have been one of them. I didn't realize that I could easily view other students' blogs to see how online learning logs were done. This helped immensely because by viewing other blogs, I was guided in the right direction. Ms.Lees seems pretty observative, and I think she realizes that she needs to go over this several times before we all understand.
Double checking our portfolios was a key step for Ms.Lees to evaluate our marks over the term because it was most likely our last chance to make sure EVERYTHING was how we wanted it to be before Ms.Lees went over it with us. Not only do the portfolios show us and Ms.Lees how we've improved over the term, but it also helps us with our organization skills. My portfolio really helped me understand that my comprehension and work is quite strong is some areas, but that I also need to work harder and prepare in others.
The South America Landforms map and questions were to help us improve in placing and finding landforms on maps. Most of us in the class already know a lot about North America and it's landforms, so by doing a South America map instead; it was a bit of a challenge. We learned some key terms in mapping, and learned lots more on the different types of water bodies. We also learned how to follow precise instructions while answering the questions.
My Reflections/Connections
I am VERY, VERY glad that Ms.Lees went over her expectations for blogging, and showed us how to work the blogs. I have to admit that I am not technology gifted, and I would have no clue what I was doing whatsoever. Luckily, once she had taught us how to blog--- I think I understood most of it. I'm glad that we get to do these blogs because I haven't done much blogging before, but I've always wanted to try it. Believe it or not, blogging is actually an important skill to have, because from what my sisters have said; you do a lot of it in high school. Also, blogging can help me when I am older because businesses do a lot of online blogging and computer articles. I am in the Newspaper club, and I write a monthly article. Blogging has a similar format as newspapers, so this will surely help me improve my articles.
My portfolio is pretty much complete, and I am 90% sure I have everything in the correct order. I missed the main day that we were working on portfolios, so I had to rush to put mine together in time. Luckily, I had all the work required for the portfolios, so it wasn't too much of a struggle. Learning how to make a portfolio will come in handy when I am older and I need to make one for a job application.
I understood how to do most of the mapping on a Landform map, and I was able to answer almost all of the questions in the allotted class time. For a few of the questions, my friends and I had to work on together to find the correct answer, but we managed to find it in the end. I was uneasy about some of the terms because our class missed the day that we learned them because of an assembly. Luckily, we are going to go over them this week. Being good at mapping is useful for many reasons. If you're on a road trip, and you are using a map; you need to know how to use it or you will become lost. The mapping we did today had very specific instructions, and one little mistake could mess up the whole map. Knowing how to follow instructions is important for many things in life. Such as cooking, all different types of math, projects and building things. If you want to become some type of builder when you're older, then you NEED to be good at following step-by-step instructions. If you're not; then the things you're building can brake or even become dangerous.
Homework
We didn't have a TON of homework today.
-For those of you who didn't finish your landform map: don't worry, you will have time to work on it tomorrow because we are not allowed to bring the atlases home. Just make sure to work quickly.
- You should be finished your portfolios by now, but if you aren't; come in during FLEX to finish it.
Tips
- Make sure that you work extra hard in class tomorrow because most of us still need to finish our South America map and questions.
- It can be hard to concentrate when people are talking around you; so respect others and either ask Ms.Lees or if you're allowed, ask your friend when you need help.
- Whenever you are behind on your work, go in during FLEX to catch up and get extra help.
- If you miss a day, make sure to either email Ms.Lees (you can find her email on the school website) or ask one your study buddies. We have study buddies for a reason!
- If you are unable to complete your assigned work, make sure to email Ms.Lees to let her know. If you have a good reason, then she will usually let you off the hook and give you extra time to finish it.
-If you need help with your blogs, you can look at other group's blogs, or check out the English Grade 9 homepage and blogs.
***Hope I helped and feel free to ask me any questions or give me suggestions*** :)
Schedule- This is the schedule we decided in class. Sometimes there may be changes to it if someone has to much homework or is going away. Just make sure to let the WHOLE group know.
Monday- Olivia B.
Tuesday-Alice B
Wednesday- Daniel K
Friday- Luke W
I am pretty sure ALICE will be doing the blog tomorrow. :)
THANKS