What We Did
We started the class talking about
the portfolio conferences. We only got to have 2 conversations yesterday, so Ms.Lees
said the people who haven’t got the conferences yet might have to come before school
or afterschool for them if we don’t have enough time soon. Don’t worry because
she said since we worked pretty well in class today, she’ll try to do most of
the conferences tomorrow in double block so people won’t have to come before or
afterschool hopefully!
After talking about the portfolio conferences,
Ms.Lees went around the room to check if the persuasive paragraphs we had to
write for homework were completed, exercises 1 and 2. After, she wrote on the board what we should’ve
done on our note-taking booklet we got yesterday since some people didn’t know
it was for homework. We had to read the whole booklet and do some exercise on
it and highlight the key ideas. She also talked about the upcoming geography
test on Friday and that we should’ve looked at her blog for information because
all the details such as materials we need and specific things that are going to
be on the test was on it and that we should study by looking at the things that
we are going to get tested on. (We could take out the geography worksheets that
are in our portfolios to take home and study but we need to bring them to
school everyday because Ms.Lees still needs to see it for the conference if you
haven’t done it yet!) She also informed us about the Canspell spelling bee
coming up in 2 weeks and that we should start studying with the word booklet we
got if we haven’t yet and she handed out a sheet that had all the information
on it like the rules and how it works. We practiced how the spelling bee works
at the end of class today too! Everyone had the chance to get to know how it
worked so we wouldn’t freak out on the day of the spelling bee.
Also, we were given a QAR
(Question-Answer Relationships) booklet today, which you could put in your
English or Social Studies section in your binder. We were given time to work on
the booklet and the booklet was about the QAR strategy that could help us, the
students to categorize questions by where and how they find the answer to the
question generally asked in textbooks. By learning the strategy, we could be
able to find the answers more easily, quickly, and accurately. There were a
couple sheets just explaining about what they were and there were basically
four types of questions that you answer to, such as RT (Right there), T&S
(Think and Search), A&Y (Author and You), and OYO (On Your Own). RT is when
it’s a type of question that you’ll find an answer right away by just looking
at the textbook and when the way they phrased the question is almost exactly
the same to the words in the text. T&S is when you have to look at
different parts of the text to find the answer. A&Y is when you use the
information that’s on the text and put your background knowledge to answer the question.
Lastly, OYO is when you just use your own experience and knowledge for the
answer. For us to get used to this concept, we had a couple exercises to finish
like figuring out the type and answering some questions.
We were given time to finish our
note-taking booklet and the QAR booklet first and if we were finished, we were
allowed to work on an assignment that had note-taking skills involved after
reading texts from a textbook called Pathways. Not many people got to the last
assignment yet so Ms.Lees said she’ll give us time to finish it tomorrow in
class! J
Why We Did It
Since most of us have finished
organizing our portfolios, it is very important for Ms.Lees to take time to go
over it and talk to us about our improvements and such because it’s for our
letter grade and I’m sure you don’t want a mark that says I (Incomplete). I
think it’s very important for us to know what marks we get because we can know
what we need to work on through out the year and what our strong parts are. We
would be able to know why we got those marks and be able to say what mark we
think we deserve and have the chance to self evaluate!
It’s good for Ms.Lees to check
everyone’s homework because, not only she’s looking at our self assessment skills
but it’s very important to keep along and know what we are learning and know
how to do them. It’s great to check if we get it or not because once we don’t
do our homework, we’d get behind which wouldn’t be good. I thought it was great
for Ms.Lees to tell the class that she had information about the geography test
coming up this Friday because I honestly didn’t check her blog and I almost
would’ve missed it! I’m very relieved she made sure we all checked it or else I
would’ve been the one without all the supplies we need for the test and get
confused about what we are getting tested on. We went over the spelling bee
rules and tried a session of it to make sure everyone knew the rules and
understood how it worked so they wouldn’t get scared and confused on the real
spelling bee day.
We learned the QAR strategy and the
different types. The main reason why we learn this is because so that we’ll be
able to find out what type of QAR it is and so that we could find out the
answer much quicker and accurately. It’ll help us know what kind of answer the question
needs and it’ll help us think of the answer. We’ll know what kind of things to
look for. Such as, if we figure out that the question wants an OYO type of
answer, we’ll be able to know right away that I shouldn’t be focused on reading
the text the whole time; I’ll have to use my own thinking mainly.
My
Reflections/Connections
I know why portfolios are really
important in humanities because yesterday when I had the conference with
Ms.Lees, I got to know where I’m exactly at and am able to go through the
things that I didn’t get. I also definitely knew what I needed to work on
through out the year. I need to speak up and give lots of ideas in class
because my mark lowered down a lot from oral so I just want to tell you that,
don’t think oral won’t affect your mark as much, it does a LOT so always try to
volunteer and put your hand up in class! I never tried this portfolio method in
my previous years at school so it was a new experience for me and I think I
really like it because I get to know why I’m getting those marks and Ms.Lees talks
about the things that I could improve on and work on for next time so I get a
better mark! J
It’s good to check homework every
class because I know that my math teacher doesn’t and people would not do their
homework sometimes and they would get a bad mark on their math tests. I think
teachers should check the students’ homework because it’s for the students
goods because people who get more practice obviously gets better marks so I
think the teacher should force everyone. Also, when she says she’s going to
collect our math homework everyone would rush and copy the answers from the
back in the last minute which I think is very bad because you don’t learn
anything. The teachers checking the students’ homework could get the students used
to doing their homework up-to-date so it’ll help them in different subjects too
and they won’t always rush at the end and learn nothing. Having our homework
done up-to-date would be helpful in any other subject because which teachers
like procrastinators?
I’ve never actually tried a spelling
bee contest before so I’m very nervous but also excited in a way. I find that
spelling bees are REALLY helpful because it’s good to know the meanings of
words and it builds up your vocabulary skills by practicing them. Being able to
spell words correctly every time is great because you’d be able to help people
around you when they can’t remember how to spell something and it’s good for
the future because if you get to work in a company when you grow up and spell
words wrong in documents, that’d be horrible!
Being able to know what kind of
questions they are is very helpful and important. It could help you solve
questions really easily if you’re taking an English test or even a science test
because you need to understand what kind of question it’s asking first before
you look for anything else. You can see if you have to look for the answer in
the text or in your head and it’ll save you so much more time!
Homework
- Finish all the paragraph assignments that
were assigned for homework if you aren’t done still. (Narrative, descriptive,
explanatory, and persuasive)
- Complete reading and doing the exercises
on the note-taking booklet for tomorrow.
- Finish the QAR booklet for
tomorrow.
Tips
- Practice for Canspell! It’s coming up in 2
weeks, get ready! Get your friends or family to test you on the words with at
least 4 words a day.
- IF you want to have some time to
study for the geography test that’s on Friday, go to flex tomorrow at lunch or
on Thursday at lunch.
- Ask your study buddy if you have a
question about homework.
- If you can’t come to school or can’t
finish your homework by tomorrow, contact Ms.Lees by e-mailing her. (E-mail is
on the “Course Outline” yellow sheet)
Schedule for this
week :
Monday : Olivia
Tuesday: Alice
Wednesday: Luke
Friday: Luke
LUKE will be doing his blog reflection tomorrow! :)
