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A glance at the week ending Sept. 15

This week we spent one class viewing a newly produced 60 min film on the life and times of Terry Fox edited by Steve Nash. It was a great film which looked at Terry Fox as the person behind the hero. The students were very focused on learning about Fox and the sometimes struggles he endured during his run across Canada to raise money for cancer. Students were given a worksheet asking them a number of questions focusing on motivation. This film provides a solid introduction to our Personal Unit which deals with how experieces shape us and help us grow. In this unit we will look at a number of poems, stories and films which deal with this theme.

Class  completed the week with a classroom discussion on the questions and the following homework assignment due next class. Assignment: Take one of the questions from the sheet and expand your answer into a full paragraph.
The paragraph should be structured as follows:

Intro sentence
Make your point
Back it up with why you think the way you do
( you may have a couple of points and proofs)
Concluding sentence

Class  still has not been assigned this work.

Next week both classes will be the library for an orientation

Spelling Tips

In both English classes we discussed ways to try to remember how to spell words. The following is a list of ideas for consideration:

• trace around the word to give it a particular shape that you can visually remember
• take a mental snapshot of the word when you are reading and when you are using the word in your work (this also works for diagrams and maps)
• refer to many of the spelling rules you have learned in elementary school, like i before e except after c, or drop the y add an i when adding a suffix (although their are some exceptions in the English language)
• when writing, change the way you say the word in your head to help you remember how it is spelled, example grammer (common mistake, because we are spelling it how it sounds), try to emphasize the ar, so you will remember it is spelled grammar.
• basic sounding out of the word by breaking the word down when you say it helps ex. prob ab ly
• as above, highlight the problem area where the mistake often occurs in spelling
• some people may find repetition of writing the correctly spelled word helps
• sometimes you just have to memorize a list of common words we use everyday, but also mispell everyday

Some of these words include: friend, you're, your, grammar, writing, happiness, their, they're, there, quiet, quality, where, were, which, casually, competition, mystery, physical, just to name a few for now.

Stay posted for the course outline coming later this week...it should go home and be signed by parents. I would like to have an updated phone number, parent contact and email address for communication purposes.

Welcome to Grade 8 English

Over the past couple of days we have spent time getting to know each other by asking some crazy questions. Students have spent some time coming up with interview questions for each other and we began presentations today in division 84, that is, until we were interupted by the room moving back and forth in an eathquake. I was totally amazed at how quickly students were all able to get down and under the desks.

A look ahead next week:

• Name Game
• Course Outline and Review of Class Expectations
• Library Orientations
• Beginnings of our first unit, called The Personal Unit