The World is a Classroom

A new spelling list was handed out this afternoon. Students are to do the first three questions. The test will be on Thursday, and there will be no “mock” test.

FYI – A guide for writing the research report bibliography was discussed and presented today. Students are to use this sheet when they write their own bibliographies. I also outlined my expectations for the introduction and summary of the report – which shouldn’t be written until the draft report is completed! The class has been working very hard on their reports….

As well as using the internet to do research for their independent research reports, students need practice in using books (as well as magazines, interviews, encyclopedias, movies, etc.).  Please assure that your child has some public library books on their chosen topic (or books containing some information about that topic) to bring into class Monday.    That way they can fully use the class time provided to take notes! (Sometimes the internet just isn’t enough, and our school library is small…)

On another note, students were reminded on Thursday to complete their French work for Monday.  This work was assigned by Ms. Cairns, as she is teaching French to the class most Mondays.

Finally, students were asked on Thursday to use the extra time provided by the ProD day to take notes at home!

Today the class worked to estimate how long it might take to do all of the jobs needed to complete their DRAFT report, from gathering research materials, to taking notes and making the cover page and illustrations, to finally writing and then proofreading the draft report.  They then totaled all of the estimates and calculated a class average.  The average estimate was that taking their reports to the draft stage would take about 42 hours of work all told!

Using their Agenda books, they then started to make a daily after school work plan for getting their notes done by Feb 8th, the due date for completing the notes.  They attempted to add when they would go to the library to get books, when and how long they would take notes on the days they choose to take notes, and any other after school events they knew about.  Some of the students said they weren’t sure what after school events their families had planned, so tonight the homework for the class was to ask their parents what after school activities might be being planned between now and Feb. 7th.

Of course, as well as time at home (including the Pro-D day and some time on the weekends) students will be given time every day to work on their reports in class!

Check out your child’s Agenda book to see the work plan he or she has started…..

Students received a sheet of “Writing Guidelines” to help them when creating the draft and good copies of their reports.  They’ve also received today a timeline of tasks and when they are due.  Both of these need initialing by parents, just to let parents know what is being expected.  FYI – the good copy of the report is due March 30th – so this really is a long term project!  The distant deadline is, though, is actually because of the way Spring Break is structured this year.   Students needed enough time to write their good reports without having to feel they had to work on it over Spring Break.(This was explained to them today.)

As well, the students used their outlines to lay the foundation of the organization of their notes.   See their report duotangs to discover how this was done.  Finally, students received instruction, samples and practice in how to write notes based on what they have read.  Basically, they were coached to read a paragraph (or even a sentence), look up, think about what they remember about what they just read, and then write that thought as the note.  The idea that they are not “human photocopiers” is being stressed again and again.

Students were very pleased to finally be able to begin taking notes on their topics.  They were asked to take some notes tonight (or at least to go to the library to get some materials so they have something to take notes from tomorrow) .

PS – Please remind your child to bring their research duotang to school and home again every day!

I was planning to begin our next long-term project late Jan. or early Feb.  The project is a lengthy written research report on any topic of interest to the student (a topic that they know little about and/or have not done before).  Well, when I proposed this to the class on Friday, I had an overwhelming response – we want to start now, today!

What a class!!

So, we began on Friday to begin the first steps toward making the students’ research reports.  We’ve completed more work on this today.  Each student now has a separate duotang for their research report work.  They have selected a topic and begun brainstorming (“MindMapping”) possible topics for their reports.  For homework tonight (as well as studying a bit for their Thurs SS test), I asked them to build a “WonderTree” from their topics.  This is a graphical organization of the topics they think they will most want to research and write about.

They also received a one page sheet that outlines in detail how they can earn top marks for their reports and a special two-sided form for recording where they got their notes (i.e. websites, magazines, books, interviews, etc.).  This form will later be useful when they make their bibliographies.  Please remind them to complete an entry for every research source they use!

Over the next days I will teach them how to take notes, how to organize their notes, how to estimate the time it will take to complete each step, how to make a workplan, and  so on.  I will also be providing them with an outline of deadlines, a writing guideline and other materials, so keep checking their research report duotangs!

I plan to give the students time almost every day in class to work on this project – as well as some homework time (including some weekend work).  I expect the project will take about 8 weeks to finish!

For now, if you are able, please encourage your child to soon visit to the public library – as they’ll need materials from which to take notes in class!

Many of the kids have been looking forward to this for months and are quite fired up. It’s so great.

PS
I hope you can tell from this blog posting that students will be getting a lot of in-class support to complete this project.  This is not a “here’s-the-big-assignment-now-do-it-at-home-with-your-parents-it’s-due-in-a-month” kind of project!!