Mr. Smith's Grade 7EFI Blog
Providing English and Math updates for homeArchive for November, 2011
Our Technology Blog is now online!
Parents, students, relatives, and family friends are invited to visit our new Technology blog. The blog features student opinion pieces on aspects of technology and it went online at 4pm earlier today. The reasoning and communication skill is very high, so please take the time to read a few student postings and offer a thoughtful comment or two in response. Go to: http://womtech.wordpress.com
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Reminder: Blog post due tomorrow
This message is a polite reminder to students and parents that the blog assignment described in a recent post (see below) is due tomorrow at 4 pm. Students are required to compose an opinion piece on a technology-related topic that is informative, persuasive, entertaining, and no more than 1024 characters in length.
Blog post assignment
Students in both classes are asked to email their blog post writing assignment to me before 4 p.m. on Monday, November 28. The assignment organizer outlines all assignment requirements and can be downloaded here: Blog post assignment
A special Technology blog has been prepared so that student work can be displayed and shared over a period of several days. Beginning at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30, this blog will be published on the Internet in a safely limited fashion and for a limited time so that students may read and interact with the opinion pieces posted by their classmates.
Radio script assignment
An exciting new assignment was unveiled this week as part of our Technology unit. Posing as creative whiz-kid executives, students will work in teams of two or three to found a technology company, then write a radio script to advertise their flagship product. This assignment will be completed in school (presentation date is Dec. 1), but is posted here for everyone’s information at Radio Script assignment along with the anchor chart that students helped to create: Anchor Chart for Radio Script
New Patterning Math unit
Our third Math unit is “Patterns and Relationships” (Chapter 4 in the Nelson text, beginning on page 119). Last year’s students found this unit to be an uncomplicated extension of concepts and skills introduced in earlier grades. For me, the single most important Grade 7 idea in this unit is precisely captured in Example 2 on page 130. The two blue charts we see in that example clearly distinguish Grade 6 thinking versus Grade 7 thinking. Seventh graders are expected to grow increasingly proficient at finding the rule that describes how the term number and the term value are related. This key skill is re-visited throughout high school and post-secondary Math/Science.
Exploration activities for this unit can be found at the Nelson site: www.math7.nelson.com/studentcentre/studtryout.html#ch4
Reminder: Photo retakes
Parents and students are reminded that photo re-takes are scheduled for Thursday the 10th.
Eminence presentations finish
“Eminent Person Interest Talks” wrapped up last week, and they were truly amazing! Everyone has learned about a great variety of accomplished people and their contributions. For your information, each presentation was assessed by three peer (student) assessors in addition to me. Some students have already received their assessment feedback from me, and all students will within the next few school days.
Parents, if you are in the school, drop by room 205 and view the superb visual aids used in the presentations (on back wall and in hallway).
