New Unit February – March 2021: “Communication is the Key!”

Hello Everyone!

This week we have started a new unit which will run from February –  March 2021.

Unit Title:
Communication is the KEY!

Concept:  POWER

Core Competency Focus:  Critical Thinking / Communication

Unit Focus Statement:
Being an educated citizen requires reflection and critical thinking about how we communication and receive information.

Areas of Inquiry:

  • The power of an educated citizen
  • Questioning and research skills
  • Forms of media and how they work (media literacy)
  • Fake news and social media safety (digital literacy)
  • Science Labs and communication results (primary vs secondary research)
  • Numbers in the News
  • Effective use of communication skills (presentations, writing, team activities, drama, visual arts)
  • The power of storytelling through oral traditions and visual arts
  • The power of walking and mindfulness
  • Communication with others using basic French

Curricular Activities:

  • Using Media Smarts BC online program for examining role of media in our lives.
  • Understanding how media resources are organized; analyzing news broadcasts.
  • Talking with a current CBC Journalist via Zoom on February 22nd
  • Creating our own broadcast news reports or newspaper articles.
  • Doing a variety of science experiments to practice the scientific method and primary research documentation.
  • Looking at wordless books and using visual imagery to create oral stories.
  • Exploring Indigenous oral storytelling traditions, and how stories are used to communicate important messages or to pass knowledge from one generation to the next.
  • Continuing our independent project research
  • Creating watercolour pictures of the ABCs of Life and wire sculptures
  • Continuing work on proportionate reasoning, including ordering of fractions and decimals.
  • Looking at how math is used in the news and in advertisements.
  • Documenting our Independent Project Research

Students will be investigating media, communications, and other topics above through some at-home explorations or questions in their planners.

Please support them with discussion about these questions, as well as encouragement to set aside time at home to do these explorations.

***As students work on independent project, they really do need to set aside time at home to be doing research, and not just relying on time at school.

Some students have recently said they don’t have any time to do any work at home, even when it is a simple thinking activity in their journals, because of their activities load.

As students get older and go into upper grades, they need to have dedicated time at home to catch up on work as needed. If a student is in a lot of extra-curricular activities, this may be something to talk about at home so students do not start to feel overwhelmed or come to class unprepared for inquiry discussions.

Thank you for your support!

Ms. D