Division 4 2023-2024
Students read historical fiction this term. The novels, White Jade Tiger and Blood and Iron reveal some of the circumstances and historical injustices faced by Chinese immigrants in British Columbia. Students participated in weekly discussion groups where they would ask questions, make connections, highlight literary passages and discuss rich vocabulary. Their culminating assignment was to prepare a one-pager showing their understanding of the connection between the novels’ story and themes.
This term, students read from a selection of harrowing tales of survival. From ship wrecks, to great escapes, desert islands to the deep woods and the far north, the characters in each story were presented with different challenges, but each find ways to meet their basic needs while surviving under unfamiliar circumstances.
The students met weekly to discuss their novels, wrote in double entry journals and used the, “say something” strategy. They even learned about the most important survival skills to employ if lost in nature.
We have been reading, Love That Dog, a novel written in free verse. The story is aslo told in diary format, from the perspective of a boy named Jack. In the beginning, Jack doesn’t appreciate poetry, but as time goes on, he is exposed to more styles of poetry and his enthusiasm grows.
As we read the story and poems, the students mimicked Jack’s experience by writing poems of their own, “inspired” by a variety of famous poets. They compiled their poems, along with original illustrations, into booklets and recited them at our Poetry Café.
Inspired by all the mysteries we read this term, and with the help of Ms. Liu, students took a turn at writing their own who-dunnits. Solving a mystery can be difficult, but we discovered that writing a mystery comes with its own challenges. First, students uncovered the various elements of the mystery genre such as, detectives, suspects, motive, opportunity, clues and red herrings, just to name a few. Then, they used organizers to plan their story outlines. Mini-lessons on writing techniques like, “show don’t tell” and incorporating dialogue helped students tell their story in interesting ways. Next came drafts and re-drafts and finally peer editing, self-editing and publishing.
Can you figure out who committed the crime?
This term, students were able to choose a book to read from a selection of mystery novels. Each week, they responded to the section of the novel they had read by completing a different role sheet and sharing it with their group. This led to focused, in depth conversations about their novel and allowed them to express their understanding in a variety of ways. For example, they could choose to take on such roles as illustrator, word wizard, literary luminary, connector, travel tracer and many others. It was exciting to sit in on group discussions where students shared their work and asked each other questions to deepen their understanding.
Students have just finished reading the historical fiction novel, Number the Stars. This novel is about two families living in Denmark during the German occupation of WWII. Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen and her family are Jewish and need to escape Denmark to avoid persecution. Will Annemarie and her family be able to get them to Sweden before it’s too late?
The guiding questions students considered while reading the novel were:
Please visit your child’s blogfolio to see their personal reflection.
This term, with the help of Ms. Liu, we have been working on memoir writing. By writing memoirs, the students were able to write about things that are very familiar and important to them.
Students wrote and shared at least three memoirs. First, they chose to write about an object that was special to them. Then, they wrote a memoir about a place in their life that was familiar and important and finally, they wrote about a person they were close to.
Everyone chose one memoir to revise, edit and publish. Students learned to separate their writing into paragraphs and use details and examples to make their writing more interesting to you, the reader. Please look at your child’s blogfolio to read their published memoir.
As Flyn
n spends more and more time lost in the wilderness behind Joe and Ellen’s house, he begins to realize that his survival depends on finding solutions to the problems he encounters. This city boy is starting to think more like his outdoorsy sister. What problems is Flynn encountering in the woods? What is he doing to try to solve these problems? What other survival techniques could Flynn use? How has shifting from a fixed-mindset to a growth-mindset improved Flynn’s chances of surviving and being rescued?
We have already finished reading the first five chapters of our new novel! I wonder what will happen to Flynn, now that he is off the grid with his parents at Joe and Ellen’s rustic house. For a city-boy who doesn’t like being outside, Flynn is definitely out of his element.
What do you think will happen next? Sometimes authors use a technique called foreshadowing to give the reader a hint about where the story might be going. Can you find any examples of where Alison Hughes may be using foreshadowing to help us make predictions?
I hope you all have enjoyed the introduction to Lost in the Backyard. After our class meeting tomorrow, I will be assigning a written summary of this chapter. Remember that your summary must be written in paragraph form. Like all paragraphs it needs to:
The “details” in your summary should include who the main characters are, where the story takes place and what is happening. Please limit your summaries to 5-6 sentences.
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