Short Story Pitch and Independent Reading

Students have been preparing and presenting a "pitch" of their short story this week. The idea is to give a presentation of the story that they wrote before Christmas to the publisher of a major pubishing company in the hope that it will be "published" in the class anthology. They have been encouraged to make their pitch persuasive and engaging and include an exerpt to spark our interest in reading the story.

We have started off reading for term 2 by choosing and reading independent novels. Students have been reading these novels in class for the past week and should read their novels each evening at home for at least 20 minutes. A bookmark assignment, based on the first half of their novel is due in class at the end of this week.

History Presentations

I apologize for the long delay in updating the blog. Since the holidays I have been consumed with evaluation and writing of first term report cards and 8-4 and 8-5 students have been very busy preparing and presenting their History projects. The presentations covered the final unit for History on the changes that faced Canada at the turn of the 20th Century.
Project topics included early homesteading on the praries, new inventions, the Winnipeg General Strike, the women's suffrage movement and the causes of World War 1, just to name a few. Above is a picture of Alexander Graham Bell speaking into his early version of the telephone. Students were to find three sources for their information and then put together an engaging lesson for the class on their topics. Many students included powerpoint presentations or engaging games and activities with their lessons. We are just wrapping up the presentations this week and will be starting our Geography curriculum next week.