News this week

Welcome to our new student teacher, who started this week. Mr. M. has been busy getting to know all of the students and has already started teaching some lessons on Media Literacy. Today we were looking at the message in a number of ads and cartoons about McDonalds. He has also been busy evenings this week, helping out at the boy's basketball tournament. He seems to be really enjoying Glashan so far and the students of Room 202 have made him feel very welcome.

We have finished our first round of literature circle meetings and had some good discussions. Students are now reading and preparing for week 2 meetings which will take place early next week.

Literature Circles Begin!

We have started literature circles in Language Arts this past week. A literature circle is where a small group of students read the same book and meet regularily to discuss what they are reading. Over the course of a month each student will come to the meetings with a different assignment or role work and be prepared to discuss the book with other members of the group. The four roles are: Discussion Director, Media Producer, Point of View Writer and Connector. Each member of the group will have the opportunity to play each role. The discussion director writes questions and organizes the meeting. The Media producer prepares a creative response to the book such as a pamplet, advertisement, comic strip, blog entry, article or other media form. The Point of View Writer writes from the point of view of one of the characters in the book. Finally, the connector writes about connections between the book and the world, themselves or other books.

End of the Year Trip Plans

We are planning an end of the year trip to Tremblant and Montreal for all of our Grade 8's. The dates of the trip are June 27th and 28th. The letter outlining the trip was sent home two weeks ago and we have asked parents to indicate whether their child will attend and submit a $50 deposit to secure a spot on the trip. Please return these forms this week, so we can go ahead with planning. The trip will include activities such as hiking at Mont Tremblant, dinner and bowling, the Biodome, Pointe a Calliere and Chinatown. This will be the fourth year we have done the trip and it always proves to be a memorable experience for the Grade 8's.