Keeping Up With Di Donato's Grade 7's is Hard Work!

To say that the students (and the teacher) have been busy the last few weeks would be an understatement.  Do to our small class sizes, intensity of programming and BIG expectations, progress occurs at light speed.

Review meetings have been going well.  Students are doing a fabulous job at showing off their progress.  To compliment the review meetings, the grade 7's had a circle in order to take a few minutes and take a look back.  We asked the students to reflect on the progress they have made so far. The kids should be proud of themselves, I am!

After reflecting on progress, we had the students focus on next steps.  We created a new "Goal Board" and talked more about the importance of goal setting. It is amazing how the students embrace the board and actually use it.

The Provincial Advocate came for a visit on Tuesday afternoon.  He is on a listening tour which takes him all over the province.  He and his team thought very highly of our students after meeting him.
Curtis came back! Quinte Conservation Authority was nice enough to do some community outreach.  November 18, 2015 was World GIS day! Amy and Curtis came back to explain some different applications as well as the importance of GIS.  It fits nicely into the grade 7 Geography unit.

Amy and Curtis went through some topographic maps the first time they visited.

On their most recent visit, Curtis and Amy explained the importance of GIS.

It isn't just the students that get an education here at Sagonaska.  It is the teachers too! Last week while the kids were away, we were working hard on how we can improve student understanding of math concepts.  Mr. Brown and Mr. Richardson did a great job of putting together a full day of PD for us on Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday of last week, the teachers were trained in Google for Education! We learned new tools that we can use to help students work around their LD's.  These tools have already been implemented into our teaching.  Students should be able to use these tools  when they transition back to their home schools!

In geography we are learning about how people in different parts of the world survive and thrive.  We are investigating different land forms, how climates impact a communities accessibility to resources and how political systems, economics and culture can affect how different groups access resources. We are starting to consolidate all of our learning on our new Minecraft Edu server.  The kids are working collaboratively to solve a common goal - create a community that has access to food, water and shelter in environments that the teachers create.

The Importance of a Summary by austin

Question 1. Instructions to writing a summary.

First you are going to read the text. Next your going to restate the question in a sentence. Then you are going to answer the question. Now you explain your answer. Then you rap it up.

question 2 When you write a summary what does it force you to do?

It forces you to think.                                   

It's Forcing you to check your work.  it's forcing you to plan.

question 3 When is it useful to read a summary instead of the whole text?

Before you buy a chapter book.

Example of a summary:

The Earthquake In The Indian ocean

On December 26, 2004, there was a huge earthquake under the Indian Ocean. The underwater earthquake created a tsunami. 16 hours later, 230 000 people in 14 countries were dead more than 1.7 million people were made homeless by the event. The tsunami sped at 480 km per hour when the tsunami hit the shore. This wave was as high as a five-story building. Coral reefs, mangrove swamps, and wetlands along the coast were severely damaged.

By: Austin

The Importance of a Summary by John

The steps how to make a summary. 

1. - Read the text.
2. - Re-read the text and only highlight the important information
3. - Re-read what you have highlighted
4. - Write your summary by using only the important information that you highlighted
5. - Re-read your summary and check for mistakes
6. - Fix any mistakes
7. - Let a classmate check it for your mistakes
8. - Fix it's by the positive feedback you are given
9. - Hand in your summary

When you write a summary what does it force you to do?

When you write a summary it forces you to highlight the important information. It helps me understand what I am reading.

When is it useful to read a summary instead of the whole text?

It is useful to write a summary when you don't have a lot of time. You are only looking for the important information.

Jamie's blogger assignment

Summary blogger Assignment

by Jamie

Steps to writing a summary

Read the text
Highly important information
Read read the highlighted information and make sure it's all import into
rewrite or copy and paste the highlighted information
Bump it up
Hand it in


When you write a summary what does it force you to do?
When you write a summary what does it force you to do? A summary forces you To separate the important information . It will not the put the unimportant information in the text. That is important because you don't want unimportant information in your assignment.


When is it useful to read a summary instead of the whole text?
When is it important to write a summary? It is important to write a summary is when you need important information and there will only be Important information. Also it will be more easier to read the text.

Success Criteria:
Create a plan that you can share on the blog
Answer the three questions in full sentences
Have a peer reread your work
Bump it up based on the positive feedback you receive
Post your work in blog post called “The Importance of a Summary - by _________”

How To Write A Summary By Maggie Hartwig

Pretend you are a teacher, explain (in your own words) how to write a summary to your students - feel free to make a list! 

When you write a summary what does it force you to do? 

     

Explain ideas on a piece of paper (Google Docs).  When you write a summary it allows you to understand what you are reading. It allows you to understand what you are reading because you chunk it up all the good information into one good  paragraph.

It is useful to read a summary when you have less time of the whole text?  

It is useful to write a summary then you have less time, when it is a shorter passage to read it is easy to understand . Why it is easy to understand is because it breaks the summary  into smaller steps . It's the most important passage to read when you have all the good information.

How To Make a Summary Reflection

When I write a summary I go in steps first I read the text, usually once or twice.  Next I will highlight the important information in the text so it's easier to find the important information when I go to write my summary.  Then I will reread my highlighted information and make sure I only have the most important details. I will now write my summary with the important information I have highlighted, then I will read my summary with a peer to look for mistakes. After my summaries finished I will look at it and try to make it the next level(bump it up). Last I'll hand in.

When you write a summary it forces you to think hard and break down the text into the most important in formation.  Making it short and sweet and right on point for the reader.

Reading the entire text can take more time from the reader then it would be to just read a summary on it. All a summary is, is the most important information from the text.

How to make a good summary

        The Importance of a how to make a Summary

by: Harry

Question 1) Pretend you are a teacher, explain (in your own words) how to write a summary to your students - feel free to make a list!

1. First you need to read the text and then reread the text over again.

2. You will highlight the key information that you read.

3. Re read the sentences that are highlighted. Then put them into your own words.

4. Then when you are done putting the highlights  into your own words ,reread the highlighted sentences and put the highlights into a paragraph. 
5. That’s how you can make a summary!!.        

Question 2) 
When you write a summary what does it force you to do?

A summary forces you to make a short paragraph that summarizes the import details or information in the story. It allows you to find the key information faster.  

Question 3) 
When is it useful to read a summary instead of the whole text?

It is useful to read a summary instead of the whole text, 

when you don't have a lot of time.When you read a summary it breaks down the whole text into a paragraph full of the key information.

This is my summary that I wrote.

The Earthquake Under the Indian Ocean

On December 26, 2004 there was a earthquake . The tsunami was traveling at 480 km per hour. It was the third-largest earthquake ever recorded. When the earthquake hit shores the tsunami was as big as a five-story building.When the wave had finally flowed back to the ocean, about 16 hours later, 230 000 people in 14 countries were dead and more than 45000 people were missing. It will take many years for these countries,environments to return to the natural way it was before the earthquake hit.   

Are your Students Fluent with their Technology?

If you follow our blog, or know what we do here at Sagonaska, then you already know that we put a lot of weight on our students being self advocates.  One of the most important self advocacy strategies we teach for students to be fluent with their devices.

In September and October, we spent a lot of time explicitly teaching students how to use their devices to help them learn.  We are now starting to see the rewards from all of the student's hard work in learning how to harness the power of their technology.  We are at the point now where students are just about independent with their personal mobile devices when it comes to learning.  We simply post a task in our Google Classroom and students are able to fluently navigate their device to complete the task.

Here is an example.

In geography, students have been learning about different landscapes and impacts people can have on them.  Students are also learning about how landforms can impact different societies.  In language we are learning about making connections.

We posted this question and a connections framework (students have used the framework before).  Then we started the timer.

The Question

The Framework

The process of finding and deconstructing the question, putting the framework into a format students could manipulate, took about three minutes.  So, in about ten minutes our students had completed two or three deep, meaningful connections that linked the big ideas we are learning about in geography, to "The Lorax".  

This may not sound like a big deal.  You may be thinking that a student should be able to pick up a pencil and write two or three deep, meaningful connections in under ten minutes.  The amazing part here isn't the time it took.  It is the fact that we took a handful of students who work with a reading disorder and did this.  

By simply teaching students how to use multiple different apps to their advantage, students who have struggled in the past with learning, are transformed into confident students. By teaching students how to harness the power of their technology for learning we have leveled the playing field for them! This is a big deal!