Alison Edwards

Hi everyone!

It is now officially only 23 days until the Winter Break. For most courses that’s a short break before we get into Midterms, which take place at the end of January. For others, it’s a short break before the completion of the course and the start of a new one credit course. Either way, most courses are on a tight schedule from now until the end of January.

 

English 1201

We will be finishing the novel ‘Divergent’ in the next few days. Both classes will have a culmination assessment on December 3rd – a response essay. Time will be taken in class to teach how to do a response essay. After that, from December 5th to 10th, students will be doing a quick foray into Poetry. This will be followed by ‘A Christmas Carol’, being covered from December 11th to 19th. At this point we will do a reading of the novel and then some movie studies, looking at how the book is portrayed. After the break (December 20th is the last day of school before the 2 week break), we will revisit themes of ‘A Christmas Carol’, do a few more poems and get ready for Exams.

English 2201

Students have completed the study of Fahrenheit 451. We are currently watching Wall-E and those who wish to do an alternate assessment can write a response essay comparing Wall-e and Fahrenheit 451. We will be taking a quick look at poetry from November 29th to December 9th. Following that, we will read Oedipus. After the break we will revisit themes of Oedipus, complete some further poetry and then review to prepare for the exam.

English 3202

We are completing ‘The Hunger Games’ and will be beginning ‘Catching Fire’. We have a field trip to ‘Catching Fire’ on December 2nd. Follow this we will be discussing the story of ‘Catching Fire’ and how a sequel is constructed, both novel and movie wise. Our test at Midterms will be on both books, following the curriculum presented in class.

World Religions 3101

This is a course that will end at Midterms and a companion course will begin (3106). The schedule until Midterms is as follows:

November 28, 29, December 3 and 4th – library time to prepare for major project

December 6th to 20th – Major project presentations

Journals are due December 12th.

After the break, finishing Hinduism, taking a look at Buddhism. More journals will be due and there will be a test at the end of the unit.

Ethics and Philosophy

We are working through Ethics and Entertainment right now with a view of Hunger Games and a field trip to Catching Fire (December 2nd). After that we will examine entertainment further with looks at reality tv and procedural dramas. We will then follow through with a look at Existence and the philosophy of science.

For each course, we are working on different things and from that, each course has different deadlines and current workloads.

English 1201: Currently working on the novel ‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth. Tuesday, October 22nd, students must bring in an item which identifies them as part of a specific faction. Throughout the novel we will do in class work followed by a larger assignment to be discussed mid-November. At this point, students have been evaluated with an essay assignment where they wrote an expository essay, their essay portfolios of work they did in class and an essay test. Before report cards, students will have their in class ‘Divergent’ portfolios assessed as well as marks given for in class presentation work.

English 2201: Currently working on the novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ by Ray Bradbury. Students must bring in a book they would save if all books were disappearing. This marks the start of our resource unit in the library looking at aspects of the novel. With this novel, students will write a response individually but will also do work as a group. At this point, students have been evaluated with an essay assignment. Until this point, the students were required to write a persuasive essay about ‘texting and driving’. If they have not passed in their essay, they must pick a different topic on which to write their essay. They have also been marked on their essay portfolios of work and completed an essay test. Before report cards, they will have completed some in class work on ‘Fahrenheit 451’.

English 3202: We are currently doing an indepth study of the novel ‘The Hunger Games’. Students have been completing questions as well as content quizzes. Their mark will come from their completion of this work as well as their results on the quizzes.

Ethics and Philosophy 2101: We have begun and been working through a study of concepts, schools and history of philosophy. We’ve looked at specific topics, such as reality and completed a number of ‘What If’ thought experiments. Students have been evaluated on a response piece on reality, research into philosophers and journal entries. Students will complete more response pieces as well as self evaluation before report cards.

World Religions 3101: In World Religions we have been looking at ‘The Religious Impulse’/Spirituality as well as Aboriginal Spirituality. Students have been evaluated through testing, journals, presentations in class as well as development of their own Totem. Before report cards, students will have another test. We will work on a resource unit with Hinduism throughout November, with the completion of their major project in December.

Hi everyone,

I know that for most of you, your children are getting things in on time and have followed assignment specific deadlines. However, as you know, there is an evaluation policy in place which allows for more flexible deadlines at times, of which students often avail when their lives are very busy or they need more time to do their best work. This year, the policy will be applied to student work by having four ‘ultimate deadlines’ – before each reporting period in November, January, April and June. This means that all work assigned from September to November must be in by Thursday, November 7th at the latest, if it has not been submitted on the original deadline. Similarly, this process will repeat in January, for work assigned from November to January, April, for work assigned from January to April and in June, for work assigned from April to June.

For November, here are the pertinent dates:

Thursday, November 7, 2013 – Final date, submission of student work for November reports, 3:30pm

Friday, November 15, 2013 – Reports Out: Optis open

Thursday, November 21, 2013 – Parent Teacher Interviews: 1:30-4:30 and 6:30-8:30

For quick access:

English 1201 – Currently doing essays. There will be an essay test at the end of this unit.
Students must have the novel ‘Divergent’ read by October 7th.

English 2201 – Currently doing essays. There will be an essay test at the end of this unit.
Students must have the novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ read by October 11th.

Ethics and Philosophy 2101 – Five journals due by October 16th. Remember – mark the two of the five you would like me to read. No topics have been given but instead you are encouraged to develop your thoughts on topics covered in class.

World Religions 3101 – Test on ‘Spirituality’ on Wednesday. September 25th. This will be an open book test.
Five journals due by October 16th. No topics have been given but instead you are encouraged to develop your thoughts on topics covered in class.

Most pages have been updated to include notes for each class. If you have any questions or feel something is missing, please e-mail me.

Testing the photo component.

Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year!