First, I apologize for the confusion.
We're also not sure what's going on with the bracelets we thought we had to pay for last Friday... oh well...
Learning to self-assess is an important thing in life as well as school. We want to be aware of what we are doing well and what we need to work on so that we can practice the things we want to improve and try to find strategies that we know will help us. It could be something as simple as thinking about our manners (Am I being polite right now? What could I do every day to be just a little more polite?) or as fun as reflecting on our skills in gymnastics (I think I have some good trampoline tricks, but I'd like to work on my balance beam skills.)
At school, our students are already reflecting on their progress frequently, with our help. For example, when they bring their green social skills check-ups home, they have reflected on their behaviour during an activity. With you, they think about whether they have mastered their book or whether they should read it a few more times. We have set learning goals at different times this year, for example, recently most students earned a prize for practicing something that was mentioned in their report card. After each dictée, I encourage you to set a writing goal with your child and we've written a reflection on an important project from the year, noting something we could improve on a future project. Phew! This is all great. We are trying to apply these skills to math now!
In our current math unit on addition, subtraction and beginning multiplication and division strategies, students know that we are more interested in their process than we are in always getting the right answer. They have heard me say how a number on it's own, even if it's right, can't earn more than a level 2 because (unless I was sitting beside them) I can't be sure if it was a lucky guess, or whether some thought went into it. As you've seen, we have a large and growing selection of student-developed strategies on our math board that can guide us both in solving problems and also in writing complete answers. SO, today, we put together a rubric for problem solving in math. Students matched up different expectations with the appropriate levels and then, very successfully, assessed some examples of our own problem solving. Students were able to explain why each answer fit into it's level (e.g., "I think this is a level 3 because it's clear and easy to understand, it has one good strategy, but the person could add more, like a number sentence."). I think it's so great that our students are confident in knowing what a level 2, 3 and 4 answer look like. It means they can decide what level they want and work towards it. It means their number sense mark won't be a surprise to them, and it means that they will be in good shape when it comes time for EQAO (this is very much how test questions are marked). I've posted our co-created rubric and our examples on a board and I've suggested to students that when they're working on a math question, they compare their answer to our rubric and examples so that they can decide whether or not they should try to add more detail or try new strategies in order to get their work to the next level.
Soon, I will give each student their own copy of the rubric so that they can self-assess one of their own math questions and bring it home to show you. We still have a few weeks on this unit, so there is plenty of time for us to make some improvements and we will work with harder numbers and money amounts as well.
All that to say, ask your mathematician what they need to do to earn a level 3 when solving a math problem, and whether they would like some extra practice at home. Keep your eyes out for a blue problem solving rubric at some point this week!
It's also time for you to ask about your student's role in our play "Reine des abeilles". We're very excited about acting out this story, and everyone has already worked on how their character moves and what they need to say to tell their part of the story (a social skills check-up came home last Friday after we worked with our character groups on this). Ask them to practice for you!
Today, we also started writing out the different parts of this story in partners, each group explaining a different part so that we can make a book. Ask your writer which part of the story they are responsible for writing.
At the same time, students worked with Mme Meg (thanks!) to do the prints that we planned and carved into styrofoam last week. They used a real speedball brayer and ink to transfer their drawing from the stencil to paper. We made a mural of our city. We'll make sure to have it up for the Arts Evening!
Words of the Week
Grade 1: Almost all of these words contain the ‘e’ sound. Notice the difference between “je” and “jeu”. They sound
the same, but the latter means game.
With an ‘x’ on the end it would be plural (J’aime
jouer les jeux.).
The word “elle”
(=she) does not contain the sound ‘e’
even though it has the letter twice. The grade 2s spent a week working on it, so the grade 1s probably know how to say it (think:
Isabelle). Since it’s a word we use all the time, I wanted to make sure
we included it in our practice at some point.
je peux, je veux, j’ai peur, les cheveux,
genou,
mercredi, jeudi, jeu, cheval, *elle*
Bonus words: neuf, renard
Grade 2: Our next new sound combines two that we have learned before: 'oi' + 'in' = 'oin'
Most students already knew how to make this sound this morning, but it's pretty much the sound a pig makes in English, or the sound a duck makes in French. Don't forget that 'oi' in French has the 'w' sound in front. Your kids are your best teacher really...
loin, coin, point, moins, besoin