in Krista's High School Classroom
Grade 10 ELA
Daily RoutineEvery day in grade 10 ELA starts the same - attendance and journal writing, word of the week (on Mondays) followed by writer's notebooks (see above) - evaluated on Fridays when students have choice in which outcome they wish to be assessed on (to see a sample of the new digital version, click here), vocabulary work, and silent reading. Following the normal routine, the class then takes a look at their unit of study. An example is starting a novel study project - where students are pitching a book to a video game company.
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Reading Comprehension - Personal Novel StudyKrista's class looks closely at the various reading comprehension strategies in relation to their books - creating and interacting with various foldables. Since Krista's classes have a lot of students who play video games or are very creative, Krista designed a unit project of creating a pitch for a video game. Her students are thrilled, as this is a very interactive task in a 1:1 classroom.
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Grade 12 ELA Comprehensive FOcus
Previous Unit: Controversial Short StoriesPreviously, Krista and her students read a newspaper column about controversial issues facing teenagers today and what they can do about those issues. After a class-wide debate, each student chose an issue, chose a position, and wrote a short story. Through skills linked with literary devices and author's purpose, students revealed their positions on their issues.
Students used iPads and personal devices to access Google Docs and everyone chose the outcomes which Krista would assess, creating the rubric together. Peer editing was done over Google Docs as well. |
HamletKrista started a Hamlet unit with her 40S students, primarily online by reading No Fear Shakespeare with their iPads.
At the end of the unit, students linked the psychology, thoughts, and ideas from Hamlet to a portion of the Netflix series Making a Murderer. The class focused on five main psychological issues in the series including: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, bereavement and grief, intellectual disabilities, family conflict and dysfunction, and psychopathy. Through the use of a University level text and learning various kinds of note making strategies, Krista navigated her students through these difficult texts while providing opportunities for her students to practice these skills which will apply to their post-secondary lives. |
Grade 9 ICT
TypingSince ACS is a school with a large catchment area with students of various abilities, Krista begins every class with typing lessons using typingclub.com.
Krista has developed her own lessons and tests on the program, and as students type, feedback, scores, and badges appear on the screen, encouraging them. As they improve, the program charts their progress as they become more keyboard aware. |
Practical Skills - iPads When Krista began teaching ICT with flexible outcomes, she surveyed the staff and asked them what skills they wanted students to come into their classes with. Many of the staff listed programs and skills within those programs which Krista has included as a part of the ICT course, in addition to the digital citizenship component which is completed in the first 1/2 credit.
Programs Krista covers with her students in the second half of the course are: Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, MovieMaker, and various iPad apps. |