Overarching Theme

Today in Grade 7, one representative from each literature circle group presented to the rest of the class a mini summary of their novel thus far. As the students were sharing, I was recording words that they were using to describe the characters and plot. Here is the word splash of many words used to summarize: 

After each group shared, we discussed what our overarching theme for our Lit Circles is, based upon the words seen on the board. I had the students stand up if the main character in their novel was labelled with any of the words in blue, all students stood. We discussed the author's purpose for writing a novel from the perspective of a main character who may be labelled with these qualities. Now that the students know there is a overarching theme within our Lit Circles, it will guide or discussions in a meaningful way- relating many thoughts, opinions and feelings to the theme. 

Poetry Centres!

We are beginning our poetry centres where the students are learning about many literary devices and figurative language commonly used in poetry. 

Each group has an envelope that they complete all tasks for the particular literary device/figurative language in the class time provided. 

The groups will get to work on a new envelope each poetry class! 

After 6 classes, everyone will have learned 15 different poetic forms. 

Soundtrack of Our Spring Break

Instead of having the students write a paragraph about what they did over spring break, the students were tasked with finding 8-10 songs that represented what they did and what mood they were in. They had to write 10 mini paragraphs explaining why they chose the song, how it represents their experiences and use textual evidence to support their answers! They then created their own recycled CD as a very cool visual to go along with their explanations! 

Check out our new bulletin board! 

Our Poetree

In Grade 8 we are beginning our Poetry Unit!

To kick start the unit, we have written poems about what we already know about poetry and have posted our poems on our blooming Poetree!!

An Assignment that Might Change the World??

In Grade 7, we are beginning Genius Hour! 

The students have been given the task of becoming a genius or expert in something. We have given the students the objective of using an area of passion and coming up with some sort of essential question or solution to a problem. We have explained to the students that their genius may be something that could change the world! It could also be something that they would like to learn more about, but to think outside of the box to have a purpose to their assignment, rather than submitting a research project.

We began by thinking about all of the things we were 'good' at, and what qualities we feel we have.

The next step was to tape a blank piece of paper to our backs and have our classmates write additional qualities that each of us have.

Once students gained further insight about themselves, they thought about areas of interest. In their Genius Hour Inventory, students found common themes within these areas.

Now, all of our students have an idea. It all begins with an idea, we'll see where a simple idea will take them!

Stay Tuned!!!

March Student Voices Writing

This month after wrapping up our whole group novel study The Outsiders, the students were tasked with thinking about their legacy. Similar to Ponyboy's theme in The Outsiders, the students were to write about their experiences at Van Walleghem School, how they want to be remembered by their peers, friends and teachers. Additionally, they were to reflect on their future aspirations.

As a teacher, reading about how students want to be remembered and what future aspirations they have and having to select only two students to be published in our school's newsletter was next to impossible. It was extremely challenging reading such wonderful writing pieces and not rewarding every student with their work being published!

This month, I decided to take excerpts from many students' writing to showcase in the April Newsletter.

Please enjoy the many wonderful quotes from my amazing writers in 8V and 8W.

"In the past week we have been finishing our book study, The Outsiders. In the ending of S.E Hinton's amazing book, it ended with Ponyboy writing a theme for a English paper. He wrote the theme about him and his friend’s legacy. Soon, me and a bunch of other students will be leaving Van Walleghem and this made me think about my legacy, my aspirations in life and how I want to be remembered." – Kaitlyn J. 8W

"Have you ever thought about how people view you as an individual? Whether it is for the greatness you have achieved or the grotesque you have succumbed. Everybody has a legacy, their own stories, and experiences. Funny as it seems, the same situation is brought upon the Grade 8 students at École Van Walleghem School. At the end of June, the Grade 8 students will be heading for Grade 9, graduating and going their own ways to different high schools. As they move onto high school, they leave their own legacies, stories, and experiences at VW." - Leanne K. 8W

"Truth is, it's not how I'll be remembered, but on how I'll remember Van Walleghem and all the great teachers I've had. Through the years, I had a mix of fun and hard times in VW… the hard times being always “subject” related, but mostly, I'll remember how Van Walleghem School welcomed me right from the start and the impact it has had on me growing up." - Josh K. 8V

"People want to be remembered for doing things that are unimaginable, spectacular, and all around marvelous. But I just want to go about in life being me, and not going out of my way so I can please other people that I don’t even know." - Tatyana B. 8W

"I want to live my life to the fullest and I want people to remember me. You never know when the world would stop, but I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up. Maybe there’s only a dark road up ahead. The world is not a wish granting factory, but you still have to believe and keep going. Believe that the stars will light your path, even a little bit.”- Hannah K. 8V

“I would want my future to be how I hoped it would be, but over time I know that my goals would change but one thing that I would always want for the future is to be someone who is worth remembering.” Alice B. 8W

"As I am leaving Van Walleghem, I want to be remembered as a student that likes to fool around but is still a good student that was friends with mostly everyone. Even though I know I'm not a “perfect student” I would still like to be remembered as at least a good student." - Fabien E. 8 W.

"I've always been taught by my parents to be a leader and a role model for younger students, being kind and respectful, therefore it would be very meaningful for myself that when I leave Van Walleghem School I will be known as a role model or a leader for others." - Teague M. 8V

"In the future, I aspire to be happy, to be content with my life, to be able to smile even on the darkest days. Yes, I am happy with the life I have now, but I want to do so many things, completing everything off my bucket list. I want to live my life without stress, I don’t care if I’m rich or famous, and I just want to be happy." - Crystena D. 8V

“Being kind is also very important. If you are kind to other people then they will be kind back to you as well as other people. Amelia Earhart said that "A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees." – Luke M 8V

“I believe that my closer friends will remember me as someone that could make them laugh and brighten their day, yet awkward at times, isolated, uncoordinated, a bit goofy, and even arrogant at times. But that the end of the day those that did get to know me and weren't scared off by my largely unique personality whilst attending VW and will remember me as an honest, kind, and funny friend to hang around with.” – Bryden N. 8V

 “I think Van Walleghem is a good school. I have a lot of good memory at this school, so the school's best memories will remain with me and the teacher and friends too. I will continue to think so.” – Yeji L. 8V

“I want my teachers to remember me as a talented student capable of many things if she believes she could do it.” – Moira S. 8W

 “I would like to be remembered for being that kind of person. I’ll try hard to smile at students in younger grades, even if I do not know them, because I know a smile can go a long way.” – Hilary R. 8V

“The following is an excerpt from “A Shot in the Dark”, the biography of Emma M, with kind permission from Penguin Classics © 2030. People’s personalities are often shaped during their years at school. To learn about Emma’s life, we travelled back to her middle school, École Van Walleghem School. When asked about Emma’s recent accomplishment, Ms. Valcourt said she would expect nothing less from her. “If anyone could lead a team of doctors and researchers to Africa, it would be Emma. Frankly, I am not surprised she was able to eradicate polio from Africa with her strength, leadership, and determination.” If there was one piece of advice Emma could give to present and future Van Walleghem students, it is, ”Just do what you love. Whatever your heart tells you to do, no matter how impossible or ridiculous you think it is, will ultimately help you find your way in life.” – Emma M 8W

“I want to be able to look back at my life and be able to say that I did everything that I wanted to do and that I had a happy, fun, exciting and great life.” Tamir M. 8W

“So, where does that leave me…Well, I think I might try to be not only better as a dancer, but as a person. I will be more kind to people who want to see me perform. Who knows, maybe I might up on a big dance competition in the future.” – Matthew R. 8W

Our 'Completely Filled Novel Study' Bulletin Boards

As we are nearing the end of reading The Outsiders (Grade 8s) and The Giver (Grade 7s), all of the students partner work throughout each chapter has been accumulating on our bulletin boards.

Every inch of space has been used up, showing the hard work and effort that the Grade 7 and 8s have accomplished while reading these two reputable novels.

Each chapter, students worked in partners to complete a different task analyzing, representing and discussing important details within the chapter.

See the different tasks in a earlier blog post!

Here is the Grade 7 bulletin board, filled with student work in a in depth examination of The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Here is work showcased from students in 8V and 8V in their thorough study of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

After completing our very last book talk, discussing the last chapters, we watched the movies! In a vote of who enjoyed the book more than the movie, majority of students in Grade 7 and 8 raised there hands- surprise, surprise!!

My hope is that through this unique novel study, students will remember the key themes within both novels, and that they had fun while learning different strategies for successful reading!

Here are some student and parent testimonials about our whole group novel study:

"When you [Ms.Valcourt] first introduced to us the book [The Outsiders], I was not excited to read it because I don't like reading that type of genre, but now after finishing it, I am so happy we read it, I absolutely loved it!"

"I really liked that we worked with a partner to complete the tasks. It helped me think about ideas that I hadn't thought about and it was fun working together to complete the tasks."

"My child has began reading more at home and I owe that to you and what you are doing with your students. Your unique teaching style has been proven to help my child improve in his reading and writing, so thank you immensely."

"I really liked the different tasks we worked on, like the emoji summary and plotting with sound. Instead of just reading the novel and answering questions on a worksheet, I really liked how it was fun doing the tasks, I think I learned more because I was having fun. Also that there was not a lot of homework because we had enough class time to finish it."

February Student Voices Writing

Wow! The students in 8V and 8W sure have taken ownership of their writing! It's a powerful thing writing with a purpose for a specific audience - that being the readers of Van Walleghem's Newsletter!

I would like to congratulate Caitlin and Hezron for being selected to be published in our March edition.

The students were to write a news article about an event at our school, or within our community.

Raise Your Voice
By: Caitlin Marques

“Amazing and outstanding, lovely sound led by a lovely teacher,” said the audience members attending Van Walleghem’s performance at Pembina Trails sings. Van Walleghem’s choirs gathered together this past month to raise their voices, creating beautiful music for everyone to hear! Led by Ms. Ciavarelli, the choirs rose to the occasion and exceeded all expectations! Even for non-music lovers, there’s no denying the magic that happened on that stage! This melodic event, known as Pembina Trails Sings, took place on Wednesday, February 10 from 1:00pm-2:15pm at Westward United Church. An abundance of schools got together to take part in this mellifluous afternoon. Two of Van Walleghem’s spectacular choirs took part in this event, including the grade 3&4 choir and VW’s grade 6 to 8 pop choir! Each choir had a set ready to perform. From a wide variety of song selection including “Carry me Away” as well as classics like “This Old Man”, and even songs in different languages like the song “Canta Conmigo” were performed. The choirs from Van Walleghem were accompanied by the lovely and extremely talented pianist, Ms.Plosz. She really helped to bring out the full sound of the choir and helped to make sure that the choirs’ harmonies were on key during their performance. After the choirs’ rehearsed set, the adjudicator, Dr. Catherine Robins, came up to the stage and not only suggested ways for the choirs to improve their technique, but also gave feedback on each performance and song. Some notes Ms. Robins gave included stretching out and suspending the words, holding the beautiful moments of the piece and making them last longer. This week a fellow choir member and the choirs’ amazing, dedicated director, Mme. Ciavarelli were asked what they thought about their performance at Pembina Trails Sings. “I really liked how at the end of the performance a person adjudicates you and then tells you some tips you can get better with,” says one of the fellow 6-8 choir members,“ I think our choir did extremely awesome; we all sang in good harmony!” Megan H, later on tells us that this was her second and final year attending Pembina Trails Sings as a Van Walleghem student; however, she looks forward to hopefully attending Pembina Trails Sings at other high schools in the future! Overall the performances were said to be a big success! Each choir put everything into their performance and should be applauded for everything that they’ve accomplished. These exemplary students showcased how hard work, practicing week after week, can lead up to something undeniably spectacular! It’s astonishing that children of such young ages are able to create something so touching and everlasting!

The Voyage to Festival Du Voyageur!
By Hezron Y. (8W)

On February 16 Grade 8V and 8W had a cultural celebration/ goodbye party for an international student in 8V who was at our school for 2 months, before returning back to Korea. We went snowshoeing, tobogganing and made La tire, which was amazingly fun and super easy to make because they were made from snow and maple syrup. Also, it was extremely delicious, very original and quite different than what I usually eat. On February 19, 2016 was our school's Festival du Voyageur, Grades K-6 did activities such as dancing, dressed up as a voyageurs, got traditional food and ate it and played voyageur music. In the afternoon, all the pumped up kids and the teachers went to the school's gym for an assembly for a spectacular performance about Festival du Voyageur with a real voyager named Tibert, The Voyageur. He showed how a voyageur's life style was like what their job was, how they spent time in their life. My opinion on the Festival du Voyageur is that it was a pleasant and fantastic experience for the kids and young adults in Van Wallegham. Henry from 8V says: “I would give it a 10.0 because it was a good idea to do Festival du Voyageur in our school, a performance, and cultural celebration goodbye party, in one week and in that one week, was spectacular experience for all children and it was super fun and exciting.” Adonai from 6M says:” I would rate it a 8.0 because I feel like they should add more outdoor activities because voyageurs were usually outdoors, so why not have outdoor activities! All in all, everything part of the Festival du Voyageur was excellent and amazing!” And my thoughts are that I would rate it a 9.5 because the one thing I liked that was the assembly. Last year, they would of talk about Festival du Voyageur, but this year we had a performance. I wished that the 7’s and 8’s would have participated in the school’s Festival du Voyageur afternoon activities, not only our cultural celebration party and the assembly. In conclusion, I think that this was an important event to the Van Wallegham students because it's good to know about a part of Manitoba’s culture.

January Student Voices Writing

Students in 8V and 8W will work on a new writing piece to be published in Van Walleghem’s monthly newsletter. The selected writing pieces will be showcased in the newsletter and here, on our blog to give our VW Newsletter readers a chance to read about current topics from the student perspective and to highlight the excellent writing from our grade 8s.

This month, students reflected on the results from the Tell Them From Me survey. Please enjoy our first published Student Voices writing, written by Ryan Stewart in 8W and Alicia Rose in 8V.

To see the results follow the link and open January 2016 Newsletter: http://www.pembinatrails.ca/vanwalleghem/enews2.htm

Dear parents and students,

The last Van Walleghem newsletter featured the results from the Tell Them From me survey. Our class was tasked with taking one of the results and talking about it. I decided not to do a result I decided to voice my opinion about the surveys. I personally think that the results are not very accurate and should be taken with a grain of salt.

            First off, our school has many E.A.L. students (English as an Additional Language learners). In total, we have 60 sponsored E.A.L. students which means they’re in their first four years learning English. The questions on the survey are not exactly the easiest questions. If an E.A.L. student doesn't understand the question they could answer inaccurately. Therefore, throwing off the results.

Secondly, Students are told that this survey is anonymous. The survey can only be tracked to a specific class not to a student. So some students could possibly just rush through it because it is a pretty long survey, 25-45 minutes. Also, I think some students could lie to make the school seem really good or really bad.

Lastly, the results are put up against the Canadian average. It would be better if the results were compared to the provincial average or the city average. Each province has a different curriculum and uses different textbooks to explain information so the Canadian average would be way different from then a provincial or city average.

I believe that school should offer the Tell Them From me Survey in multiple languages. It would be beneficial to give the school student specific codes so that the school can track which students lie. Also, put the results up against the provincial or city average to make the averages more relevant.

Sincerely,

Ryan S. 8W

Have you ever thought about if children in today’s world or in our modern society have any real stress? Well, most people think that us students have it easy compared to the adults in our lives. All we have to do is get good grades and be in a safe social environment. But in today’s Ècole Van Walleghem School, many students in grades 6 and 8 have high levels of anxiety well above the Canadian norm. After some research, I have found out why is it so.

Here in Linden Woods, many parents have high paying jobs and belong to higher economic status, thus, a lot of them want their children to go to private schools like St. Mary’s and St. Paul’s instead of public schools like Grand Park, Shaftsbury, and others. To be accepted into these private schools one needs to take an exam and fulfill other requirements. These expectations put additional stress on students.

Private schools tend to be perceived to have a higher standard than public schools. The latter on the other hand, I think, are not as strict on how student’s grades should be, though I can be wrong. I believe that students in both private and public schools carry the same worry, thoughts like:  “Will I be able to maintain high grades and be successful in life?”, “What will my parents think if I don’t keep up to all their expectations?”, “What will people think of me if I score low on a test?”, and many other situations on how grades will affect their social reputation.

Many students will not be attending the same schools as their peers once they go to high school, in return, this may bring more concern to a lot of them. Some students may find it hard to make new friends especially if they only had one group of friends their whole grade school life. 

Based on some research and real life observations, I find that as you get older, it becomes a bit harder to make new friends because social groups get closer and more established as one gets older.  Some people will find it hard to make friends if everyone has already have established peers of their own.

In conclusion, whether people realize it or not students our age actually do have a lot of stress and things that we worry about. The people in our lives expect a lot from us and it is understandable and somewhat expected. But even with today’s modern technology, which is supposed to make things in life easier for us, life can still be tough. Some of these problems may have been experienced by most of us, including our parents/guardians/mentors, no matter what generation we are in. Most of us still face the same issues when it comes to high schools, grades, peer pressure, and the longing to be accepted and to belong.

By Alicia R., 8V

A special congratulations to Ryan & Alicia for submitting excellent writing that demonstrates unique and interesting "out of the box" thinking, a strong voice and powerful writing piece directed towards parents, friends and family as our audience.

A shout out to all of my wonderful students in 8V and 8W for making this selection very difficult, as choosing only 2 writing pieces to showcase was a challenge as many students submitted EXCELLENT writing! Please stay tuned for next month's Student Voices Writing!!

Novel Studies!

We've been SO busy in Grade 7 and 8 E.L.A. that I haven't had a chance to catch you up with what we have been doing! Maybe you have heard a little from your child, but I'll give you more details in case you got the same old "middle schooler" answer to what did you do in school today... "nothing".

Well we certainly have not been up to nothing!

In Grade 8, we have started our whole group novel study on... *drum roll please* THE OUTSIDERS!
So far we have read up to chapter 3.

In Grade 7, we have started our whole group novel study on... *drum roll please* THE GIVER!
So far we have read up to chapter 4.

We have a unique structure to our whole group novel studies and here it is...

First, I read one chapter at a time, out loud to the students. They follow along and we have mini discussions throughout and after. I model many CAFE reading strategies for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary.

Then the students work in partners on their task for each particular chapter. Each group works on a different task! All of the tasks are guided towards different multiple intelligence's and have proven to be super engaging. When I tell the students which task they get for each chapter, there are often many cheers for which task they get!!! Who would have thought ?!

The students have only 1 class to complete each task.

The following day we do a BOOK TALK! Each group presents what they worked on for that chapter and have many interesting conversations that relate to what we have read and the work we have done. 

All of the work that is able to be posted onto the bulletin board, gets posted for an amazing visual!!! 

Check them out:

Overall, I am super proud of each class as the work that they are submitting is of great quality, they are working excellently with their partners and we are really having fun everyday!