Hello, ENG1D – Grade 9 students! As we start Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, I want to turn your attention to a some resources that will probably make your life easier:

SparkNotes – “The Merchant of Venice” – This website has summaries, character information, and explanations of themes. This resource will help explain things that sometimes don’t make sense to first-time Shakespeare readers.

 No Fear Shakespeare – “Merchant of Venice” – This website creates a side-by-side of the original text of the play with a modern translation. If you’re having trouble understanding some of the words and language, this site will help.

Shmoop – “Merchant of Venice” – This site is similar to SparkNotes and has all kinds of information about the play, including references to allusions and language. Use it!

I have flowers in my yard, the sun is shining, and my barbeque is heating up. It’s finally (legitimately) Spring in Greenstone. All but the last bits of snow have disappeared. It’s a happy time. That also means we’re nearing the end of the semester. Therefore, this week we will begin our last full units in the English classes while Aboriginal Beliefs and Values moves through two short units before beginning their course culminating project.

ENG1D Grade 9 English students will begin Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice” this week. The unit involves reading out loud in class while analyzing the characters, plot events, conflicts and themes of the play. It will be challenging for some, but interesting for others. I’m looking forward to it!

ENG4C Grade 12 English students will begin George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 this week, which is topical given all the recent news about government spying, privacy laws, and the use of technology in our lives. The novel can be difficult to navigate so we will spend time going over the vocabulary, themes, and events within the story.

NBV3E Grade 11 Aboriginal Values students will complete the course’s final two units in the next few weeks. These include a look at Aboriginal Sovereignty, followed by Identifying and Overcoming Challenges.

Once again, a friendly reminder to make sure to see me if you need assistance with any assignments. Enjoy the week!

As part of Growing Success, I am using Learning Goals, Success Criteria, Peer Review, and Descriptive Feedback with my students. Today, grade 9s began peer reviewing rough copy argumentative essays. This started out with the class co-constructing success criteria. Here’s what we came up with:

Students then discussed the essays with their peers. I overhead some great comments:

• “Where is your evidence?”
• “You probably don’t even need these sentences.”
• “Dude, you need to review how to use a comma.”
• “This is really cool!”

I am proud that my students were able to use the success criteria from the original assignment plus today’s success criteria to have productive conversations. Next step: use the feedback to create a revised copy.

Thanks, Grade 9s!