As of Monday, May 25 there are only 19(!) days left before exam week. That’s pretty crazy. It’s also the time of year when nights become long, temperatures become higher, and the desire to do school work drops like a stone in a like. However, considering the short amount of time left to procrastinate, it’s important to stay on top of things. With all that being said, here is an important update with some pretty important information about what’s going on in class.

First, Progress Report #2 was distributed to students on Friday. Didn’t get one? Get in touch with me and I will get you a copy. This is the final progress report before report cards are prepared. That being said, I will endeavour to provide periodic mark updates on a weekly basis.

Second, Final Culminating Tasks and Final Exam season is upon us. That means it is vital to ensure any outstanding work is completed and submitted for assessment and evaluation. If you have questions about assignments please see me and we can discuss issues.

Finally, here’s some specific class information, including copies of culminating tasks:

AVI3O Grade 11 Visual Art:
Students will spend the remainder of the semester working on their culminating projects. This assignments involves created a minimum of four pieces that centre around a main theme or idea. Students must use a minimum of two types of visual arts. Artist’s statements and personal reflections are also an integral part of the assignment.

Here’s a copy of the Culminating Assignment:

Download (DOCX, 194KB)

ENG1D Grade 9 English:
The class will wind the drama unit down in the next few days as “The Merchant of Venice” comes to a close. Students have worked hard making meaning of the play and now we will turn our attention to understanding emotion and staging.
A final course project based on Media Studies will be presented to students next week.

NBV3E Grade 11 Aboriginal Beliefs & Values:
We are almost done “The Rez Sisters” play, which as I suspected, was a hit with the class. Props to those students who literally beg me to continue the play every day. Students have been volunteering to read various roles and the script has allowed us to talk about some serious issues. Following the completion of “The Rez Sisters” this week I will be providing students with copies of their Culminating Assignment. If we have time, we will also endeavour to read Tomson Highway’s companion to “The Rez Sisters”, called “Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing”.

Here’s a copy of the Culminating Assignment:

Download (DOCX, 52KB)

Hello, ENG1D – Grade 9 English students! Here is the complete “Merchant of Venice” scene summary note. You are responsible for reading and studying this note as this information will come up in future quizzes, the test….and perhaps even the exam.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Download (PDF, 283KB)

Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” focuses on the theme of racism, primarily between Jewish people and Christians. Students were interested that racial profiling and stereotypes continue to exist in the same way as they did 600 years ago. This prompted a discussion of how humanity can sometimes cruelly work to eliminate other races and cultures. To build an understanding of historical atrocities I had the ENG1D Grade 9 English students research genocide events. Students had to create a brief summary of the event and then make it shareable. Here are some samples.

First Nations in Canada – Danny Barrett & Jacques Lafrance

Sudan Genocide – Devin Turgeon

Cambodian Genocide – Hannah Onnis & Madisyn Hardy

The Ukraine Famine – Ryan Schram

Rwandan Crisis – Riley Parent & Brookelyn Abraham

Cambodian Genocide – Carter Garvie

Sudan Crisis – Markus Luomala

Rwanda Crisis – Devon Couch & Ben Mannisto