Hi Everyone, hope you all did well on the midterm and hope you are all doing well handling the term this far in!
I'm not sure exactly what to write about since we had our midterm last class and we are talking about the assessment chapter next class. (Oops I accidentally posted my comments on assessment on this blog before the class blog :)

The production of Hana's Suitcase will be at the Citadel from Nov3-15 the evening shows start at 7:30 and matinees at 1:30, and the show is 90minutes long. I believe students are half price (if not then there is for sure a student rate) The info is on the website:
http://www.citadeltheatre.com/index.php
What a great way to interest students, that would be my favourite field trip by far. I remember going to the production of Hamlet, and To Kill A Mockingbird in High school and that is something I'll never forget.

I've been delving a little deeper into fan fiction, and while I 'm sure I could explore further I am beginning to see the potential for it's use in the classroom. I confess when I first heard of fan fiction I was wary and nervous. The truth is that there are a number of great writers on the site and what a great way to get children to write, on something that interests them. I'm looking forward to the discussions and sharing in class. it reminds me of something that Rosanne brought up with her journals entries in how students wrote in their own style or on a topic that interested them. As a teacher you need to ensure that you have enough background knowledge while assessing these. There are some Fan Fictions that I have no idea if they are true/consistent or not since I do not know the real story it is based on.

The mini unit we have to prepare is going to be a useful project I think. there are so many different and fun writing activities that you can do in a class if you just think about it. for example Cayley's IPT teacher's idea with the wrapped present.
Writing can be pretty powerful. While I was at my school for my IPT there was a new student who came to the classroom I was in. It was neat to see his excitement at reading the welcoming letters/stories that the class had written for him. Another one of the writing activities that we were working on throughout the year was that we would make a "Hug Book" for each of the students in the class. A student would be chosen for the day that we would be writing (usually the special helper, and every student had a turn) and the class would write whatever positive comment they wanted about that student. suggestions were given such as, What I like to play with..., He/She is a good friend because..., and so on. the class would also illustrate the page and the pages would be complied into a Hugbook for each child.
In another case there was a story read that was "If I was a Dinosaur" and the children wrote their own stories of what they would do as a Dinosaur. The stories were super creative and fun to read.

That's all I can think of for now, I'll try to write more and more constructive comments next time.