Dear Parents,
This week, every student was added to our Duolingo classes, and a wonderfully healthy competition has begun. Parents, feel free to cheer your child on to earn weekly XPs… or even join the race yourselves!
G7 analysed blogs and practised reading strategies, discovering a key metacognitive insight: we don’t need to know every single word to understand a text. Spotting a few key words and skimming are powerful tools, and part of our Communication ATLs. Next week, we will start writing what we would include in our own blogs to describe ourselves.
G8 decided our pace was too slow (mind blown!), so we accelerated while still checking for deep understanding. We worked on sentence building to connect who we are, the world around us, and the texts we read – our criterion B, strand iii. More of this next week, along with a formal formative to reassure ourselves that yes, we can do this under exam conditions… and yes, a first summative will appear at some point (more on that in the coming days!
G9 practised reading as planned and also learned speaking techniques to describe pictures. The routine “I see, I think, I wonder” worked wonders indeed. Next week, they will try a formal formative to feel ready for their first summative task coming up in a couple of weeks and know what to expect from that beast 😉 Only kidding, reassure them that what matters is their learning, more than their assessments!
G10 built on their vocabulary lists and began shaping full sentence structures. Our concepts and contexts are deep and deserve thoughtful attention. Next week, they will practise with a formative task, very similar to the Criterion B summative they will tackle in two weeks.
DP wrapped up their first unit with self and peer assessment on their Paper 1 task. They found real value in comparing and contrasting their work with that of their peers. Next week, we’ll take our first careful look at their Individual Oral… huuuh, scary but exciting!
A week of bravery, brainpower and just enough fun to remain engaged.
Warm wishes,
Miss J