Secondary English
Burn the witches
Grade 10 English students have started their first drama unit of IGCSE with The Crucible. Set in Salem and heavily inspired by the Salem witch hunt, the play explores the effects of mass hysteria. A play is written to be performed and that's exactly what we do in our...
G12…the outsiders of ABIS
For our final text in Grade 12, we are reading Camus' The Outsider, a brilliantly depressing book to finish off 12 years of education. If you haven't read it and you're looking for something to make you feel like life is meaningless, then this is the book for you....
We Need Your Puzzles!
The Secondary Library has a new feature: The Secondary Puzzle! So far our students have completed two puzzles, which make great brain breaks during a long day of learning and provide super teamwork opportunities. The only problem is that we've run out of puzzles, so...
Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry
Grade 11 students are doing a great job in breaking down and analyzing poetry by Carol Ann Duffy. They first do this in groups and then discuss as a whole class. The discussions are mostly student lead, and I only step in to steer them in the right direction if needed.
Urban decay in 1984
As we read 1984 in class, we are recognizing the most important element of a totalitarian dystopian society - control - and how this control is causing urban decay, both literally and figuratively. Students made min maps and finding examples from the class and...
You should read this book because . . .
Grade 7/8 language acquisition class has finished their second book reading challenge. This week, students talked about their book, most and least favorite characters and reviewed their books. Here are the books they chose:
Big Brother is Watching You
Grade 9 English students have started their study of the novel "1984". Before focusing on the novel, we learned about the socio/political context of the time and biography of Orwell that influenced his writing. As well, we learned about totalitarian government and...
How do presidents make important decisions?
Being the leader of a country is not an easy job, especially if the world around you is at war and your country has just been attacked. What information does a president need to give the command to launch atomic bombs? What moral obligations does he/she have before...
G10 tackles poetry
For our final exam text, we are finishing off our study of poetry, focusing on war and nature poems. Of course, since poetry is poetry, it's also all about love and death. What else would you write a poem about? Or, in the parlance of today's teens.... "Because,...
Secondary English – week 16
DP Language and Literature students have started a new unit on language of campaigns. We studied a few Dove campaigns and analysed why some worked while others did not. MTV Switch campaigns were used to learn and practise analysing camera angles, images, lighting,...
English in week 15
DP HL students wrapped up a unit filled with fun and comedy as we examined language and laughter. We enjoyed examining and analyzing various comedians such as Trevor Noah, Michale McIntyre, Will Ferrell, Nicky Gervais, etc. Grade 7/8 Language acquisition class wrapped...
English in grades 7, 8, 9 and 11
Grade 11 has started the HL part of the course. While the SL students are excused from the classes to use their time focusing on other HL subjects, English HL students have become familiar with the requirements of written task 2. Grade 9 has taken a break from...
Romeo and Juliet: Live and in person!
As a way of celebrating an end to our Romeo and Juliet unit (and for the teacher's entertainment!), students worked in groups to perform a scene from the play. They had to select a scene that was significant in terms of character development, since in addition to...
English during week 8
Grade 7 Language Acquisition class wrapped up their first unit on different cultures around the world along with learning about coordinating conjunctions. Grade 9 continues with their analysis of Carol Ann Duffy's poetry. The students were able to relate more to the...
Digging into Duffy!
Grade 12 HL English students are nearing the end of their study of Carol Ann Duffy, England's poet laureate. As we finish this we'll start to get ready for the IOC examination, which the students should feel totally confident about because their poetry analysis skills...
Week 7 in English
Grade 11: We have started looking at stereotypes as part of our media and mass communication studies and had some passionate conversations about the idea of feminism and gender stereotyping. Grade 9: Writing, writing and more writing! All this because we focused on...
Learning about greasers and socs
Grade 7/8 Lang/Lit has been studying the characters from our first class novel, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. After reading a chapter in small groups, the students got into pairs and trios to do an in-depth study of the main characters. We started presenting the...
Book Week in Secondary
We had a great Book Week this year! With a Neverending Story making its rounds in English class (ask your kids about it...it ended poorly with ramen is all I'll say!), some window questions inspiring reading all week, and a final competitive Book Week Quiz today we...
ABIS Book Week!
Next week is Book Week, from Sept. 23rd to 27th! Our theme is "One World, Many Stories." We've got loads of great activities planned throughout the week, including a Book Character Costume Parade on Thursday morning. Students should have a book with them at all times...
Winter Musical Auditions!
We've got a great show planned for this year, even bigger and better than last year, so be sure to sign up for auditions in the music area of LC3! Anyone in grades 5 - 12 is welcome! Auditions will take place after school on Monday, Sept. 10th!