Happy Holidays

Well, it's that time of year again!
We had some very successful potlucks, so thank you so much to everyone who contributed.
It's been an honor to work with you all this semester and I look forward to what the new year brings!
Enjoy your holidays and we will see you on Jan 9th!

How Effectively Does Canada's Federal Political System Govern Canada for all Canadians?

This past week we have been working on Chapter 1 questions for the textbook. We have also been looking at the creation and passing of bills withing our political system.

Some key terms we looked at are:

Executive Branch
Legislative Branch
Judicial Branch
Constitution
Member of Parliament
House of Commons
Senate
Governor General
Lobbyist
Media

We have also been going through the process of bill making by using Bill on the Hill.
Feel free to use that as a refresher and study tool for the PAT.

Short Story Writing

Happy Monday,

Today we are going to start our short story writing.

Students are writing short stories.
Today they begin by planning their stories by filling out their own plot diagram. They will need to include this when they hand in their story.

Their story will need to include literary devices such as foreshadow, personification, onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, idiom and irony.

Story Writing Starters:
https://mycuprunsover.ca/100-writing-prompts-story-starters/

Literary Devices (and definitions):
https://literary-devices.com/

See previous post for plot diagram example:
https://9192humanitiesernestmorrow.blogspot.com/2019/10/plot-diagrams.html

Stories are due on Thursday November 21st.
They need to  be handed in either in hard copy or shared with me at sacathcart@educbe.ca

As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to email me.

The Veldt Comprehension Questions

These are the comprehension questions due on Monday. Please make sure you use quotes from your story to back up your answers.

The Veldt Comprehension Questions

Please write your answers in complete sentences.

1. How would you describe each of the four main characters?
   George:
   
   
   Lydia:
   
   
   Peter:
   
   
   Wendy:
   
   
2. Why didn’t the nursery respond to Mr. Hadley’s request for Aladdin and his lamp?
   
   
   
   
   
3. Why did Mr. and Mrs. Hadley call a psychologist, even though they had the power to turn off the nursery?
   
   
   
   
4. Why did Mrs. Hadley ask her husband to let the kids have the nursery on for one last time?
   
   
   
   
5. This story can be considered a classic Gothic Horror story (which typically portrays “sick” houses or families). What clues does Bradbury give his reader that something bad is going to happen in the nursery?
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Has technology helped or hindered the families relationships? Explain your answer.
   
   
   
   
   
7. What happens at the end of the story? Was it an accident? How do you know?
   
   
   
   
   
8. “The Veldt” was published in 1951. It is a view of what Bradbury predicted life and technology would be like around the year 2000.
   a. Is this an accurate view? Why or why not?
   
   b. What predictions are correct?
   
   
   c. What predictions are not correct?
   
   
9. What message is Bradbury trying to send his readers about technology?
   
   
   
   
   
   

Short Story #2

We will be working on The Veldt as our second short story in this unit- continuing to work on plot diagrams and reading comprehension as we go.

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury is a story that takes place in "the future" and looks at technology and the potential and consequences of using it in our everyday lives.

We will be working on this short story for some of next week, and then students will be using their knowledge of the plot diagram to write their own short stories in the next few weeks.

The Veldt

Short Story:
https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/163728/The%20Veldt%20-%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdf?sequence=1

Music Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvtNS6hbVy4

Audio of the Short Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJAKjpb2eOs&t=1s

Funny Poe

Annotating

Annotating simply means to take notes within a text. An interaction if you will with the text.
This is an important skill that students can utilize as they move forward with this year as well as English, Social, Science and Math classes moving forward in their schooling careers.

Here is a video with different annotating techniques:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Mz4nwciWc&t=273s

Remember that you do not need to use these exact ways of annotating, but you are required to annotate! So find a way that works best for you and practice it as we move forward with our short stories and beyond!

Plot Diagrams

We have been working on Plot Diagrams in class already!
Collectively we looked at For the Birds - a short Pixar film and filled out a plot diagram together.

Short Stories

In wrapping up our Political Party unit with the student vote, we are moving into our next unit- one for which I am very excited!

We will be working on Short Stories!

What is a short story you ask? Is it more that just a story that is short? That is one of the questions we will be asking and many more as we explore the wonderful world of story.

We will be looking into why story is important, who can tell stories, who is responsible for telling stories, why stories are told, their value and what we can learn from them.

As one of my favorite actors once quoted: “It’s a human need to be told stories. The more [we] have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.”
― Alan Rickman
We will be working on comprehending, examining, questioning and annotating as we read through short stories.

Plot diagrams will be used in order to understand the structure of short stories- we will be using this organization method to understand the stories we read and organize the stories we will write.



Happy reading and writing!

Welcome Back

WELCOME BACK!

I hope you all had a marvelous Fall Break and that you got some much needed rest!

Student Election Vote

The votes are in! The student voices of Ernest Morrow have been cast- and the winner is:
The NDP party!

Congratulations to all of the grade 9 political parties- you worked and campaigned hard and you took on such a challenging project right from the get go! Your hard work does not go unnoticed.




This was an intensive project and looked at multiple stems including:
Develops processes for inquiry and research
Manages and evaluates ideas and information
Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of citizenship and identity
Represents ideas and creates understanding through a variety of media
Communicates ideas ain an informed and persuasive manner

Fall Break

Good morning! 

Today is the last day of classes before Fall Break. It is a half day, so students are finished at 12:15.

Conferences are happening today and tomorrow- please sign up on Power School.

Thursday:

1-4 and 5-8

Friday:

10-2

We come back from Fall Break on Monday Oct 21, 2019- regular school times.

I hope you all have a marvelous Thanksgiving and Fall Break and I look forward to seeing you when we return.

Thank you,

-Miss Cathcart

Book Talk Assignment

Here is the Book Talk Assignment:

Book Talk

Remember, the first round of Book Talks will be held in November.
A calendar will be printed and sign up will begin when we get back from break on Oct 21, 2019.

Truth and Reconciliation

With September 30th being Orange Shirt Day, we have been looking into Truth and Reconciliation and what that means.
The writing prompt for the week combines a mix of our political unit and a reflection on what Truth and Reconciliation is and what it could be:

If you and your political party won the Canadian election, how would you move forward with Truth and Reconciliation?
Write a minimum 2 paragraph reflection.

Note Taking

We spent some time this week looking at how to take notes properly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Wgu6-d2Pc

Taking notes is a different process for each person, so we looked at different ways that students can take notes that will work for them.

Posters, Flyers and Ads! Oh My!

We are continuing on with our political unit.
Over the last week we looked at the different levels of government and what they look after in our country.
Here are some of the sources we looked at in class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C8uDuhLqvg
Power Point Student Vote

Next week we will be building campaign posters and flyers in order to campaign during our last week before Fall Break.

Great Resource

One of the resources we are using in class for gathering information about the political parties is:
pollenize.org/canada 
It has up to date information for parties running during the 2019 Federal election and has condensed it into neatly organized sections.
Feel free to browse at your leisure.

-Miss Cathcart

Political Definitions

Economy: The wealth and resources of a country or region, particularly  in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.

Budget: A financial plan or forecast that shows a breakdown of money to be received and  money to be spent for a specific period. The Federal government releases an annual budget every spring

Balanced Budget: When the amount of revenue equals the amount of expenses

Deficit: When  the government has more expenses than revenues, and must borrow money to cover the gap

Debt: The amount of money borrowed over time that the government needs to repay

Taxes: The federal government collects money from different sources to pay for its expenses. There are 4 main types of taxes:
Personal Tax: Money collected from individuals based on the money they make from jobs and investments
Corporate Tax: Money collected from business, which is calculate  based on their profits
Goods and Services Tax (GST): Added to the cost of purchases and good, such as clothing and fast food ect
Other Taxes: Variety of other taxes such as import duties, fuel taxes and duties on alcohol and tobacco

Transfer Payments: Part of the federal government's spending relates to transfers made to individuals, provincial/territorial governments and other groups

Transfers to Individuals: Includes elderly benefits, employment insurance benefits (for those out of work or unable to work) and children benefits

Provincial/Territorial Transfers: There are 3 main types of transfers to the provinces and territories
Canada Health Transfer: Provides long term funding for health programs and services
Canada Social Transfer: Includes funding for post-secondary education, social programs and services for services for children such as child care
Equalization Programs: Relate to payments to address economic gaps between provinces/territories

Infrastructure: Physical and organizational structures, such as buildings, roads, power supplies

Crown Corporations: Businesses owned by the government that operate independent of government, such as the CBC, Canada Post and Via Rail. They are intended to serve a particular objective or fill a need that may not be filled by a private enterprise

Equality: A strategy to achieve fairness by treating everyone the same and providing equal opportunity

Equity: A strategy to achieve fairness by recognizing differences and providing everyone what they need to be successful

Reform: Changes made to a social, political, or economic institution or practice in order to improve it

*All of this is from Handout 9.2 Key Political Terms and Concepts at the Federal Level- Student Vote Canada 2019 page 63

Friday Activities

This Friday we have some fun things planned!

There will be a pancake breakfast held in the front parking lot of the school from 7:30 until 9:30, at which point we will have the wonderful opportunity to see Alvin Law! For anyone who has not seen him, it's something you won't want to miss.

Here's a bit about Alvin Law:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp5ju7_2uDM&t=287s

Parents/Guardians are welcome to join their kids in the presentation. It will go until about 11:30.

Students will be with their home rooms until Friday dismissal time at 12:15.

Hope to see you there!

-Miss Cathcart

Political Party Platforms

Here is the link for the Political Party Platform Powerpoint.

The Powerpoint has bullet notes about each party and what their platform was for the 2015 federal election.

For a more in depth look, follow this link.

Students have taken notes on the political platforms. They will be researching the top 3 things that they think their party should promote for the platform that students will be writing.

Students political platforms will be due by the end of this week. We will be working on them for the remainder of the week.

Step 1: Go to the blog- 9192humanitiesernestmorrow.blogspot.com

Step 2: Click on the link that says “link”

Step 3: Scroll until you find your political party

Step 4: Click on the PDF link for your political party

Step 5: Go to the table of contents (where the pages are listed)

Step 6: Find the page number that matches the 3 values you picked yesterday

You picked 3 values from your political party to talk about in your platform paragraph

Step 7: Find the page that talks about one of your values

Step 8: Read it

Step 9: Pick what parts of it are important 

Step 10: Write those down in point form

Step 11: Repeat for all 3 values you have picked

Step 12: Use the notes you took + the research to write your political platform paragraph

Example:

Hi, my name is Miss Cathcart. I believe in the Green Party and what they can do for Canada. The Green Party promises to roll out a sustainable job plan, promote the arts and protect the Canada Post.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to email or call.

Here's to a good week!

-Miss Cathcart

Weekly Update

Good afternoon,

This week we have been working on paragraph writing with current events. 

We watched part of this video to get a brainstorm of what a good and detailed paragraph should entail and made notes in our journals as we went along. 

We also worked on creating and designing logos and slogans for our political parties. Students were tasked with creating an effective logo design and a memorable slogan that will represent their political party during our school campaign. 

https://www.colinbennett.ca/parties-and-privacy/federal-political-parties-and-privacy-protection/

Welcome Back

Welcome  back everyone!
I hope you all had wonderful summers and are refreshed and ready for the new school year.
I have the wonderful pleasure of teaching 9-1 and 9-2 this year at Ernest Morrow, and it's going to be a year that is full of learning, preparing for the PAT's, group projects, and essay writing, all while still having some fun.



This year will bring some challenges of course, but that is how we grow as learners and as humans- which is ultimately the point.
This blog will be a weekly update of what is going on in our classes, what we are learning and working on in class as well as a space to get work that you need if you have to miss class.
A few expectations for this school year:
There will be some homework in this class- we will have time to work on all assignments in class, but if  assignments are not finished withing that time frame, it will become homework.
Cell phones/headphones are expected to stay in your locker- unless otherwise asked by me (sometimes we will play Kahoot or need them for research purposes).
Please come to class prepared to learn- bring what you need for our class- pencil, binder, work, water bottle ect.
Come prepared to ask questions and build your understanding on the subjects at hand- no one is expected to have all the answers, but you are expected to participate in class conversation and contribute to our learning space.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email at sacathcart@cbe.ab.ca

I'm looking forward to this year, and I hope you are too!

Miss Cathcart