Global Read Aloud - this week we kick it off!

On Tuesday we kick off our global project - here is the rough plan!

Snapshot from today - my desk

A view from my desk - exit tickets, peer response notes, anonymous summaries to be read by fellow students and name sticks for a no-hands-up classroom.

Change your words - change your mindset

Someone made an interesting share in our English group on Facebook and it was a photo from a classroom somewhere in the world. In the photo there was a kind of poster with the following headline: Change your words - Change your mindset and some examples of how you can think differently. A great reminder of how we need to get our students to think more positively about themselves and also how to try to make their mindsets grow and change with time and experience. I made my own version in Canva and I'm going to put these up in the classroom. I think we can all learn from these examples...

One book to connect the world - here are our connections for the Global Read Aloud 2015

Soon our project will start and I'm really excited about it - hopefully all my students will be too! I made a map of our connections and we are indeed connecting across the globe!

Argumentative/persuasive speech - year 9

Next week we will be starting a one-week theme of argumentative speech. On the first lesson you will get to settle on a topic, do some research, write down some ideas and then you should prepare to give a speech on the following lesson. The speech will be recorded on your computer in a private setting and sent to me for assessment - if everything works out well we will also listen to a few speeches together and give feedback on them. Here's a little intro for next week: 

You can find the plan here
+ a video illustrating ethos, pathos and logos here:

This is what I'm reading now

 

On my way to Stockholm today and this is what I'll be reading on my way up!! Can't wait! #GRAFish

Hope you have a great weekend!

I read therefore I am! - year 8

Here's the link to the new theme: I read therefore I am

For Tuesday - year 9

For Tuesday I want you to be able to choose between writing a poem (any kind of structure ) about one of the following photos - focusing on the current migrant crisis in Europe. Try to find your own unique perspective and imagine that you are a person, on either the boat, or the fence.  What are you thinking? What are you leaving behind? What kind of future are you imagining? Try to put yourself in someone else's shoes....

Photo credit: Massimo Sestini/eyevine

Photo credit: Jose Palazon/Reuters

OR make your own blackout poem - I'll explain more about this when we meet:

Against all odds - bringing the current world into the classroom

Part of Europe is on fire, not literally, but metaphorically. Hundreds of thousands of people of all ages are escaping e.g. Syria for a better life in a country not affected and torn apart by war, terror and internal struggles. Some of those people end up here in Sweden, a few of them become my students and their struggles to get here are heartbreaking, to say the least. No one should ever have to go through what they have had to endure. During the last few days there have been numerous awful photos in the media of people sacrificing their lives for basic human rights, such as waking up each day and not fearing for your life. Most of my students live in a different world, and although some of them are aware of what's happening, it's my responsibility to enlighten them further. Next week the original preliminary plan goes out the window and in goes knowledge about what life as a refugee could be like, what the situation in the world is like now as I write this. I probably will use some of the following sources:

UNHCR's educational game "Against all odds".

The Boat - graphic story

Migrant Crisis - article from BBC

EU Migrant Crisis - article from the Telegraph

Ten moving photos of Europe's migrant crisis

Professor Hans Rosling explains the Syrian refugee situation:

Snapshots from today - blackout poetry and peer response

There is a Blackout Poetry contest on its way at school, here are some of the students' contributions....

The students in year 9 have handed in their summaries (of short stories). I made the summaries anonymous, added a number to each text and sat the students in groups. In groups of four they read through the summaries, kept a protocol where they also commented on the quality of each summary. Afterwards, one student said "this was such a great assignment!" I totally agreed - they took great responsibility, cooperated well and learned a lot.