There are many possibilities. I'm posting this one here for now and will add more later!
http://fc.gsacrd.ab.ca/~neil_korotash/FOV2-00060E9C/S01CEF57C-01CEF57C.3/Biology%2020%20Review%20Questions0.pdf
Monday, April 10, 2017
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Short stories and more--with assignments
I was looking for some short stories and ended up coming across this page:
http://myriverside.sd43.bc.ca/sthomasen/
She has short stories and more, with assignments, for different grades. Don't let the specific grade levels distract you: just because one teacher uses something in grade 9 doesn't mean it can't be used in grade 11 or vice versa.
http://myriverside.sd43.bc.ca/sthomasen/
She has short stories and more, with assignments, for different grades. Don't let the specific grade levels distract you: just because one teacher uses something in grade 9 doesn't mean it can't be used in grade 11 or vice versa.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Phys. Ed .: Fitness Tests
Do you remember the fitness tests way back when? If you were in school in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, we had the Canada Fitness Test. You got a coloured badge based on your fitness level. You had to do standing jumps and distance running and sit ups and I can't remember what else. (I think I once managed to get a Silver. Always got Bronze. :( Gold wasn't the highest you could get!)
In thinking about my son's general physical activity level and fitness level, I've decided to do a fitness test at the start of the year as a benchmark. He's supposed to be setting goals as part of the phys. ed. course (which is actually a really good thing, in my opinion), but I'm not sure how he's supposed to set goals if he doesn't know what he's starting out at.
So, I've done a little research online and found some tests that I'm sharing here. Not sure just yet which one I'll use. If you want to test your teen's fitness level, too, and maybe your own ;), here are some to check out:
IFA Fitness Test: a limited mix of tests and benchmarks for various ages, for both men and women. Some of the tests do not have teen benchmarks.
Youth Fitness Test Norms: Has benchmarks for kids and teens for distance run, push-ups, pull-ups (for boys), flexed-arm hang (for girls), sit-ups, standing long jump, and the sit-and-reach flexibility test. This reminds me of at least some of the things we did for the Canada Fitness Test.
President's Challenge Fitness Benchmarks: The President's Fitness Challenge is undergoing a remake, but they still have the standards/benchmarks up for ages 6-7 for curl-ups, partial curl-ups, shuttle run, v-sit reach, sit and reach, one-mile run, distance runs, pull-ups and right-angle push-ups. (Some of those tests are "do this test OR this test", so not all tests are done.)
Fitnessgram Performance Standards: From California's Deptartment of Education. Gives the standards for a variety of tests, but some of the tests, you might have to find out how to actually do them.
And...
Wait for it...
An Air Cadet Fitness Test (from who knows when) that is based on the old Canada Fitness test including instructions on how to perform the different tests (rather than just the benchmarks).
In thinking about my son's general physical activity level and fitness level, I've decided to do a fitness test at the start of the year as a benchmark. He's supposed to be setting goals as part of the phys. ed. course (which is actually a really good thing, in my opinion), but I'm not sure how he's supposed to set goals if he doesn't know what he's starting out at.
So, I've done a little research online and found some tests that I'm sharing here. Not sure just yet which one I'll use. If you want to test your teen's fitness level, too, and maybe your own ;), here are some to check out:
IFA Fitness Test: a limited mix of tests and benchmarks for various ages, for both men and women. Some of the tests do not have teen benchmarks.
Youth Fitness Test Norms: Has benchmarks for kids and teens for distance run, push-ups, pull-ups (for boys), flexed-arm hang (for girls), sit-ups, standing long jump, and the sit-and-reach flexibility test. This reminds me of at least some of the things we did for the Canada Fitness Test.
President's Challenge Fitness Benchmarks: The President's Fitness Challenge is undergoing a remake, but they still have the standards/benchmarks up for ages 6-7 for curl-ups, partial curl-ups, shuttle run, v-sit reach, sit and reach, one-mile run, distance runs, pull-ups and right-angle push-ups. (Some of those tests are "do this test OR this test", so not all tests are done.)
Fitnessgram Performance Standards: From California's Deptartment of Education. Gives the standards for a variety of tests, but some of the tests, you might have to find out how to actually do them.
And...
Wait for it...
An Air Cadet Fitness Test (from who knows when) that is based on the old Canada Fitness test including instructions on how to perform the different tests (rather than just the benchmarks).
My Approach to ELA This Year
I was trying hard to figure out how I could incorporate more Charlotte Mason-style things into our homeschooling. Although I absolutely love the Montessori approach, the reality is that the older the student, the more collaborative work is part of it. And collaboration in groups larger than just student and teacher so they get the full benefits of group discussions and more.
But I couldn't figure out how I could incorporate Charlotte Mason into what we have to do to cover the Alberta Program of Studies. I came up with something that I'm quite eager to do, I just have to make sure that I either figure out the specifics of what we're going to cover--and what we'll cover after we finish something.
What I did is take the CM idea of looking at a particular book/text only once a week and took our ELA and broke it into days:
Mondays: essays
Tuesday: poetry/song
Wednesdays: short stories
Thursdays: popular nonfiction/multimedia/play/film study
Fridays: novels and book-length non-fiction
From page 10 of the Program of Studies:
My son will be doing 20-2 this year, so technically, we only need to do the non-fiction OR the film study, but I would like to have him do both. I may do the non-fiction more lightly, or maybe do it more Charlotte Mason-style rather than concerning myself with making sure he writes the kind of texts that are required. (Although a sudden thought: Maybe it would be better to start of with more Charlotte Mason-style, get him to do lots of narration early in the year, then get to the required writing later.)
The idea with my schedule, too, is that if, after several weeks/a few months, I feel like a particular area has been covered enough (say, poetry or essays), then I might move the schedule around or add in extra literature so that his education goes beyond just what is required of the APS.
Essays: I don't have essays decided yet, but since we're starting school on Tuesday, September 6th, I have until the 12th to have at least the first essay picked. Martin Luther King Jr's essay/speech (really, speeches can just be essays said out loud, right? pretty sure this was part of an essay assignment I found online) "I Have a Dream" might start off our year. It brings back up the legacies of globalization (covered in social studies last year) while also kicking off some of the racism topics that will be covered in this year's social studies. At some point, I'll be having us look at student-written essays, including grade 9 PAT essays and grade 12 diploma exam essays, to really look at how he is expected to write essays. And have him find a poem he'd like to share with me. (Ooooh. lol)
Poetry/song: So far, I've decided to start the year off with something light-hearted, and Canadian, The Barenaked Ladies. hehe. We'll look at "If I Had a Million Dollars" and what kind of poetic elements are in it. The offshoot, "text creation", assignment will be for him to write a "response" of his own, in any format he wishes, be it poetry, prose, fictional story (yeah, right!), comic... with the same title or something similar. I have a couple of poetry books, plus a literature anthology that I had first year of university, so I've got a whole bunch of poems I can select from. I might also look up great poems for teens.
Short stories: I have a book of Canadian Short Stories that I can skim through some and see if there are any particularly interesting ones. Otherwise, I might go for an Edgar Allen Poe to start and then figure out what we'll do after that.
Popular nonfiction/multimedia/play/film study: We are starting off with looking at YouTube videos. Why is YouTube so popular? What makes a good YouTube video? Why do some videos go viral? How do people get so many subscribers? How can you make a YouTube video? Evaluate and compare different people's videos (include some Canadians; I know there's one he follows). Part of this will be to record a video suitable for YouTube (whether he actually uploads it or not). Once done looking at YouTube (maybe a month? more? not sure), we'll move onto a yet-to-be-chosen play.
Novel/non-fiction study: We are starting off with the novel study and after having looked through the list of Alberta Education-approved books, I have picked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the novel and Catch Me If You Can for the non-fiction. The first week, we'll have a look at the author and then I think I'll assign some reading to do during the week. There are 35 chapters, 180 pages. We will not be doing just one chapter a week; it'd take the whole school year. I'll have to break it down, with factoring in assignments to do with it, so that it'll be done for sure by mid-January, so we can do Catch Me If You Can afterwards. Charlotte Mason would have the reading, and subsequent narration, be done in class. I think we may need to get through the book faster than how Charlotte Mason would have it done, though.
*As an extra note here: I will be doing read-alouds or playing audiobooks to really bring more literature into his life. One of the books I'll read or we'll listen to is A Tale of Two Cities, seemed a good choice given the social studies link to the French Revolution (it is also a book on the ELA 20-1 list).
Phew, there we go, my ELA plan outlined and things selected to get the year started. Now to just do this with other subjects. ;)
But I couldn't figure out how I could incorporate Charlotte Mason into what we have to do to cover the Alberta Program of Studies. I came up with something that I'm quite eager to do, I just have to make sure that I either figure out the specifics of what we're going to cover--and what we'll cover after we finish something.
What I did is take the CM idea of looking at a particular book/text only once a week and took our ELA and broke it into days:
Mondays: essays
Tuesday: poetry/song
Wednesdays: short stories
Thursdays: popular nonfiction/multimedia/play/film study
Fridays: novels and book-length non-fiction
From page 10 of the Program of Studies:
My son will be doing 20-2 this year, so technically, we only need to do the non-fiction OR the film study, but I would like to have him do both. I may do the non-fiction more lightly, or maybe do it more Charlotte Mason-style rather than concerning myself with making sure he writes the kind of texts that are required. (Although a sudden thought: Maybe it would be better to start of with more Charlotte Mason-style, get him to do lots of narration early in the year, then get to the required writing later.)
The idea with my schedule, too, is that if, after several weeks/a few months, I feel like a particular area has been covered enough (say, poetry or essays), then I might move the schedule around or add in extra literature so that his education goes beyond just what is required of the APS.
Essays: I don't have essays decided yet, but since we're starting school on Tuesday, September 6th, I have until the 12th to have at least the first essay picked. Martin Luther King Jr's essay/speech (really, speeches can just be essays said out loud, right? pretty sure this was part of an essay assignment I found online) "I Have a Dream" might start off our year. It brings back up the legacies of globalization (covered in social studies last year) while also kicking off some of the racism topics that will be covered in this year's social studies. At some point, I'll be having us look at student-written essays, including grade 9 PAT essays and grade 12 diploma exam essays, to really look at how he is expected to write essays. And have him find a poem he'd like to share with me. (Ooooh. lol)
Poetry/song: So far, I've decided to start the year off with something light-hearted, and Canadian, The Barenaked Ladies. hehe. We'll look at "If I Had a Million Dollars" and what kind of poetic elements are in it. The offshoot, "text creation", assignment will be for him to write a "response" of his own, in any format he wishes, be it poetry, prose, fictional story (yeah, right!), comic... with the same title or something similar. I have a couple of poetry books, plus a literature anthology that I had first year of university, so I've got a whole bunch of poems I can select from. I might also look up great poems for teens.
Short stories: I have a book of Canadian Short Stories that I can skim through some and see if there are any particularly interesting ones. Otherwise, I might go for an Edgar Allen Poe to start and then figure out what we'll do after that.
Popular nonfiction/multimedia/play/film study: We are starting off with looking at YouTube videos. Why is YouTube so popular? What makes a good YouTube video? Why do some videos go viral? How do people get so many subscribers? How can you make a YouTube video? Evaluate and compare different people's videos (include some Canadians; I know there's one he follows). Part of this will be to record a video suitable for YouTube (whether he actually uploads it or not). Once done looking at YouTube (maybe a month? more? not sure), we'll move onto a yet-to-be-chosen play.
Novel/non-fiction study: We are starting off with the novel study and after having looked through the list of Alberta Education-approved books, I have picked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the novel and Catch Me If You Can for the non-fiction. The first week, we'll have a look at the author and then I think I'll assign some reading to do during the week. There are 35 chapters, 180 pages. We will not be doing just one chapter a week; it'd take the whole school year. I'll have to break it down, with factoring in assignments to do with it, so that it'll be done for sure by mid-January, so we can do Catch Me If You Can afterwards. Charlotte Mason would have the reading, and subsequent narration, be done in class. I think we may need to get through the book faster than how Charlotte Mason would have it done, though.
*As an extra note here: I will be doing read-alouds or playing audiobooks to really bring more literature into his life. One of the books I'll read or we'll listen to is A Tale of Two Cities, seemed a good choice given the social studies link to the French Revolution (it is also a book on the ELA 20-1 list).
Phew, there we go, my ELA plan outlined and things selected to get the year started. Now to just do this with other subjects. ;)
Friday, August 26, 2016
New school year!
The new school year is almost upon us. My son will be doing grade 11 credits this year, so that will be the focus of my researching and sharing. However, if you are looking for something or wondering what I used for grade 10, just let me know!
What's in the Program of Studies?
If you are wanting to match the Alberta Program of Studies in some way, just for your own purposes or because your child is going for credits or a diploma, I found a really helpful page on LearnAlberta today that breaks (some of) the programs up into subjects AND grades, rather than the usual many-grades-lumped-together thing you find in the typical programs of studies at the Alberta Education site.
http://www.learnalberta.ca/ProgramsOfStudy.aspx?lang=en
http://www.learnalberta.ca/ProgramsOfStudy.aspx?lang=en
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Wildlife and Forestry courses
Some of the CTS courses are Wildlife or Forestry courses. My son has rekindled his interest in biology (he particularly like certain wild animals as a child) and this is an area I could see him potentially working in in the future. I was thinking either for our own interest or for credits, we could look at the Wildlife courses and somewhat tied with that, Forestry.
Here are some links I've found today:
http://www1.plrd.ab.ca/public/l/kelly.lewis/website/index.html
Awesome site with course outline, assignments, worksheets and more. Interspersed are links to "shop class" materials. It's a little disorganized and font size is all over the place, but what's there is great.
http://jcc.plrd.ab.ca/Wildlife%2021st%20Century.php
Outline of assignments for Wildlife modules.
https://sites.google.com/a/ecacs16.ab.ca/natural-resources/home/wildlife-1010
Info page with assignments listed
http://www.mrhodges.net/wildlife/wld1010/wld1010.html
I think this is an entire online course for Wildlife 1010.
http://hub.rockyview.ab.ca/course/view.php?id=18
Forestry 1010 course.
Here are some links I've found today:
http://www1.plrd.ab.ca/public/l/kelly.lewis/website/index.html
Awesome site with course outline, assignments, worksheets and more. Interspersed are links to "shop class" materials. It's a little disorganized and font size is all over the place, but what's there is great.
http://jcc.plrd.ab.ca/Wildlife%2021st%20Century.php
Outline of assignments for Wildlife modules.
https://sites.google.com/a/ecacs16.ab.ca/natural-resources/home/wildlife-1010
Info page with assignments listed
http://www.mrhodges.net/wildlife/wld1010/wld1010.html
I think this is an entire online course for Wildlife 1010.
http://hub.rockyview.ab.ca/course/view.php?id=18
Forestry 1010 course.
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