Module 4: The Curriculum

For this module, we explored ministry documents, integrated learning, learning centres, and technologies.

Integration
The task in this section was to plan a field trip with connections to curriculum expectations. I was asked to take photos for the school newsletter which I have attached to this posting. I blurred the faces of the students.

The following is a field trip that I supervised on Thursday at the private school where I currently work. I was not involved in the planning of the trip, but I discussed the details with the adminsitrator who was.

Curriculum Area: Language Arts
Program Location: Toronto Jewish Book Fair
Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue, 55 Yeomans Road
Program Dates: October 23rd- October 31st 2010
Description: The Toronto Jewish Book Fair, established in 1976, is one of the largest Jewish Book Fairs in North America. The week-long event features sales of a wide range of books of Jewish interest, and over 25 international and Canadian authors who explore contemporary Jewish life, big ideas, politics, and current affairs. The Toronto Jewish Book Fair is presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts.

Participants: Grade five and six students (80), supervisory staff (8)

Special Consideration: There were several students on this trip with varying exceptionalities. Teachers were asked to pay special attention to one student with diabetes, one blind student, and several students with behavioural issues, especially while on the bus to and from the location.

Schedule:
• 12:30pm: Depart from school
• 1:00pm: Arrival at location
• 1:00pm-1:30pm: Students browse books
• 1:30pm-2:30pm: Speaker Kathy Kacer (Author of Secret of Gabi's Dresser, Night Spies, Clara's War, The Diary of Laura's Twin, Whispers from the Ghettos, Whispers from the Camps, and Whispers in Hiding)
• 2:30pm-3:00pm: Student browse books
• 3:00pm: Depart from fair
• 3:30pm: Arrive back at school
Transportation: TTC
Program Cost: Included in tuition (bus fare and entry to fair)
Curriculum Expectations:
1. Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
2. Recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
3. Use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
4. Reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.
Connections: Grade six students have been involved in a unit on Fairness using the text Literacy in Action. Students have worked on examining biographies and the text features and stylistic elements they involve. Students were required to reference established biographies to inform their own creations on someone who exemplifies fairness. Students have been creating charts on fairness in families, the community, and abroad.

The speaker for the event, Kathy Kacer discussed her latest novel Whispers in Hiding. One of the short stories she mentioned was about Claire Baum, a Holocaust survivor who managed to escape the fate of others like her at the time by being hidden with a non-Jew. Present at the event was Claire Baum herself, who described her experiences first hand. When students were given the chance to ask Claire questions, many of them revolved around how it felt to be treated so unfairly.