Term 2 Book Review

The Name of the Wind

By Patrick Rothfuss

This story is about a man called Kvothe, who tells his story. It is a trilogy, and the second book is called Wise Mans Fear. The third book isn't out yet. This is the blurb:

 ‘I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. My name is Kvothe. You may have heard of me’

It is a great book, the plot twists and turns, and it is difficult to guess what will happen next. The characters are very realistic, you get caught up in the story. It is one of the best books I have ever read.

Current Events Term 2, 2017

WALT: I can successfully research a current event.

Here is a link to our online modelling book for this unit of learning.

The National Standard that I have been aiming for during this unit of learning is:

• Year 9/10: I can read in different ways to find and/or understand information that that is not immediately easy to access or is not organised in familiar ways.

Each week we have read a short text about a current event/ topic. We then formed questions based on what we had read.  After this we researched the answers to our questions and finally we gave our opinions on what we had found out.

Here is some evidence of my learning.

Describe Map One

Describe Map Two

My Next Step is to continue to  apply the reading and  research skills that I have learned in a variety of other areas.

Student Led Conference 2017

Reading - Text Composition

In reading we have been learning to….

recognise the way words, sentences and paragraphs are put together (eg sentences that express cause and effect) and use this knowledge to understand complicated texts.

Here is a link to our online modelling book

These documents show evidence of my learning during this unit:

(link your own learning for each of these activities. Please make sure your sharing settings are open)

• Defining parts of speech
• Types of sentences
• Analyzing paragraph construction
• Explain the relationship between components of texts.
• Complex text analysis

My Next Step: Is to continue to apply this new knowledge of parts of texts, to help me make sense of increasingly complicated text types.

Term 1 Novel Study

This term I have been reading and studying the novel …

I found this novel exciting because it is the kind of book I like to read and you didn't always know what would happen; some times the plot would surprise you.

During the novel I had to complete two major assessment tasks. The first is an Explain Map which shows the consequences of a major event in the book. The second was a Describe++ Map (Inference map) which shows I how I have connected prior knowledge and other experiences to what I have been reading to make an inference.

• Link to Explain Map
• Link to Inference Map

National Standard this covers (delete the ones that are not appropriate)

• Year 9/10 Standard
• I can monitor my understanding as it develops during my reading, and adjust my strategies to address any comprehension problems Eg: If I don’t understand a passage I have read I can re-read it, read-on, use pictures or diagrams, or explore the meaning of some of the vocabulary.

I can use strategies to analyse ideas and information and to reflect critically on the meaning I am gaining from my reading. (Eg: I can think about the meaning of the information and ideas and how this fits with what I think)

I can recognise and understand a variety of grammatical constructionsand some rhetorical patterns

In this unit I have been learning about:

The parts of speech.

The types of nouns.

The types of sentences.

In this unit, the thing I found challenging was … understanding prepositions.

Something new I learnt was... The difference between commands and exclamations.

I can apply my knowledge of adverbial clauses and connectives to seehow ideas are linked in texts.

For reading I have been learning about adverbial clauses. I have found this learning easy because I understand what adverbial clauses are, so I could do the activities.

In this activity docs, I had to... Identify the adverbial clauses and also change the adverbial clauses.

Evaluating Authors Purpose

In reading we have been learning to make decisions about the usefulness of the text for the purpose, by using a variety of criteria to evaluate. 

We read a range of texts and  evaluated them against four key criteria. 

These were:

• Readability
• Accuracy
• Relevance
• Quality of information/ language. 

Here is a link to our modelling book. 

Here is my evidence to show that I am able to demonstrate this reading skill. 

Evaluating Authors Purpose:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F_0AMRo6svedqhQajcoXQCSSVJMW0HZggqtO8dQRFWA

I can describe the structure of a short story.

Something I have learned about the structure of short stories is: They are structured like novels but are much shorter so every thing happens faster.

After reading some short stories two things I will remember when I write my own short story are to be briefer than when writing a narrative and to make an interesting plot.

Authors purpose

WALT describe the author's purpose in relation to structure and language choices in a text and give relevant evidence (eg vocabulary used).

Here is my example

I can gather, evaluate, and synthesise information across a small range of texts

Evaluating Information Chart

This is a evaluating information chart about if NZ should change their flag. To make it we had to gather information about the topic and add it to the chart. Then we had to highlight whether it was common knowledge, personal opinion, statistics or expert opinion. Finally we had to write whether each argument was strong, weak or uncertain and give a reason for our choice. I think we went well.

My Student-Led Conference

Deer fact file

WALT identify and understand main ideas.

Fallow deer Fact File

• Males are called bucks, females are called does and young are called fawns.

• Males are typically 140-160 cm long and 85-95 cm high at the shoulder. They usually weigh 60-100 kgs.

• Does are usually 130-150 cm long and 75-85 cm tall at the shoulder and weigh around 30-50 kgs.

• When fawns are born in spring they are about 30 cm tall and weigh around 4.5 kgs.

• The life span of fallow deer is 12-16 years provided they aren’t hunted or don’t die in other ways.

• The most common coat colour is chestnut, a chestnut coloured coat with white mottles that are much more pronounced in summer and do not show up in winter. The coat is also darker during winter. There is a lighter area around the the tail and the tail is light with a black stripe through the centre.

• Another coat colour is menil. On a deer that is menil the spots show a more and are clearly visible all year round. There are no black markings on the tail and the the coat darkens in winter. This colour is more common in wild New Zealand herds than any other herds in the world.

• Black: Coat colour is black all year, shading to a greyish brown. No white tail markings or spots.

• Leucistic. (White but not albino) Fawns are cream- coloured, adults grow to be pure white, especially in winter.

• Only bucks have antlers, during the first two years they are single spikes and from three years onward they are shovel shaped.

• Fallow deer are grazing animals, their preferred habitat is mixed woodland or open grassland.

• They are agile and fast in case of danger.

• They can run at speed of up to 48 mph.

• Fallow deer can jump 1.75 metres high and 5 metres long.

My goals for Term 4

Reading

WALT understand the effects of language features in comtemporary texts.

Writing

WALT spell everyday (difficult) words accurately in our writing.

Maths

I can recall the lowest common multiples of numbers to ten.

Blog reflection- Novel reading

You've got guts, Kenny Melrose 

Shirley Corlett

WALT identify the themes in a novel

WAL about the authors purpose for writing.

The theme of the story is: they keep getting accused of stuff

Living in poverty

I think the author wrote the story because she wanted to tell about want it is like living like that and she wanted to entertain us.

An interesting part of the novel was when they found out that Smelly was a crook.

Reading

This is some recent reading learning.

WALT explore what the author wrote and question the purpose.