Curriculum Update

Month: September
Teacher: Mr. Murphy

Course: English Language Arts

We have been reviewing the writing traits over the past couple of weeks, and
we are now focusing on Word Choice. Students have been doing various
activities centered around descriptive language.
The writing process has also been reviewed and the SMS Literacy Code has
been reinforced. Students have had opportunities to discuss their various
activities and adventures theyve experienced over this past summer, and
have now had the chance to describe this inside their Journals, as well as
some whove chosen a recent experience for their first piece of writing:
Personal Narratives.
We have selected a class novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, to reinforce
Reading Essential Learnings such as:

Reading with greater fluency, confidence and comprehension by

furthering personal understanding and reflection.
Indentifying the main ideas and summarizing the content.
Form logical opinions/reactions and support these ideas with specific
textual references.
Express and support personal connections to the text.

Course: Grade 7/8 Social Studies

Both Grade 7 (Cliff) and Grades 7/8 combined (Vienneau, Murphy) have been
focusing on the 2014 NB Provincial Election. This current events topic (Unit
3: Political Empowerment) has allowed students to review the Provinces and
Territories across Canada, and discover the differences between a Federal
Election and a Provincial Election.
Students have been exposed to the major issues surrounding this years
election and have worked in groups to create awareness posters for the
election itself, as well as having specific Political Parties theyve been
assigned to explore. This has allowed them the opportunity to continue to
develop team-working skills and collaboration.

Our upcoming quiz (Wed., September 24th) will allow students to

demonstrate what they learned throughout this interesting topic.
Mr. Murphy