8 Pioneer have been busy working incredibly hard over the last couple of weeks towards their English Learning Target:

I can evaluate texts critically explaining and analysing how they use language and structure to achieve effects and influence the reader.  

We have been understanding how Lennie is presented by acting out extracts from Of Mice and Men, undertaking quotation explosions, zooming in on the meanings of words, making inferences and understanding how Steinbeck’s language choices affect the reader. This has been a step up from last year and at times has been a struggle for some in Pioneer – but they persevered and I’m so proud of the work they produced and their attitude towards their learning.

Mrs Poncia gave us a visit during our lesson and she was so pleased with what she saw she wrote this on the praise sheet:

“Superb focus in HUMAN when completing their first assessed piece of writing. Well done, Everyone!”

We’re moving onto our History learning target now looking at the question:

“The most significant cause of The Great Depression was the Dust Bowl.

How far do you agree with this statement?”

We began to identify and explain the numerous causes which lead up to the Great Depression, such as the First World War, overproduction of goods and the unequal distribution of wealth. We’ll continue analysing these causes to come to a conclusion about whether the Dust Bowl was the most significant cause of the Great Depression.

Keep up the hard work 8Pioneer!

8 Pioneer have now had the big reveal of their first Hums expedition in year 8 ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ which will focus around the theme of migration (past and present).

Our anchor text ‘Of Mice and Men’ will be explored and analysed so in preparation for this, the students have been set an ongoing extended study to learn 33 different literary terms and devices such as oxymoron, anaphora and protagonist, as well as an example (they have been given a list of these in today’s lesson).

They will be quizzed on these terms next week – how many can you remember Pioneer?

8 Pioneer have got off to a flying start in their Hums immersion week! I’ve been so impressed with how they have stepped up to being in year 8 and there’s a noticeable increase in maturity in the class that has developed since year 7. The new expedition will be revealed on Monday and I am super excited about this one – I think it’ll be the best yet! I’m already blown away by how hard the class is working and how focused and insightful they are in their discussions and work when trying to figure out the content and guiding question of this expedition. At times I felt like I was back at university – it’s easy to forget these students are only 12 due to their attitude towards learning.

Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to this week:

We began with a Quiz Quiz Trade protocol to learn new vocabulary which will be central to our anchor text and we found out some hints about where the text (and some of our expedition will be set)  –  a few miles south of Soledad.

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Geoff, our expert, who spoke to the students about what makes a good film and the various different roles that are involved in pre-production, production and post-production. It was then over to the students to create a film which followed their brief. Geoff then visited us again to watch the films and give feedback on what went well and how they can be improved. I’d like to mention Marcus and Ralph’s carefully crafted interview scene which was comedy gold and we all thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Maybe we have some future Oscar winners amongst us!

Next, we completed a gallery walk – this has definitely been the best one Pioneer have done so far. The focus and insight shown when thinking of questions, wonders, connections between the images, to their prior knowledge and society was another level of brilliant.

Building on from our Quiz Quiz Trade protocol we analysed the opening extract of our unknown anchor text to understand the setting. We really got to grips with the imagery of the text by following a ‘paint what you hear’ protocol – we will finish these next week but its wonderful to see how each student has began to interpret the words of the text.

I cannot praise Pioneer enough for their work this week and if they continue at the rate they are they will get so much out of this expedition – I’m super proud of them all!