Dear Parents and Students, Week 18 – 09/06/2015
The following information serves as a gentle reminder:
- Students are expected to be in uniform during the exam days.
- Grade 3-12 last day of school is June 16 and students may come out of uniform.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 16 – 24/05/2015 – 28/05/2015
Final Exams June 2015 Schedule
Grade 11 Material Covered Semester 2
– Students were supplied with a Vocabulary Power Worksheet in order to find the denotative meanings of the words. The Vocabulary Power Worksheet will encourage students to take ownership of expanding their vocabulary in preparation for the final exams.
– Students learned vocabulary words which relate to opposition, whether personal or a large scale. I assigned the students an exercise in which they were supposed to find out synonyms of the following 10 vocabulary words of the day and apply them in context: aggression, agitate, anarchy, capitulate, informant, jeopardize, obliterate, rancor, ridicule and vanquish.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 14 – 10/05/2015 – 14/05/2015
Students read a passage entitled: “Texts” and students were asked the following anticipatory question: What did they know about abstract texts
Students explored the key idea of abstract writing and gave examples of abstract texts that they still remember being exposed to. Students were asked to respond to the comprehension and vocabulary questions that followed the passage.
Students were assigned an exercise on the various grammatical concepts, usage, and mechanics we have covered so far in class, this exercise was aimed at encouraging students to reflect on the concepts learned in class and equipping them with study skills in preparation for the exams.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 13 – 3/05/2015 – 7/05/2015
Parents and students are reminded to take note of the following upcoming events on the school calender:
- Annual Production May 29 from 5-9
End of the year Exams June 10-16
Students expanded their vocabulary by learning prefixes which show time and space. Students were supposed to find out meanings of the following 10 vocabulary words of the day and apply them in context: preamble, prelude, preoccupy, preponderance, prostrate, protrude, recession, redress, refugee and restoration.
Students read a Satire entitled, “A Man and His Pig” by Lewis Lapham. Students were asked to respond to the comprehension and vocabulary questions that followed the passage.
Students applied their knowledge of Subject-Verb Agreement. The grammatical mechanics included the following: Making Verbs Agree in Person and Number with Subjects, Making Verbs Agree with Indefinite Pronoun Subjects, Using Verbs that Agree with Compound Subjects, Dealing with Confusing Verbs and Solving Special Sentence Problems.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 11 – 19/04/2015 – 24/04/2015
- Students expanded their vocabulary by looking at suffixes that form nouns. I modeled to the students that a SUFFIX is a word ending that can be added to a word or root, adding a suffix modifies the meaning of the word and also changes the word’s part of speech. For example the word sincerity (sincere+ity) means “the quality of being sincere.”
- Students expanded their vocabulary and put into practice their reading strategies by reading new words in context. I assigned students to find words with a similar meaning to each of the following boldfaced words from the passage: abash, allure, arbitrary, auspicious, browbeat, bureaucracy, contraband, deference, demeanor, guise, immemorial, inane, integral, politic, premeditated, proxy, purport, scapegoat, syndicate and transient. Students were also required to answer questions based on the passage, “Interstellar Diary.”
- Students applied their knowledge of Using Pronouns. The students focused on the following grammatical concepts, usage and mechanics which include: Using Pronouns in the Nominative and Objective Case, Using Pronouns in the Possessive Case, Using Who and Whom and Pronoun Agreement and Reference.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 10 – 15/04/2015 – 16/04/2015
Parents and students this serves as a reminder of the forthcoming events in the school
• April 19-30 MAP
• April 21 Progress Reports distribution
• April 23 Parents Conferences with will be held as needed. No Students
• April 30 Egypt Day, Arabic staff will organize that day. More information will come.
• Ministry Arabic Exams Early May. Schedule will follow
Dear Parents and Students, Week 8 – 29/03/2015 – 2/04/2015
This announcement serves to remind parents that Thursday the 2nd of April will be an out of uniform day for all students.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 7 – 22/03/2015 – 26/03/2015
Students were assigned two persuasive writing prompts and they were requested to choose one prompt to respond to and attached are the writing prompts. The essays are due on Wednesday 1 April 2015.
Gr11 Persuasive Writing March 26
Students engaged in an activity involving solving a crossword puzzle in order to apply and expand their vocabulary.
Students read two comprehension passages based on historical context entitled, “from Common Sense by Thomas Paine and from The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay by Thomas Hutchinson.” After students finished reading the two passages they responded in pairs to a comprehension and vocabulary exercise based on the two excerpts.
Students applied their knowledge of Using Clauses i.e Prepositional Phrases, Appositives and Appositive Phrases, Participles and Gerunds, Infinitives: Phrases and Clauses. Homework was assigned to check their understanding of Using Clauses.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 15/03/2015 – 19/03/2015
As a follow up exercise to the vocabulary class, students were asked to review and revisit the words that were learned in class in preparation for a pop quiz based on the same words they acquired in class and the whole gist behind the pop quiz was to test whether students could still relate with and apply the new words they learned in various contexts and by so doing expanding their vocabulary.
Students read a passage entitled, “Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man” which had new vocabulary words in context, and I asked the students to find words related to the new words from the passage. Students were supposed to find words or phrases with a similar meaning to each of the following 20 boldfaced words from the passage: anagram, anecdote, assertion, climactic, coherent, epilogue, extemporaneous, fidelity, forte, fulminate, goad, hypochondriac, inexplicable, noncommittal, proboscis, prodigy, quixotic, staunch, stigma and surmise.
Students applied their knowledge of the following grammatical usage, concepts and mechanics. In class we learned identifying Prepositional Phrases, identifying Adjective and Adverb phrases and Appositives and Appositive Phrases. For their homework students were assigned grammar practice on Participles and Gerunds as well as Infinitives: Phrases and Clauses.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 5 – 08/03/2015 – 12/03/2015
Students went on two trips this week, the first trip was on Tuesday and this did not affect the class proceedings but the trip on Thursday meant that there was no class on this particular day.
Students were assigned separate mini projects to work on based on a slave narrative we read in class entitled, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.” The mini projects will be presented in class.
Students were given a quiz based on an unseen comprehension passage to test their skills of skimming and scanning as well as expansion of vocabulary by reading new words in context.
Students applied their knowledge of Using Verbs that is, Principal Parts and Tense, Verb Tenses and Forms and Compatibility of Tenses and Voice of Verbs. Students were assigned homework which is due on Sunday 15 March 2015.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 3 – 22/02/2015 – 26/02/2015
Students explored the key idea of survival and analyzed the influence of historical context. Students read an eyewitness report from “La Relacion” a Report by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. After students understood the report I assigned contextual questions to respond to related to the report “La Relacion.”
Students expanded their vocabulary by reading new words in context, they were assigned an exercise in which they were supposed to use context clues to find the possible meanings for the words.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 2 – 15/02/2015 – 19/02/2015
I would kindly like to announce that Sunday, 22 February 2015 will be Parents Conference and no students will be attending school on this day.
Students learned how to recognize elements of expository writing and expository writing gives information, explains something, or develops an idea – and is usually less easy to organize than narration or description. Students were assigned homework to choose an expository essay prompt to respond to and the due date will be Wednesday, 25 February 2015. Please find attached the explanatory notes of the elements of expository writing and the expository essay prompts of which you are required to choose ONE to respond to.
Students read a short story entitled, “An Episode of War”. Students explored the key idea of nature and analyzed characteristics of naturalism.
Students were assigned exercises in which they showed and applied their understanding of the following grammatical concepts: identifying nouns, identifying pronouns, identifying verbs, using adjectives and adverbs, using prepositions and identifying conjunctions and Interjections.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 1 – 10/02/2015 – 12/02/2015
I would like to announce to the students that Pajama Day which was scheduled for Sunday, 15 February 2015 has been cancelled, rather it will be replaced by Valentine’s colors: Red, White or Pink tops. Hoping for a lovely and fruitful week ahead.
The second semester began with a spate of inclement weather as a result no new material was covered since the attendance to school by students was very low. The English Language and Literature classes were combined on Thursday and the students watched a movie during class time.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 21 – 26/01/2015 – 29/01/2015
As the first semester has drawn to an end, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all grade 11 English Language students the best in their exams. Remember to revise, rest and revise.
This week was based on revision and the main crux was centered on various grammatical concepts, usage and mechanics. Students engaged in peer learning through educational games like the Quiz Quiz Trade game. This yielded positive results since students were able to revise numerous grammar concepts in a short space of time.
Students were also given numerous vocabulary exercises in order to acquaint them with the technique of using different kinds of context clues, which is a useful tool when they are tackling comprehension passages.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 20 – 18/01/2015 – 22/01/2015
Students revised and reviewed the persuasive techniques that are used in advertising to persuade consumers to buy a particular product. Students were supposed to refresh their minds by remembering the persuasive technique used, how it is used by advertisers, and its intended effect.
Students made presentations on the elements that make up a persuasive essay. As the teacher I would pause to remodel and reteach the elements that make up a persuasive essay by giving students the outline of a persuasive essay, rubrics, and samples of persuasive essays.
Students read two unseen passages, and the intended effect of this was for students to master academic vocabulary and key words used in comprehension passages. Students were urged to read for a purpose, understanding and meaning in preparation for the unseen comprehension passages.
Students presented their semester project. In a nutshell students were supposed to accomplish the following: 1.Choose a trickster from one culture and read tales featuring the character, discussing the role of the trickster and the values of the culture. 2. Students were also assigned to write a critical review of Twain’s performance, encouraging or discouraging people to attend.
Dear Parents and Students, 17/01/2015
Please find attached the exam schedule.
Have a great week.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 19 – 11/01/2015 – 15/01/2015
The grade 11 students were engaged in the Ministry Arabic and Religion exams, as a result semester projects and assignments were postponed for this coming week. However, students after the exams would attend classes as normal and we covered the following revision aspects:
- Students revised and reviewed the academic vocabulary and key words used in comprehension passages from their winter break reading assignments.
- The students learned the different kinds of context clues, which are Restatement Clues, Example Clues, Contrast Clues, Cause and Effect Clues and Definition/Explanation Clues. Provided below is an attachment with notes and explanations of kinds of context clues.
- Kinds of Context Clues
- Students revised the elements that make up a persuasive essay, this lesson was meant to remind students on what to focus on when they are writing a persuasive essay during the exam.
N.B. Students should review the attachment below with the material covered for semester 1, and revise the material covered in preparation for the semester exams which will commence first week of February.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 14 – 7/12/2014 – 18/12/2014
Students learned to identify and choose the correct case of a pronoun.
Students learned how to recognize elements of a problem-solution essay.
Prompts Problem-Solution Essay
Problem-solution_essay_PowerPoint
Students learned about the prefixes im-, in- and un- which all mean “not.” Students learned that adding a prefix to a word modifies its meaning.
Students explored the concept of deception; they considered both the ability of people to be fooled and the consequences of artifice.
Students learned to fix comma problems.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 13 – 30/11/2014 – 04/12/2014
Thursday for the media literacy class students made presentations to class of a mini project in which they chose two competing products and analyzed the persuasive techniques the ads used.
On Wednesday for the vocabulary lesson students learned to distinguish denotation from connotation. Students examined how context determined whether a word has a positive or negative connotation.
On Monday students wrote a quiz which was meant to assess their comprehension and vocabulary skills.
On Sunday for the grammar lesson, students learned to use commas correctly in writing.
I would also like to take this opportunity to inform the grade 11 class of a quiz to be conducted on Sunday, 30 November 2014. The quiz will be based on two unseen comprehension passages including vocabulary in context and written response questions.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 12 – 23/11/2014 – 27/11/2014
The lesson on Wednesday was centered on students learning how to recognize elements of a Reflective Essay. Students completed their first drafts from a choice of reflective writing prompts.
On Monday for the reading skills, students revisited the passage, “The Autobiography of Mark Twain pages 634-648,” and written response questions were given as homework to test their understanding of the passage.
On Sunday for the grammar lesson, students learned how to identify and use compound subjects, compound verbs, compound predicates to join sentences.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 11 – 16/11/2014 – 20/11/2014
For the media literacy class students were assigned an exercise to apply the use of persuasive techniques and their intended effects by specifically analyzing the persuasive techniques of the “Hilfiger Athletics Ad” or “Spirit Ad.” Students were given a mini project as homework in which they will choose two competing products and analyze the persuasive techniques the ads use.
On Wednesday no lessons were conducted since the grade 11’s went on an excursion to the New Suez Canal.
On Monday students partially explored the concept of deception; they read a passage entitled, “The Autobiography of Mark Twain pages 634-648,” and considered the ability of people to be fooled and the consequences of artifice. Students also analyzed irony. The same reading passage was assigned as homework since it will be our focal point for the reading skill the following week.
On Sunday no lessons were conducted because of the Parent-Teacher Conference scheduled that day.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 10 – 09/11/2014 – 13/11/2014
As for the media literacy skills students analyzed persuasive techniques used in advertising, how they are used and their intended effect.
Students identified and used homophones and also identified and used commonly confused words for their vocabulary lesson.
For the reading skill students explored the key idea of escape from the passage “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” students were given a writing homework task – they were requested to write a letter from Farquhar to his wife, explaining what had happened to him and why he would be hanged.
For the grammar in context lesson, students learned understanding and identifying sentence parts. Students were given sentence parts divided into meaningful and meaningless chunks and their task was to identify the ones with meaningful chunks. Classwork was assigned to test the students’ understanding of sentence parts.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 9 – 02/11/2014 – 06/11/2014
Students recognized the pros and cons of TV, print, and online news. Students also compared TV, print and online news formats that cover the same event for the media literacy lesson.
Students learned the elements of narrative writing, and the teacher modeled the students by giving them the strategies of choosing a topic, the planning process and how to produce a narrative piece of writing.
Students identified homonyms and homographs and practiced using them in correct contexts for their vocabulary lesson.
Students revisited the passage entitled, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” and they were asked to respond to inferential questions in class.
Students learned to make simple subjects, compound subjects, other confusing subjects and verbs agree in number for their grammar lesson.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 8 – 26/10/2014 – 30/10/2014
Students learned about the attributes of being empathetic and tolerant. Students were assigned work to create ways to teach others how to be more empathetic and tolerant (e.g. create a comic strip, write a short story, and write a poem about empathy and tolerance.)
Students learned to identify Anglo-Saxon and Greek word parts. Students also used Anglo-Saxon and Greek roots and combining forms to understand word meanings. Homework was assigned for students to practice the vocabulary learned.
Students learned to analyze the shifting point of view through a class exercise from reading the short story entitled, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
Students learned about the moods of verbs which include the indicative, imperative and subjunctive moods and as part of independent practice homework was assigned. We also reviewed the present, past and future progressive tenses as well as emphatic verbs which had been assigned as homework.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 7 – 19/10/2014 – 23/10/2014
For the media literacy class, students worked in groups and researched in order to understand and analyze the features and structure of print and online news.
As for the writing skills students learned how to recognize elements that make up a Cause-and-Effect Essay. The students were given a variety of writing prompts to choose from and attached below are the topics and a PowerPoint presentation with various outline of writing Cause-and-Effect essays.
Cause_and_Effect Essay Grade 11
Cause and Effect Writing Prompts Grade 11
For our vocabulary lesson this week, students learned to identify the relationship between words in a pair. Students learned how to solve analogy problems through a class exercises.
Students were given comprehension questions from the passage entitled, “Voices from the Civil War,” to answer in class. Students were assigned the passage entitled, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” pages 580-594 of the American Literature text book to read at home, and discussion questions will be addressed in class.
For our grammar lesson, students focused on identifying verb forms and being able to distinguish between simple and perfect tenses. Homework was also assigned on the Progressive and Emphatic verb forms for additional practice and application.
Dear Parents and Students, 18/10/2014
As for the Comparison and Contrast essay writing, students can make use of the attachment below, the attachment has the outlining strategies and examples of how to write a Comparison and Contrast essay are also there.
Comparison and Contrast Writing
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 14/10/2014
This serves as a reminder to the grade 11 Language Arts class of the test which will be conducted tomorrow. The scope of what to read will include: 1) Two unseen passages which include multiple choice questions and short response questions. 2) Vocabulary Practice which is from the two reading selections we have done in class: “Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Speech in the Virginia Convention.”
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 13/10/2014
The grade 11 class learned and reflected on how to identify the principal parts of verbs. The grammatical skills will continue and the next focus for students will be to distinguish between simple and perfect tenses.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 12/10/2014
For the reading skills the grade 11’s read a letter, a diary and a speech from a passage entitled, “Voices from the Civil War.” The students’ task was to extract information about the author, purpose, setting, targeted audience and author’s perspective from each selection.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 5 – 28/09/2014
For today’s grammar lesson grade 11 students learned about verbals and verbal phrases, particularly how to identify participles and participial phrases.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 4 – 24 & 25/09/2014
For the media literacy skills lesson, students analyzed how camera shots communicate meaning, students also analyzed how lighting, music and sound effects often create mood in the audience.
Students learned how to recognize elements that make up a persuasive essay for their writing skills. Students were given a variety of writing prompts to choose from and then asked to write a persuasive essay, which will be assessed as homework and due on Wednesday, 1 October 2014. Below is an attachment of the homework writing prompts, including notes on how to write a persuasive essay effectively.
Students learned common Latin roots and used their understanding of the root’s meaning to gather meaning of unfamiliar words. 24/09/2014
Dear Parents and Students, Week 4 – 22/09/2014
The previous week the students were asked to go and read the passage entitled, “Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography,” from their reading selection the McDougal Littell textbook. In class the students were asked to respond to oral questions to check their understanding of the passage, and this was followed up by a comprehension task on the same passage which was given as classwork.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 4 – 21/09/2014
In class today the grade 11 students had a grammar lesson and the main focus was to identify prepositional phrases, identify words modified by prepositional phrases and identify misplaced prepositional phrases. As part of a review and reflection on the skills that they learned today students were given classwork in order to apply the skills learned.
Dear Parents and Students,
The grade 11 English Language class was given a reading assignment on the following passage, “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” from their reading textbook. During the course of next week the students will be assessed on their understanding of the passage.
As for the vocabulary skills in class students learnt how to use context to discover the meaning of an unknown word through a crossword puzzle activity. The students were also introduced to the media literacy component of their course outline and the main objective was to look at how the media uses magazine covers to create stereotypes of powerful women.
Dear Parents and Students, 18/09/2014
The grade 11 English Language class focused on the Parts of a Sentence for their grammar skills. In class we focused on identifying subjects and predicates mainly the following, the simple subject, simple predicate, complete subject and complete predicate. Homework was assigned on the following aspects Compound Sentence Parts and Subjects in Sentences.
Dear Parents and Students, 08/09/14
This serves as a reminder to the grade 11 A SAT 1 English class of the attachment below, which has their homework due for submission on the 9th of September 2014.
Dear Parents and Students, 08/09/2014
The semester started on a high note for the grade 11’s Language Arts class. The students were supposed to choose two books from a list which was provided to read during the summer vacation. An assignment was designed and the students wrote their responses in class. The questions that were rendered unto the students are in the attachment below.
11thgradegps2015 