Inquiry Unit English Language Arts

The Outcomes GCO GCO 9: Students will be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes SCO 9.3 Understand that ideas can be represented in more than one way and experiment with different forms

Assignment for I UNIT In groups students are expected to create a visual essay in order to explain where and why a garden would be useful for the school The goal of the essay will be to use this piece of work as a founding block for their letters to government that they will be writing in Social Studies

Day One: Can all forms of text create meaning? Assignment One: Show different pictures and ask students write down what they mean ( to try to get students to think about how text without words still shows meaning) Show video montage. Have students write down what the montage means. Either jot notes of paragraph form. Video MontageVideo Montage Show a video on a community garden. Have students write a paragraph on why they feel this is successful or not successful for their own school to have and what they could use it for. Community Garden Community Garden Get students into groups for tomorrows activity: Give each a type of vegetable. They must find similar types of veggies. Ie. Root veggies, lettuces, etc Then give quick project overview

Day Two: Create their own text APK: visual essays- beginning, middle, end Have students explain what is happening in this picture- when do t they feel it transgresses to the beginning, middle and end. Visual Essay: Students are to spend the remainder of the class walking around the school taking pictures that they feel would benefit their visual essay on “Why ____ should Have a School Garden” Get students into their groups and hand each one a dispose able camera (donated). Students are to make an outline and brainstorm ideas within their group before they go take pictures. They are to keep notes of what pictures they took and why they took it. (table will be provided, appendix A)

Day Three: Creating a Visual Essay Students are handed back their developed pictures. They are to spend the class setting up their visual essay on a piece of chart paper. Beside each picture is a small blurb. They are supposed to keep in mind that essays have beginning middle and end and that there have to be pictures and points to support what their essay is about

Day Four: Finishing up Students read a paragraph and then watch a video on a similar topic. They are then to write what one they felt brought the point forward more. 100 Mile Challenge Time is given for students to finish any touch ups their groups need to do on their visual essays Students are to complete a peer and self evaluation (appendix C/D) Students are given a reflection question to be done for homework (appendix E)

Assessment Students are to hand in a portfolio at the end of the unit. This is a incomplete/complete portfolio. It should include the three activities they did on day one, The table of pictures and the brain storm they did on day two and the activity they did on day four. 10% Visual Essay 25% (appendix b) Peer Evaluation 5% (appendix c) Self Evaluation 5% (appendix d) Reflection- 5% Homework (appendix e)

Inquiry Unit Mathematics

Assignment for I UNIT Portfolio – Consists of a good copy of the following material: 1. Their typed up answers to the survey 2. The graphs comparing their answers against the school’s answers for the survey, the top five fruits and vegetables chosen in the survey, and the price of fresh produce verses seed packages of the top fruits and vegetables 3. The solution to The Mathematics of Rhubarb Jam along with a list of other ways the kitchen and garden could be useful in the classroom 4. A picture of the Garden Design produced by their group The portfolio will be a collection of mathematical data to show the school’s desire for a garden, usefulness of the garden for school learning, and beginning ideas for the design of garden.

Outcomes – Day One and Three GCO’s F: Students will solve problems involving the collection, display, and analysis of data SCO’s F1 describe characteristics of possible relationships shown in scatter plots F4 select, defend, and use the most appropriate methods for displaying data F7 evaluate arguments and interpretations that are based on data analysis

Outcomes – Day Two GCO’s C: Students will explore, recognize, and apply patterns and relationships, both informally and formally SCO’s C1 represent patterns and relationships in a variety of formats and use these representations to predict and justify unknown values C2 interpret graphs that represent linear and non-linear data C3 construct and analyze tables and graphs to describe how changes in one quantity affect a related quantity

Outcomes – Day Four GCO’s E: Students will demonstrate spatial sense and apply geometric concepts, properties, and relationships SCO’s E3 investigate, and demonstrate an understanding of, the properties of, and the minimum sufficient conditions to, guarantee congruent triangles E4 demonstrate an understanding of and apply the properties of similar triangles

Day One: Surveys and Data As a class we will “Take a Tour” of surveymonkey.com A discussion will be held on what constitutes a good survey, the types of questions that are appropriate for analyzing data in the classroom, and various methods of displaying the results As a class we will visit Statistics Canada and review various graph types, deciding on appropriate graphs to display our results Students will come up with appropriate questions (i.e. Would you like to have a school garden? Yes/No, Rank your top five vegetables/fruits from the list.) At the end of the class, the grade 9 students will complete the online survey and record their answers in their journals Grade 7 and 8 students will participate later in the day when they attend their math class

Day Two: Making the Garden Useful Students will work on The Mathematics of Rhubarb Jam worksheet – Individually – Compare and discuss in groups – Graph data as a group on chart paper As a class, brainstorm other ways the garden and kitchen could be useful in the classroom and have students record the ideas in their journals – Recipe increases, measurement conversions, proportions, observing plant height, growing time, etc.

Day Three: Displaying and Analyzing Data Using an excel spreadsheet containing the results of the survey, students will total the columns, make appropriate graphs to display the results, and compare the graphs in order to make connections among students’ choices and preferences of fruits and vegetables to be contained in the garden Students should make a separate pie or bar graph to display the top five vegetables and the top five fruits chosen by the school Students will make a graph of their top choices of fruits and vegetables and compare them against the school’s results Students will then visit and to record the price of a package of seeds and the price of fresh produce for each of the top five fruits and vegetableswww.superstore.cawww.homedepot.ca Students will make a table of the results in excel for both seed packages and fresh produce and will then plot the data from each table on one scatter plot (using different colors for seeds and produce) of Price verses Fruit/Vegetable Students will record in their journals their connections and inferences surrounding the school’s preferred fruits and vegetables based on the data and graphs

Day Four: Garden Designs Watch The Many-Sided World of Geometry, Program 3: Triangles – Part Three: World of Triangles (01:20) at – This clip introduces the whole triangle family, reviews different ways to describe triangles, and gives handy rules for working with them Have students design a garden in groups of four using similar triangles, congruent triangles, and squares Groups should draw their design on chart paper using rulers and area formulas to construct a scaled model suitable for the court yard at the school – Show the class an example Have students write in their journals the mathematical steps and reasoning they used for designing their garden in space allotted

Example Garden

Assessment Student I-Unit marks will be composed of: Portfolio60% – Survey Answers 3% – Three Graphs21% – Rhubarb Problem10% – Usefulness List 6% – Garden Design20% Class Participation15% Garden Design Peer Evaluations 5% Journal Entries 20% 100%