Dear Parents and Students, Week 14 – 10/05/2015 – 14/05/2015
The exams are just around the corner and you will find attached a soft copy of the material covered during the second semester and a copy of the Final Exams timetable.
Nonetheless this quote by – M.G. Groepler which says “I am responsible for my own state of mind. I will not absorb any negativity or panic of others. Panic and clarity cannot coexist. Panic breeds panicked thinking. Calm and steadiness breed clarity of thought. I choose calmness and clarity.” should be your source of inspiration.
Grade 12 Material Covered Semester 2
Students read a passage entitled, “Texts” by Ursula Le Guin, in the passage students explored the key idea of abstract writing. Students were further 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
A gentle reminder is extended to ALL grade 12 students to put finishing touches to their Research Paper project which is due for submission on the 14th of May 2015.
Students applied their knowledge and strategies of Writing and Grammar Skills by engaging in silent reading of a cause-and-effect essay.
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 passage entitled, “How Reading Changed My Life” by Anna Quindlen. Students were then 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 read a book excerpt entitled “Distant Mirror”, a magazine article entitled “In the Footsteps of the Faithful” and a map and illustrations of the Pilgrimage Sites. The objectives of the lesson were centered on the idea of students being able to synthesize and draw conclusions. Students were asked to recall information from the book excerpt, magazine article, and map, and then answer the follow up questions.
- 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 – 02/03/2015
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 engaged in an activity involving solving a crossword puzzle in order to apply and expand their vocabulary.
Students read two informational comprehension passages entitled, “Museum and Wrong-Way Corrigan.” After the students finished reading the two passages they responded individually to the comprehension and short response exercises based on the two excerpts.
Students were assigned classwork on identifying kinds of clauses, using adjective and adverb clauses, using noun clauses and recognizing sentence structure.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 15/03/2015 – 19/03/2015
Students were also assigned homework on persuasive writing, and the prompts to choose from are attached below.
Students expanded their vocabulary by reading new words in context. Students were assigned 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. As a follow up to the lesson learned students responded to independent practice exercises the following day.
Students applied their understanding of various grammatical concepts, usage, and mechanics which include, identifying kinds of clauses, using adjective and adverb clauses, using noun clauses and recognizing sentence structure. For their grammar practice students were assigned homework to check their understanding of Adverb and Noun Clauses.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 5 – 08/03/2015 – 12/03/2015
Students went on two trips this week one on Tuesday and the other one on Thursday, and as a result for these two days no new material was covered.
Students were given a quiz based on the vocabulary words that they had taken the previous week to check their understanding and expansion of previously learned vocabulary.
The students task was to read the excerpt from Thomas Paine’s brilliant political pamphlet “Common Sense”, which inspired the colonies to break free from England’s rule and then respond to the comprehension questions that followed.
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 4 – 22/02/2015 – 26/02/2015
Students engaged in a discussion and explored the following idea: “People have proved time and again that it is possible to overcome challenges, such as illness, poverty, physical handicaps, and oppression.” In a group, students discussed what gives people the strength to tackle a challenge or to keep going despite obstacles or setbacks. Student had to draw their responses from their own experiences or those of other people. Students were assigned a movie to watch related to the idea of strength called, “The Theory of Everything.”
Students were given a passage to read which had new vocabulary words in context, and asked to find words related to the new word from the passage. I assigned students to find words with a similar meaning to each of the following boldfaced words from the passage: incongruities, protagonist, accentuate, allegory, comprehensive, ambiguous, intricate, felicitous, dissolute, terse, rhetorical, prologue, introspective, ferocity, usurp, despicable, misanthrope, vernacular, conjecture and provocative.
Students explored the key idea of strength and analyze an autobiography by reading, “The Book of Margery Kempe” an Autobiography by Margery Kempe.
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. The short story was meant to assess students’ skills of comprehending reading passages and their ability to understand vocabulary in context.
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. For the students who came to school we covered vocabulary words in context, and I asked students to think of or find (3) other words related to the meaning of the synonym. Students were also assigned exercises on usage of the words that they acquired.
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 12th grade 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 presentations and group work. This yielded positive results since students were able to revise numerous grammar concepts, vocabulary aspects, and writing elements in a short period 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 were assigned to deliver a PowerPoint presentation 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 revised words that use the prefixes com- and con- which mean “together with” or “jointly”.
Students revised and reviewed the various grammatical concepts, usage, and mechanics.
Students learned to identify and choose the correct case of personal pronouns which include nominative, objective and possessive forms of personal pronouns.
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
Bearing in mind that the end of semester exams are just around the corner, the main focus for the couple of weeks left prior to the exams will be revision. This week in class students revisited and reviewed the following 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 include Restatement Clues, Example Clues, Contrast Clues, Cause and Effect Clues and Definition/Explanation Clues. Provided below is an attachment with notes and explanations of the kinds of context clues.
- Kinds of Context Clues
- Students were retaught the academic vocabulary used in advertising to persuade consumers to buy a particular product, an exercise was assigned in which their task was to identify and analyze the persuasive techniques used in an advertisement.
- Students read the passages entitled, “Vincent van Gogh and Hibernating Frogs and Living Fossils.” The students task was to practice figuring out the meaning’s of unfamiliar words by using its context, its structure, and its sound.
N.B. Students should review the attachment below containing the material covered during the course of the semester, and revise the material in preparation for the final semester exams which will commence the first week of February.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 14 – 7/12/2014 – 18/12/2014
Students learned vocabulary related to the Greek roots polis and polit.
Students learned how to recognize elements of an expository essay.
Students learned to understand elements of design and they analyzed how images convey meaning.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 13 – 30/11/2014 – 04/12/2014
For the reading skills students were asked to read a passage entitled, “The Paston Letters pages 124-133.” Students were given written response comprehension questions to test their understanding of the passage in pairs.
For the writing lesson students learned how to identify the tone of a passage. Students learned to choose an appropriate tone for a piece of writing.
Students learned the meaning behind the word roots path, pathy, and pass. I assigned each student to find out the meaning of the following words: antipathy, impassioned, passive, pathology, apathy, impassive, pathetic, pathos, empathy and passionate. To check their understanding of the vocabulary of the day, I assigned an exercise to the students to apply the words learned using context clues.
On Monday for the media literacy class students learned criteria for evaluating ads. Students evaluated two advertisements and analyzed whether they were effective or ineffective.
On Sunday students wrote a quiz which was meant to assess their comprehension and vocabulary skills.
I would also like to take this opportunity to inform the grade 12 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
On Wednesday for the writing day, students learned how to recognize elements of a problem-solution essay. As homework students were asked to write a problem-solution essay.
On Tuesday for the vocabulary class, students identified the different meanings carried by the root word – gen. Students were assigned homework which required them to use cause-and-effect clues in a context.
For the media literacy class, students presented their mini projects which they were supposed to choose two competing products and analyze the persuasive techniques the ads used.
For the grammar lesson, students learned 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 reading skill students read a passage entitled, “Female Orations pages 464-467,”. Students were asked to read the 7 Female Orations silently and reflect on what they read by responding to written response questions in pairs, and this was done as a class exercise.
On Wednesday no lessons were conducted since the grade 12’s went on an excursion to the New Suez Canal.
As for the vocabulary lesson students distinguished between denotation and connotation. Through a class exercise students examined how context determines whether a word has a positive or negative connotation.
On Monday 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 Sunday no lessons were conducted because of the Parent-Teacher Conference scheduled that day.
I would also like to take this opportunity to remind the grade 12 class of the upcoming quiz on Wednesday, 19 November 2014. Come prepared and as is the norm comprehension passages are unseen and vocabulary will be contextually based.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 10 – 09/11/2014 – 13/11/2014
For the reading skills students explored the key idea of leadership and analyzed rhetorical devices. Students read the passages entitled, “Utopia by Sir Thomas More and Speech Before the Spanish Armada Invasion by Queen Elizabeth I,” and they responded to questions in class testing their comprehension skills.
Students learned about the elements of descriptive writing and they were given a selection of writing prompts to choose a topic from and write a descriptive essay. The writing prompts are also attached below.
Students identified and used homophones and also identified and used commonly confused words for their vocabulary lesson. Students were also assigned a worksheet to complete as homework.
For the media literacy skills students analyzed persuasive techniques used in advertising, how they are used and their intended effect. Please find attached below the PowerPoint presentation with all the notes.
Analyzing Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
For the grammar in context skills 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 were assigned a passage on global issues entitled, “Twenty First Century Slaves,” and they responded to inferential questions using clues from the text to answer.
Students learned about the elements of narrative writing. The teacher modeled to the students by giving them the strategies of choosing a topic, the planning process and producing a narrative piece of writing.
Students identified homonyms and homographs and used them in correct contexts for their vocabulary lesson.
Students recognized print and cartoon formats. Students were then asked to compare and contrast print and cartoon formats that cover the same event by commenting on the similarities and differences between the texts and the significance of context, audience, purpose, and formal and stylistic features..
Students learned how to write an effective personal statement in order to help them prepare for their college applications.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 8 – 26/10/2014 – 30/10/2014
Students for their writing skills learned ways to be more understanding and reflected on the ways of empathetic listening. A follow up activity will ask students to create a way to teach others how to be more empathetic (e.g. create a comic strip, write a short story, and write a poem about empathy and tolerance.)
For the vocabulary skills students identified multiple-meaning words. Students used context clues to determine the meaning of multiple-meaning words and classwork was assigned to assess their understanding of multiple-meaning words.
Students learned to recognize pros and cons of TV, print and online news formats. They also compared TV, print, and online events that cover the same event. A mini project was assigned to the students to work on.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 7 – 19/10/2014 – 23/10/2014
For the reading day students read a diary entitled, “The Diary of Samuel Pepys.” Students analyzed a diary and the views of its author but as a follow up activity students were asked to reread the diary in preparation for the comprehension questions to follow.
The focus on the writing skills was for students to learn how to recognize elements of a Reflective Essay. Students were given the following topics attached below so that they could choose ONE topic to respond to in the form of an essay as homework.
As for the vocabulary lesson, 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. For example, the word illiterate (il + literate) means “not able to read or write. Students were given different words from the vocabulary covered in class to come up with something creative to be pinned on the walls as part of the class’s Word Wall.
This week for the media literacy class, students worked in groups and engaged in research of terminology used in the media in order to understand and analyze the features and structure of print and online news.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 14/10/2014
This serves as a reminder to the grade 12 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: “A Dictionary of the English Language and A Vindication of Rights of Woman.”
Students for their vocabulary class today learned about vocabulary from the Greek and Latin root words phos, phot and luc related to the subject of light.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 13/10/2014
Students read essays entitled, “Essays by Sir Francis Bacon,” and comprehension questions on how to distinguish fact from opinion from the passage were posed to the students to test their understanding of the passage.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 6 – 12/10/2014
Students learned how to avoid sentence fragments by trying to identify the subject and predicate of a sentence.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 5 – 28/09/2014
For the grammar lesson today grade 12 students learned to identify active and passive voice verbs. The students were assigned homework on active and passive voice verbs which will be reviewed on Sunday, 12 October 2014 after the Eid Al Adha break.
Dear Parents and Students, Week 4 – 24/09/2014 and 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 creates mood in the audience.
Students learned how to recognize elements that make up a Comparison-Contrast essay for their writing skills. Students were given a variety of writing prompts to choose from and then asked to write a Comparison- Contrast essay, which will be assessed as homework and due on Wednesday, 1 October 2014. Below is an attachment with the Comparison-Contrast writing prompts. 24/09/2014
Comparison and Contrast Writing Prompts
Dear Parents and Students, Week 4 – 22/09/2014 and 23/09/2014
For the vocabulary skills today, the students identified the root or base word and decided whether the word had a prefix. The students determined prefixes with multiple meanings based on what they know about other words that begin with the same prefix or what they know about the root or base word, and context clues. For their homework students were asked to complete the worksheet on which they are supposed to identify noun and verb suffixes, and use noun and verb suffixes to determine word meanings. 23/09/2014
The previous week the students were asked to go and read the passage entitled, ” A Dictionary of the English Language: Samuel Johnson,” 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. 22/09/2014
Dear Parents and Students, Week 4 – 21/09/2014
In class today the grade 12 students had a grammar lesson and the main focus was to review basic verb tenses with students, also the students were assigned homework to do on the aspect of mixing verb tenses so that they can make use of verb tenses correctly for their writing skills.
Dear Parents and Students, 18/09/2014
The grade 12 English Language class was given a reading assignment on the following passage, “A dictionary of the English Language” 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. For the writing skills students learnt how to recognize elements that make up a persuasive essay. Students were given a variety of writing prompts to choose from and then asked to write a persuasive essay.
Dear Parents and Students, 18/09/2014
The grade 12 English Language class for their grammar class focused on parallelism. In class we focused on identifying sentence elements that function in the same way. The students were assigned a short class exercise on the elements of parallelism.
Dear Parents and Students, 08/09/2014
The semester started on a high note for the grade 12 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 were given an opportunity to deliver oral presentations in response to the question of their choice in class. The questions that were rendered unto the students are in the attachment below.
12thgradegps2014 