Welcome to October and to the best time of the year (in my opinion) - Fall. This year promises to be the warmest start to October in recent memory. Very soon the days will be cooler and I’m sure you’ve noticed that the nights are already a little longer. The leaves have started to change colour from green to brilliant yellows, oranges and reds. Kate shared this video a couple of years ago Why Do Leaves Change Color? What Makes the Leaves Fall? FreeSchool. It offers a great explanation as to why leaves change colour.
Here’s a video I shared earlier that shows some of the incredible fall foliage in Ontario.
Fall in Algonquin Is Canada's Best Kept Secret! Insane Foliage Roadtrip!.
At this time, you may also be thinking of starting assessments with your classes. Remember to keep it simple for both your students and yourself. Most of you are probably using real world tasks in your classes just remember to make them skill using and include holistic feedback. You can use them as artefacts and include them in your assessment logs. Kate shared an Excel assessment log. Feel free to use whichever assessment log you feel most comfortable with.
You can check out: https://www.realworldtasks.ca/ for ready made assessments and rubrics.
Thank you to all the instructors who shared material and resources. Keep them coming.
Thanks to Danielle for sharing the ELLII video she created. Here are the links she shared with us as well: https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/videos, https://www.youtube.com/@CHCHNews11/videos https://www.youtube.com/@LearnEnglishwithBobtheCanadian/videos
Thanks to Valerie for sharing a reading assessment on apple picking. Thank you Dawn for those hilarious ‘Canadian Slang’ terms and to Haleema for sharing links for Orange Shirt Day. And, of course, to Kate for sharing ALL of her resources and lesson plans.
Keep your eyes peeled for a PBLA refresher, an invitation will come out shortly.
Remember that you can reach out to Danielle for all your Avenue questions.
Feel free to reach out to Haleema or myself for any of your PBLA questions/concerns.
Have a fantastic month.
Marina and Haleema