Apostrophe Kids is a 36 week program taught by Ontario Certified Teachers. Over the course of the year, students will develop a strong foundation in Reading, Writing, Public Speaking and Media Literacy.

THE NORM

A typical class begins with a spelling test followed by taking up vocabulary homework. In the early years this will include sharing simple sentences and in the later years there will be more complex expectations in addition to sentences such as definitions, synonyms and antonyms of weekly words. The students will then do an in-class reading comprehension. At times in partners or as a whole group with guidance from the teacher they will share responses to provide an opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other. As they share responses the teacher will work with the class to provide an understanding of proper sentence structure, how to organize short open-ended responses, how to back up their statements with information from the passage and eventually how to take their learning to write strong essays in the later years. Novel studies are another component of Apostrophe Kids program. Novel study homework will be taken up as a class, providing another opportunity to learn from each other.

THE EXTENSION

Outside of a typical class there will be multiple opportunities throughout the year to create and present an oral presentation that will be closely tied to the “big idea” in the novel study they are working through. During the preparation of their oral presentations which will span over a number of weeks students will work closely with the teacher to build on public speaking skills and have multiple opportunities to practice with classmates before the big day. In addition, media literacy will be intertwined in their learning. Throughout the novel study the teacher will introduce related topics through the form of media to encourage rich discussion. Students will be given multiple opportunities to create a media presentation to address a specific topic. Depending on the novel study this may be tied in with their oral presentation or as a separate entity.