OWA: Ontario Writing Assesment K-8

Provides a common writing assessment tool for teachers, schools or districts. Supports identification of student strengths, needs, interests and attitudes in writing. Includes task-specific rubrics and  levelled anchors to ensure consistent assessment of writing skills (based on the Ontario curriculum). Provides valuable “next steps” for targeting instruction. Supports tracking student progress over time with tracking sheets.

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4Real School DVD’s

4REAL School is an educational resource that includes DVDs of the eight-part 4REAL documentary series and teaching guides. 4REAL School engages youth intellectually, compassionately and actively. It empowers students to think critically about global and local issues and ultimately aims to inspire them to make positive contributions to their communities.

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To Be Romeo & Juliet DVD

Accompanies actors as they prepare to portray Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers in three different stage productions in three different countries. Emotional meltdowns, twisted ankles and cast mutinies are all part of what it takes to be Romeo and Juliet at a youth summer camp production in Guelph, Ontario, an amateur production in Reading, England, and a professional production at the Chilean National Theatre. Focusing on the lead actors, this video compares these three very different productions in terms of interpretation and process, and creates a vivid record of these individuals transforming themselves into the timeless, tragic lovers Romeo and Juliet. The result is a lively and evocative examination of theatre, acting, and love.

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Link to Zima Junction Productions website

Real Life Teens DVD Series

The Real Life Teens Series takes an unbiased, realistic look, from the teens perspective, at the wide variety of issues teens face today. Featuring young teenagers (not actors) telling their stories, in their own words. The series discusses many significant issues in adolescent society and cuts through many barriers with its honest and relevant advice. Real Life Teens is crafted by experts to solve pressing problems in today’s high schools.

This program is designed for use with a general high school audience, grades 8 through 12. Each DVD comes with a subject specific teacher’s guide.

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Frantic Frogs

Frantic Frogs and Other Frankly Fractured Folktales for Readers Theatre:

Have you heard “Don’t Kiss Sleeping Beauty, She’s Got Really Bad Breath” or “The Ugly Duckling Sues His Parents for Bad Genes”? This resource offers more than 20 reproducible satirical scripts for rip-roaring dramatics. Fredericks’s side-splitting send-ups and wacky folktales and fairy tales are guaranteed to bring snickers, chuckles, and belly laughs into the classroom and get everyone involved. The book also contains guidelines and tips for using readers theatre in the classroom. It’s a great icebreaker that everyone will enjoy! Grades 4-8.

More fairy tale adaptations are available through the Terry James Resouce Library and Media Booking.

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First Nations

The Terry James Resource Library has many new items featuring the People of the First Nations’ culture, customs, history and much more, for primary, junior, intermediate and senior grades.

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The Terry James Video Library has many videos featuring First Nation’s People.  The newest arrival is “Aboriginality”.  In this animated short blending past history with contemporary performance, a teen boy sits in a dingy living room idly watching television. When he sees a dance and rap program that transports him to a strange prairie land, he is brought face-to-face with his Native American heritage in the form of the mystical Red Road and a Cree dancer of the First Nations.

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Simply Beautiful: Middle School Edition (DVD)

In Simply Beautiful: Middle School Edition, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser (better known as “The Sisters”) bring their innovative and fun design ideas to a middle school library and a seventh grade classroom. In the library makeover, tweens and teens work with the librarian and principal to help organize books, move furniture, and put a personal stamp on the environment with their art and reading interests. In the classroom makeover, Gail and Joan help young teacher Erinn deal with the challenges of a cramped classroom which has no storage cabinets.  This dvd is available through the Terry James Video Library.

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Picture Books on DVD

The Terry James Video Library has popular children’s picture books on dvd.  Some examples are:

The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians

Melvin discovers that the public library is the place where he can find just about anything–including three librarians who help in his quest for knowledge.

The Three Snow Bears

Retells the story of Goldilocks, set in an Inuit village and featuring a family of polar bears.

White Owl, Barn Owl

A young girl and her grandfather build a nest box for barn owls and wait night after night for an owl to appear. At last they see the distinctive heart-shaped face of the white barn owl in the box window. The two continue to observe the owl and its mate as they hunt to feed the baby owls in their nest.

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Bill Nye DVD’s

Bill Nye the Science Guy knows how to provide easy access to hard science.  What’s his secret?  A fast-paced approach blending humorous hijinks with hands-on activities.  Bill encourages kids to ask interesting questions – then shows them how to discover fascinating answers.  Many of the Bill Nye dvd’s are now available through the Terry James Video Library.

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