Queen Margaret College

Year 8 Chinese Programme 2023

Levels 1 and 2 of the New Zealand Learning Languages Curriculum

Phases 1-2 of the Middle Years Programme

‘Me, my family and friends’

‘My school life’

‘My daily routine’

‘My hobbies and sports’

Course details

Baccalaureate

In the final two weeks of each Term, Students will be assessed on the language skills they have developed throughout the unit. Listening, reading, writing, and speaking will each be assessed twice during the year.

The Year 8 Chinese course is designed to build students’ confidence in the language. The topics covered give them exposure to a variety of familiar contexts and situations related to their personal experiences. Students have regular conversation with the teacher or Mandarin language assistant, and with each other to help develop their speaking and listening skills. In addition, they engage in e-learning, using their device to record their work on OneNote and to access various language learning resources. Students will take notes both manually and electronically to practise their character writing and typing skills.

Students may study a selection of the following topics, depending on previous experience with the language:

Me, my family and friends o Introducing themselves and others o Pinyin – pronunciation system o Greetings and self-introduction o Numbers 0 – 100 o Age and animal signs o Describing family members, their ages and animal signs o Describing people and their pets

My school life o Telling the time, days of the week, months and year o timetable o Expressing whether they learn or can speak a language or languages

My daily routine o Describing basic daily routines o Expressing when they have some of their subjects o Describing what a person looks like including body parts, and colours etc.

My hobbies/sports/classroom items o Talking about their hobbies or sports o Discussing why they like or dislike doing certain sports etc. o Describing classroom items

Course Information

• In 2023, Year 8 Chinese is an option subject.

• Each class has 5 lessons per 10-day timetable.

Homework expectations

Students are expected to complete some homework during the week. Your child should be learning at home for a total of at least 45 minutes per weeknight across all subjects. The key to language learning is ‘little and often’.

Homework might include:

• Learning a few words, verbs or phrases

• Sentence or text level of activities, such as Jigsaw activities, cloze exercises etc.

• Reading and grammar exercises to do or a short paragraph to write

• Before an assessment, students will be expected to revise their notes or to practise their spoken language

• Revision of vocabulary learned in class with www.languageperfect.com

• Catching up on work missed due to absence

Students will purchase a Year 8 Chinese Workbook at a cost of around $10.

Head of Learning Area: Caroline Harding

Queen Margaret College

Year 8 Design (Technology) Programme 2023

Level 4 of the New Zealand Curriculum

Year 2 of the Middle Years Programme International Baccalaureate

Eco Textiles / Electronics (First half year)

Electronics / Eco Textiles (Second half year)

Course overview

Criteria A and B – Term 1 Wk10

Criteria C and D – Term 2 Wk9

Criteria A and B – Term 3 Wk6

Criteria C and D – Term 4 Wk5

Technology is about making a difference in our world – through developing designs, products and systems that meet the requirements of a design brief. The design cycle is a key development process that is followed at all year levels in Technology. In the Year 8 course, students will cover two major units:

Soft Materials / Textiles:

This course focuses on developing skills with sewing machinery, textile materials and construction techniques. A focus theme for this unit is sustainability and being ecoconscious in design. Students will construct a textiles based item for a selected client.

Electronics / Multi-materials:

In this unit skills and activities will involve computational thinking, computer aided design (CAD), lasercutting, circuit construction, and a project that will incorporates the above to meet a design brief. Solar power and sustainable energy creation will also be key themes.

Course details:

• Each class has 5 lessons per 10 day timetable.

• Each class will rotate through the two different unit topics over the year. Each unit topic will be approximately 2 terms in length.

• Each unit topic may be taught by a different teacher in appropriate timetabled classroom

• There is a $30+gst consumables fee for this course. This will be charged to your school account.

Students may also wish to participate in extra outside the classroom STEAM challenges such as the ePRO8 Team Technology competition, Robocup, and Codeclub. Details will be published as opportunities become available during the year.

Assessment Criterion: Design MYP

Over the course of the year students will be assessed according to the following criterion. There are 4 criterion in MYP Design – all based on the Design Cycle.

Each of these criteria will be assessed once in each of the unit topics (ie twice in the year). Students will be given specific assessment schedules for these criteria at the start of each unit.

QMC Technology Safety Rules:

Student safety and wellbeing is paramount at QMC. Accordingly, no student is allowed to operate any equipment without teacher supervision and safety instruction. When using specialist equipment there are some rules to be followed:

• Tie hair back.

• No blazers on.

• Aprons to be worn.

• Safety eye-goggles on if required.

• Covered shoes / PE shoes are acceptable.

• Protective gloves to be worn if needed.

• Persons operating equipment are to be given a clear working space around them. No crowding, talking to or distracting persons operating equipment.

• Students will be supervised always by a teacher if hazardous equipment is being operated.

• Turn equipment off at the wall and unplug from the wall when finished.

• Spaces used must be vacuumed / swept clean for the next person.

Homework expectations

Year 8 students should be learning at home for a total of at least 45 minutes per weeknight across all subjects. To achieve at a high level in this subject, students are expected to complete some homework during the week.

Homework might include:

• Carrying out individual project - written, research or design sketching tasks.

• Attending lunchtime workshops to complete any practical work or to access extra help with practical work.

• Catching up with work not completed during class time.

• Online tutorials for keyboard, software, and coding skill development

Head of Learning Area: Richard Knuckey

Queen Margaret College

Year 8 Drama Programme 2023

Level 4 of the New Zealand Curriculum

Middle Years Programme International Baccalaureate

Unit Title

Techniques

Devising original Theatre

Drama journal

Course details

Proposed assessment date

Term 1, week 9

Term 2, week 6

Term 2, Week 8

The aim of the course is to introduce all students to key concepts in a practical environment. The course aims to inspire a passion for and confidence in Drama in all students. There is a particular focus on verbal and non-verbal skills, along with small group collaborative skills and the development of independent work skills as a support to other curricular areas. The programme looks initially at developing the students understanding and application of comedy techniques. This is followed by a study and application of devising process which will result in students creating an original piece of theatre for performance In Term 2 the students will work with scripts learning strategies on developing a role for performance.

Course Information

• Each class has 6 lessons per 10 day timetable for a half year

• Each class will cover 3 topics over the course of the half-year programme

Homework expectations

Your child should be learning at home for a total of at least 45 minutes per weeknight across all subjects. Written reflections will generally be completed in class. It is vital when approaching an assessment, that homework time is used to learn lines