welcome

your teacher
Welcome to room 217!  This is our public online space to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and reflect on the themes of our  course. Adding content and sharing has never been easier! We will build the knowledge on this site together by contributing to online discussions, sharing our research, and through creating and and posting to your personal online portfolio sites as a way to showcase our course creations.
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Overall, this site should help us reflect on the themes course, celebrate our accomplishments, and streamline how we learn and share information.
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An interest in helping young people discover and define their writing voice and reading interests drives Ms. Jennifer Ward to cultivate a student-centered learning environment, one that supports individual learning goals and incorporates purposeful use of technology. In March 2017, Ms. Ward was named teacher of the month by Michigan's 86th district state representative, Thomas Albert.  In March 2016, she was named a TED-Ed Innovative Educator and is also a Google Certified Innovator, National Writing Project Consultant, and a 2014 PASCD Emerging Leader.  Ms. Ward taught for 13 years in a Philadelphia suburban district and returned to her home state in 2015. Most recently, she taught at Ionia High School.

​This is her fourth year as a Grandville Bulldog.  Ms. Ward teaches Independent Novel Studies, 10th grade honors American literature as well as ninth grade Composition Through Literature courses.

​ms. ward

stay informed:

​social contract:

to be successful:
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 Ms. Ward's students and their parents can sign up to receive a daily text message of our homework by clicking on the appropriate class below: ​
Respect-
  • When you interact with others either in class or online, it is important to be respectful; be respectful of other people and respect yourself. This means that personal attacks, inappropriate language and content, insults and harassment of any kind are strictly forbidden. This online class site is an extension of our physical classroom. Ask yourself if your comments would be acceptable in our physical classroom setting.
Rigor-
  • Before posting a comment, question, or blog entry, ask yourself, "will this forward the discussion we are having?" Your thoughts and ideas should be supported, and you should be using specific details to illustrate your ideas. Your posts should build on the discussion by responding to comments other students have made on a particular subject.
Grades-
  • Yes, you will be graded on some of your contributions to this site. What does this mean? Your blog entries and online discussion posts should be thoughtful reflections, interesting ideas, and discussion provoking comments related to our texts. You will be told in advance which posts will be graded and how they will be assessed. Be sure to proofread before you post.

what we're working on:

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INDEPENDENT NOVEL STUDIES  (1st hour):
This class has been designed for you, the avid reader and book lover. This class gives you that little extra time you need to read because you are always at a good part in the book (and you always get in trouble reading in your math class)! As a member of this class you will select the books you want to read, have the opportunity to share what you read and learn from these books, and be exposed to different authors, styles, and topics. You are in the right class and will be successful if you love to read and you are self-motivated!
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9th GRADE COMPOSITION THROUGH LITERATURE  (2nd and 6th hours)
Our first unit is all about stories - the stories we tell and the stories we read. ​ There is an old Native American proverb that reads: “Those who tell the stories rule the world.” Stories matter. Research shows that we are much more inclined to be persuaded by a person’s compelling story than by numbers, facts, and statistics. Great stories build relationships and make people care.  If you want to convince someone, change someone’s opinion, connect with someone, you need to be able to share your story.  So, how do you tell a compelling story about your life?
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10th GRADE HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE (3rd and 5th hours)
This year, in the midst of political and social discord, Americans have spent a great deal of time arguing about what it means to be an American, who should be called American, and what exactly Americans should value. As we listen to all the noise around us, perhaps now is a good time to go back in history to our earliest days as a nation and reconsider how we define an American. Before we had a strong national identity, before we even had a nation, we were inventing an identity that would define the people who lived here and the people destined to arrive later. Through a variety of writings we will explore how the American identity has been shaped by religious, social, political, and economic forces, and how it continues to be refined and redefined. This short unit should answer some of your questions, but hopefully it will prompt even more. We don’t have all the answers, nor did our earliest founders, nor do any politicians, parents, or pastors. But together we’ll come up with a working definition that should carry us into the rest of our studies of American Literature.

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