Tom Kim

Summary:

• Day 1: Orientation
• Day 2: Survey
• Day 3: In-Class Essay

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It’s always difficult, both personally and pedagogically, to teach a lesson on a national day of mourning that is still so emotionally and politically immediate. You have to balance sensitivity with passion, educational relevance with memorial gravity. You take a hard look at what you know to find solace and understanding for yourself and then wonder if any of it can make a difference to others. And yet, to teach is to try. The seventh grade theme in English is “Adjusting to Place,” and what is September 11 but a place we all needed to adjust to?

So I chose, in my seventh grade classes, to discuss a poem by Teresa Cader, which was a response to George Herbert’s “Prayer,” written some 370 years prior. We began by reading Herbert’s poem and making general observations about its tone and structure: that it is religious, measured, that it had a kind of timeless quality, that it rhymed in a pattern. I talked about how architects will often design a building to provide a specific experience, and we brainstormed about how the middle school building that we were in had certain features that provided it with a unique feel.

Herbert’s poem is built like a cathedral. It has the classical structure of a sonnet, following established traditions of form and logic. Like a cathedral, it directs its audience upward in a prayer of praise to God. In fact, its thesis is the word “prayer,” the first word of the poem, followed by a series of appositive phrases cascading forth in theological and metaphorical riffs. Herbert exclaims, for example, that prayer is “the six daies world—transposing in an houre,” the glory and marvel of creation translated and compressed into a pilgrim’s ecstatic encounter with the numinous.

We read Cader’s poem, “September 11,” next. Students noticed immediately that it sounded more casual, more modern. It grouped lines in couplets, not rhymed quatrains, and had more quotidian descriptions that spilled over in frequent enjambments. Looking closer, they also noticed that words and phrases from Herbert’s poem were echoed throughout the poem, though now in a context so different that they were easily overlooked. Cader’s poem seemed to retain the spiritual intensity of Herbert’s but felt like it was a different building altogether — something more sparse and somber.

In fact, “September 11” picks up the last statement of Herbert’s poem— “[prayer is] something understood” —and responds to it directly: “Understanding something isn’t prayer, necessarily.” From there it uses, like Herbert’s poem, a series of a noun phrases to build a faceted description — but this time of a group of unsuspecting passengers boarding their plane at an airport. The rapturous “softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse” of Herbert’s prayer becomes the “softness of cruising, bliss of landing, love waiting in the wings,…. Muted joy at unfastening seatbelts” with its conspicuous absence of peace. Cader, in essence, takes Herbert’s sonnet, tears it down to its timbers, and from it builds her own church, a memorial. She takes the mundane (“six days”) world we all took for granted before 9/11 and points out how it got “transposed in one hour,” elevated into transcendence, into a prayer. Not a prayer one petitions, exults — or understands even, necessarily — but one that has taken what was and has indelibly translated it into a new reality.

I read the poem again, aloud. Students followed silently, respectfully, one poem faintly visible behind the page of the other.

Note: For the sake of convenience, I’ve included a copy of each poem after the jump, but you can also read the poems at these links:

“Prayer” by George Herbert and
“September 11” by Teresa Cader

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I don’t like giving small group work, but I do it because I think it’s important — and I think it’s energizing for students who have social strengths.

But asking kids with varying degrees of social aptitude and executive functionality to get together and accomplish something with relatively little supervision is a little crazy. Even when I assign a more structured collaboration — such as a jigsaw assignment where each student is responsible for an individual part which he or she then shares with a larger group — the quality of contributions varies so widely that it sometimes breeds outspoken frustration and resentment.

I find that the cliché about rock bands holds true for student small groups — that it’s nearly impossible to have a working democracy. Instead, the best groups have the leadership contained in one or two individuals who dictate the direction of the project to the other members of the group.

It makes me wonder if I shouldn’t exploit this model in project assignments. Say, for example, that the main grade for the project falls on one individual. But he or she gets to pick two people to work with — and then also gets assigned another person or two to round out the group. The majority of the group understands that they have largely a supporting role; let’s say the leader gets a say in grading their contribution.

I should say that in reflecting with some of my students today, they generally observed that a group of four is a little too unwieldy, and that they preferred it when the groups were only 2-3 people in size.

My 8th graders are currently at work on writing book reviews for the novels they read before winter break. In trying to teach how to evaluate a book (again), I am confronted (again) with, well, how one goes about evaluating a book.

I wrote in my last post about a basic comprehension of a book based on facts of character, plot, and setting. At this level, one is just composing a schematic of the story, inventorying the various components.

I asked my 8th graders to evaluate this level on the value of the writing. Are the characters cliché? Where does the plot flag? Is the author prone to florid descriptions and purple prose?

I labeled another level of consideration one of meaning.

The focus at this level, of course, is theme. I’ve had lots of past difficulty explaining the notion of theme to students. I’ve described it in the past as the “life lesson” of the story, but uncomfortably so, since it suggests that all stories are didactic in nature. This year, I lifted from John Truby the notion that the theme is the “moral vision” of the author as revealed in the text. I talk about how an author can have a fairly superficial purpose in writing a book, but that the text can still be representative of the author’s way of thinking and belie his or her worldview, his or her values.

I teach students to look for theme in the bird’s-eye view of the plot. What is the delta value? How has the situation (especially for the protagonist) changed at the end of the novel compared to the beginning of the novel? Is that change tragic or comic (or both)?

Often the most clarifying moment for the theme is the climax. I try to disabuse my students of thinking of the climax as the most exciting or dramatic moment of the story. I define the climax, instead, as the ultimate point of decision for the protagonist — the last character-defining point where the hero chooses one fate over others. The nature of this decision often provides the best clue as to the theme of the novel.

The subplots of the novel also often clarify or suggest further themes. Sometimes they even suggest subtexts.

Subtext. I also have had a hard time defining that term to my satisfaction. Still do. I’ve used the phrases “hidden themes” or “secret meanings,” but I never feel like students really come away with a strong sense of the term. Is it just a theme that’s hard to figure out? No, not really. Subtext suggests something that is below face value, something slyly outside of the straight mechanics of the story. It has a conspiratorial sense to it.

Subtext is more sensed than discovered; it’s something you have a hunch about rather than dig around for. I have, however, used an examination of motifs as a way to point to possible subtexts. It’s akin to the “deja vu” test in The Matrix.

The notion of subtext also bleeds into the last level of examination I’ve found: context. I don’t often talk much about books on this level with my middle school students. I tend to emphasize more New Criticism close reading skills, which are hard enough to get a handle on. I guess I’m also afraid to tempt students of the thinking that the secret to cracking the code of a book is by looking elsewhere to others.

Shame really, since one often doesn’t really appreciate a work’s significance unless you know it’s place in a larger conversation. Moreover, you often can’t get a sense of true critical literacy without tackling a text at this level. With my 8th grade book reviews, I suggest they look at three possible contexts within which to place the book: literary (genre), historical, and personal.

Within the literary context, you take a look at what other texts are like this text. You try to figure out how this book holds a unique place within a category of work. What are the book’s literary influences, and how it has influenced others in turn?

Within the historical context, you try to address the cultural outlook of the world at the time the book was published — and/or the book’s consideration of a specific historical moment within its story. It’s often helpful within this context to consider the dynamics of power between characters to get at, for example, a feminist reading of the novel.

The personal context considers a more psychological reading of the novel. How does an examination of the author’s life and worldview illuminate either the text’s intentionality or, perhaps, an against-the-grain reading?

The problem

Perhaps the best way to understand and appreciate a book is by reading it over and over several times, each time with a different focus or depth of analysis. This is, of course, the approach advocated by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren.

It’s also an approach problematic for the typical middle school English teacher, since it not only strains the patience of his pre-teen wards but also the strictures of the curricular schedule.

[Although, I’m thinking now, this way can be demonstrated with a narrative poem or one-act play.]

What we often exhort instead is that students actively read, that they highlight what seems important, make shorthand notes in the margins, and generally keep themselves involved as they read. The hope is that by forcing students to think about what they’re reading as read, they don’t just find themselves swept away by the narrative but end up keeping track of what is happening in the story.

The problem, however, is precisely that students don’t find themselves swept away by the narrative. Intense active reading deflates the enjoyment of reading itself and distracts from the kind of escapist immersion that I think is critical to actually understanding the sense of a story. The practice, moreover, already assumes that one is a fairly sophisticated reader — that one can intuit emerging themes and assess the relative significance of passages as they occur and avoid digressive or vestigial narrative stratagems.

Merely encouraging active reading, in other words, does little to demystify a complex story. Normal active reading doesn’t disentangle the various layers of comprehension and analysis.

With this in mind, I sought this year to explicitly teach a reading routine that was dead simple to follow, wasn’t overly onerous to the natural flow of reading, and clarified a very basic level of reading comprehension that can be expected of all my students, regardless of how good a reader they already were.

The routine

I taught the following routine explicitly. I explained it. I demonstrated it on the SMART Board. I followed up to make sure students were doing it right.

I asked my students to focus on only three basic areas of attention. For my 7th graders, it was character, plot, and setting. For my 8th graders, it was character, plot, and motifs.

I asked students to begin their reading by reminding themselves what the current situation of the story was.

As they read, students primarily notes whenever a character does something significant. They may choose to note that by simply highlight that character’s name or, additionally, making a note in the margin as to what major action or revelation was tied in to that character.

I ask my 7th graders to also highlight mentions or descriptions of setting. (The 7th grade has a curricular theme of place and geography).

I ask my 8th graders, on the other hand, to highlight mentions of motifs. I outline which motifs to look out for ahead of time. (I tie motifs to subtext, and the 8th grade has a curricular theme of personal values).

[The 9th grade teacher mentioned that they do something similar with themes, where they assign an icon to each pre-ordained theme and then draw those icons in the margins when those themes become evident in the story.]

Finally, at the end of the night’s reading (about 20 pages == 1-2 chapters), students are to write in their books (or in post-its stuck in their books) what has fundamentally changed in the story over the course of those 20 pages, summarized in a bulleted list of 3-5 major events.

That’s it. The reading routine doesn’t work by itself, however. It needs classroom follow-up.

The follow-up

I used to just follow up the nightly reading assignments with intermittent pop quizzes. The quizzes were short (about 5 questions), easy (multiple-choice), and tested the recall of major facts from the previous night’s reading (no trick questions). The idea was: if you did the reading, you should know the answers to these questions. If you didn’t know, then, in all probability, you didn’t do the reading.

The reading quizzes were a fine source of accountability for about 80% of my students, but I realized this year that a few of my students regularly failed these quizzes even if they did read — even if they did my version of active reading.

So new strategy. Every day I pick a random student, check their book to see if they did the routine, then give them a quick oral quiz. I give them a 5-point assessment based on their apparent recall and understanding of the reading — taking into account, however, their personal strength as a reader. It’s more subjective but seems, paradoxically, more fair.

I then work with the class as a whole in assembling a cumulative set of master notes about the books. I’m a visual learner so I try to organize this information as visually as possible through heavy use of the SMART Board.

We start with a basic table of major plot events, which takes on more columns as students notice what the major conflict is and what sub-plots also emerge. Eventually these plots and sub-plots get mapped out onto a graph of overlapping narrative arcs.

We also create an ever-expanding web of characters to show how characters relate to one another and group themselves into various roles.

My 7th graders further create a map of the settings of the book as we go along.

I then lead my class to scan through the previous night’s reading and highlight together major quotes, discussing as we go along what may make these passages particularly resonant, what meanings seem to be developing.

At the end I have the fodder for half of my unit test: characters, plot, setting/motifs, and quotes. All of which I am confident I covered thoroughly and fairly in class.

After we finish the book, I have more ponderous discussions with my classes about the themes and issues these stories seem to address.

Addendum

I’ve thought about posting these class notes onto the class web site. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. I do want students to go through the motions (I call it guided practice) of copying down the notes themselves. It’s also a hassle to take that extra few steps to export and upload those notes onto the web site. For now, I’m going to let it go.

One of the necessary chores for any returning teacher from summer vacation is the class cleanup.

Here’s what I did last year.

I’m a pack rat and pile-organizer so the first step I took this year was emptying everything and spreading it out so I can take a look at what I had. The biggest culprit was the closet, which has become my default catchall.

Among many sighs, I allocated lots to the trash bin, some to less conspicuous pile-up spots, and the rest to their proper place. Here’s the closet after:

Much better. I cleaned up my bookshelves a bit:

I moved the largely unused iMac from the corner of the room to its current place under the bookshelves. I was also unhappy with how cluttered the back wall looked. Last year I used it to post up student visuals from creative projects, but it kind of looked like a mess. So this year, I just opted for a cleaner layout of graphics semi-relevant to the curricular themes of the year:

The front of the classroom looks pretty much the same, though:

I did more work on the window side of my room. Here you can see that I set up some display racks for my collection of 8th grade memoirs (the racks were discarded by another teacher):

Underneath the windows I set up some space for my VHS videos and magazines (for collage projects).

The most visually arresting change was the graphic I put up on the windows. To echo the memoirs project in the 8th grade, I blew up a free stock photo, printed it out on overhead transparencies, and pieced them together with tape right onto the windows:

I feel like things are at Defcon 3 right now. Maybe Defcon 4. I’m sick and don’t really feel like doing anything but vegging and sleeping right now. My house is crowded with guests, one of whom smokes like a chimney. Every time I get within 10 feet of him I feel like my throat is singeing.

The end of the trimester is around the corner, and I’m allowing my grading inbox to pile up when I should really be aggressively whittling it down. I feel anxious that I’m not giving certain families enough of a heads up how their child is or is not progressing in my class.

My email is also going unread, and I’m not make the preparations I need to for major projects coming ahead.

I feel like I’m struggling not to run this ship into the ground.

MON: Parent-Teacher Conferences; Pop Quiz;

The week began with parent-teacher conferences which took up the entire morning on Monday. I feel very fortunate that all of my conferences went very smoothly.

Because of the conferences, all the class periods were effectively halved. The 7th graders had just enough time for a pop quiz and for me to hand out and explain a homework assignment in which they interview their parents about their feelings about arranged marriages.

I gave the 8th graders new seating assignments and we had a brief discussion of The Secret Life of Bees revolving around — what else? — the essential questions.

TUE: QALI DRAWINGS

My school is hosting a juried art show all week long and the upper school art teacher who is organizing it has invited all the middle school English classes to come take a look. Therefore, all week long I’ve devoted half of my hour-block classes to visit the art show. I didn’t have anything terribly creative or relevant planned for these classes as they perused for half an hour, but it was a welcome respite for all to just get out of the classroom and see something different.

I only had my 7th graders today. Thinking of the juried art show, I gave them an assignment where they were sketch out their own qalis, rugs that represented who they were and where they came from. A little busy-worky, but the kids seemed to like doing something personal and artistic.

WED: QUOTES ON BLOGS; MEMOIRS PROJECT INTRO

Today I decided to give all my classes a heads-up about my paternity leave absence and what they should expect for the first half of the next trimester. I told them that I expected them to take turns writing once a week on their blogs and to comment on their classmates’ blogs when it wasn’t their turn to write. I also gave them some blog homework to practice that routine.

For my 7th graders, I had one person on their table pick a quote from the night’s reading. The rest of their table had to discuss the importance/significance of that quote. We also reviewed for the vocabulary quiz that they were going to take tomorrow.

For my 8th graders, I formally introduced the memoirs project and discussed the in-class essay that was going to wrap up The Secret Life of Bees.

THUR: VOCAB QUIZ; LETTER TO SELF

The 7th graders took their vocab quiz today. After their quiz, I gave them a quick tutorial on how to sign up for and subscribe to blogs using an RSS reader.

I did another memoir vignette exercise with my 8th graders today: the letter to your future self. I gave each student a piece of paper and an envelope. They were to write a letter to themselves that they would read and respond to at the end of the year. I assured them that I myself would not read their letters and that they could write whatever they wanted to themselves. I gave them these possible suggestions, though:

• A set of goals and resolutions
• A reflection on their time in middle school
• Advice to follow for the year
• A description of their current situation and state of mind at the beginning of the year

The 8th graders responded really positively and enthusiastically to this assignment. I followed it up with a homework assignment designed to begin our review of The Secret Life of Bees: I assigned pairs of students chapters to review. For their chapter they were to, on the wiki, copy the bee quote that prefaced the chapter and summarize the major plot points of that chapter.

FRI: Riddle Contest; Personal Symbols

We ended the week in 7th grade with a riddle-exchange with the other 7th grade classes. The day before I e-mailed my co-worker five of the best riddles from each class and got back, in return, five riddles from each of her classes. I presented her classes’ riddles to my classes, and we spent the class period trying to guess them.

In addition to their reading homework for the weekend, I asked my 7th graders to finish their qali drawings.

I collected signatures from my 8th grade classes regarding the memoirs project. We then reviewed the wiki, and I tried to show how the bee quotes reflected the major plot turns in each chapter. This turned into an involved discussion of the personal symbols used throughout the book: mothers, bees, and the Virgin Mary.

One thing I forgot to mention in Week 8: On Friday, I set up a table on the wiki for the 8th graders to come sign up and meet with me for a personal conference on their Williamsburg paper. Not everyone did, but I guess that’s okay.

MON: Etymology of words & Secret Life of Bees, Ch. 3-4

My 7th grade classes got a titillating lecture on etymology. I started off talking about what etymology means and briefly looking at the etymology of the word “etymology” itself. I then took a look at the etymology of the word “musk”. I explained that musk is a substance that has a distinctive smell that used to be very common in perfumes. In contemporary usage it refers to similar substances or similar smells (I mentioned Tag and Axe body colognes as examples they could relate to). I showed them how they could use a collegiate or unabridged dictionary to get a detailed etymology of the word and then showed them how they could also use online dictionaries such as Answer.com or Merriam-Webster Online.

I showed them how “musk” came into English usage in the late 14th century and how it had a history of derivation starting from Middle English all the way back to Old Persian. I discussed how we could infer the spread of the word through history by looking at these derivations. We took a more detailed look at the etymology using Etymonline, a really great online reference. It seems that the Persian word meant “testicles” (giggles) and that it was related to their word for “mouse” because that’s what they thought testicles resembled (guffaws). Yes, it was low-brow and gross but the students quickly agreed when I said that understanding a word’s etymology not only provided an interesting history lesson but also an aid to remembering the meaning of a word.

I then assigned each student one or few words to look up the definition and etymology to as homework. They were to post their findings on their blog. They, of course, also had two chapters of reading: 12-13.

My 8th graders began class with a pop quiz. I then passed back a number of assignments I had been holding. We then talked about how the novel refers to historical events such as the Birmingham Bombing. We talked about the use of bees, mothers, and the virgin mary as symbols throughout the book. We talked about how Lily both yearned for a place to belong but also seemed to resist it as she lied to August about her situation. I don’t know if it’s me or the class in general, but there’s a general malaise that’s infecting the class. I’m being very testy and the class is being very uppity.

I assigned them chapter 5 to read for homework.

TUE: Vocabulary, Cont. & In-class reading

I gave out a sheet of paper that had all the vocabulary words on it to my 7th graders. It had a column for each word’s part of speech, definition, original language, and original definition. The students had to collaborate with their classmates to fill in the sheet completely.

While they were doing that I started calling over each student one by one and asking them to give me their blog addresses so that I had a list of every student’s blog. I finished class by announcing they had three more chapters to read for homework: 14-16.

My 8th grade class got another pop quiz. I’m starting to dread this class. Dana, my wife, is noting that I seemed happier last year. I don’t think it’s the class itself per se — there’s a lot of personal stuff going on that I’m shoving under the rug — but this class is bringing out the worst in me. I threatened to keep giving them pop quizzes until they shaped up.

They had two chapters to read for homework (6-7). To ease their burden, I gave them the hour block to read in class while I took down their blog addresses as I did with my 7th grade classes. Of course, there was a lot of chit chatting going on, and I got fed up. I threatened those who were talking with a written homework assignment: three paragraphs describing the three Boatwright sisters, respectively.

The problem with threats is that they’re often all bark, no bite. You wave a stick and hope you don’t have to use it. God knows the last thing I need is a bunch more papers to grade. But I knew I had to bite today, let the class know that I’m crabby enough to be mean — that I wanted a different tone in the classroom — if not more respectful then at least more fearful. At the end of class about five students ended up getting the homework assignment. They weren’t happy, and I wasn’t happy, but it came to that.

WED: Vocabulary; Personal Symbol Assignment

I spent the 7th grade periods going over the classwork assignment from the day before. Most of the students did the work, but I thought it was worth everybody having consistent, accurate information that they could study from for their vocabulary quiz.

My Block 1 class, which had a drop block yesterday, complained that they didn’t know that I expected them to stick to the reading schedule even when there wasn’t any class. Given that it was Halloween, I didn’t assign any more reading for homework.

My 8th grade class was a little more sober today. We started with a pop quiz and then discussed a writing assignment that my co-worker came up with. I kind of regret resorting to that assignment in class. The timing is off; I don’t want to bring up any writing while the students’ Williamsburg paper is still hanging over their heads. But I didn’t think and went with it. I had them brainstorm a symbol that represented themselves. I didn’t assign any reading, but had them post a picture of their symbol on their blog. Eventually they’ll start a memoir vignette based on that symbol, but I might hold off on that until later.

THUR: Anahita’s Suitors; SLOB Discussion

The 7th grade classes started with a pop quiz. It seems to make sense with Anahita’s Woven Riddle that they get pop quizzes after every section of the book since there’s several such sections and each one seems to have a theme of some sort. These pop quizzes not only enable me to check that everyone’s reading but also gives me an opportunity to use the quiz to review several chapters worth of reading.

The class discussion revolved around Anahita’s suitors and how they might represent different traits or aspects of her culture. We ended with a quick animated debate over who would end up winning Anahita’s hand in marriage. They were then assigned chapters 17-18 to read for homework.

I didn’t give my 8th graders a pop quiz to reward them for their behavior the day before. Instead we started class with a brainstorming of descriptive properties of their personal symbol. I really wish I hadn’t brought up this assignment when I did. I might just silently kill it and bring it up again later.

We had another class discussion about the novel. The essential questions are a good framework for structuring these discussions, but I’m starting to feel like I’m using them too much as a crutch. The discussions seem lifeless; I feel like I’m going through the motions. I really need to be reading the book along with my students. I need more time!

I assigned them chapter 8 to read for homework

FRI: RSS Feeds; Group Notes

I spent my 7th grade classes showing them how to subscribe to RSS feeds on Bloglines and Google Reader. I re-emphasized the distinction between doing things the “official” way and the “un-official” way — something my 8th graders don’t seem to get.

The 7th graders seem to follow along okay, but I think I really should keep putting tech tutorials on video — students really seem to utilize them to go through the process step-by-step.

I told my 8th grade classes that I worried that no one was taking notes. As a result, I gave each table group a poster-sized piece of paper and some colored markers. I then assigned each table group one of the essential questions. They were to write as many notes on that question as they could. Later on, as the activity started to wane, I directed each person in each table group to find a unique quote relevant to their question and add it onto their paper.

It was a good exercise. Students were involved (my classes are getting too passive and I’m talking too much) and some valuable review got accomplished.

We started the week with an extended weekend to write mid-tri comments.

MON: Day off (Mid-tri comments)

TUE: Riddles

I started Anahita’s Woven Riddle with a pop quiz. I used to give a lot more of these pop quizzes earlier on in the school year last year, but I guess I was too wrapped up in the tech stuff this year to do so. What’s great about giving a number of these pop quizzes, though, is that it definitely motivates kids to keep up with the reading schedule, and it immediately singles out the kids early on that are not reading.

After the quiz we parsed the riddle Anahita poses to her father in the first chapter and came up with a simple formula to make a similar riddle: give an obvious clue (about a property of the answer), a not-so-obvious clue, and a metaphorical clue (based on a metaphorical view of the answer).

I gave them chapters 3-4 for reading homework.

The 8th graders had a drop block today.

WED: Essential Questions

I started the 7th grade classes by having each table group come up with a riddle based on yesterday’s formulation. As they came to an agreement about their riddle, I had them write the riddles on the board and then had the entire class try to guess at the riddles. The formula we came up with actually held up pretty well, and I was surprised at how good some of these riddles were.

We then took a moment to review the characters we’ve encountered so far in the book. We also took a look at the essential questions for the book. Using the general essential questions for the year, I try to tailor more specific ones for each book we read. The idea is to give these questions ahead of time so that students know what in particular to pay attention to as they read. It gives some guidance for active reading and some clues as to how I’ll frame essay questions later on. A good idea might be to give students bookmarks with the questions printed on them.

I’m a bit of a dilemma about how helpful I should be in helping my students organize their knowledge about the books we read. On the one hand, I could follow my instincts from the beginning of the year and have my students form an extensive reference on the wiki, outlining each character and plot point. I suppose that could be a good model of the kind of notes they should be taking as they read, but it also could be a good excuse not to read at all. I kind of dropped the wiki idea for now.

For homework, I had the students read chapters 5-6 and post a riddle of their creation on their blogs.

As for my eighth grade classes, we also went over the essential questions for their new book, The Secret Life of Bees. The first chapter of the book, which they should have read, is a long one and stages the rest of the book, so it was good to cover the essential questions when we did. We also did a vocabulary refresher to help them prepare for their vocabulary quiz tomorrow.

THUR: Suitor Portraits; Vocab Quiz #2

We did a fun art activity in the 7th grade classes today. The past several chapters in Anahita’s Woven Riddle has been devoted to profiling each of Anahita’s potential suitors, so I assigned each table group one of the suitors (one of the tables did Anahita herself) and had them:

1. find descriptions and characteristics of that suitor in their respective chapter and
2. draw the suitor on a large poster-sized paper.

For homework they have to read three more chapters: 7-9.

My 8th graders had a vocabulary quiz today. After the quiz we went over the five major sentence patterns, and I hinted that we would learn how to diagram sentences later on in the school year. The sentence patterns we went over are found at http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/twsent.html:

1. S + V
2. S + LV + Subject-Complement
3. S + V + DO
4. S + V + IO + DO
5. S + V + DO + Object-Complement

For homework, I had them read the next chapter (2) in The Secret Life of Bees. Last year I had a less intense reading schedule for my 8th graders, but I’m looking over the amount of time we have before the end of the trimester, and it looks like it’s going to have to be pretty much a chapter a night if we’re going to finish the book in time.

FRI: The Dating Game; 8th Grade Blog Feeds

Picking up from yesterday’s activity, our class role-played the Dating Game using Anahita and her suitors. It was a fun activity, but it reminded me again how great it would be if I did some effective improv drama activities with my classes.

We had a relatively forgettable discussion, and then I assigned chapters 10-11 to read for homework.

My 8th graders went back to the computer lab to learn how to subscribe to RSS feeds using Bloglines. More chaos and frustration. I’m starting to hear a lot of bitching and moaning about the blogs. Hmmmm.

Doesn’t help that we’re plowing through the reading while they’re deep in the throes of their Williamsburg project. Must remember to do a less involving book during this time period next year. They had to read chapters 3-4 over the weekend (chapter 3 is short).