We FINALLY began reading today.

I also assigned homework - the kids asked for 20 points for doing it. Seemed reasonable. I like letting them choose the points they get for their work. It's a vocab worksheet. We'll see how this comes out.

I need to give them progress reports so they know what their current grades are - this will also let them see how the points they get during the week affect their grade. Hopefully that will make it real and help them feel like they can control their grade.

Most kids haven't brought in binders. I have several extras so I think I'll just give them to the kids and not give them points.

The reading was interesting - the kids who read were very engaged and the kids who didn't read weren't. I guess that's not surprising. I need to find a way for the other kids to be engaged. I think maybe they should be waiting for answers to the short questions. They can have those sheets and listen for when they hear the answer - then all the kids will get points based on that. You know, peer pressure.

I also asked them to end with character maps so we'd have a sense of who we are reading about, their relations to other characters, and some of their personality traits.

All the kids read well - a few unfamiliar vocab words, not pausing sufficiently at commas, and one student had difficulty with words that break across the line.

Oh, and most every student read their do now out loud. That was fantastic. We need more of this.

Tomorrow:
do now
binders for all
short answer questions for non-readers
continuing character maps
finish reading act one scene one
questions and predictions for next week of reading.

english class

today I had plans to finish the apartment collages and vocab.
half the class wasn't there and there was some rumor that we were supposed to be at an assembly. we walked over and were at the wrong place. it was embarrassing because they made a whole big deal about how we weren't supposed to be there -- so the kids were singled out as being academy and soda. we were all made to feel stupid.

back in the classroom we'd lost one kid - who was late anyhow - i marked him as cut. I'll call his mom and let her know.

LT seemed very angry and upset - but the reading magazines and finishing her art project seemed to calm her.

it was a quiet day... so many kids missing. also a really nice day. i turned off the lights and used the window to create a nicer atmosphere. every one worked and chatted to friends - no one was yelling across the room. nancy came and helped out, brought glue sticks, and gave resource secrets away - like who here has what paper, dividers, markers, etc.

i also started w the free write being an interesting question and had people sit apart - everyone wrote! i will continue with this approach for solo work.

honeymoon

The honeymoon is short with a new class. It's established, i'm nice, but not too strict. What that does is students focus when i ask them to, but they don't focus until i ask them to.

things to note: for the do now i asked what values do you think people in the 1950s held based on the videos we watched. people said they didn't know what i meant. that blows my mind. are they playing with me?

conclusion: i will try creative writing prompts for the do nows. the topic oriented stuff is too dry and boring. if they're not engaged in the first couple of minutes it's a recipe for distater.

other observations: things as basic as a collage of the apartment Raisin in the Sun takes place in should be broken down into small steps and demonstrated. I am not clear enough in my instructions - plus I needed to show them an example of what i wanted.

i think i may resort to 2 seating schemes - focus scheme - with desks between all students and silence. collaboration scheme where students can sit near friends or work together on projects as long as they keep working.

I will demonstrate these in class and we can practice them. I need to be more methodical and it's just not my way -- i could use lessons in being a drill seargent.