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.