Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I tried doing a warm-up exercise using analogies with the 9th graders. This fell flat because many of the students didn't know what most of the words were. I will try this again using easier words and hopefully they'll be able to at least see the relationships. I returned previous work and corrected the spell checker handout with them. It was apparent that most of them didn't read the story, so we started to read it aloud. I could tell that many of them could not relate to the ingredients of the fruitcake, so I asked them "How many of you have tamales around Christmas time?" At this point, the room lit up and almost all of them explained the ingredients and how to make them. I then related what they traditionally do with what was happening in the story.

I took your advice and broke the story up into specific sections: setting/plot, irony, climax, and foreshadow, and had the class form groups to answer specific questions using the literary terms. These questions came straight from the textbook. I indicated what parts they should reread. I plan to have them share with the class what they found. This exercise worked out better than I expected with two of the groups reading through the passages and answering the questions. One group failed miserably even though it had two very smart students who thought talking was more important.

What can I say about my 8th graders? There are only three of them and they work very hard and want to get good grades. I believe one of them might have ADD. I caught her day dreaming twice while I was lecturing. One of the nice things about these girls is that they help each other. We will be starting "Flowers for Algernon" next week. I'm thinking 1 1/2-2 weeks for this one.

The Options Program at Granger is very strict. The students can only come to school and then leave right after their last class. None of them can participate in any extracurricular activities. However, if they pass this semester, they can finish the school year in regular classes. Most are in there because they failed 2 classes or more. Some are in there because they are disruptive. Any violations of the rules in the classroom, the student is sent to O-class right after school. They can spend anywhere from an hour to three hours after school. The teacher that runs O is very military strict, so the students try harder to behave.

Miss Reese is great! She sets the tone at the beginning of the day and for three hours, the 9th graders are pretty good for the most part. There are a few problem children, but I know they're trying. Miss Reese is sweet and nice, but very stern. It's a good lead to follow. Sometimes they try to take advantage of me, but I've been fine tuning my "look," and they get the message.