Where is the time going?

My plane was delayed on Monday, so I was a little late. I called Susan and she said it was fine and that it would give them more time to work on world geography. Since I was in a hurry when I got home, I didn't have a lesson plan ready. So while I figured out what I was going to do, I had them each tell me what they did during the long weekend and especially on Thanksgiving day. I thought this would get them a little more comfortable speaking in front of people. I followed it up with a reading and analysis of 3 poems: "The Kid," "from John," and "Greensboro Narrative #23." They all liked "The Kid" the best. Maybe because the main character was about their age and could have been either a boy or a girl, because it's not really stated. I also started them on their next writing assignment, comparing news media. I handed out an editorial written by John Gold of The Daily Aztec. It had to do with the basketball brawl between the Pistons and the Pacers. Gold wrote the column as if he was Ron Artest, the player who was suspended. The students had to write one paragraph, commenting on the content and style of the article.

I only had 2 8th graders, so I had them write down what they did for Thanksgiving instead.

On Tuesday, I gave the students a more detailed article from the CBS news website. I told them to compare the new article to the one I gave them yesterday, and write on paragraph commenting on both. Coincidently, a fight had happened the day before and I wanted to use this incident to compare it to the basketball brawl. So I had several students give me a play by play of the fight, including who was involved. There were 7 conflicts that occured. We discussed what happened, and who did what, and finally was it worth it. I then played a video of taped news programs on the basketball brawl. I then had them compare what they saw with the second article they read. Most of them liked the t.v. coverage because they could see the action taking place.

I gave new spelling lists to the 8th graders and let them watch the rest of the video from last week; It's A Wonderful Life. I had one problem student who just could not stop talking. She was absent the day before and it was heaven.

Today, I asked the 9th graders to go over the fight one more time. When a student asked why we were going over it again, I told them that the news constantly repeats events that happen over and over again. This time though, one of the students suggested that they act out what happened. This was interesting and quite appealing to the students. So we went over the fight, step by step. I then played the video one more time and asked them to compare the fight at school with the basketball brawl. "Do the news stations tell the truth? Can you believe what you see because the angles keep changing? How are the fights similar and/or different? Is the news a reliable source of information? or are first hand witnesses a better source because they were actually there?" We also started reading "The Gift of the Magi."

With the 8th graders, we started a new story, "Soft Rains Will Come," which is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury. It is an interesting story that I hope will keep their attention. I've also assigned the next writing assignment; writing a technical document. I told them to write new bylaws in the Options program. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.