Rhythm, Meter, and the capture of Anne Frank

Some of my 9th graders surprised me today by analyzing and interpretting poetry. I used their names as a way to break up a word into syllables and mark which are stressed and unstressed. They seemed to understand the concept. I then read them a poem and we went through stanza by stanza and figured out what the poet was trying to say. Two of my problem students were on fire! I guess what I'm trying to say is that I felt this awe that they were actually rereading and deeply thinking about what the poem meant. I received their semester final and I've gotta say that standardized testing cannot measure a students strengths, weaknesses, or abilities of intellectual thought. What I think it does is show which students can regurgitate information. But how can they do that? There is no study guide. Some of the stuff on the test will never be used in practical terms, unless one was an English or linguistics major.

The 8th graders finished Anne Frank and we watched the rest of the video. My only problem is that sometimes they ask me questions about Anne's life that I cannot answer. But I look at this as a learning experience for us all. Their final is basically reading comprehension. I don't see them having any problems.

Next week is my last week. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I have grown attached to them, even the problem ones.