This week was a difficult one to keep track of. We had Tuesday off for Election Day, and Wednesday was a short one for the students. This threw off a few of my lesson plans, so we didn't get as much done as I'd hoped for.
English classes were introduced to their next assignment: "Letters About Literature." They are to think of a book that they've recently read that they can personally enjoy and relate to. The students are asked to write a letter to the author of that book and explain their relationship with the character(s), why they appreciate the literature, and what the book has meant to them. We also began to work on some Kansas Writing Strategy exercises to help the students with simple sentences. This will be a huge help for my Action Research project. Rough drafts of book report slides are due this week; it doesn't seem as though many students will be on-time with this project either. We only had about half of the work turned in on Wednesday. Every week they have a few more slides due...we'll see what happens next Wednesday!
In reading we're still trekking through the Tears of a Tiger novel. The students are starting to get antsy with the amount of time we're spending on reading and doing activities; I have to agree with them, it is taking a LONG time to get through this book! I think they enjoy the literature, though, and they want to keep reading; that's a good sign, isn't it? They've got a few new blog prompts posted that they'll be responding to over the next few weeks. I really like the blogs versus writing in class because they can work on these at home, and it also incorporates the whole technology aspect with writing in the classroom.
Kallie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for inviting me to be a part of your Blog. As I reviewed your post, it sounded as if you are establishing a sense of empathy with your student learners with regard to a shared interest in reading, along with a desire for the particular book being read to maintain an increased level of intrigue. Perhaps there might a way to infuse an occasional activity that provides a brief diversion from "just reading" yet contiues to pique the interest of the group. Changing things up from time to time, as long as the activities remain connected to one's original topic, rarely causes harm.
Good Luck!
John Stallings :-)