Assignments

They Sure Done Good This Time

February 9, 2011
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I sort have been giving my lone eighth grade class the short shrift in this here blog lately. I guess that’s because I’m so busy trying to keep my head above water. In my 18 years here, this is the third time I’ve had an eighth grade class. And the last time was 8 years ago. Not that I’m whining or anything. One of my fave things from back then was a tie-in to The Pigman. Since Mr. Pignati was, you know, old, I made them interview someone at least 60 years old. Then they turned the Q/A into a biographical sketch. Then I even made them present a brief (60 seconds or so–you know how short my attention span is) summary of the interview. This year, we went from Maus, with Artie Speigelman creating art from his interviews with his Holocaust survivor father, to The Pigman. So the “grandma interviews” were especially appropriate. I remember last time that I started the assignment with a minimum age of 70, but I had too many kids who couldn’t find someone that old to talk to. This year I went for 60, but most of the interviewees ended up being 70+. There

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“-isms” Part II (KBAR)

December 9, 2008
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Continuing (finally – boy howdy, it’s been a bit nutty lately) Mr. Coward-isms #8: 8. KBAR(R) – When I started at my school (1993), they had an independent reading program they called Kick Back and Read (KBAR). Mostly, it was a chart with a picture of Snoopy on it. Actually there were two kinds of charts. One was simply four columns labeled: Date, Time Read, Pages Read, Parent Signature. The instructions at the top of the sheet talked about reading for 15-20 minutes and cooperation at home. The other sheet was arranged a bit differently, but asked for the same info. The difference was that this one made room for an area called “Material Read.” The space was room enough for about two sentences. Most teachers asked the kids to summarize what they’d read. Halfway through that first year here, I went to a CATE conference. This was back when the district actually paid for your hotel and such. I was pretty stoked. One thing I noticed was how all the veterans would run in to a presentation, grab the handouts offered, and bolt for the next one. I actually sat through most of them. One lady talked about having

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Day One

August 27, 2008
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The first day is always so… well mostly they sit and stare. Some aren’t used to having to do something on the first day. My “faves” are the ones with the fat binder… WITH NO PAPER! Hello?! What’s up with that? Or toting the giant backpack that half of them could fit in… WITH NOTHING TO WRITE WITH! Anyway. I’m getting going on my Outsiders stuff a little earlier this year. We read Motto today, and I divvied the class up into thirds to try to translate how he uses the words cool, dig, and jive. They were a bit (a lot) tentative, but we did OK. Some of them set me up nicely by trying to translate slang with other slang, so we could compare that with looking up vocabulary in the dictionary and having the definition be a word they don’t know either. They seemed to enjoy Geetz Romo, and his explanation of the concept of digging. Wait, they dug it. Dig? And that led us to the new let’s-see-how-they-write-at-the-beginning-of-the-year assignment. I think one will be fun to read. Here’s today’s agenda. (I hesitate to call it a lesson plan, but…)

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New Stuff Since Last Year

August 24, 2008
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I have a few new things to lay on the kids this year when we read The Outsiders. I found a groovy audio file that demonstrates the use of the word dig as a slang term. It comes from an old vinyl record called How to Speak Hip, and although it came out in 1959 (about 8 years before The Outsiders is set), it is still a very groovy way to show the kids how versatile and expressive the word dig is to Pony and the rest. The Meaning of the Word “Dig” So now I’m going to combine this with the poem “Motto” by Langston Hughes (that I already use as one of the intro pieces for The Outsiders), and then I’ll be busting a new let’s-see-how-they-write-at-the-beginning-of-the-year assignment on them. Go here for that. I also added a few new outside links to the Outsiders page. One is to the primetime TV lineup for 1967, another goes to the top music of the time, and another gives some good pop culture and technology references.

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Random Featured Post

Three-Word Phrases

Seventh graders “communicate” mostly in three-word phrases. If the phrase isn’t really only three words long, they can usually pare it down. “What’d I miss?” It sounds like  “Wuddeyemiss.” And it always comes right as you’re starting class. Raise your hand if you have had this happen in the past week. Past three days? Today? AAAAAARGH.  They want 54 stellar, well-planned and executed minutes of instruction summarized for them in 30 seconds as the class bustles in.  What did you miss? “Absolutely nothing. You might as well take the rest of the year off. CHECK THE WEB PAGE! COME BACK AT BREAK!” “Oh yeah. I forgot.” LOL (These days, they’re getting it down to three-letter phrases.) “What’s my grade?” This one is usually from the kid whose grade is in the bottom 15% , and s/he finally turned something in, and wants immediate gratification. And it always happens right in the middle of something else, something totally unrelated.  Yesterday we were talking about how Charlotte is finally seeing Captain Jaggery for what he really is. (Aside: If you haven’t read The True Adventures of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, I highly recommend it. I picked it up a few years ago [...]

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Mr. Coward has been teaching on the beautiful central coast of California since 1989.

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Recent Comments

  • mrC commented on It’s Go Time!@Sarah-Most excellent! Keep up the good work, and don't let any of them talk you out of it. Glad to hear your kids recognize the value too. Fight the good fight!
  • Mrs. M~ commented on Illin’Feel better soon! There is nothing worse than being at school and trying to be "on" when you feel like death.
  • Sarah commented on It’s Go Time!I just came across your blog...I am a second year teacher and I am currently reading The Outsiders aloud to my seventh graders. I read it to them last year, too. I catch a lot of criticism for reading it to them...but they LOVE to have me read to them. I actually had a group
  • joan commented on Illin’I'm on day two of out-with-the-crud. I needed the rest. Hope you're in tip top shape by Monday!
  • mrC commented on “The Sub Used One of Your Sticks!”That one oughta be strung up like they used to do to horse thieves.
  • Heather commented on “The Sub Used One of Your Sticks!”The last sub I had left no note at all and broke the arm of my spinny chair by leaning back in it so far that he fell in the floor. The kids all said he was the best sub ever. I politely asked the school secretary to never have him sub in
  • mrC commented on The Future of Space Travel@Heather: Gawd I hate that. I think I even posted about it awhile back. @Kelli: This reminds me of high school. I went to a Jesuit high school (all boys) and for our Friday football rallies, we would import cheerleaders from other schools to be a part of the rally. And the girls would always begin
  • Heather commented on The Future of Space TravelMy eighth graders just have the habit of prefacing every question with, "I have a question." And announcing "I'm done" when they complete an assignment.
  • Kelli commented on The Future of Space TravelIs it bad that I sometimes start my stories with "Okay, so...."...? I guess the kids have rubbed off on me. Sigh.
  • Kelli commented on Blogging the Scoring Session (Part I)Ugh! Been there. I have been to those "Scoring and Rubric" type meetings in two different states now... Not fun, and not entirely informative, either.
  • Meg commented on No Groove Yet (Also: The Giver and No Homework Returns)There was a district I student taught in that hand the no fail policy. I child could not be held back a grade, even if they did absolutely nothing the whole year, until they were in high school. It took most of the middle schoolers about 3 seconds to realize they didn't have
  • Kelli commented on No Groove Yet (Also: The Giver and No Homework Returns)You know, that whole "no-zero" policy goes hand-in-hand with the "no-failure" or "no-retention" policy, and my school district is a definite contributor to this madness. I can understand the desire to stop giving zeros and MAKE the kids do the work (giving countless opportunities until successful), but I have been in a situation where
  • commented on Obligatory Santa VideoWe have an unofficial "no zero" policy. It takes a little extra effort on the teacher's part to get all of the students to complete their assignments but we have made it work. The thing that was most helpful was instituting a "homework detention" that is separate from discipline detention. If a

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