“This will be both the easiest and the hardest writing assignment of the year.” “I’m confused.” OMG…If there’s a motto for this year’s crew, that’s it. When last we met, my kids and I were reading Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B,” and I was assigning them the same task that introduces the poem. “OK. Let’s look again at the assignment in the poem.” Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you— Then, it will be true. “What does he mean by the word ‘true’? I mean obviously he means not to lie or make up stuff, but what does he really mean?” Eventually we get around to the idea of something truly personal and important. “I want something only YOU could have written. I want to be able to read that paper and go…’That’s Marcia!’ without even looking at the name. Or go…’whoa THAT’S Marcia? I had no idea.’” They start moving their limbs randomly and their facial muscles don’t quite know what to do either. “Bbbbbbut… Do we write about what we like? Or how we ride the bus home from school?” “Does what you like make you what you are? Does your
Middle school teaching: Five shows a day, 180 days a year.
