Category: The Giver
(2014) Jonas = Harry Potter?
The following rerun was supposed to be posted last night while I was watching the season premiere of Survivor. As you can probably tell from the title, we are reading The Giver right now. And they are digging it. You know how it goes with this one: “This is weird.” Yes. It is. I told […]
Continue Reading...“You May Lie” (as Always)
We’re reading The Giver right now. Most years this is the first book I make them read mostly at home. After reading The Outsiders and The Midwife’s Apprentice and Maus almost entirely out loud in class and demoing to them how to do this, I usually cut them loose on The Giver and go old […]
Continue Reading...Ooooh, He’s Hawt!
I know I am probably behind the curve on this one, but since we just finished The Giver, it was big news for my classes and me. The long-awaited movie version will actually be a reality. August 15th is the date it is scheduled to hit a theater near you. Jeff Bridges, who was the […]
Continue Reading...Jonas = Harry Potter?
You thought I was dun fer, as ol’ Huck might have said. But as the late, lamented Mrs. Krabapple used to say, HA! To paraphrase Sir Mixalot… Baby, I’m back. As you can probably tell from the title, we are reading The Giver right now. And they are digging it. You know how it goes […]
Continue Reading...Questions and Answers (re: Giver)
“So what exactly is a cult?” “A baby horse.” (No lie. I got it all day on Monday.) “A bunch of people who wear robes.” “So if I wear a robe, I could be in a cult?” “Yeah!” “They chant and moan a lot.” “And sing really bad in a weird language.” (me) “I think […]
Continue Reading...Turkey Baster?
It’s Giver time, and we hit chapter 5 today. The Stirrings! One of my favorite things to read aloud to a class of easily embarrassed 7th graders. Today, I’m going to rerun the post from this time a few years ago (2009!), when there was a decidedly vocal reaction to Jonas’s dream. I’ll be back […]
Continue Reading...A Moment of Insightful Self-Awareness (and Then It’s Gone)
I have one of those kids this year whom it’s really hard to get mad at because: 1) He’s funny, and 2) He just can’t help it. Really. When someone says something, and he reacts, you can almost see the marionette strings being yanked as he does one of those double-take head shakes like in […]
Continue Reading...No Groove Yet (Also: The Giver and No Homework Returns)
I don’t know about you guys (remember the old Electric Company intro: “Hey You Guys!”), but I’m having trouble finding any sort of groove so far in 2012. The kids are all dopey and spacey (I know; how can you tell?), nothing much is happening around school, my student servant doesn’t even have much to […]
Continue Reading...“EWWWW! Why would you volunteer for that?”
We’re about eight chapters into The Giver. They can’t cope. Just like always. Usually I don’t do a lot of “prereading prep” when we do novels. I prefer to dive right in and sort of explain/let them figure things out along the way. I think too much prep biases them or raises expectations or whatever. I […]
Continue Reading...Playing God II
OK, I’m finally going to finish the bomb shelter story. Maybe. After we finished The Giver, we had a couple of days before Christmas to sort of debrief and discuss. We talked about “the end justifying the means” and such, and if it is OK to sacrifice one innocent to save multiple others. (Here’s Part […]
Continue Reading...Vacation Hiatus
Has it really been that long? Is vacation almost over? I know there are some districts out there that get three weeks for winter break, but we go back on Monday. I haven’t even touched any of the piles I left behind in the classroom. In fact, since I took the day off that last […]
Continue Reading...Playing God (Part One)
I’m out of action for family bidness tomorrow and Friday, so today was my last day of 2009. I accidentally leaked the info early to one period, (the girls’ club) so they brought snacks today and sorta forced me into a “party” of sorts. I have never been able to resist a good snickerdoodle, or […]
Continue Reading...The Ending (Also: ____ing beyond.)
We finished The Giver today. As usual, they all hated the ending. Well, hate is such an inexact word, as they would say in the Community. They don’t really hate the ending; they are frustrated by it, they find it unsatisfying. “Did they die or what? Did they make it?” “What do you think?” In […]
Continue Reading...Sweet Release
They read chapter 19 in The Giver last night, and so the Q/A period before the daily reading quiz had a bit of a different tone. Many had read ahead, or read the book in a previous class (curse thee once more, ye cursed book thieves), so the release of the twin wasn’t the blow […]
Continue Reading...Snow?
I’m not dead yet. It’s just been a bit busy ’round these parts lately. And I’ve been sleeping in for five days, so I’m still a little dopey. Even most of the kids were quiet today; they looked sort of tattered. “Where’s all the left-over pie I asked for?” “Everybody in my family went eeewww […]
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