Tom Sawyer

Still Here Blogging… (Wiki Wiki)

January 23, 2009
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It’s been a weird week. We had Monday off for MLK. I was on call for jury duty on Tuesday, so I had a sub (sorry, they’re called guest teachers @ Laguna). To make it easy, I had the guest teacher administer the “District Benchmark Exam Part II,” the results of which I’m not sure what to do with. Mostly our English department has been ignoring them, saying the tests don’t really test what they claim to. Also, everyone covers the various standards at various times throughout the year – I don’t do a research paper until the spring, so we haven’t talked much about citing sources – so the idea of testing standards a-g in the beginning of the year, and standards h-m during the middle part, and so forth, just doesn’t work very well. Plus, why do I need to waste three class periods from my precious allotment giving yet another test? Anyway, I had the guest teacher give them the test, and I’ll figure out what to do with the results later. Then we were in the computer lab on Wednesday, to work on the Tom Sawyer Moodle. This is the main reason I’ve been lagging on

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Doodle Prank and Panic

January 14, 2009
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Doodle Prank and Panic

Last Friday’s doodle theme was pranks. We don’t hit chapter nine in Tom Sawyer (the murder in the graveyard – where the plot finally begins) until tomorrow, so the book has mostly been the Pranks of Tom Sawyer. On Thursday we had talked about the part where Tom, after pelting Sid with dirt clods, chooses to elude Aunt Polly by climbing the fence instead of using the gate. They always take Mark Twain literally when he says that Tom was usually “too pressed for time” to use the gate. “How many of you have ever had to run from a prank? Not that I want to hear any details. But most of you will agree that the escape is part of the fun; juking around hedges, and crawling under fences, that’s half the fun.” Now they get it. Anyway, the doodle theme was pranks. At the end of the period, in my friendly class, I hear some giggling and nudge-nudge-ing. Then Kara (who’s dad was actual rock star) raises her hand, and asks, “Do you look at these doodles?” “Duh. My student assistants check them first, and we pick the ones that deserve extra credit.” “Uh oh.” “What? What did

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TomWikiSawyerPedia

January 12, 2009
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TomWikiSawyerPedia

A lot of the kids have been having trouble getting through the early chapters of Tom Sawyer. Mostly it’s the vocabulary, though for some it’s the fact that they don’t bother to read it. Once we go over the reading in class, or I explain as we read aloud, they get it, and they like it. Today in class, we’re reading chapter 6 which begins with Tom trying to get out of school by pretending to be sick. “How many of you have ever faked sick to try to get out of school?” Almost every hand goes up. “Nothing changes in 170 years, does it?” They like Mark Twain’s sarcastic sense of humor, and how the goody-goody Sid is obviously a fool in Mark Twain’s eyes too. And they love the pranks. But it’s still tough, especially for the first six or eight chapters. Every year I struggle with how to get them to read it, and get them to get it. This year I’m trying an experiment. Our county office of schools hosts a Moodle server, and I use it a lot in my class. I have a whole Langston Hughes project we do online that includes quizzes and

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There were tears in our eyes.

January 9, 2009
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We’re reading Tom Sawyer now. Future posts will address the increasing difficulty with reading that book with today’s seventh graders. I’ll also talk about what we’re doing and all that. But now, I just have another classic seventh grade line to share. Yesterday, we were going over chapter three, where Tom sees Becky (“The Adored Unknown”) for the first time, and falls in love. He shows off for her and she tosses a pansy over her shoulder. They always ask why he picks it up with his foot. “Being a boy, he can’t be seen picking up a flower. So he’s trying to be all nonchalant about it” There are also always some that ask what a pansy is, even after I just get through with my previous response. This time though, a girl in my friendly class says, “Oh, now I get it. It was a pansy, like the flower. Phew. I was a little worried about this book. I kept wondering.” “Why?” “I thought it said panties.” Let’s all just take a moment to contemplate the reaction a seventh grade class might have to a line like this. Pandemonium.  I counted at least three kids laughing so hard

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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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