Already missed a day. Dang.
Tuesday was big day. I introduced KBAR and our first Show not Tell assignment. First KBAR. You can read the KBAR page for yourself, but during the first part of the year, while we are reading The Outsiders aloud in class, I try to use my mutation of our school-wide independent reading program to show them how to read and respond to literature. So as we read live in class, I can demo what they should be doing at home with their books.
Show not Tell is one of me fave ways of getting 7th graders to think writing can be fun…and of getting their writing to be a whole lot less boring to read. After all, I gotta read 140 of whatever, and if they’re not interesting, it’s going to be a slog.
More on both of these later, but I just have to tell about this one before I forget. I think I already have a fave class this year. I know you’re not supposed to pick faves, but…some classes are just more…fun(ny). Today, reading The Outsiders, we were getting to the end of chapter one, and I’m asking them why they think Darry might be treating Pony (seemingly) more harshly than Soda. I try to lead to realizing that, 1) Darry used to have a life, and now he has two teenagers to raise (“How many of you have an older brother or sister who is 6 or 7 years older? Now what if s/he were suddenly Dad/Mom? Get it?”) 2) Darry realizes Pony has a chance to get out of the ‘hood, so to speak; he’s the smart one that can go somewhere, and Darry wants to make sure that happens. So after a few minutes of this, one girl says, “So, it’s all about the love, then?”
Yep.
