Teaching The Outsiders (and more) – Page 34 – Middle school teaching: Five shows a day, 180 days a year.

Reading

Library Day

mrC

Library orientation day. No teaching, just riding herd, giving reminders, shushing, etc. We’re meeting tomorrow in the computer lab to have them take the STAR reading test, so I can get a general reading level on them, and know what I’m dealing with reading-wise. We have an older version than the one they tout on […]

Other activities, Presenting the Book, Stories of Seventh Grade, The Outsiders

“It’s all about the love, then.”

mrC

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 […]

Seventh Grade Behavior, Stories of Seventh Grade

The Silent Treatment

mrC

Back to school tomorrow. No break until Halloween. (The district got smart this year, and scheduled what used to be called an in-service day. I think now they’re called Staff Development. (Sounds like a SPAM header.) Before we go back to work, I just hafta tell this story (again). It must have been about six […]

Presenting the Book, Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders, Tips

Read The Outsiders aloud…

mrC

I have been teaching The Outsiders ever since I started teaching junior high. The only “required” novel when I got to my school in 1993 was Tom Sawyer. The “approved” novels were shtuff like A Day no Pigs Would Die and Where the Red Fern Grows. Ummm, no offense, but I couldn’t cope. (Actually, I […]

Seventh Grade Behavior, The Outsiders

“Sorry about that Chief.” (also: Hippies!)

mrC

I really did mean to post yesterday, but my fine web host decided it was a fine time to botch an upgrade, and my sites were inaccessible until this morning. Sorry about that. And the even more beauty part was that last night was Back to School Night, when I like to showcase to parents […]

Assignments, Seventh Grade Behavior

Day One

mrC

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 […]

Outside links

Shameless Plugs

mrC

School starts tomorrow. Even after 18 years of doing this, I still get excited. Anyway, here are a couple of shameless plugs: Brainscramble.com – Wacky wordies, trick questions, what I like to call Mental Floss. Great for Friday warm ups or so-called sponge activities (do they still call them that?) or just to get the […]

Supplementary Materials

More New Shtuff

mrC

Tomorrow’s a “teacher work day.” The kids start Tuesday. I have actually been trying to get into the groove a little earlier this year… I revamped my class expectations sheet(.pdf) this year. I had sort of gotten into a rut each year of basically changing the year (or maybe a cosmetic change or two) and […]

Assignments, Outside links, Supplementary Materials

New Stuff Since Last Year

mrC

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

Getting Close…

mrC

Welcome to Teaching The Outsiders. This is yet another attempt at blogging; the last couple have sort of petered out, and there were some administrative “issues” as well, and…well…anyway. This one will follow me and my seventh graders through the process of reading S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. That’s the plan anyway. I have said […]