Day 7: August 30th, 2012

Day 7:

Today I started reading "The Masque of the Red Death" with my 8th graders. They were really good sports when I made them copy down 10 whole vocabulary words and their definitions on a piece of paper before we read the story. I now realize how completely useless that exercise was, but it did take some time. Next time, I will have them choose five out of the 10 vocabulary words and have them fill out word maps. They have to draw of picture of the word, define it in their own words, use it in a sentence, and a couple of other things that I can't remember off the top of my head. Word maps will be MUCH more effective and a lot less BORING. Found out that little trick from my next door neighbor Ms. Overson.  She's a vet and has all the good tricks. We only made it halfway through the Red Death before class ended. They actually were pretty interested in it. I stopped several times while reading to ask questions and explain what was going on in the story. It definitely helped them to understand it a lot better. I still love my 8th graders.

Today my 7th graders watched the same flocabulary video that my 8th graders did and you will not believe the amount of complaining I got from my 5th period 7th graders. Two memorable comments: "M": "I wish you would just teach us this instead of making us watch this video." "A": "I am going to give my honest opinion. That was the WORST rap song I have ever heard." My reply to 5th period? "Well if you'd rather not learn things the fun way, we can always learn out of our textbooks and do lots and lots of worksheets if that's what you'd prefer????" I got a lot of "No's" from the majority of the class and felt satisfied the naysayers had learned their lesson. 7th period was a riot. They memorized the song and were singing or rapping along with it by the end of the song. I have about 5 class clowns in 7th period. I already know they are going to be a handful! Both classes did like reading Rainbow Fish though and I again was surprised at how good of a response I got from the kids on this. Still don't know what to think about my 7th graders.