Sorry for the super long gap between posts: I was reading the Divergent series, and those of you who know me well know that I am completely consumed when reading teen fiction. I barely come up for air. But now I'm done with the series and the accompanying post-series depression that is inevitable with the termination of an engrossing trilogy. I am back!
School has been going pretty well. I'm working with all of my students to encourage their independent reading. Most are reading Lightning Thief, one is reading its sequel, Sea of Monsters, one is reading The Giver, and all are thoroughly enjoying them! I've set up an incentive system to encourage reading at home. Each student has a page with 25 squares on it. They each set a goal for how many pages they feel that they can read on their own at home (2,3,5,10, and 1 chapter are the different increments students have landed on). I check in with them every day to see if they met their goal (I just ask them what they read about the last night. Most of them are extremely forthcoming about not meeting their goal. Blossom VOLUNTEERED to write a short summary every night so that he wouldn't forget what he read about. I about fainted dead away from shock and happiness). If they met their goal, they get to mark off one of the squares. When they've completed the chart, they will receive a prize of their choice, within reason. Prizes chosen so far include basketball time with Ms. C. during lunch, a Nerf football, and a nice notebook in which to write notes to friends (an idea I gave my student after watching her pass note after note during class. My best friends and I had a small spiral notebook to keep our clandestine writings in. The kids really bring me back.). I am currently in the 3rd day of this plan and the students are not remembering to read consistently, but I have high hopes that as I begin to check in every day, it will become more routine.
I had a great tutoring session today with one of my students. We reviewed figurative language techniques (simile, metaphor, alliteration, etc.) that she had been learning in class. I gave her Post-It tabs marked with each type we were studying and set her free to independently read Lightning Thief. I asked her to use the sticky tabs to mark any use of that figurative language technique in her book as she came to them, but otherwise just to chill and read outside with me. Side note: It was a gorgeous, warm day out, so we sat at a picnic table in the shade while we read. Paradise. I read my current book, Son of Neptune, a Heroes of Olympus book also by Rick Riordan, a sequel of sorts to Lightning Thief. We both read and found figurative language for 30 straight minutes. This student told me at the beginning of the year that she didn't like to read. It was torture to get her to take a comprehension test because she kept getting distracted by anyone or anything walking by. Today she sat quietly, read, and placed her tabs even though several extremely loud and distracting people were walking about. She found 5 similes, 2 metaphors, 4 cases of hyperbole, and 3 instances of onomatopoeia. Big success.
I'm also excited about our after school program's expansion. We've swelled to an average of 15 students a day (from about 8 a few weeks ago) and we're planning another field trip! We're going to take students to the Witte Museum to see a special exhibit of Alien Worlds and Androids to capstone our Sciences unit. Oh, and yesterday we shot pieces of potato across the parking lot to learn about physics. Livin' the dream.
I've been feeding one student in my class books like an under-the-table dealer, and I'm not ashamed one bit. She's huge into dystopian fiction. Her previous favorite book was The Giver, and I helped her find its sequel, Gathering Blue. Then, I scavenged The Hunger Games trilogy for her and moved swiftly into Divergent. I was unfortunately too impatient to wait for print copies of the second and third of that trilogy when I was reading them myself, so I only had Kindle versions and none to lend her. She had to wait an excruciating weekend for me to acquire the second book. She's done already. So I bought Allegiant, the third book, and am going to surprise her with it tomorrow. I couldn't imagine making her wait over spring break to read the conclusion!! I also picked up the series Matched, by Ali Condi. I want to read it, but I know she'll have plenty of time over spring break and the only cure for the emotional hangover caused by Allegiant is to plunge immediately into another book. I hope she likes them!
As you can tell, I've been reading a lot. I think it helps me deal with a lot of the burden of what my students are dealing with at home. A lot of them share bits and pieces of what their lives outside of school is like, and it's a lot to handle. I won't go into any details, but tears tend to flow for no apparent reason and topics that should be taken extremely seriously, like suicide, are mentioned like a funny anecdote. Even if it's not as dramatic as all that, the chaos of where they will be staying that night and who with is boggling. I can't imagine not having a constant place to call home or even not knowing who you'll be sharing a room with that night. And then they come to school.
This weekend, I'll be traveling to Nashville to visit my school in full swing. I'm really excited to get to know my school and staff better and catch a glimpse of what my life will be like next year. Oh, and I get to see my fiance for four days as well. :)
School has been going pretty well. I'm working with all of my students to encourage their independent reading. Most are reading Lightning Thief, one is reading its sequel, Sea of Monsters, one is reading The Giver, and all are thoroughly enjoying them! I've set up an incentive system to encourage reading at home. Each student has a page with 25 squares on it. They each set a goal for how many pages they feel that they can read on their own at home (2,3,5,10, and 1 chapter are the different increments students have landed on). I check in with them every day to see if they met their goal (I just ask them what they read about the last night. Most of them are extremely forthcoming about not meeting their goal. Blossom VOLUNTEERED to write a short summary every night so that he wouldn't forget what he read about. I about fainted dead away from shock and happiness). If they met their goal, they get to mark off one of the squares. When they've completed the chart, they will receive a prize of their choice, within reason. Prizes chosen so far include basketball time with Ms. C. during lunch, a Nerf football, and a nice notebook in which to write notes to friends (an idea I gave my student after watching her pass note after note during class. My best friends and I had a small spiral notebook to keep our clandestine writings in. The kids really bring me back.). I am currently in the 3rd day of this plan and the students are not remembering to read consistently, but I have high hopes that as I begin to check in every day, it will become more routine.
I had a great tutoring session today with one of my students. We reviewed figurative language techniques (simile, metaphor, alliteration, etc.) that she had been learning in class. I gave her Post-It tabs marked with each type we were studying and set her free to independently read Lightning Thief. I asked her to use the sticky tabs to mark any use of that figurative language technique in her book as she came to them, but otherwise just to chill and read outside with me. Side note: It was a gorgeous, warm day out, so we sat at a picnic table in the shade while we read. Paradise. I read my current book, Son of Neptune, a Heroes of Olympus book also by Rick Riordan, a sequel of sorts to Lightning Thief. We both read and found figurative language for 30 straight minutes. This student told me at the beginning of the year that she didn't like to read. It was torture to get her to take a comprehension test because she kept getting distracted by anyone or anything walking by. Today she sat quietly, read, and placed her tabs even though several extremely loud and distracting people were walking about. She found 5 similes, 2 metaphors, 4 cases of hyperbole, and 3 instances of onomatopoeia. Big success.
I'm also excited about our after school program's expansion. We've swelled to an average of 15 students a day (from about 8 a few weeks ago) and we're planning another field trip! We're going to take students to the Witte Museum to see a special exhibit of Alien Worlds and Androids to capstone our Sciences unit. Oh, and yesterday we shot pieces of potato across the parking lot to learn about physics. Livin' the dream.
I've been feeding one student in my class books like an under-the-table dealer, and I'm not ashamed one bit. She's huge into dystopian fiction. Her previous favorite book was The Giver, and I helped her find its sequel, Gathering Blue. Then, I scavenged The Hunger Games trilogy for her and moved swiftly into Divergent. I was unfortunately too impatient to wait for print copies of the second and third of that trilogy when I was reading them myself, so I only had Kindle versions and none to lend her. She had to wait an excruciating weekend for me to acquire the second book. She's done already. So I bought Allegiant, the third book, and am going to surprise her with it tomorrow. I couldn't imagine making her wait over spring break to read the conclusion!! I also picked up the series Matched, by Ali Condi. I want to read it, but I know she'll have plenty of time over spring break and the only cure for the emotional hangover caused by Allegiant is to plunge immediately into another book. I hope she likes them!
As you can tell, I've been reading a lot. I think it helps me deal with a lot of the burden of what my students are dealing with at home. A lot of them share bits and pieces of what their lives outside of school is like, and it's a lot to handle. I won't go into any details, but tears tend to flow for no apparent reason and topics that should be taken extremely seriously, like suicide, are mentioned like a funny anecdote. Even if it's not as dramatic as all that, the chaos of where they will be staying that night and who with is boggling. I can't imagine not having a constant place to call home or even not knowing who you'll be sharing a room with that night. And then they come to school.
This weekend, I'll be traveling to Nashville to visit my school in full swing. I'm really excited to get to know my school and staff better and catch a glimpse of what my life will be like next year. Oh, and I get to see my fiance for four days as well. :)
