The first week of December

Returning from a much needed break, and I spent much needed time with my family and crafting for Christmas. My tree is up and my home is ready for the season. I needed this break to focus on me and mine. Now I will hit the ground at a pace I can handle- after all this is not a sprint, but a marathon. 

In my 10th grade classroom, I have introduced non-fiction with the breakthroughs theme as it was focused on the fictional literature. The non-fiction came in the form of a New York Times news article about the truth behind accepting ugliness and how parents respond to their own children when they are not the idea of what is beauty in our society. The students are being graded on their ability to read closely using highlighters and pencils to annotate the article and their ability to predict, discuss graphics, summarize, talk about theme, main idea, and author's purpose, and discuss how the ideas from the article affect their own lives. This is the first step into writing for this group. We will transition into writing next spring. 

Our next move will be to complete this unit. I am going to choose several works of literature and have students create a poster project I came up with from the elements found within the Buckle Down series. They will draw for a story, read it closely with notes and predictions, and create a poster using new vocabulary, summary, quotes, photos, main idea, theme, author info and purpose, etc. I am looking forward to the completion of said projects to post in the halls. This will wrap up this incredibly long unit that I believe went an inch long but a mile deep. 

In my 11th grade classroom, we are moving into the tricky world of MLA and research. I have had them write an argumentative essay sans research. Once we learn about the formatting for MLA, students are performing their own research and implementing this research into their essays to strengthen them. I am not a writing teacher, but I think we have pulled through alright. I definitely prefer the literature side of my area of study, but they need to know how to do this process and how to do it well. I believe that once we pull through this side of things, I will be able to re-visit some writing for other purposes through the next weeks and re-visit again next semester, but the focus will shift to literature and writing about literature, as I believe that is what this class really needs to be about anyway. I do think I will teach this differently next year. I am always looking for new ideas and new ways to teach writing and have yet to find the perfect method. We will push forward, and I am going to do my best to embrace this particular class. It has been a particular challenge for me for sure- a little of me and a little of them...a challenge I am working on day by day...