I usually dread Wednesdays because the afternoons are back-to-back classes, ending with two high school classes. And high schoolers aren't so attentive in the afternoon. But I've shifted my tactics a bit (tighter discipline on one hand, not expecting star quality discussions on the other), and today was great!
We did a writing workshop on creating good paragraphs, and I assigned them to do a paragraph in class on anything they wanted to. I gave an example: a paragraph with the topic sentence "BMW Z3s are some of the coolest cars around." They followed suit. Here are some sample topic sentences (paraphrased according to my memory, and my own style, and my protecting the identity of students):
When Joe hits me, it hurts. (Joe is the student sitting next to the student who wrote this paragraph - a paragraph, incidentally, which was some of the best writing he's done this year!)
Hershey's kisses are the yummiest chocolates. (A story I told of rationing M&Ms while paper writing in college was an example in this paragraph!)
A paragraph is a unit of something larger, like an essay or report. (Clever... a paragraph about a paragraph.)
Elizabeth is the coolest person that ever lived. (This was written at the request of one, Elizabeth, in the classroom.)
Green is the best color. (They say sea green is very soothing...)
The students really enjoyed the assignment! At least, they really enjoyed hearing each other's work afterward. That was pretty encouraging. Maybe I'll do more with this tomorrow. On the other hand, I have a star quality discussion planned, so I'm not sure I'll have time.
In other news: I lost power steering in my car. I think I'm getting tendonitis from man-handling my vehicle around corners. Wheee - workouts while driving!
4 comments:
I hope you're not too lonely. And way to think of fresh new ideas for classwork.
That reminds me of a story my dad told me of a guy who had to write an essay on Purple Trashcans and Yellow polka-dotted lids. It was a part of a creative writting assignment. I am sure you can imagine.
Hurray for tendonitis! Just think of it as building your forearms and stuff. For throwball snowing, and such :)
wrist curls will strenthen your wrists and forearms so they can endure the struggle of manipulating your steering wheel....do three sets of 20 every other day and call me in two weeks.
-Dr.Melo
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