I'm afraid to jinx myself, but so far, my classes seem to be starting off on a positive note. It has been several years since I've taught younger students, and I recall classes as lively and rowdy and many times difficult. (Then again, I was new.) Unlike the seniors I've taught for several years now, most of my sophomores complete homework. All students have the best intentions in September, but I am impressed with their enthusiasm. One of the ELA standards the sophomores must master by the end of November is the poetry standard. When a teacher mentions poetry, many tend to shut down, but these guys are hanging in. Monday, we will look at imagery in a Phillip Booth poem, "First Lesson." In the nonfiction classes, we've read some interesting profiles, one called "Quiet Depravity" about the comedian Sarah Silverman, in
The New Yorker and a superb piece entitled "The American Male at Age Ten" by Susan Orlean. A Writing Project colleague gave me an edition of
The Best Teen Writing of 2009 and we read a moving piece by 18 year old Lauren Youngsmith that combined the profile with a narrative about a family tragedy. The idea behind this unit was to allow the students to interview each other (a nice way to begin the year) then write a profile. I encourage them to think about the overall unique quality of their subject, but some of them draw a blank. I also emphasize to find the humor in their partner's responses. Ideally, I want them to mimic some of the pieces we read. I'd like to follow up the profile with having them interview someone outside of the school, perhaps create a documentary or podcast, but I'm not sure if we have time. Today, I learned that one of my senior students really hates writing. The ed tech accompanying him couldn't help, so I suggested he drag images from Google that represented his partner. He knew that his partner had a "creepy little sister," so I typed the exact words into Google and came up with some great pictures. This seemed to be the trick to get him working. I want him to include captions for each image. I suspect once the rest of the class learns of what he is doing, creating a scrapbook? A collage? They will want to create one also.