October 13, 2008

Our students were great today considering they had a sub.  We did a little fun warm-up activity then we split up into two groups to discuss the reading.  Somehow we ended up with a group of mainly boys and a group of girls.  I noticed that some of the girls who didn't talk much last week were talking a bit more today.  We assigned roles for our literacy group and explained each role.  I'm suprised at how much they are reading and some of the questions they ask.  It will be interesting to see how the discussion goes next week with the roles being assigned.  I'm thinking the students think there are right and wrong answers to the questions they ask as they keep turning to us for answers.  I reminded them today there are really no right and wrong answers it's what each person gets out the reading.  Each person will have different ideas due to different prior knowledge and backgrounds. 

Today we met in the library and discussed our literature circle jobs.  Most of the students completed their jobs while those who didn't made up excused why they didn't have thiers done.  Overall, it was a good discussion.  They did tend to get off track quite often and we tried to steer them back into the right direction. We assigned different jobs for next week.

 

Today we switched literacy coaches.  We switched so we could get an idea of what each group and discussins are like.  I would have to say that this is a little more on top of reading and trying to understand than our regular group.  This group definitely does not go off subject as much as our group.  Of course there are the two students who are off in lala land and keeping them focused and participating is always a challenge.  I think the students are getting tired and bored of just discussing.  We need to mix it up a bit and see what sparks their interest.  They do enjoy our quick warm up activities.  Thanks to Sarah.  I myself am having a hard time getting into this book, so I can understand some of what the students are feeling.  So from where or what do we go from here?? Hmm...

 

 

Today in our literary group, we came back together as a whole group.  We did our normal warm up activity and did some journal writing.  They could write about anything related to Anne Frank.  We also gave them a few journal prompts as well such as writing a journal entry as Anne or pretend Anne is a student in your school- would you be friends with her? Why or why not?  Most of the students wrote about not being Anne's friend because she seems very judgemental, snobby and self- centered.  After everyone had a chance to share we discussed why most of the students thought she seems judgemental.  We got a little bit out of the students on why they thought she seems judgemental.  We were kind of spectic about putting them back into a whole group, but it actually worked better than we thought. 

 

Today we had stayed in a big group again and had the students and literary coaches read their journal entries and or made up dear kitty entries.  Some of these were quite impressive in their dear kitty journal entry.  We then had the students get into pairs and work on schedule like the one Anne talked about in her journal entries.  We had them pretend they were added into the Secret Annex and they had to figure out where they would fit into the schedule of the Secret Annex. 

 

Well since I locked myself out of my house and vehicle I wasn't able to make it to class for this session. =0(  So sorry.  Hope all went well.

 

Today we had a wrap up session on Anne Frank, discussed some handouts that Sarah brought and did a final journal entry of what they thought Anne might write if she had access to pen and paper while in the concentration camp.  Some of the students entries were very in depth and thoughtful.  Overall, the students seemed to enjoy the book and found it very enlightening.