Additions

Amy just took her class to the library, so I thought I would add a quick post before I go make overheads for the day (yep, more modeling). They don't seem to get what I mean when I tell them to create a scene from the first few chapters (I am going to put a page from _A Raisin in the Sun_ on the overhead). One pair turned in a paragraph. Hmm. I'm going to have to give them until Monday, I think, since they have a big vocab. test today. And it's hard. Like I'm seriously rethinking it, but it's too late now. Two hours from now and they're going to despise me, even though they've known about it since Monday. This will definitely be the hardest vocab. test. I'm giving them two more words this upcoming week... I'm going to have them define all of them, but when we go over them on the board, I'm going to tell them which ones they can expect on the quiz. I think I will base this off of how well they write sentences using the words. Hmm... Maybe I won't make them look up the definitions. Maybe instead, I will have them copy definitions off the board, have sentences due by Wednesday, then based off the sentences, use the ones that seemed the most difficult for them and have those fifteen appear on the test. Amy has had them do crossword puzzles for tests (create your own---not actually do them). I could give them the paper, a list of words, and a list of definitions for another quiz.

This is why I like writing about teaching in this weblog. I know it seems silly, but it's like thinking out loud... It hadn't occurred to me to not require them to look up all those darn words. After all, is it always worth that struggle? I'm obviously going to run all of this by Amy, but this is good. Instead of having them define words when they're done with the quiz, I will have them read silently. They have a lot to read over break anyway.

Ok, so the point of writing at this point in time was not to make decisions about vocabulary but to point out that I plan to add to yesterday's entry's list periodically. I will put in the current post what I have added as I learn. :)

Today, I just added #13: Be specific, even if it seems obvious. These kids have taken my journal prompts and just answered the questions in one sentence responses. I thought the questions would prompt them along if they were stuck--it's not meant to be looked at worksheet-style. Maybe I should be more vague. Should that be number fourteen? Ha ha.

OK, off to the copy room... I'm still learning the rules up there!