Happy Halloween! Things went pretty well today despite the holiday. There were a few students who chose to dress up, but it was nothing distracting.
I made my first phone call home to a parent tonight regarding a students’ failure. Turns out we have an I.A.P. on this student, and everything I have noticed in class aligns with this plan and also the mother’s comments. We’ll continue working with this student on staying focused in class, not distracting others, and organizing. It was nice to hear a parent’s voice (especially an understanding one) but I’m not sure if she does her part at home to ask the student about his homework. I guess he is also ODD and so she gets very defiant answers from him. I’ve noticed this as well. It will be interesting to see if there is any progression in his behavior and motivation in class as a result of her bringing it up again at home.
My students in English 11 continued to work on their Ben Franklin packets in groups. However, some things that we noticed yesterday were a lack of and inability to independently read. Many students also screwed around with their time and did not use it wisely. Therefore, they had a time limit today for how much time they had to work on it, and I collected the assignment despite some groups not being done. If they had been diligently working on it, I would not have done that. We then moved on to reading John Adams’ biography by David McCullough. My pre-reading strategy (greatly appreciated by Ms. Hogue) was to read parts of the Declaration to see if they knew what document it was fun and to ask some questions about what those words mean to them. Now as we read the excerpt from Adams’ biography, I can make connections to that and their feelings and experiences with the document. I have annotated my copy so that I can summarize parts for them and ask appropriate questions. I think this will go just fine.
In CE9 we presented their literary analysis essay assignment. Ms. Hogue got their attention first hour by using the metaphor of something dropping to the floor (an essay) and the students had to pick up the pieces by telling her what they are. They successfully came up with the pieces of an essay in this manner, showing that they know what one is and how to structure/write it. I did something similar in 3rd and 6th hours. Seeing as it is Halloween, I had a printout of a skeleton and held it up, asking for traits. What I was looking for were “bare bones” and “it’s all connected” to lead into my discussion of an essay. This went better in 3rd hour than 6th because the latter of course became very distracted with this talk of skeletons. Both, however, successfully came up with the parts of an essay, so I know they are capable and won’t need much guided, whole-class instruction on this. We went over the assignment with them, and then I aided them in setting up their web page to publish this.
Helping with yearbook went well tonight because I was able to help a few people with problems and questions on their pages. It was nice to be able to contribute something 
