This week my seniors dove into "A Streetcar Named Desire" and my freshmen began reading "Of Mice and Men"! These two works are exceptional and I AM THRILLED to have ACTUAL copies, a rarity in this struggling school system. My biggest adjustment from my private school upbringing has been that student are NOT allowed, for any reason, to write in their books. (I hope the English teacher in all of you is crying out, "BUT ANNOTATIONS?!?!") Exactly! So my solution is stickie notes. For instance. My seniors are using stickie notes which are color coded to represent motifs in "Streetcar": love and abuse, life and death, the rich and poor, and of course, desire. This way, when it comes time for the final essay, they'll have their themes marked throughout the play!
"Of Mice and Men" is also fantastic but I am a little less familiar with it. I read through it of course, and am excited to teach themes relating to friendship, independence, and mercy.
My freshmen are using a new note taking strategy that includes depth icons. Above is an example of a group project six of my 9th graders created based on a student-friendly article about the government shut-down. They got an A! Speaking of A's... check out my wall of fame! I'm pretty tough so you have to get a 100% (ace it!) in order to get on my wall! I know this post is short but I have to go finish packing for my weekend trip and then head to the last football game of the season! GO SPARTANS!!
