The AP Experience

My fourth period class is an AP class. I really enjoy the students. I find they are lazier than I had expected and hoped!! I have introduced them to many short stories. We are reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin. In correlation with this novella, we have read "Story of an Hour," "The Yellow Wallpaper," and "The Astronomer's Wife." We also read Wordsworth's poem that inspired "The Astronomer's Wife." The students are writing comparisons papers with the novella and short stories. I had them write one with the poem and the short story, but they didn't quite "get" that yet. We will try again when we study poetry more in depth. Overall, I have a great class, and they are eager to learn. They don't quite get the feminism in each story. They find it hard to relate to other periods of time. I played a song for them. The song is called "Soulshine." This song discusses moonshine and sunshine (all images we are discussing) but the most important aspect is to let your soulshine. I hope they understood that these women just want their souls to shine--to be free!! They liked this too becuase they saw a side of me that was not just "teacher!" I'll let you know how the rest goes!!

COMIC STRIPS

Another thought I just had! My class created comic strips of the first section of Beowulf. I did this to help them learn to sequence so they could keep up with the events in the poem!! I might add I have some very talented artists in my room!! I will post pictures of this!!! Again, they really seem to be responding well to the story!!! I hope "our pilgrimage" into the Canterbury Tales goes as smoothly!!

The Epic Poem
We are reading Beowulf right now!! The students seem to like it...or they are good at pretending. I have many low readers so in order to accomadate them we are reading out loud in class. They like reading out loud, and they seem to respond better also. I also played some of the story on an audio tape. My inclusion especially responded to this!! I would stop along the way to discuss metaphors, alliteration, etc.!!

Our Island and Lord of the Flies

What an exciting couple of weeks we have had!! We began reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding. We began each session with our own journal entries. Each pair of students pretended they were on their own island. What a fun pre-reading this activity served for them. The journal entries served as a sort of elaborate KWL chart!! They predicted happenings to themselves based on their thoughts about the book. Slowly, as we progressed through the novel, the students began adapting motives and schemes and survival techniques as the characters themselves had and used. They incorporated students from their class periods. They really enjoyed this!!! As the book itself, the reviews, I found, seemed mixed. For many of my lesser risk-takers, the large vocabulary intimidated them. Some shut down unless I read to them. Others found themselves enticed by the violence and gore and suspense. They finished reading before the assignments!! We explored extended metaphors, personification, and imagery. We examined good versus evil and the progression of savagery. We then related this to ourselves and how we treat our peers and fellow students as well as family members. We discussed how each group of persons in the room reacted differently to conflict and pressure. We talked about the students and how many were left to "govern" themselves after school and how this "uncivilized" time without "adults" could lead to not only mischeivous but also deviant behavior!! I think in that regard, we succeeded. After reading chapter three in our MAT reading, I realized I introduced some techniques without my knowing !! For example, we completed pre-reading vocabulary sheets. Each worksheet allowed the students to tell the meaning in their words and then later discover the "dictionary" meaning. We practiced the sentences to learn context clues and to find meanings without the dictionary!! WHOO HOO! :) I learned, however, other words were troubling. I grouped the students and made them comprise their own list of troubling vocabulary. I composed sentences, and we, as a class, determined the meaning from the context clues. Little did I know this is called "the self-collection strategy." I can say I will use this again!! I can attest, also, that with the different cultures and socioeconomic backgroudnds in my classroom, I had to find a way to relate to them to make the text relevant. I think relating the boys' situation to their own situation was extremely effective. Therefore, the transformatative approach worked for us!! We implemeted different character maps to explore characteristics and chart the degression of civilization and society. Even though this book is a "classic," I still view it as multicultural literature. That is, I find this novel has a strong plot with characters with true experiences. The experiences of relationships and decisions are relatable to almost everyone!! Because of this, the classroom talks were always fun and enjoyable and spontaneous as each student brought his own approach!! I just hope next year we have even more fun as I become more comfortable!!!

What A Beginning!!

The first days of school have been a whirlwind of fun and excitement and exhaustion!!!! Establishing a routine and practicing the routine at times has been a challenge! I feel, however, we are finally into the "groove" of my expectations!! I have a wonderful group of students this year, and they seem eager to learn!! We are reading Lord of the Flies, and the students write in a journal everyday, pretending they are stranded on an island as well!! They seem to enjoy this experience!! We are slowly learning to love to read as well!! Or, I am hoping they do, as many of my students are "reluctant readers" to say the least!!! I will post more as we progress!!!