Day 8 of Unit

Today just kind of felt like a blah day. Not only was chapter 6 not the most exciting chapter of the novel, but I was exhausted today. Everything (aka life) is just catching up w/ me and it is really wearing me. I was determined to find some way to make chapter 6 interesting for the students, since it really bored me. Needless to say they were quite vocal about how boring chapter 6 was. But I was impressed that they made some mature comments about how it did not seem to develop any characters or further the plot. Gone are the days of them just saying "this sucks..." It was quite exciting to see them being little literary critics even just for a brief moment in time.

We did a reading comphrension quiz like always. Today I made the questions a little more on what they thought. They had to think about the information and respond which I have found many do not like doing. A couple said, "I don't like thinking." My response, " you better start like thinking when you fly those airplanes. That's all about thinking." As I was grading their quizzes this afternoon I got to one students who is probably my most outspoken in 2nd period. He strongly dislikes the book and takes every moment to make it known. He doens't like the idea of symbollism. He thinks that the author really didn't put it in there, that we as English teachers have nothing else to teach so we jsut pull it out of no where. I was like, really? I told him if he thinks this is bad wait till we get to Hemingway next semester. I told him that symbollism is what makes stories exciting and interesting to read and he told me it's what makes them dumb. The one question on the quiz asked them to think about what the 2 differnt rivers at Devon could represent. It was a pretty open question- they could have said good vs evil, the right path/wrong path, Gene vs Finny, summer session Vs winter session..etc. This particular student wrote "I think they are just rivers. We shouldn't think this much into things." UGH! Really? I haven't quite figured out what to do to get this boy to like this. I'm just terrified when we get to "Old Man and the Sea," b/c I am not a fan of that book b/c it drags on, so I just have this feeling he is going to hate it. But I am going to remain positive and think of interesting ways to teach it.

Only 2 more days of my unit left! Tomorrow we are finishing chapter 7 and then Monday is Found Poem Day! I am so excited to see what my students are going to create!