My English 9 classes spent the last part of October and most of November reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. While quite a few of my students had already either read the book or seen the movie, it was a fun read and we had lots of great discussions! They especially liked that we watched the movie in class after we'd taken the test (semi-spoiler alert: the movie is VERY different from the book). Inspired by another teacher's extra credit movie opportunity, I decided to offer Insurgent (the second in the trilogy) one evening for my freshmen to attend. They could earn 10 extra credit points for simply attending the movie in my room one evening, and and additional 10 points were available for completing a movie study guide. I had 33 of my 52 students show up, so I'd say it was a success! After Divergent we read a couple more short stories ("The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Scarlet Ibis"). Now we're just beginning a mini-unit on personal narratives. I am looking forward to reading my students' writing since this is really the first big writing assignment we've worked on this year. After our personal narratives, we'll finish out the semester (in January) with Finding Forrester, a movie that was made into a book!
English 11 has been a rollercoaster of topics! Ever since I read Donalyn Miller's books about independent reading, we dedicate time during every class for reading. Her first book is called The Book Whisperer and her second book (which I found most applicable to my classroom) is called Reading in the Wild. The students can pick any books they want (school appropriate books!) and just read. No assignments or book reports or projects. Just reading. While some of them fought me on it to begin with, nearly all of my students have found at least one book or author they like, so far. When a student finishes their chosen book, they simply move on to another book! I have some voracious readers who have already read 5 books in the month that we've been doing this, and I have other students who are still on their first book. The whole point is that students read at their own pace, for their own enjoyment. In addition to this independent reading we also read two Sherlock Holmes stories, The Adventure of the Speckled Band and A Case of Identity. We also watched the first Sherlock Holmes movie in class (the one with Robert Downey Jr, SWOON)! I offered the second Sherlock Holmes movie as an extra credit opportunity for my juniors, and had 18 of them attend. After Sherlock Holmes we read 'The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. My students commented on how I always pick creepy stories (sorry folks, I love Brit Lit!), but I always say that they remember the creepy stuff more than anything else! ;) We just started reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and they seem to like it well enough. They especially like listening to the play version because the actors gets so into their roles!
Overall I'm looking forward to powering through the next two and a half weeks and then enjoying Christmas vacation :) I'll try and update you here a few more times before then, but no promises! #teacherlife
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