I confess that this has been a hectic couple of weeks. There were days I thought would never come and others I never thought would end.Through it all I've been scrambling to keep ahead of the next thing, so it was hardly surprising when I found myself sitting at my desk at 5:30 PM on the evening before the last day of school trying to plan a coherent, 30 minute, lesson that would be meaningful to my students.
This morning I heard a clip from Aaron Sorkin's new TV show Newsroom, where in response to the question What makes America the greatest country in the world? the main character replies:
We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined - 25 of whom are allies.
I get his strident reservations, but I remembered the angel stat well into the day, and I might just thank an angel for the idea that occurred to me for that final activity of the year. We returned to the very first poem we read together, Knoxville, Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni.
It was definitely one of the most interesting lessons I've ever taught. Many students recognized the text, so I told them that I wanted to compare their observations now to what they said then. Qualitatively, there seemed to be quite a bit of growth.
"It's so easy now!" one student exclaimed. "When I heard it the first time it just seemed like too many words."
And every class was able to point out the sensory details as well as the devices Giovanni uses to create a child's voice.
"It's like an ode to summer," mentioned one kid, and I was pleased that he not only remembered odes but recognized one.
My favorite comment came from one of my most thoughtful students. "When I first read it in September it seemed like she was looking back at summer, but now it seems like she's in a rush for summer to come." She paused, and her eyes widened. "No!"she whispered. "That's how I feel... Cool!"
This morning I heard a clip from Aaron Sorkin's new TV show Newsroom, where in response to the question What makes America the greatest country in the world? the main character replies:
We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined - 25 of whom are allies.
I get his strident reservations, but I remembered the angel stat well into the day, and I might just thank an angel for the idea that occurred to me for that final activity of the year. We returned to the very first poem we read together, Knoxville, Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni.
It was definitely one of the most interesting lessons I've ever taught. Many students recognized the text, so I told them that I wanted to compare their observations now to what they said then. Qualitatively, there seemed to be quite a bit of growth.
"It's so easy now!" one student exclaimed. "When I heard it the first time it just seemed like too many words."
And every class was able to point out the sensory details as well as the devices Giovanni uses to create a child's voice.
"It's like an ode to summer," mentioned one kid, and I was pleased that he not only remembered odes but recognized one.
My favorite comment came from one of my most thoughtful students. "When I first read it in September it seemed like she was looking back at summer, but now it seems like she's in a rush for summer to come." She paused, and her eyes widened. "No!"she whispered. "That's how I feel... Cool!"
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