13. Today Was a Good Day

#64Challenge

Today was a good day.

I felt it when I left, and as I reflected on my drive home, and as I thought of something that happened at the end of the day. And I simply could not dismiss the idea of writing about it while it's fresh.

The Underground Rebellion

You know of my struggles with 2nd period, but today I decided to just be as chill as possible as they proceeded to work on an individual project. They have to create an invention or a business that takes care of a problem they see in the world, then they have to create an Elevator Pitch for it, or an advertisement, or bring it in front of a Shark Tank.

I am finding my 2nd period is the most creative when it comes to this project. They are coming up with things I'd really wish COULD be invented (it doesn't have to be realistic -- they just have to identify the problem, what the invention would do, and who would buy it.)  There is a girl who created the "black hole broom" -- just sweep anything you don't want into it and it disappears forever (Good for the environment!)  There are the "massage shoes" for people like me who get very tired and ornery feet as the day wears on.  As the kids were bringing me their invention ideas, I was begging some of them to invent the darn thing!

On the way home I started to think about two of the inventions I read about. For context: there is a small table of four 7th graders who are situated between the "color battle" I have previously written about. I think they have heard more of their fair share of exchanges between these two factions.

This table represents a mix: a black girl, a Hispanic boy, a white boy, and an Indian boy. I see a couple of them staging an underground rebellion on what they are seeing.  One invented the "anti-racist zapper" -- something cities would have to install so when a racist comment or act was committed, the offender would be "zapped."  Another boy invented the "racist puncher" -- much the same.  Racist remark?  PUNCH!

I simply cannot wait to hear the response when they present these ideas. Seriously.  I'm pumped.

Three Minutes

This year I created a sequence of some of the best practices in unlocking text structures that I've learned along the way.  My partners in crime -- Debbie and Wendy -- are using this sequence of activities as well, and we are all finding success. This sequence features students close reading text, analyzing words in context, and finally writing a summary that has a focus question. We have been through the process once, and are now on the second text.

Meanwhile, I was a bit dissatisfied with  a part of it. Then we had a faculty meeting when we were told that we were to be implementing a thing called "Mean, Say, Matter" the ELA Dept. has been using for years, and I've tried to use but never fully found it effective.

So I took the part of the sequence that was called DID (Details, Imagery, Diction) and I spontaneously reduced it to Details and Imagery. Then I added Why does it matter?

Magic.

We divided the text into three sections, and in each section we find an important detail, then an important piece of imagery. So already, they have revisited the text twice after an initial reading: once through for details, and a second time through for imagery.  By the way -- they were the ones who said they wanted to do all details first, then imagery. Gotta love that, as they volunteered to go through the text twice all on their own!

The magic came when we took each detail and imagery from each section, looked at them together and asked Why does it matter?  It is self-evident. It writes itself. And when done with this simple 9-part process, the students could be ready to write a summary. Everything is right there -- the entire piece, specific text evidence, as well as why each piece matters.

This worked beautifully when I spontaneously did it in 5th period yesterday. It worked even better in 8th when I did it with more purpose, and then again in 10th. In fact, in 10th period -- the end of the day -- we were rushed at the end because our discussions had been so productive. The office came on the PA saying it was time to turn on the news and go home, and we weren't quite done.  And that is when the unimaginable happened:  A girl said, "But we still have three minutes left. Why are they coming on so early?"  Each kid wrote every last thing down before I was allowed to go to the news.

WWWHHHHHHHAAAAATTTTTT????

I know this will probably never, ever happen again. But DAMN.  DAAYYYYAAAMMMM.