What's happening in Kenaston School…

1. We had to use some of class time today to go for the H1N1 shots, but returned to continue reading Chapter 24.
2. Students will be missing both Monday and Tuesday’s class, for CWEX and a field trip, but are asked to read and answer the questions for Chapters 24, 25, 26.
3. We’ll be finishing the novel soon and they’ll begin the process of writing their Dynamic Characters essay. They’ve been taking notes and finding examples of internal growth and new understanding for the characters of Scout and Jem, so writing their essay should be rather simple.

Free day today!

No class today.

1. The majority of students are away today with their Career and Work Exploration. I wasn’t in the classroom at the end of class on Friday to assign any homework for them to be responsible for completing by Tuesday’s class. Instead of continuing to read, without the missing students being aware of what they’re missing, we will continue watching the movie. The missing students can borrow the video if they want.

1. We’ve been reading quite a bit and have just started reading through the Court Scene where Atticus is going to cross examine the young girl who claims to have been raped by Tom Robinson.
2. To pause in the reading for just a bit, I thought we could start watching the movie. Instead of watching it only at the end of the reading, I thought we could begin it and watch to the part where the court scene begins.

1. Career and Work Experience students are away today but were told on Friday that they were responsible for having  Chapter 14 read and questions done.
2. We are moving on tomorrow.

1. All but three students were away yesterday for their Career and Work Experience program, but I had discussed with them last Friday to make it explicitly clear that they were still responsible for completing what work we ‘would’ be doing during Monday’s class. Their assignment was to have chapter nine read and the related questions done for today’s class. None of them did that. We reviewed how the CWE program works and what is expected of them in their classes as a result of days they missed. Mr. Gasper came as well to make sure I was understanding things properly.
   As a result, and to make it clear so this won’t happen again, those who were not finished their Ch 9 stayed at lunch until it was completed.
2. We moved on, though, to read chapter ten together (listening to the audio version) and then students did the four questions for that chapter.
3. Tomorrow we will review why Ch 9 is such a key chapter, since everyone will have had a chance to read it by then.

1. Most of the students were away for their Career and Work Experience, but they were told on Friday they had to have Chapter nine completed, read and questions answered, for Tuesday. Those students who were here read this (listened to the audio) together and did their questions.
2. We’ll talk, when the others return, about the important aspects of Chapter nine.

1. We discussed, again, the purpose of their handout for the Dynamic Characters of the novel. I had students re-explain what they were to look for and I was pleased how well they could recite examples or evidence of a character being a dynamic one. The point, then, was to remind them to use the handout as we read.
2. We continued reading through Chapter 6 and 7. We had just barely finished when the bell went, but they had enough time to write out their chapter summary sentences so they won’t have to struggle to remember for tomorrow.

1. We continued reading through the novel together, with me reading aloud. Some students, I can see, read at a faster pace on their own and then start their questions before the rest are finished listening. This is fine. It’s important, though, that those listening do follow along in the book because the combination of listening and reading will help improve both of those skills for them.
2. Once we had finished reading the chapter and discussing the main parts, they wrote down a  chapter summary sentence on their question sheets and they were asked to answer their questions individually.