1. We began the class with a brief intro to my Homework Blog, ways it can be helpful for them in this class, and where to look for the daily description of what happened in our class. We took a look at the description of my ELA 20 class’s observations from the same poems a year ago. With such a small class here, as well, it can help create more dialogue or help expand the understanding of our literature. See last year’s blog post on the same poems here.
2. There were no questions regarding the Childhood Boundary assignment due tomorrow, other than whether it needed to be coloured, which it does! I’m looking forward to seeing these assignments when they’re handed in!
3. We started our discussion by listing the roles or ways we (they) view their parents. They’re mostly providers, helpers, companions at times. We talked about the way our relationship with parents (hopefully) changes as you grow older, which is the topic of the essay we read together today.
4. “Remember Mum When I Mocked You?” is an essay written in first person narrative towards the character’s mother, someone painfully “immigrant” in the narrator’s youthful eyes. Her perspective has changed, though, which was the topic of the essay. Students answered the questions independently and handed them in for me to look over.
5. Next was a listening activity where I read an essay aloud to the class and asked them to listen for something memorable or important about the story. When finished, they each took a turn responding with what they had written down.
6. Students began pre-reading the essay “Back to Wolf Willow” to end the class. We’ll begin our study of it tomorrow and the first of the major assignments comes soon at its heels!!

remember-mum-when-i-mocked-you-questions

1. The assigned paragraph from last Thursday’s class was due today.
2. We finished discussing / analyzing the poem “(I Remember) Back Home” and answered the questions. Students worked on the questions individually and then shared their responses. 
3. We discussed (or rather I explained) the reality that when you return to a childhood place it is never as you remember it. Going to your old elementary school playground would leave you slightly disappointed with how small everything seemed, even though in youth you used to be amazed by how big the playground equipment was. Our perspective changes over time. 
4. Their assignment from today’s discussion was to think of a particular place that has special meaning to them in their childhood. They have to diagram or chart the boundaries of this place, in as much detail as possible. Next, they have to take care to be somewhat artistic and colour their representation. The final step is to detail the specific memories that go with each part of their chart that explain its significance. I showed them some students examples of the same assignment and we laughed at the detailed thoughts some students included on their page, like that the knot in the wood of their tree fort was used to peek to see if anyone was coming so they would know whether to hide or not. 
   The due date for this assignment was negotiated with the class and Thursday was their agreed upon date. 
5. Tomorrow, we’ll continue on and read an essay together.