1. We got right to things today, since students would like to use some ELA time to practice their drama for Desert Theater. We discussed the answers to the questions for Chapter one and made sure it was clear the type of reltionship Lennie and George has and how it differs from the ones others had at that time in history.
2. We started reading Chapter two, also, and had an introduction to characters like Candy and his dog, an important relationship for comparison down the road, and we also learned about Curley, the guy with “little man” syndrome who hates big guys just because he isn’t big himself.
3. Then the class took some time to do a “run-through” of their play practice. We’ll continue with Chapter two tomorrow.

1. Students began answering the questions for Chapter one that we read together last class. Anyone with some extra time had the chance to work a bit more on their visualization of the setting for chapter one as well.
2. They had some time at the end of class to practice their play a bit, too.

1. The characters in this novel are wonderfully written. Equally wonderful, though, are the actors who do such a great job of portraying them in the movie. We watched the first few minutes of it today so students could get a better idea of the relationship between the characters. Now, while reading through the rest of the movie, they can follow along with those characteristics of each in mind.
2. Then students had the rest of the class, more than half an hour, to work on their visualization assignment. They looked through several student examples I have of the same assignment and another like it. They should all understand the requirements of it.

 
This here is a great part of the movie that demonstrates the true conflict in the story.

1. Moving along in our course, we started another subunit now that looks at the reality of judgement and those who are most often judged in our society.
2. We’ll be doing a novel study in this subunit, but before anyone has the chance to groan over a “novel study” I cut them off with a description of the plot of the story, the reality that it’s a truly beloved story, and they’ll likely remember it for years to come.
3. We read through a list of the characters in Of Mice and Men and their general descriptions and importance in the book. I also discussed the setting, both location and era of history, that the first chapter takes place in.
4. We read through the first chapter together and students were given a visual representation assignment where they have to find ten phrases (direct quotations) from the first chapter and visually represent those descriptions in a illustration. They have the rubric as well to understand how it will be evaluated and what attention to details they should include.

1. The Gr 10s have a play they’ll be performing for the Desert Theater in a few weeks. They used today’s class to get comfortable with the play they’ve chosen and decide which parts everyone will play and what changes they’ll add to it.

1. Students previously were given a narrative writing project that they had to create a photo project to go along with it. Some of them were able to record their projects when the time was originally given. To make sure they were completed and allow for a bit of time for others to put the finishing touches on their own projects, students used this class. Others who were already finished were able to work on the newest blog assignment or other work.

Students had a sub today as I couldn’t make it from the city to the school. They had time to work in the computer lab, though, and hopefully made the best use of their time there as possible. (Priorities, right?)

1. Several people were missing today, including Dielle and Amy who were on their way to play basketball at Hoopla this weekend, and others were missing in action. For those who were here today, they had computer time to work on their blog posts and check out some of the posts theirpeers have been writing.
   This was actually a good day because they worked pretty well on figuring out all the workings of the blog, like adding pictures and links. Now that they’re a bit more comfortable, I hope they’ll continue with regular postings.
2. For those who were missing, it’s your misfortune you missed the computer time to work on those blogs but like any other day that you’ve missed a class you’ll have to catch up on your work at home. Yes – it’s called homework. Your parents used to do it when they were in school! You should try it!

Students spent a fair amount of time last week researching and gathering supporting evidence on the topic they chose to write their essay on. Monday was an extra class given to make sure everyone was prepared. That means Tuesday and Wednesday, basically, were the essay-writing classes.

Students worked quietly and stayed pretty on-task with their work. I was quite pleased. On Wednesday, anyone who was completed was allowed to work in the computer lab to add to their blog assignments. Students who felt they needed some extra time were also invited to finish during lunch on Wednesday.

I’m looking forward to reading their reports!

1. Students had several classes last week to research a topic of their choice. They were asked to gather support of their upcoming essay and fill in an essay outline on Friday. The deal was that they would come to school Monday with a completed essay and be allowed to type / write their essay on the computer, instead of doing it by hand. I was away Friday and apparently very few people did much – Regionals seems to have consumed their Entire Weekend (sigh…..) – so there were a lot of unprepared people in class on Monday.
2. I also thought I’d made it clear that they would be writing the essay in class and in class only – that it was an in-class essay. Explaining this again today seemed to shock them all, so to offer a compromise I’ve given them an extra day to write that essay. Basically, today they did in class what they were asked to have done last Friday.
3. We talked a little bit about their use of class time. If they want compromises or the benefit of the doubt, at times, they have to show more initiative and take responsibility for their own learning. Even today, when they were behind the gun and given the gift of an extra day along with some understanding on my part, they still talked and seemed to fail to appreciate this extra work class. We’ll have to see how things continue in the future. I’m thinking “seating plannnnn” (sung outloud).