an oddly calm week

as i talked about in my last post, my students are writing persuasive essays for a couple of weeks. i am using the rubrics (both 7th and 8th grade) from our textbook program. I think they are pretty good rubrics although it's going to take forever to grade the essays. along with the rubrics, the book has a bunch of supplemental materials for scaffolding the essay. it is a process that goes from what a persuasive is, to writing a thesis, to choosing an audience, to choosing arguments and evidence (evidence was really hard for my 7th graders!), and then identifying a counter argument. i'm a little bit nervous about the actual writing part. my single classes have written persuasive essays recently in social studies class, but my 7th grade and my strategic class has not. so i have to lead them through the process of stating a reason and then explaining their evidence.

so back to my calm week. the week before last i was sick, which was not fun. the whole week was kind of a bummer (2 weeks ago.) the week that ended yesterday was great, though. well, tuesday i was out for a poetry workshop which was nice. but even so--monday morning i made a bunch of copies. i thought they would last for a couple of days and then i would have to do more planning. however, it turned out that my kids went so slowly through everything that i didn't have to do any otehr planning or copying for the whole week. i spent most of the week coaching my kids through the various parts of their writing process. it was a combination of teaching new stuff (like hooks and counterarguments) and guiding them through writing a counterargument, hook, and then of course reasons and the supporting evidence for their persuasive essays.

friday was an especially cool day. after a really crazy strategic class (their behavior has worsened so i've been cracking down which isn't fun and is resulting in sending a lot of kids to the office) i didn't really feel like talking much to my kids as a group. that is, i didn't feel like teaching in front of the class. so i made a beginning attempt at what good teachers do--facilitating learning. i set them up in pairs to write their essay "hook" and introduction, and then let them keep writing. they were getting feedback and help from their partners. of course, i was busy the whole entire class helping students also. my students need so much affirmation that they're doing their work correctly, which they often are. they are getting better at asking for help when they're confused about something which i'm also really proud of them for. one of them is new to my class and was having problems with a different class, which is why he transferred. he's doing really well--i called his mom after class to tell her. i've been complimenting him a lot, too. i hope that the fresh start will continue to work for him because i know he's known as one of the most challenging 8th graders. it sucks when your reputation precedes you but he seems to be responding to my support and encouragment. he also knows that he's getting a fresh start, and he's a smart and savvy kid, so hopefully he can make it successfully through the rest of the semester.

all of this to say that since i prepared all of my lessons and materials on monday, the week was pretty calm. the house isn't too much of a disaster, i was able to have friends over for dinner last night, and i don't have too much work to do this weekend! joy!

i must go....i hope you have a good weekend and coming week.