I, Joy Kirr, am a middle school teacher, author, and speaker. My 7th grade ELA (English Language Arts) classes are working to improve their lives through student-directed learning - without marks throughout the year. This is a log of my learning experiences... Want to have me speak with your staff or facilitate a workshop? Here is my PORTFOLIO.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

A Pleasant Surprise

Second day of school - first "normal" ELA classes.

I've spent two days doing what I love - with a great group of students. It's the end of that second day, and a new staff member to our school appears in class. Yippee! I introduce her to students, and she easily becomes a part of our day. Students finish the reading challenge, we chat about what they did well and where they can improve, we go over materials needed for tomorrow, we chat for two minutes on building stamina for reading starting tomorrow, and we move to the front of the room for "storytime." ;)

I'm able to read The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown to my students, just as I describe in Shift This (and in this blog post)...

This last class of the day actually acts differently from the first two - they are a gregarious bunch, and they actually react to what I'm reading instead of patiently waiting for me to finish. They make faces showing they don't agree with the text, asked a few questions under their breath or to a friend, and quickly did not agree with the author when she said the "most important thing about an apple is that it is round." THAT was refreshing to know. When it's like pulling teeth to get my first two classes to discuss, this class will be active, I'm sure.

Thank you to Lauren Salsinger for this photo to capture this lesson I love...

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