Last Week of School...more or less

 My "summer" break begins on Wednesday the 30th. That's just over a week from now. To be honest, very few kids will show up on Monday and Tuesday. This actually works well so I can do 8 week grades and pack up my room. I am off until October 29th. YAY! I'm hoping to do a lot of substituting for some extra pay because I really really really need it! So, though I'll be on break, I'll work. But at least subbing means no homework and no planning. This week I have a fairly easy plan for all my classes. My tenth graders will be watching "Finding Forrester" and viewing it as literature. In other words, I will be reviewing theme, symbolism and character relationships with the class. Then, as they watch the movie they have some questions to answer along with a reflective question. To be honest, they just wrote an essay and then took a two day district exam followed by a vocabulary test the next day. I figure it's a good time for a movie. And for the record, I haven't shown them one since we started this semester on July 5th.

 My eleventh graders will be doing a sort of research project that I adapted from a WebQuest that I found online about Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. Because we don't have enough time in the computer lab the kids can't do the WebQuest, so I created packets based on the site. This is how (I hope and think) the process will work:

1. Students placed in groups of 4

 2. Each student in the group will be responsibe for one area of research (The Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, Persecutions around the World)

3. Students will read through these long packets to do their research. There are various articles, timelines, wikipedia info. etc. They will be focusing on: -the problem behind the situation (what is the issue?) -the causes of the "witch hunt" -the consequences of the "witch hunt" -a possible way for that society to have avoided it

 4. Students will then fill out, as a group, a variation of a Venn Diagram comparing the three topics and identifying similarities, causes, conflicts and solutions.

5. After they will decide which parts are most significant and informative. With that info they will do the following.

6. The group will write a letter to an editor of a newspaper describing the issues of what they've researched. I think I'll have them make them poster size to hang when we return from break.

Oh, and the lead in to all of this was reading an article in our text about Puritan society and then a poem by a child in a Japanese Internment camp and discussing a time they were falsely accused; this was to help them connect to the topic. I will save all their research so that when we return from being off break, we can revisit what they learned and jump right into reading "The Crucible". I'm hoping they get a sense of the time period and that it helps them to truly understand the play. So....that's my week. :) And to all of you just about to finish your summer vacation, I hope your year goes phenomenally!