"You were so late you missed the late speech" - 10/8/08

I really felt like I went in to class today with a much better attitude than Monday and it really helped. I think the students knew it, too.

I began class today by handing back their viewpoints from the last two weeks and also the 7 rough drafts that were turned in the last class. Most of them were really good. I then gave a short speech on being late. I've had a problem with students walking in as late as 10 or 15 minutes. I also told them that I capped their absences at 6. I think I got the message accross in the right manner. I concluded this part of the class by collecting the second drafts so I could give the students credit for having them done.

Next, I had them do their viewpoint. Today they had to tell me either why they do their homework or why they don't, and then I had them tell me their feelings about turning in Project 2 on Monday because technically we were a day behind the entire project. I ended up handing back the late students work during this time and tried to hurridly mark who had their second draft done and who didn't. I was proud of them because they all had a second draft!!! Although their lateness did really annoy me...

After a brief few moments of sharing about the viewpoint - during which time one of my students said that she does her work for my class because she knows if she doesn't, then she has to catch up (that's just what I wanted to hear!) - I made the executive decision that they would turn in their final drafts on Wednesday so they could have adequate time to incorporate changes from peer review and gather all of their process materials.

I then handed out a sheet of brushstrokes that they could use in their papers to improve their sentence structure and also add more creativity into their papers. I quickly went through the sheet with them and then had them practice on the back. We quickly shared a few of those. Almost all of them were able to come up with three examples out of the four and every student had at least one.

Next, I split had them split up into "expert" groups. Each corner had a group: grammar gurus, format fiends, quizical questioners, and creatity catalysts. I then evened out the groups and then had them split into another group in which they had one expert from each section and do a mini, fast paced peer review in which they only focused on their area of expertise. This seemed to go well and I was able to speed them up a little during each round. (We did four rounds so that they would have comments from each expert).

For the final part of the class, I gave a brief description of Project 3 and then handed out the assignment that they needed to do along with revising their second drafts which was to brainstorm ideas for P3.

I ended the class with the late speech again and a reminder of my policy of 6 total. Then I made sure that those who were late picked up the handouts they missed and I chatted with the late students. (I made sure I shut the door during this time which was good because when my late students came in, the door squeaked loudly and made their presence known).

I then went straight to my consultation time. I decided to do individuals this round so that I could speak with each student about his or her work and behavior in class. This turned out really well because many of them had questions that they otherwise wouldn't have asked and also gave me a chance to praise them for the things that they are good at. For two of my boys, who typically do the bare minimum, I was able to tell them that they were improving their work a lot and really give them good feedback. They both left class with huge smiles on their faces and THAT is what I like to see!

Overall a great day. The only things I would have changed would have been to keep the late speech for later in the class so I didn't have to waste time by repeating myself and also I would have watched the time a little better.