Tag Archives: suzanne collins

Dystopian Observations

One of the great joys of being a middle school teacher is the time within the block when my direct instruction is over, and my students are applying the lesson taught to real world setting. Once the students are working – on their own, in small groups, in larger groups, or going back and forth between independent and group work – my classroom becomes a rather hectic place. There are 28 young adolescents with a myriad of needs. As I move around the room checking in with students, providing more clarification, or conferencing with students, I also get the chance to just observe the students. If I do this right, I can watch and listen without the students realizing I’m there (if they know I’m standing and watching them, they’ll tense up and try to produce something that they think I want). It’s during this time watching them that I start to question both their product and my pedagogy. It’s during these times of observation that I grow the most as a teacher. As a result of observations over the course of the year, I have noticed an interesting reading trend in my classroom. I don’t know what it means or why it’s happening. It’s just one observation of millions during the first five months of the school year.

Posted in Guys Read | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Serial Reader

Earlier this week, one of the few days we were in school without snow and ice days, one of my students stopped to talk to me after class. This is not an odd occurrence because the students have lunch after this particular block so they’re not rushing to be on-time for a class – but I digress. The conversation began with my student recommending a book to me. Then the conversation took a turn. The young lady was upset and needed to share that she was upset. And as an aside, I love that books can be the bridge to start to build the teacher – student relationship since connections with teachers are so important to middle school students. At first I thought she was upset about  a grade or an assignment or a peer. Nope. None of the above. She was upset because she had just finished the first two books of a series, and she now had to wait until July to find out what was going to happen next.

Posted in Series | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Not a Title in Sight

It’s the end of January. I’m down to the final days of the month, and I have a problem. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big problem – it’s probably not even a problem at all. But in the world of my classroom, it’s a problem of monumental proportions. It could derail the reading we have going on. I have no Schmidt’s Pick title for February. None. I’m empty. Dry. Barren.

Posted in Independent Reading/SSR/Reader's Workshop | Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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