All Summer In a Day

Today I was able to teach English for a change. No, they have not yet hired a math teacher at the super cool prep school, but one of the English teachers, Mrs. W., was nice enough to let me teach her 7th grade reading and writing class for the week.

I had written a lesson for the short story "All Summer In a Day" by Ray Bradbury that involved reading the story and then writing a new ending, picking up where the story left off. The kids were introduced to the lesson and began writing their endings today and I learned a very important lesson.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE PAGES IN THE CORRECT ORDER WHEN YOU MAKE COPIES!

Duh...

I figured this gem out during the lesson and had to do some quick adjusting on the fly to make sure they story made sense. You'd think that I would be able to count from 63-67 but nooooooo!
Once that had been resolved and the questions answered, the kids began to write their new endings. They ranged from well, anemic to really cool.

Having them revise their endings is going to be a great experience for both teacher and students. Tomorrow I plan to make copies of the self revision form and I need to modify it for having another student read and make suggestions on the endings.

The other thing I forgot to do was to have the pre-writing activity up on the board ahead of time. Because of this there was some lost time in the classroom. Silly me, next time I'll know better... I hope! At least Mrs. W., kept the activity on the board for tomorrow when she teaches the same lesson to her other ELA classes.

If this works, Mrs. W., will let me teach more lessons during my prep periods.

This may sound like the height of arrogance, but if you want a copy of the lesson, let me know and I would be happy to share it with you. Why reinvent the wheel?