New-found love of project work!

I can see that this transition is going to be a bit rocky, but I think it'll be worth it.

I put up language tasks on the board today. I put three sentences for analyze and symbolize - one real basic, one mid-level, and one advanced. I think about three students chose to do the work, which is fine with me, but what they're not grasping is that whether or not they do the sentences on the board, they need to do grammar, at some point, during the week.

But right now it's all about FREEDOM and this recent liberation from assigned tasks. I feel a little bit like I'm staring into the maw of the beast, but I know it'll work out.

So Kati and I are going to undermine someone's authority. Heh. Yeah, SJ sent three boys into my room today to do their work, "because they just won't do anything!" Um, the thing she was insisting they do: copying poetry into their notebooks. Why? I have no idea, but that was the task, and by golly these boys were going to do what they were told!

After school Kati and I talked about the ridiculousness of the whole thing, and we decided we're happy to host these boys in our classroom, but we're not going to make them do what she wants. Oh, we'll have them work, but we'll let them CHOOSE what to do while they're in our classroom. Ain't no one copying poetry against their will in my classroom.

I went to Diana's office to give her a heads-up, because it's probably going to piss SJ off. And that's just fine with me.

_____

Case Study: JS copied down ALL THREE SENTENCES on the board without any encouragement. In fact, it was entirely her decision to do it. She didn't analyze them, though, but I don't care. The fact that she did so much writing (ok, it wasn't *that* much) of her own free will . . . that's eye-popping. Some kids WILL do language works out of sheer desire. Even the JSs of the world. Wow.