Readings
The first graders read a short article about The Great Molasses Flood of 1919. I first learned about this incident from the Grammar Sense textbook by Oxford, and I rewrote the article including details from various sources on the Internet. In 1919, a huge tank of molasses exploded, sending a 10 meter high wall of molasses racing down Boston streets. Interestingly, one my current high school second graders used this article as a recitation for the Reischauer Speech Contest several years ago. I showed my first graders her performance!
I took the class outside and we measured from the third floor of the junior high building to give the students an idea of how high 10 meters would be. For contrast, I told them about the 1958 tsunami at Letuya Bay, Alaska, which rose a whopping 500m high!
After that, we read "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost and talked about nature, choices, and so on. Next week, we're going to finish the term with O Henry's "The Gift of the Magi", and we'll talk about the true meaning of Christmas.
The second graders read "Every Breath You Take" by Sting (and The Police). We had a nice debate about love, romance and stalking. The students were forced to take sides in a debate over whether the narrator of the song is merely romantic or a deranged stalker. Overwhelmingly, though, the students' personal opinion was for the latter! We listened to several covers of the song in various styles (by very talented York-based singer-songwriter Joe Venables, and by a very gifted and creative singer named Charlie Howitt). In class we noted how the voice can change the meaning and tone of the words. We also had a very productive discussion about romance and stalking, and we discussed the question: "When does it stop being romantic and start being scary?" The students expressed their ideas and opinions very well.
We followed this with "The Night the Bed Fell", by James Thurber. The students did some very good small group discussions about amusing stories, and they asked one another some very good questions. I was very proud of their ability to listen to a student's story and then ask follow-up questions: a very important and useful skill to develop.
We're going to end the term with the speech "I Will Fight No More Forever" by Chief Joseph. Although the speech is very short, it's very deep and there's a lot going on. It's a very good illustration of the importance of knowing the context of a work, because without knowing the history of the Nez Perce, it really loses a LOT of meaning. I was extremely fortunate this year to meet two very nice women from the Nez Perce Nation earlier this year, and I was finally able to ask about the correct pronunciation of 'Nez Perce' (which is actually a French name, though they use the English pronunciation). They explained a little about their history and culture, part of which I already knew from studying the Nez Perce for a high school research paper, ironically about the history of Chief Joseph's speech. I also learned that the Nez Perce are known in their native language as the Nimipu or Nimiipu (since the middle vowel sound is stressed). I was very fortunate to meet these very nice people.
The third graders read "The Open Window" by H.H. Munro, a very funny story about a girl who is a compulsive liar. We attempted to discuss hoaxes and frauds, but unfortunately the students had a little trouble getting into the topic. More guidance by me would have helped tremendously. I do tend to just throw my students into a subject.
We followed this with one of my favorite lessons in the entire curriculum: "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt. Here, we talked about parodies, and we studied various parodies of the song, including "You're Pitiful" by Weird Al Yankovic, "My Cubicle" by The Morning Sidekick and Jym Britton, and "It's Bloody Cold" by Jon Culshaw and The Dead Ringers. Students were then asked to make presentations. Possible topics or presentations included presenting another example of a parody (Weird Al naturally dominated, but we saw other parodies as well, including a very amusing parody of the Naruto theme which used English subtitles that sounded similar to the Japanese lyrics, but which made no sense) . One might think that merely finding a parody and showing it wouldn't be much effort, but several of my students came by the NELP room after school to look for parodies, and it was quite a challenge for them. Several students gave short speeches about parodies and why people do parodies, Finally, one student chose the advanced topic: writing their own parody of "You're Beautiful". We put on an instrumental version of the song, and this student SANG HER OWN SONG! It was a brilliant and funny song about a bald guy on a train. I was very impressed because it was a courageous and audacious thing to do.
Next week, the third graders will finish the term with "The Christmas Truce of 1914", an article I wrote based on a number of sources. This tells the now famous story of British and German troops during WWI staging an impromptu truce on Christmas Day. It's a very sweet but sad story. In class, we'll be discussing the power of average people to make peace.
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Date: 2009⁄11⁄19 08:41｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
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