"All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury

A long time ago, during my college days, I read a good deal of Ray Bradbury. Most notably I read Fahrenheit 451. Not because I was pursuing some sort of connection to the Sci-Fi genre of literature that I frequently stumbled upon, but because I was studying the films of Francois Truffaut.Yes, it was during my Truffaut phase where I wanted to know more about his films that weren't The 400 Blows. Why did he go more Hollywood? What compelled him to work in a more mainstream way? Why abandon the style that Jean-Luc Godard and others carried on with their films? And so I watched Truffaut's futuristic take on the already futuristic Ray Bradbury.

So as I was trying to find a meaningful lesson to combine literacy and Science (sort of) to fill an extra hour that I had to teach outside of the Amazing Race (an end-of-year whole grade level competition ala the TV show), I stumbled upon a list of "Great Short Stories for Middle School." I thought it might be interesting to use some Sci-Fi short stories and encourage the students to think about Sci-Fi and how it relates to our world. As I looked through the list, I came upon "All Summer in a Day" by Bradbury. I quick found a .pdf and read it. Wow! What an amazing story! And the ending. . . oh the ending and it's teachable possibilities!

So I taught it! I  used it in my Science class the Friday before the last week of school. I gave the students some questions to fill out that accessed concepts we had learned in previous classes throughout the year, such as a question about discrimination, creating similes and metaphors, and comparing and contrasting Earth and Venus. I performed a dramatic reading of the short story for the students, as they followed along or sat-back and listened. When I was done, one of my students raised their hand and asked, "So is this how you planned to torture us?" Confused, I asked "what do you mean?" "Why didn't you give us the whole story?" "OH! Well, I'm sorry to say, hun, but that's it. There is no more to the story. It ends here. I am not withholding information or pages or anything. No torture meant, except to inspire you." Whispers and frantic talk started to break out in groups. Another student spoke out, "But what happened to her?!?!"

Seeing the excitement on the faces of my kids prompted me to add an additional activity. They could either draw a picture to show me what they think happened after the door was opened or they could write me an ending AFTER they finished the worksheet. An assignment come down from heaven. With the exception of the six students who have decided to already check-out and make classroom life miserable, my other 18 students talked in their groups, reread the story, and offered up some pretty interesting ideas. One said she went on a Carrie-type rampage. Another said that the kids were so embarrassed they ate Margot to destroy the evidence (this particular student enjoys Battle Royale and The Hunger Games). Some students just drew pictures of what they pictured in their mind while listening or rereading the story. I've included pictures below.

What an amazing moment for myself, for my students, and for my journey. I love giving my kids classic literature to read and this was a great suggestion for my middle schoolers who were able to understand the concepts and it totally engaged them. Thanks Bradbury, you brilliant writer, you.

My sixth grade students had to write song lyrics as a final assessment for our unit on figurative language. Currently, I am hosting an informal Poetry Slam in my classroom where the students are able to perform their two favorite poems and their song lyrics. I'm still telling them that they have to perform it. If they see my fender guitar in the front of the classroom tomorrow, they are going to have to sing and I will magically know how to perform all of their songs to accompany them. Some of them seriously believe this. I don't know what this is an indication of, but hey. . . they're kids.

So in order to help prepare them for what I am looking for in their performance of their lyrics, I wanted to show them Rocket Man, as performed by Shatner. Problem number one is that he's smoking. While not a major issue, I'd rather protect my butt that hang it out the window. Problem number two is the "high" part. I battled with my inner demons on this one. I wanted so badly to show it. I tried to rationalize it and then finally backed down. I had to be more responsible as a teacher and this was a bit. . . on the wayward side.

Devastation sunk in. How would I ever allow them to experience the awesomeness of Shatner's musical performances? I started searching and I found this:


Now... many of my kids are Star Wars fans and a few are Star Trek fans. The added bonus is that Shatner does a Hupy & Abraham: Attorneys at Law commercial here in Wisconsin, so several of my kids know him from there. They also recognized him from the Priceline commercials. BRILLIANT! Not surprisingly, they did not recognize all the Star Wars people in the audience.

What I did was had them watch/listen to Sinatra singing the song "My Way." I asked them to explain how the song was performed and what they would have to do for their performance. Then I told them that this is an example of what they can do for their song if they do not have to sing it. So I showed the above video. We talked about what they could do for that and how it is still a "song."

Bottom line is, I tossed some geek at my kids. It was awesome!

Halloween: Spooky Poetics and Sweet Treats

For Halloween, I knew I wanted to do something special for the kids. I always think about how to decorate the classroom and what my students can do to help make the classroom more seasonal. After working with my third graders to write Cinquain poems, I thought it would be a good way to encourage my students to be more descriptive writers, review parts of speech, and have fun writing about Fall/Halloween.

I took my Facebook Introductions bulletin board down and purchased a candy corn border, after my students expressed a passion for sugar. Then I taught my students how to write Cinquain poems (the students said they learned these are diamond poems, but I'd rather teach them the appropriate title). We practiced using the writing process steps.

Prewriting/Brainstorming

We did some chalk board brainstorming of words associated with October.  The students came up to the board and wrote a word or idea. The words ranged from Halloween blood and gore to the smell of Fall and leaves changing color.  My students are obsessed with gummy bears and zombies, so there were many words involving the Gummy Bear Zombie Apocalypse. 

Students were then given a Cinquain template and we discussed what nouns, adjectives, and -ing words are. Then we reviewed synonyms and came up with some phrase examples. The students then went work.

Drafting/Editing/Conferencing

Students wrote their first draft on their template. Then they were to self-edit using a dictionary and/or thesaurus to help with finding more creative words. Once they were comfortable with their poem, they gave it to a peer to review and edit. Before they could get a publishing template, they had to have it approved by the teacher.

Publishing

Due to the shortness of the poems, quickly reading their poems was easy enough. Then they were given the chance to choose from several different templates. They were instructed to write their poem in pencil first, then go over it with marker. After they finished their poem, they could color in the template and make sure they put their name on the front.

 

These made for a great bulletin board display. It also looked great with the Halloween decorations the students put  up in the classroom, such as shrouds over the drapes, pumpkin lights, and a Happy Halloween banner.

For Halloween, I made the students candy bags. I found a baggie topper template and I edited it to include a special message from me on the back. I included goldfish crackers, stickers, a spider ring, tootsie roll pops, and smarties. The kids LOVED them, but forgot the cardinal rule of treats: DO NOT open them if your next class does not approve of snacks. It made for a sad situation with the other teachers when the students did not follow the rules. So just be careful and talk to the other teachers about stuff like that before you do it. Let them know your explicit guidelines for the students just so that they know what is going on.