Day 42: Flava Flave Flavius

Students will be able to paraphrase, summarize, and quote research information related to their research topic; define drama-themed vocabulary words and identify their usage in Act I, Scene I of Julius Caesar.

My three periods who just finished reading Julius Caesar began research in the library today, and it is remarkable how much EASIER they are than the last three classes.  Granted, they are smaller classes, but many of them got half their research done on day one! None of this showing up to class on day FOUR of writing a research paper and saying they hadn’t chosen a topic yet.  On the other hand, the final papers are filtering in from the other classes and they’re not too shabby – well, some of them are, but those kids still have something to be proud of, going through each step of the process.  Just like many kids had never finished a novel before To Kill a Mockingbird, several have never written a real paper before.  I’m proud of them, at least.  Most of them.  Some of them worked WAY below potential, but that’s pretty typical…

My other classes who just finished researching read Act I, Scene 1 of the play today.  Perhaps because of their unwieldy size and clownish behavior, this was actually a lot more fun than when my morning classes read.  Instead of letting them volunteer for roles, I assigned roles to students who finished their bell work first. This gave them time to look over the script and clarify any funny words.  While the rest of the class took a text break, I took a minute to go over basic blocking/summarizing with my actors so I didn’t have to stop the scene and move people around.  One brave student decided to do his entire scene in a cockney accent. Another decided his character name was not Flavius, but Flava Flave.  While neither is true to Shakespeare, I let it go – they were having a good time, and I want to get them jazzed to do more with this play.  

The final bell rang and as I opened my door to dismiss my class, I discover a random act of vandalism – in blue painter’s tape in the hallway some stealthy student had taped up “Hi Mrs. H” in foot-high letters so you can see it up and down the hallway.  I have no idea who did it, but I’m pretty proud of it.  I’m not exactly the meanest or most effective teacher up and down the block, but at least I’m liked enough to have a random act of kindness/vandalism committed just outside my door.  Those are always nice.  I have been a little drained with pulling teeth on the research paper and I feel a cold coming on, so this was exactly the ego boost I needed to get through this week 🙂