O Captain My Captain: CLASS DISCUSSIONS: ALWAYS UNEXPECTED DELIGHTS

It has been the most challenging, fast paced year yet....and I'm only two weeks in. Don't get me wrong....I'm loving it. The exhaustion we all feel at the end of the day, is a good feeling because we know we are working hard. We are being productive and stretching our minds daily.

One of the reasons I love teaching reading so much is because it opens such great avenues for discussion in class. We have had such great discussions this week, I thought I'd take a moment to highlight them.

While discussing the connections between our two protagonists (Kira from Gathering Blue and Katniss from The Hunger Games), we also began to see some real world connections as well. We were able to expand our discussions to science and social studies this week in a really interesting way. We discovered that with each passing generation, our cultures and societies change, of course, but also remain eerily the same. We were able to discuss diversity and the importance of it within a culture. We talked about the control of the two governments within our books and how we need to have diversity so that we are not controlled. In a society, competition eliminates control. Why else would we need ten different banks in a five mile radius? The lightbulbs began turning on. I was able to see realization on my students' faces. It was a great thing.

During these discussions, one student told how his father was a soldier, and has been stationed overseas. He explained to us some of their customs, where his father was. He even told us about the "man dress" that men wear. He said his father had brought one home. Well, we couldn't let him off the hook. I joked with him, and told him we'd love to see him wear it to school. The next day, he brought it in for a delightful demonstration. What a great treat it was to have this as part of our learning experience. As you can see from one of the pictures below, the students are much more interested in learning from their peers than they are from me :)

Here's to a great week of discussions....and to many more to come!