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This post is a continuation of The Poet X-Part 1.
The Poet X Part 2
(Virtual Instruction)
For the second part of The Poet X, I wanted kids to read more of the story on their own. This only worked a little bit, but I was ambitious at the beginning of the part and had them read a bit on their own. Mostly, we ended up listening to it together, stopping to do some small activities along the way. I was really pushing to cover some ground/pages during this part of the story since we moved very slowly with Part 1 (and I could have (should have) moved even slower!)
Day 1
"Smoke Parks" - "What I Didn't Say to Caridad in Confirmation Class"
After doing a review Kahoot of Part 1, I asked the kids to read "Smoke Park" - "What I did not tell Caridad in confirmation class" by themselves, and then complete this small double entry journal:
Day 2
The next day, I warmed up the class by having everyone share out their favorite corny joke. I honestly thought this was an awesome idea, but asking my students to speak out loud is like asking me to stop wearing gold glitter on my nails since I am well past the age of 14 (NOPE). Even though all they had to do was look up a corny joke and recite it, it still took forever. I never let them off the hook, though, because I am a stubborn and literally no one can out-stubborn me, not even a sullen 14-year-old.
After the warm up, we went over some of the vocabulary that would come up in the next section. I put the Poet X Part 2 vocab words in a Nearpod and had the kids draw each word. This activity was hilarious and a much needed salve after the stupid corny joke warm up that only I found fun (but mostly frustrating).
-Vocabulary/term drawings
Eve's Apple
genesis
parable
temptation
obligated
confidentiality
solace
After previewing the vocabulary, we listed to listen to next section of The Poet X: "Lectures"-"Answers."
Afterwards I had students summarize the section and use at least 5 of our vocabulary words from today in the summary.
Day 3
For day three, I should have reviewed the previous day’s passage, but I didn’t. (Note to self for next year.)
Instead, I just jumped right in and asked the kids a few questions about biographies, since the section we were going to listen to were about Xiomara’s biography. I asked the kids the following and had one enthusiastic kid (maybe two, if I was lucky) answer:
What is a biography?
What are the features of a biography?
How do you know when something is a biography?
What biographies have you read?
We then listened to: "Rough Draft Assignment 2-Last Paragraphs of My Biography" (pages 126 & 127 of book), where Xiomara describes the biography she submitted to her teacher, and then the one she would have really liked to write.
Lastly, in the ultimate act of torture, I asked students to write their biography in five years, either in poetry or prose. Here was the prompt that I posted on Canvas with the requirements:
Prompt: Write the last 4 stanzas of the last two paragraphs of your biography in five years. In other words, think about where you will be in 5 years, and then write about it as if someone else was writing about you.
Requirements:
It needs to sound like a biography, like someone else wrote it, so you must use 3rd person.
You must write 4 stanzas or two developed paragraphs.
Check your capital letters and your periods. Have a teacher check your writing before submitting.
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